Achilles Tattoo

My crippled sister, Monica Porter, jumped from the roof of the classroom building. The day before she died, she had just been fitted with the custom prosthetic legs I had paid for with ten years of savings. She was glowing, excited to finally stand up on her own. But my wife's best friend, a guy she said was just like a brother to her, locked Monica inside an empty art room. He smashed her new legs, forced her to crawl on the floor and lick paint clean to retrieve the broken parts, and recorded everything on video. And my wife, a judge, ultimately ruled that the case could not stand. "The video cannot confirm the time it was recorded and may represent consensual performance art between both parties," she said. Sandra Pauley's final judgment was simple. "The deceased had a history of depression. The school and the defendant bear no responsibility." I smiled and cooked her a full table of food. The next day, I hung the bully, Eric Hoyles, from the school's flagpole and livestreamed it to the entire internet. "Honey, remember how you said Monica had such pretty legs?" I raised a claw hammer and brought it down on his ankle. "If you don't hand over the video evidence right now, I'll hook out his Achilles tendon one strand at a time and let him learn what it feels like to crawl!" The wind passed through. His screaming broke apart in the air, mixing with the strained creaking of the flagpole until it sounded almost like music. The live chat went insane. Meanwhile, I laughed until my eyes filled with tears.

Hazel Skai didn’t marry into the powerful Varyn family for love. She married to survive… and to find the mother who abandoned her. But one year later, her marriage to Kaden Varyn is nothing but silence and cold distance. No heir. No affection. And no sign that things will ever change. Desperate and cornered, Hazel makes a reckless decision at the Varyn family ball. In the dark of a stranger’s room, she finally gives in to the one thing her husband has never given her. The next morning, she sees the truth. The man she spent the night with has a dragon tattoo across his chest. Kaden Varyn hates tattoos. Which means the man in her bed was never her husband. Nikolai Varyn left Sky Shade City years ago, carrying nothing but grief and a promise to a woman who died too soon. He returned only to settle unfinished business—not to get involved with anyone. Especially not his brother’s wife. But Hazel Skai was never supposed to matter to him. Now she’s under his skin in ways he can’t ignore. And the most dangerous part? Hazel might not want him to stop.

"Is that tattoo real?" she asked, her voice trembling. Edgar looked at her, confused. "Yes,I got it on a trip to Hawaii, years ago. Why do you ask?" Elma's heart raced as she realized the truth. "You're him," she whispered. "You're the man who raped me." Edgar's expression changed, going from confusion to realization. "Elma, I swear, I had no idea. I would never hurt you. I love you." But Elma couldn't listen. She screamed at him, tears streaming down her face. "How could you do this to me? How could you marry me and not tell me who you really are?" A wild encounter leads to a devastating turn of events. Haunted by his past mistake, Gael Edgar enters into a contract marriage with the lady he unconsciously abused in order to save his company and family fortune. As they navigate their contracted union, secrets and past traumas come to light, leading to a dramatic confrontation of truth and the possibility of destruction, forgiveness and love. With Justice in Elma's hand, will she forgive him or will she destroy him? Find out in "The Contracted Bride."

After years of struggling to survive, Akayda Jordan finally lands her dream job — personal assistant/secretary in one of the best companies in the whole of California. To celebrate her new beginning, she decides to give one last “performance” at the elite club she’s about to leave behind. One night. One masked encounter. One forbidden act. But fate twists cruelly. The man she had danced for in the dark turns out to be her new boss — Damian Knight. He’s engaged. She’s desperate to keep her secret buried. But when Damian starts sensing something achingly familiar about his new assistant — the scent of her perfume, the way she looks away when he stares too long — the walls between them begin to crack. But he was sure the girl with the big glasses was not the girl with the mask and firefly tattoo who had woken up a hunger in him. Soon, professionalism turns into tension. Tension turns into temptation. And the closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous her secret becomes. Because if Damian ever discovers she’s the masked girl he’s been searching for… she might lose not just her job, but her heart.

My brother was a twisted, paranoid psychopath. When I was ten, my parents were murdered. Both my legs broke off while I tried to save my brother. I became his only family and also Achilles’ heel. Those who mocked me as a crippled would have their bones broken, and anyone who tried to hurt me would be smashed into a pulp. As he reclaimed our family’s fortune, he became “the Devil” in Amberwater, a man no one dared to offend. Yet, he alone spoiled me like I was a little princess. Everyone knew that Lucas’s sister was untouchable. He had sent me abroad to receive the best treatment. The day that I could finally stand up again, I received an invitation to my brother’s engagement banquet. “Veronica, we’re going to have a new family member soon.” I heard that his fiancee was the daughter of a wealthy family. She was gentle and virtuous. I dressed beautifully to meet her and planned to give her the jade bracelet that my mother had left behind. However, she had me kidnapped and taken to an abandoned construction building. “You lowly little witch. I’ll rip that face of yours since you’re such a seductress. I’ll see how you’ll steal my man now!” She crushed my mother’s heirloom, broke all my limbs, and ripped my face off. Then, she ordered a dozen men to torment me to death. In the end, she stuffed me into a gift box and sent it to my brother. “Dearest, this is your wedding gift. Do you like it?”

Isidora Moretti always appeared to be a chess player, overseeing her family’s massive enterprise and grappling with the city’s menacing mafia clans. Her father orders her to marry the Vescari heir, and she discovers that theirs is not romance that would involve love-it is of power and obedience. Declining could be her last word so she thinks of an escape-engagement, a lie she is betting would work. She teams up with Dante Romano,the boy who beats her every time in school. He is good looking, cold, smart and has chased the same deal she wants. He often mocks her stubborn ways and never offers real help. Still, he oddly agrees to act as her fiancé. The agreement sees only looks, no real feeling involved. It may mean just a clever contract. Business agreement looks clean, no feelings. But Dante seizes Isidora at the engagement party and kisses her in front of the city. Everything becomes upside down. Rivalry and obsession — everything seems to blur. Others soon witness Isidora as Dante’s Achilles’ heel. In another world, weakness is a weapon. Maybe they both have this tilt, not just one side. With threats growing closer-in business offices ,back alleys, and mob hits, both find they need to stand up together. As they fight, they come closer and closer, and each threat reduces the boundaries they’ve constructed between them on their feelings. As danger narrows in on Isidora, Dante’s left to contemplate the sacrifices he’ll make just to keep her safe. He’ll do anything he can to protect her, to make her his, even if it’s damaging everything in his path. In the end, the promises they’ve made, no matter how unserious, appear to be the only thing they can reasonably believe.

What were the odds that I'd just fucked my boss and been too buzzed, too horny to clock it? Impossible. Catastrophic. My life was like a ticking bomb of fuckups already; this would only make it explode. "Get a grip, Shayle," I whispered, shaking my head hard. It can't be. -------------- What would you do if you found out you only had four months left to live? In the case of Shayle Vale, she was the definition of a plain Jane; quiet, overlooked, and freshly dumped by a boyfriend who called her ‘boring’. But when the doctor drops her death sentence, she decides ‘boring’ dies today. She made a list; Quit her job, Lose her virginity to her hot next-door neighbor, get a tattoo and Do what the fuck she wants. But life doesn’t play fair. Her shitty boss refused to accept her resignation, her neighbor was allegedly still a virgin, and nothing on her list was going according to plan. Now Shayle’s plain, safe little life is spiraling into messy office wars, late-night temptations, secrets she never saw coming and a toxic love triangle. Will she tick off her last wishes, or will fate throw her off the list completely and into the arms of two sinfully attractive men instead?

Selena has always been a down-to-earth level-headed girl, the type to prioritize responsibility for everything. Even after she ends up stuck carting her toxic soon-to-be-ex around the streets of Akron. That is until a mysterious stranger in golden glowing Egyptian tattoos runs into her on the street. After a few colorful words and the strange man helping her carry her soon-to-be-ex to her car. She is dumbstruck when he touches her and both their hands begin to glow resulting in a strange golden luminescent tattoo identical to his appearing on her wrist. Freaked out Selena quickly thanks to the man, who now seems furious at the sudden appearance of the mark on her. Then takes off thinking she would never see him again. Only to run into the man the next day, to her surprise he claims that he is an alien from a long-forgotten race. A race that once came to earth long ago and created the humans, and a demigod race she and twelve other families are descendants of. Now she is tasked with trusting him to keep her safe as one of her mates. She has no idea if she should should trust him, but the only thing she can be sure of is she needs to survive. That means trusting him to keep her safe from the mercenaries of his race.

40 stories. 40 fantasies. 40 limits. Dive into a world where desire knows no boundaries and pleasure has no rules. This provocative collection features fourty standalone dark romance stories that explore the forbidden, the intense, and the utterly irresistible. From the mysterious masked stripper who reveals her true identity to the man who's been fantasizing about her for months, to the "therapeutic" massage that becomes anything but professional—each story delivers scorching heat, dominant heroes, and heroines who surrender to their deepest cravings. Inside this collection: A gym instructor who teaches more than just proper form A tattoo artist whose needle isn't the only thing that leaves a permanent mark A bus ride that becomes the most intense experience of a virgin's life A gardener who cultivates more than just the lawn A massage therapist with unconventional "treatment" methods And 37 more tales of obsession, possession, and raw, unfiltered passion Warning: These stories contain explicit sexual content, dominant alpha males, intense situations, and heroines who get exactly what they secretly crave. Each story is a standalone with a satisfying conclusion. Perfect for readers who love their romance dark, their heroes possessive, and their steam level set to scorching. Tags: Dark Romance, Explicit Content, Alpha Males, Forbidden Romance, Short Story Collection, Steamy Romance, Dominant Heroes

WARNING!!! EXPLICIT CONTENT AHEAD (Violence, Rape, Sex Scenes) Read at your own risk. After everyone believed he was dead, Lee Hyun-woo came back with three different personalities. But whatever his persona is, his only desire is to hunt down the mastermind of his family's massacre and find the woman he loves. Lee Hyun-woo known as Baek Chang Seol, the heartless and ruthless mafia boss of the "Diamond Kkhangpae", has three rules; strict obedience, absolute loyalty, and compliance with extreme punishment for transgression. No one has seen his face for he always wears a mask and so he can only be identified by a three-diamond tattoo on his left arm. Jeong Hyeo-ri, in her new identity as Park So-hee, became an undercover agent, skilled in martial arts who went back to South Korea to avenge her father's death and find her mother who went missing seven years ago. When Jeong Hyeo-ri went out to perform an undercover operation, the "Diamond Kkhangpae" caught her and brought her to the mafia boss. Knowing how skilled she was, Lee Hyun-woo wanted her to work for him but she would only accept it if he would reveal his true identity. Lee Hyun-woo accepted the challenge on one condition—she had to defeat him in a duel. But what if the so-called duel ends up in bed, would it change everything?