10000 Hours Theory

I paid the ultimate price in my last life for being too polite to refuse others. During a summer vacation, four children ended my life. "Talia, we’re already on the way to your place. We should be there in about two hours. No need to prepare anything special. Just keep things the way you normally do. Don’t fuss." I stared blankly as the voice came through my phone. The agony of my skin being scalded raw by boiling-hot stew was still vivid in my mind. When I had struggled and begged for help, those children had dragged me back together. In the chaos, I had fallen from the seventh floor and died with my eyes wide open. I glanced at the calendar on the wall. I had been reborn. In my previous life, my sister-in-law, Vanessa Mercer, had dumped her four kids at my home for the summer and left. I was forced to care for six children alone and was pushed to the brink of collapse. Simply because I wouldn’t let my nephew, Jaxon Mercer, play on his tablet for hours on end, and because I told him not to wander around the house in nothing but his underwear, the conflict escalated until it led to that horrifying death. My whole body trembled at the memory. I rushed into the bedroom, grabbed my identification documents, and fled toward the high-speed rail station with my two daughters, Kaia and Nova Mercer. "Mom, where are we going?" "I'm taking you on a trip. We’re going to have as much fun as we want!"

For eight years, Elara Voss was the perfect ghost. She scrubbed floors, cooked silent meals, and endured the biting scorns of her husband, Ryan, and their eldest daughter, Chloe. To them, she was a boring housewife. A servant. An embarrassment to Ryan’s rising social status. They had no idea that the woman they belittled was Elara Hamilton, the reclusive titan behind Hamilton Global, the world’s most powerful tech empire. She had traded her throne for a marriage she thought was built on love. She was wrong. The breaking point comes at a high-society gala. In front of the city’s elite, Ryan publicly discards her, calling her a worthless weight around his neck. He thinks he is finally free. He doesn't realize he just declared war on the woman who secretly funded his entire life. That night, the housewife vanished. The CEO returns. Within forty-eight hours, Ryan’s world implodes. His contracts are canceled, his bank accounts are drained, and his reputation is in ashes. As the global markets reel from the return of the "Iron Queen," Ryan is forced to face a terrifying truth: he didn't just lose a wife. He lost the only person keeping him relevant. Now, Ryan is a man with nothing, chasing a woman who has everything. From the neon lights of Tokyo to the boardrooms of Manhattan, he must grovel at the feet of the woman he once stepped on. But Elara is no longer the devoted wife who stayed for the sake of the family. She is a queen reclaiming her crown, and this time, Ryan will have to prove he is finally worthy of the woman who no longer needs him to survive.

04:00 AM. JFK International Airport. I switched off airplane mode, and my phone lit up. The first notification was an Instagram story from my husband, Donovan Valentino, Don of the Valentino family, posted at 3:30 AM: a photo of Seraphina Moretti’s back, captioned, “Run 50 completed. Package delivered safe.” An hour before that, my flight had hit catastrophic clear-air turbulence, dropping two thousand feet in seconds. I’d clung to my seatbelt until my knuckles turned white, the crumpled threat letter from a rival crew pressed like a blade against my ribs. In those blind, falling seconds, one thought burned through the panic: If I live through this—if Donovan is waiting at arrivals—I’ll tear up my transfer papers to Dubai and stay. But there were no missed calls. No messages. He’d been too busy collecting Seraphina. He knew my flight details. He just didn’t care. Four years of marriage. 50 fully armed security details for Seraphina. For my 112 long-haul flights over those same four years? The most I ever got was a driver in an unmarked sedan. Even the night Gambino’s crew tailed me from Manhattan, and I spent six hours locked in a diner bathroom. He didn’t pick up until dawn, after the twelfth try. My transfer to Dubai was confirmed. The signed divorce settlement was in my bag. This was the last time I’d ever come back for him.

I never broke eye contact as he slicked his already hard cock up with it. It never did take him long to get hard in my presence, especially after working me open when we had stood under the stream of the shower. Shuffling his ass forward just a little, he pulled me close to help me slowly sink onto his cock. Once my ass was flushed against his lap and he was to the hilt, he sighed, and I could see the exact moment that all the stress left his body. “Thank you.” He whispered. ______ I got pregnant after a sizzling one-night stand. I didn’t know then he was the son of a billionaire mafia Don. That night, he walked over to me with powerful strides that announced to the world, that he owned it. The dim light dancing over his sculptured face, Teased me with a glimpse of perfection. His deep baritone voice vibrated thru my core, and before I knew it, we were back at my place, thrusting into ecstasy. For hours he took me to heaven and back, But on earth, he became cold as ice. Then, without so much as a name, He walked out the door and out of my life. I tried to forget him, Until I got unexpected news from my doctor weeks later. and before I had time to digest the information, I was snatched by two men. Now I’m in the presence of the Don of all Dons, congratulating me on my pregnancy. And the man that took me to heaven, is now tasked to keep me in hell.

Lena thought graduate school would be about focus, discipline, and finally proving to herself that she belonged in the world of academics. Books, research, and long nights in the library—that was the plan. Romance had no place in it. Especially not with the one man who should have been completely off-limits. Professor Jace Carrington is everything Lena was warned about. Brilliant. Confident. Dangerous in his quiet control. His lectures command attention, his presence silences a room, and when his eyes find hers across the crowded lecture hall, she feels both seen and undone. He is a man who draws lines with precision—and a man who knows exactly how to make someone want to cross them. What begins as a spark of curiosity turns into stolen glances, late-night office hours, and conversations that blur the line between mentorship and something far more intimate. Jace’s rules are simple: no one can know, and she always has a choice. But rules are easy to write and far harder to follow. The deeper Lena falls, the more she realizes this isn’t just attraction—it’s obsession, it’s surrender, and it’s freedom all at once. Secrets, however, have a way of surfacing, and on a campus where whispers spread like wildfire, forbidden love can burn everything in its path. Lessons After Dark is a steamy, character-driven romance filled with power, temptation, and the dangerous pull of a secret relationship. For readers who crave tension, intimacy, and the thrill of crossing every line you were told not to, this story will keep you turning pages long after the lights go out.

My breath caught in my throat as Roman’s finger grazed my chin, “I want you,” he whispers, “All of you,” I watched as his eyes flickered to my lips and back up to meet my gaze, “You are my brother Ronan,” I swallowed. “Stepbrother,” he drew closer, this time his breath was hot on my face. “This is wrong,” I managed to say, struggling to hide how obsessed I had become with his touch. His lips drew to mine, “Stop me if you don't want this, and I'll leave you alone,” he said and his lips pinned mine between his, sucking aggressively like he had been hungry for this. I didn't pull away, I didn't care, “Oh…,” I mumbled against his lips as I wrapped my arms around my stepbrother's neck. ~~~~~~ June Rourke’s life changes overnight when her mother marries powerful billionaire Victor Grayson. Forced to leave her old life behind, June transfers to an elite college she never wanted. On her first day, she clashes with a rude, arrogant boy, Ronan Grayson, only to discover hours later that he is her new stepbrother. Living under the same roof, tension builds quickly between them, turning every encounter into a battle. When a school project takes June and Ronan on a three-day trip, their hatred shifts into something neither of them expects. A single kiss changes everything, pulling them into a secret, forbidden relationship filled with tension and desire.

They say the Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes. They lied. Kira should have been happy. She had everything a wolf could want: a handsome Alpha mate, a powerful pack alliance, a baby on the way. The Oracle had confirmed it—Asher was her fated mate, chosen by the Moon Goddess herself. But mate bonds don't burn like brands. They don't make your wolf go silent. And they definitely don't fail when you're bleeding out from a miscarriage at five months pregnant. As Kira was dying on her bedroom floor, the truth finally broke through the magic that had blinded her: the bond was fake. A witch had cursed her father into silence, manipulated an Oracle, and crafted a false mate bond to drain Kira's life force—all for a ritual that required her death. And in her final moments, Kira felt it: the REAL bond. A pull she'd never felt with Asher, calling to her from across the territory. Too late to save her. Then she woke up. Two years earlier. The day before her mating ceremony. Now Kira has twenty-four hours to stop a wedding that will kill her, save a father who physically cannot warn her, and somehow find the mate she's actually bonded to—an Alpha who's supposed to be her pack's enemy. But the witch is watching. One wrong move and her father dies. The false ceremony happens tomorrow. And Asher? He's starting to suspect the bond isn't real either.

Warning !!! Mature content (18+) "Ah get me out of here, open my hands please." In this cold weather, her body was drowning in the cold water, her hands and feet were tied, and she was unable to get out of the bathtub. Until hours ago, I was the best person in the world to her, I knew but now seeing my brutal face, she was shivering with fear and cold. "How quick was it for you to be punished, who told you to go for a walk in the house and see it all?" She was shivering with cold and fear while I was constantly smiling. "Pup . . Please …” She was pleading with her eyes closed in a broken voice shivering from the cold. Her lips as well as her body were now turning blue. I sat on the floor next to her. She was losing consciousness while saying something in a low voice. "Oh No... How weak you are, you offensive ones, you cannot bear even a little." I put my thumb and forefinger together to indicate a slight pain and pitifully looked at her unconscious existence. I was not ready to listen my wolf this time. I was just remembering my brother’s painful death. - This is a story of a ruthless and cruel Alpha, who wants revenge for his brother but melts, when he met her. Alex was an innocent girl, madly in love with Alpha Conard. He wants revenge but what will happen when he found out that she was his mate? What will he do now? Will this love last forever? Or he will leave her?

Lilian Jackson has the worst luck, between balancing multiple jobs, playing the role of both parents for her siblings, managing her alcoholic father and paying back her student loans, 24 hours is just not enough for her. As if that's not enough life throws her a curveball in the form of a life threatening heart disease. "I must be paying my debts from my past life for all this to be happening to me" There is Byron Bladell, heir to a multi-million chain of restaurants and CEO in his own right. He is tall, rich, handsome and seems to have it all with a loving family and a beautiful girlfriend. The world sees him as the most eligible bachelor in town but he is chasing a shadow from his past. Their lives intertwine as pictures of their chanced meeting sweeps the internet suggesting an intimate relationship. "It's just a rumor" Lilian attempts to convince everyone. "Why don't you just marry me" Bryon suggests. In what seems like the answer to both their problems, Lillian and Byron enter a contract marriage. The initial indifference towards each other fade as they stay under a roof and play the part of a loving couple to outside world. The lines between acting and reality start to blur as their emotions come to play. Without the pressure of providing for her family, Lilian regains her fierce and cheerful attitude which mirrors someone from Byron’s past. It's just a fake relationship but what was happening to her heart. "Is this a symptom of my heart disease or is my heart racing for him?" It is the journey of two hurting souls finally finding healing from their past and inner peace, after all it all started with a racing heart.

First day back in the office. I was face down at my desk during lunch when the desk next to mine started rattling under a series of hard knocks. I looked up. It was the firm's new architect, Flora Reeves. "Lunch time ended five minutes ago. You're still asleep at your desk? Don't bother coming in tomorrow. You're fired!" I told her I had just come back from a client meeting. I had been pulling all-nighters on the project for a week. She looked at me like I was something on her shoe. "All you do is take clients out, drink with them, and scribble a few sketches. "You don't even punch in. You're barely in the office. What gives you the right to nap at your desk during work hours?" I almost laughed in her face! I was the firm's chief architect. The bulk of the projects on Walsh & Co.'s books had my name on them. The firm's success was, frankly, carried by me. She saw me out of the office most days. She did not see me in another city, on another job site, talking down another client. And in our industry, most of those clients had hired Walsh & Co. because of my name and reputation. I kept my composure. "You're not in HR. On what authority are you firing me?" She said, "On the authority that my husband is the president of this company." I went still. When did my boyfriend get married?