Brush Strokes

I shivered in the darkness, the air stale, damp and cold making goosebumps appear on my bare skin. The low rumbles and huffs which were coming from behind made me a little scared, and I knew the beast was still there, watching me with interest. I knew screaming and calling for help was futile since my voice was already hoarse for trying to scream the past few hours, but the only thing to be heard was my echo, and the snarl that followed next. I heard it shift and felt it's soft fur brush against my body and skin. I swallowed hard and held in my voice. The more it leaned in, the more my heart beat wildly, and I tried to move away from it. It's warm breath brushed against my cold skin making me shiver in response. I couldn't see but I had an idea what it wanted. I kept resisting but it was much stronger than I was, easily able to pull my thin legs apart. It showed it's dominance as a way to make me submit. I knew I wasn't strong enough to fight or escape it, but that didn't mean I was going to willingly do what the beast said, at least at that minute. But everything changed when I felt it's big head dip between my legs, easily parting them to the extreme, and a rough, yet soft , in my opening. I couldn't help the moan that left my lips. The was long, rough, and filled me to the brim, and that's when I knew I was in . The beast wanted to breed with me.

I never believed in second chances. Not after Cynthia. She was my confidant… until death tore her from me and left this mansion echoing with ghosts. Inilibing ko na rin ang puso ko kasabay ng pakamatay ni Cynthia . She was my wife. My peace. My mistake. Then her daughter moved in. Liza. The forbidden reminder of everything I shouldn’t want—young, alive, reckless in ways her mother never was. She looks at me like she sees through the monster I’ve become. Sa tuwing ngingiti siya,  the ache in my chest returns—violent, dangerous, hungry. Every brush of her skin ignites something I can’t bury anymore. I tell myself it’s guilt. I tell myself I’m just protecting her. Pero ang totoo? I want her. Hindi bilang stepdaughter. Not as Cynthia’s child. I want her as mine—completely, ruinously, irredeemably mine. They’ll call me a sinner. A man who crossed the line. Ngunit sa tuwing tinitingnan ako ni Liza, trembling, wanting... I knew I’d already crossed it. I tell myself I’m protecting her, but each night, the lie weakens. Because when she looks at me, it isn’t fear I see—it’s want. And God help me... I want her too. This isn’t love. It’s a beautiful disaster. And I’d burn the world just to feel her breathe my name again.

“Nova please, I beg of you. I will do anything to gain your forgiveness”. Zephyr begged as he used his hands to brush his hair desperately. “Forgiveness?” Nova asked with widened eyes and a surprised smirk. You said you didn't want anything to do with me. “I.. I didn't know what I was saying, baby. I need you in my life”. He replied. “No.. Nova interrupted before he could even speak further. You have no fucking right to come back into my life”. Her voice raised and her face turned red as she gritted her teeth. “Go back to your mistress”. She directed angrily, and just so you know, I am with eryx now. She said with a satisfied tone. “WHAT!!” zephyr exclaimed. “You belong to me Nova and I will chase you to the end of the earth till you are mine again”. Zephyr’s voice cracked, his eyes glistening with something that wasn't just anger. On the day she divorced her husband due to his drastic change and betrayal. She found out she was pregnant but she couldn't tell her husband about it because he had moved on with someone else who he got pregnant. She moved to another city with the help of her husband's brother Eryx, who also helped her raise her son. Years later everything was going well as she was now a famous actress, until her little son brought his father home.

This story takes place in the esteemed Heaven and Hell, following Ashton Caliel (age 8-23) the caring, handsome King of Heaven, in his journey from only a prince to the leader of his vast kingdom. At the age of 8, the narrator shows the final moments before Ashton's princely training truly begins, bringing any childhood experiences to a halt. After a brief brush with an icy death, he spends his final free moments in front of the family fireplace. We skip time to the age of 18, Ashton training with his personal guard and close friend Matt (28). This was the day his father and current king was to sign another peace treaty with the King of Hell. Out of curiosity he took a peak at the demon king and came to find Damien Umbra (23-28) sultry, charismatic and flirty king of Hell. They did not officially meet at this time despite locking eyes as the demon laid an ominous future on the angel king. Very soon the prince would take the throne. After a second encounter with the demon king that resulted in heavy flirting, much to the new kings surprise, they had not met again for weeks. A single gift led the king to make a secret visit to Hell to interrogate the other king. During this visit Damien plays off his interest in the angel as only a fun game. This is to go on for years with only brief visits and gifts, causing the angel king to slowly fall for Damien in the process. Damien visits Ashton in the night, leaving a small gift for the angel to wake up to. Ashton is to accept this gift, but the council of angels in heaven give him trouble when they are to find out about this secret relationship.

I thought divorce would free me from Roland Voss, the man who turned our marriage into a gilded prison. But walking away from a Voss isn’t freedom. It’s war. The press calls me a gold-digger. His lawyers call me a liability. And Roland? He just smirks across his mahogany desk and murmurs, “You’ll never escape me, Aliyah. Not while you carry my name.” I swore I’d never shatter again until I met him. Dominic Voss. Roland’s younger brother. The man I shouldn’t even look at, let alone want. He sees the cracks in me no one else bothers to notice. When the world turns its back, Dominic leans close and whispers, “Let me protect you. Even if it means going against my own blood.” Every stolen glance is treason. Every brush of his hand sets me on fire. And when Victor Hale, a rival billionaire with teeth sharper than Roland’s, circles closer, I realize I’ve become the prize in a game where men like them never lose. But I’m not the same woman Roland once broke. This time, I’m willing to risk everything, scandal, ruin, even the wrath of the dynasty that branded me theirs to choose the man who makes me feel alive. The question is… Will my freedom cost me my heart? Or will loving Dominic ignite a war that none of us survive?

“Do you know what arousal tastes like, little wolf?” The rich deepness of his voice dripped into her ears like honey. His grip on her thighs was firm, scalding, even as her legs wrapped around him. Those emerald eyes darkened with a hunger that ignited every heat pore inside of her. Behind her, Evander’s lean athletic figure pressed against her back, sandwiching her between them. His face buried deep in her neck and the messy red hair sending tingles down her spine with every brush against her cheek. “I'll tell you,” he rasped, answering his brother's question. “It tastes like submission... salt, sweat, and the sweet little whimpers she tries to hide from us.” ****** Rochelle thought agreeing to an open relationship with her long-time crush would bring her closer to love, until he leaked a private video and humiliated her in front of the entire school. Heartbroken and furious, she turns to the last people anyone would expect: the cold, dangerous Rogue Princes, her new stepbrothers and Darren’s worst enemies. They agree to help her destroy him… but only if she plays their twisted game. Fake romance by day and their dirty little secret by night. But they say you should never make a deal with the devil because he won't stop until there's nothing left of you. In her case, there were three of them. And the worst thing she did was fall for them.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Amara asked, her voice shaking. "I've never done anything to you." Where power, passion, and painful memories collide, Amara Denz never imagined the same man who made her life a living hell at Lyons College would be her ruthless, charismatic boss. Now CEO of a thriving tech empire, CEO Leo reigns with cool efficiency—but beneath his shining exterior blazes an undeniable, forbidden desire for the very woman he once tormented. Amara Denz is desperate. Desperate to find employment to pay for the mounting bills, desperate to bury the pain of her abused past, and desperate to preserve her shattered pride in a company where every glance from Leo sends unspoken tension her way. Torn between old wounds and an incendiary attraction that she cannot deny or manage, Amara must navigate a landscape of office politics and personal demons. “Work hard, be loyal, and maybe you’ll earn my respect,” Leo declares with a provocative smile during their first meeting. But as the day unfolds, every accidental brush, every lingering look, transforms the mundane into a battlefield of raw emotion and sensual challenge. Set against the high-stakes halls of Baze, this scorching dual-perspective story of redemption and revenge tracks two individuals whose entwined destinies compel them to confront a past defined by brutality—and a present filled with desire. Can Leo demonstrate that he's reformed, or will the wounds of their past continue to keep them apart? And will Amara's need to transcend her past enable her to gamble everything on a second chance at love?

… Her pack had betrayed him and she needed to pay. She was going to pay! He let go of her hair and grabbed the back on her neck, his eyes trailed down to her exposed neck and collar bone. The princess dress she had on showed a lot of that caused him to gulp nervously. His twitched in his trousers, the butterflies in his stomach rose. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled her sweet pheromone. Reign quivered in fear. Electric sparks exploded in her body when she felt his lips brush against her collarbone, down to her that was exposed. “Please…” she cried, but he didn’t stop. He raised his hand and placed them on her firm , causing her to jolt in fear. He squeezed the left and circled her hidden in the fabric of the dress with his rough fingers. Pain seared through her as he kept squeezing her and trailing hot down her . Reign could only cry and wish that it would and soon. “Hermione Reign Angelis.” He called her full names as he backed away from her, his voice void of any emotions. Reign crawled backwards on her , trying to get away from the tyrant, but stopped when her back hit a hard surface behind her. It was the wall. There was definitely no running away from her oppressor. “Your parents orchestrated the assassination of my beloved mother and even after that, they have the audacity to deny it to my face…”. She is his mate turned slave… will he able to look past his hatred for her and see who the true enemy is?

When I was in college, my mom had terminal cancer, and our family company collapsed due to heavy debts. Just when I was at my lowest, my childhood friend Zach Hall rushed back from overseas. For seven years, he stayed by my side and helped me heal. …Until the night before our engagement ceremony, when I was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. I wanted to tell Zach, but instead, I overheard a conversation between him and the lead surgeon who had operated on my mother. "Zach, your fiancee's mother could've been saved back then. But you stopped me from treating her, just so Jessica could get that poor woman's corneas. If Jessica is the one you love, why marry your fiancee?" "I do feel guilty toward Annie, but I don't regret it. It was the only way for Jess to pick up a brush again and keep chasing her dreams." Through the crack in the door, I saw clearly the tenderness on Zach's face when he mentioned Jessica. "What if Annie finds out?" the surgeon asked. Zach fell silent, rubbing the band on his ring finger. "I don't know. I've already decided to marry her. I'll love her, protect her, and spend the rest of my life making it up to her." The pain hit me so hard at that moment that I almost collapsed, as if my heart was being ripped out.

Alpha Prince Valen, the next in-line to be Alpha King, has been Raina's childhood crush. For years she yearned for the attention that he never gave. Surprisingly, she got her wolf at age sixteen, which was the same day of Valen’s eighteenth birthday party. Among the pack members, family and friends, he looked her dead in the eyes and publicly denied finding his mate. - Distraught, ashamed and heartbroken, Raina kept the secret of being mated to Valen, until circumstances forced him to finally acknowledge their bond. - Sadly, things went downhill because something was devastatingly wrong with their bond. The old books declared them as unfortunate soulmates. A glimpse of the future has left her torn between the desire for her mate and the doom of their fate. - Forced to reject her and sever the bond, the painful separation exposed Raina to numerous challenges and dangers. - Will Raina and Valen have their happy ending or did the moon goddess have something else in store for them? Should she fight for her mate, or let the course of destiny unfold? - Find out as Raina embarks on a journey filled with heartache, revelation, and an uncertain future. - This is Book 2 from the Mates series. This might be read as a standalone, however, to understand the characters, you might want to read Book 1 - Mates: Regrets and Redemption © All rights reserved. - EXCERPT: He chuckled and lewdly continued, “Mmmmmm….right there....it will hit all those spots over and over." "Valen, stop." I breathlessly moaned and blushed. A rush of heat pulsed through my body. "Or when I put one hand around your throat…” He did the action, moving his lips to brush on mine. “.....and the other grips your hair, then your inner thigh, and then your cumming p**sy."