Burnt Roses

I have been hopelessly in love with Don Lorenzo Greco since the first time I saw him ten years ago. As the only daughter of the long-established Messina mafia family, I have set aside my pride and chased after him for a decade. On my 25th birthday, the way Lorenzo looks at me finally changed. He's not seeing a child anymore. He's looking at a woman. Lorenzo says yes to me, and I finally kiss the mouth I've been dreaming of all this while. The next day, Lorenzo announces to the world that he will hold the wedding of the century. 9,999 roses, fireworks all night, and a spectacle so grand it will shock every family in Northern Darvent. I stand there with tears in my eyes as the fireworks spell out another woman's name. Elena Lagioia. The assistant who has always been at Lorenzo's side, the girl I have never once taken seriously. I plan to confront Lorenzo with a gun in my hand. However, I stop outside the door when I hear him speaking to his consigliere. "Elena's parents are gambling addicts and owe a large debt. If I don't marry her, she'll be sold to a brothel in Malicuria tomorrow. Let's keep Cinzia in the dark for now. After this is over, I'll divorce Elena and marry Cinzia. After all, she loves me so dearly." On Lorenzo's wedding day, I'm wearing a wedding dress and resting in the arms of a far more powerful Don of the Argento family from Southern Darvent. I look at Lorenzo and smile. It drives him crazy. He swears to do whatever it takes to win me back.

"No offense but you are always so grumpy, it's actually kind of cute." I bluntly say to him and watch him throw me a nasty glare, I just giggle at that. "I'm not." he defends himself in a calm yet stern voice keeping his face emotionless. "sure." I find myself saying sarcastically. I think I'm too drunk  because there is no way a sober River will have the courage to hold a conversation with a very grumpy Killian. I expect another scary glare to come towards me but instead I meet with a soft gaze that stares at me with an unreadable expression. "I'm not." This time he says softly, I see him biting back a small smile and , he smiles. I've never seen him smiling before, not this way. Standing on the edge of life, River breathes in and lets himself adjust into a new life, into a new family. After a horrifying past he finds his life wrapped around a shaggy orphanage and several foster homes which makes it hard to believe that he is actually being adopted. Having a family was always a desire of him but to his burnt luck, he doesn't feel like he belongs in his adoptive family. Everyone and everything around him make it clear that he wasn't born to be happy. River is waiting for another push, one last push to end it all and fall from the edge and that's when a grumpy looking Killian Price steps into his life. River can't decide if Killian is the saviour or the devil himself. River's life meets with unexpected secrets mixed with burning desire, adorning the melancholic attire. Soon, he finds out he isn't the only one standing on the edge of the cliff, or he realises he is far from the edge.

RAVENNA COSTA Some women fear the fire Others simply become it... Ruling over a criminal organization wasn't easy especially when no one wanted you to rule. If they thought they could kick me out because I was a woman, then they had another thing coming for them. I'll show them I'm not to be messed with, and when I'm done, they'll know I was not just a woman. I am the woman. ************ Ravenna Costa found her house up in flames after returning from a park with her nanny. The house getting burnt wouldn't have bothered her if her parents weren't in the house. They receive a text message from her father telling them to run, and that was what they did for ten years. During those ten years, they lived on the streets. They thought they had escaped their old life of luxury, but that was until Ravenna's past comes knocking on her present. She gets kidnapped on her way to the rundown apartment she had managed to secure for herself and her nanny, and then she's knocked unconscious. Waking up, she finds herself in a room, and she gets the biggest shock of her life. Turns out her father had been involved in shady business she never knew about. She's introduced to the world of organized crime, and there she meets her childhood best friend. Only he wasn't a child anymore, but a full-grown man. A full-grown man she wanted. The problem was they fought on opposite sides of a war, but that doesn't stop Ravenna from wanting him, after all, the heart wants what it wants. Decisions must be made as the line between love and hatred begins to blur, and Ravenna is forced to choose between her duty or her love for her childhood best friend.

"Jealous?" He repeated. "I have no reason to be jealous of him." He leaned in, our faces inches apart. "If I wanted to, I'd have you." He whispered, his breath hot against my skin. "But you can't." I swallowed. "We're just friends." "Friends." He breathed. "And friends don't get jealous." I whispered, my lips brushing against his. "Friends don't 'have' each other." Yet here I was, straddling him in the front seat of my car, my legs on either side of his hips, our bodies pressed together. I could feel his arousal through the fabric of our clothes, and I unconsciously rubbed against him, seeking friction. He groaned, his hands gripping my hips, holding me still. "Fuck, Jo." He brushed his lips against mine in a teasing kiss, and I let out a whimper, my hips jerking. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer as I deepened the kiss. As our tongues slid against each other, I tasted the familiar taste of his lips, like burnt honey mixed with whiskey. It suddenly dawned on me that friends shouldn't know how they tasted. * * * Josette Wynters has spent her life moving from town to town because of her parents demanding job. She had looked forward to building her life at Cedarville and for the first time in her life, Josette felt like she was finally happy. That was until she caught the eye of Evander Lloyd. The notorious bad boy of Cedarville high. She had tried to avoid him, yet it seemed fate had other plans and she soon became his obsession.

After eight years of marriage, I finally get pregnant with Claude Frey's child. It's my sixth round of IVF, and my last chance. The doctor says I can't put my body through it again. I'm overjoyed, ready to share the good news with him. But a week before our anniversary, I received an anonymous photo in the mail. In it, he was bending down to kiss another woman's pregnant belly. That woman is his childhood sweetheart, the one his family watched grow up. She's gentle and well-mannered, and the kind of daughter-in-law every parent dreams of. The funniest part is that his entire family knows about her pregnancy, except me. I'm just the punchline in their joke. It turns out that the marriage I've been holding together despite all my wounds is nothing but a carefully crafted lie. Fine. I don't want Claude anymore, and I'll never let my child be born into a world built on lies. I book my ticket to leave on our eighth anniversary. It's also the very day he's supposed to take me to see the sea of roses. Before we got married, he promised me a sea of flowers all my own. But instead, I find him in front of the rose garden, kissing his pregnant childhood sweetheart. After I leave, he starts searching for me everywhere. "Don't go, please?" he begs. "I was wrong. Don't leave." He finally remembers the promise he'd made to me and plants the most beautiful roses in the world in that garden. But I don't need it anymore.

Mora discovers that Mayor Lycan is the man she slept with the night she was drugged, she tries to reach out to him, but there was a stumbling block, it was too late, and Mayor Lycan not remembering anything that happened the night they spent together branded her a gold-digger. When, Lycan knew of the secret, that his mother took to her death bed with, he was devastated, he searched high and low for his biological son, claimed by Philip as his son. Life isn't a bed of roses for Miles while growing up, tagged as a bastard, and bullied by the strongest in school because of him being handsome, he learnt how to defend himself, and stand up against those who hated him. The man who forsakes him, in the time he was desperate, showed up at his doorstep one day, claiming before his foster father, and everyone that he is his biological son, the man whom he blamed as the one who killed his mother. Philip blamed Agora's family for the death of his family, his hunger for vengeance, he decided to use a willing tool, which is Miles, to get back at the family, who took away everything from him. Living the life of Agora's president group to the public, and as a mysterious music genius in the dark, the people of country H don't even know who Mora's mask is, their favourite singer, but their are fanatics supporting the anonymous singer. Sneaky, realising how much she has fallen in love with Miles, the one she had lived under his shadow as a brother with, will she abandon her vow to remain as a brother to him, or reveal her feminine charms, when faced with competitors. As the successor of Agora's family, will Miles destroy it legacy?

“Daddy… Fuck me daddy… I know daddy wants my pussy…. Yeah daddy harder… Oh..” I moaned tightly, biting my bottom lips. “So close.” I whispered, twirling my other hand on my breast, pinching and swirling my thumb against my dark buds. It was fucking sweet having pleasuring myself but I wondered what it would actually feel like having daddy’s cock inside of me instead. My eyes had immediately seized upward, and my hues widened with shock, snapping at the sight of my father figure who stood unwavering at the door. My heart skipped a beat that I swallowed harshly having pushed the words out my mouth. “Daddy….” my eyes leaned on him, watching as his dark shadow loomed further inside my room, and he pushed the door closed from behind with my breath which had halted. My leg involuntarily squeezed themselves to together, and another pleasure weaved its way into my body, maybe it was actually due to shock. What was he fucking doing here? “Princess where you fantasizing about me?” *** Roses weren’t red, neither were violent blue to me, all I wanted was pleasure but it all went too far….. The moment I saw how gracious my stepdad appeared, I had made it my mission to seduce him. Unfortunately what I didn’t know was that I was a naïve nineteen years old who was being used. He turned to a monster, and he made it his own life mission to torment my existence.

On my fifteenth birthday, I begged my mom to teach me how to make a cream cake from scratch. We only had cream at home. No flour. So we went out to buy some. When we came back, we didn't walk into a birthday surprise. We walked in on my father pressing a strange she-wolf down onto the dining table. Cream was smeared all over her bare body. That night ended with my parents signing the Mating Dissolution Agreement. From that day on, cake became my nightmare, a taboo I could never touch. The night I mated with Alpha Kaelen of the Shadow Pack, amidst the pain and pleasure of his marking bite, I whispered in his ear. "Honey, if you ever want to end our mating, just bring me a cake." He frowned, his eyes burning with possessiveness, and kissed the words away. "Don't talk nonsense, Seraphina. You are my fated mate. How could I ever let you go?" Later, on his birthday, his intern secretary Elena ordered a three-tier luxury cake. Kaelen went into a rage, throwing both the cake and the intern out the front door. Back then, I was moved, even telling him not to be so harsh on a low-ranking wolf for my sake. But six months later, Elena had been promoted to Kaelen's personal assistant. On my birthday, she walked into my laboratory, swinging her hips, holding a burnt, homemade cake. I called Kaelen, asking him to remove the provocative item. On the other end of the line,his tone was casual. "Elena put her heart into making that for you. It would be cruel to throw it away. Be a good girl, don't be so sensitive. Have the grace of a Luna." The phone slipped from my hand. It turned out my mother wasn't wrong. Cake really is best served with a side of rejection papers.

Nelly had been fated to her alpha, Luthan, for as long as she can remember. At a young age, Nelly had lost her parents and was saved by Luthan. He claimed it was an accident as he picked her up, took care of her and made her his own, Nelly was with him because she owed him her life. Their relationship had been going quite well until a few years ago when Luthan faced opposition from members of his pack. He changed drastically. He came home drunk and sometimes aggressive, beating and injuring Nelly and the only child she had for him. One night, he came home drunk and attacked Nelly. She tried to defend herself and In a bid, set him ablaze. In a bid to save himself, Luthan sets his only child ablaze. The child is burnt alive. Nelly is devastated and runs away in shock. She runs to a nearby ttown where she meets Bruce. Bruce offers her comfort and she finally experiences what love really is Nelly soon finds out that Bruce was a werewolf hunter who had just retired before she met him and his last job led to his left hand's amputation. She digs deeper and discovers the possibility that Bruce may be responsible for her parent's death. But if Bruce was a mercenary, who hired Bruce to kill her parents and why? One night, she is all alone trying to clear her head when someone or something tries to kill her.Luthan saves her. Luthan has now come back crawling, a changed man. He is once again the rightful alpha of the pack and wants to make things right with Nelly. Will she ever forgive Luthan? Did Bruce kill her parents? Who will she pick? And who wanted her and her parents dead?

I prayed earnestly not to stumble upon my mate because I never wanted him to see the mate mark on my neck. A mate's mark is something to wore with pride but I hated mine. I suddenly sniffled the air I recognized the smell, Before I could turn around the petrichor scent hit my nose strongly. It's him! I need to get away from here, I don't want to see him. What would I say to him? I panicked and decided to dart towards the nearest exit which lead to the back of the Mansion but in a bolt he pulled me towards the nearest tree and pinned me to it. My burnt back gave me agonizing pain and I bite down on my tongue, I didn't want him to know about Sander's maltreatment, I don't know him well enough and what he might do if he finds out. "I..." My heartbeat goes wild, Drayce my mate is pinning me to a tree. My eyes met his fiery red eyes and I felt want all over me. I was so tempted to take a whiff of his scent but won't that cost me my senses? He pressed himself to me and the electrifying heat erupted between us. "Why were you trying to run away? Run to the end of the world and I'll find you there" he said in a threatening tone. Drayce leaned towards me his hot breath fanning my face and I shivered from it, his breath was so hot like flame burning my face. I looked away avoiding eye contact but I couldn't stop my racing heart and my drenched panties. *********** Lilac a chosen Luna for an alpha and a mate to the demon alpha king. ******* Novel full of sizzling Romance And breathtaking Suspense which you need.