Calm Belt

After eating a poisonous, hallucination-inducing mushroom, I genuinely thought I’d woken up inside a spicy erotica novel. I was the heroine—a live-in housekeeper working for a rich heir, the kind of impossibly handsome, impossibly wealthy man who only exists in fiction. When I opened my eyes and saw him standing there, I felt… oddly disappointed. I muttered under my breath, “Only six guys? What, do I need to take Sundays off?” The heir let out a short, disbelieving laugh. A slow, dangerous one. “If I’d known you were this bold,” he said, “I wouldn’t have bothered being gentle.” The moment the hallucination faded, I grabbed his sleeve and practically burst into tears. “Honey, I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t mean any of that.” He loosened his tie with maddening calm and murmured, “Relax. No one here takes Sundays off. And if you’re that eager to follow the plot of your little erotica novel… we can start right now.”

Madeleine Júlia Cordeiro lives in a quiet, plant-filled apartment in the rougher part of Chicago. She’s twenty-one, broke, vegan, and studying animal science at the local community college. She cries over rescue dogs, talks to her plants like they’re her best friends, and thinks violence is something that only happens in action movies. Her life is calm, predictable, and painfully ordinary. Until he bleeds all over her floor. Adriano Capone is violence in human form—shot, hunted, and very much the kind of man her sweet little heart should run from. He’s everything she hates: violent, dangerous, cruel in the way only a mafia prince can be. He’s everything she’s sworn to avoid but he's hurt and Maddie has a soft spot for lost things. So, she stitches him up. And he stitches himself into her life. He's the devil incarnate. She's never even slapped someone. But fate doesn't care about perfect matches... It threw fire into the hands of a flower girl.

When my family went bankrupt, I was drugged and sent to the bed of my childhood sweetheart, Craig Kennedy. From that night, he brought women home every evening, tossing a divorce agreement in my face. "Beg me, and I won't leave you." He stood above me, watching as I humbled myself to dust, pleading to preserve our marriage. He even ordered me to kneel in his office and massage the feet of his secretary, Lucia Langston. On the day the Moore Group needed ten million to survive, she blocked all my desperate calls for help. I waited 24 hours, watching my family's legacy collapse and my parents take their lives. Craig, with Lucia at his side, entered the house and threw the signed divorce agreement at me again. "You wanted money to save your family, didn't you? Beg me, and as long as I don't divorce you, no one will touch them." But I signed it with calm despair. "Don't bother. We no longer need your help."

At our Thanksgiving family dinner, my stepbrother brought his beautiful girlfriend to meet the family for the first time. She held up her wine glass and flashed me a malicious smirk. “I heard you had a first love you can’t forget, Summer.” I kept my head low and focused on my food, unsure how to respond. After all, my first love… was her boyfriend. When I was seventeen, my stepbrother Ethan Cole tricked me into crossing the line we should never have crossed, while our parents were blissfully unaware. Even right now, under the table, his foot was rubbing mine sensually. He did not bother holding back. On the table, he held his girlfriend’s hand tenderly as he mocked me with a smirk, “You’re twenty-seven, sis. Your shelf life is running out, and you’re such a plain Jane. Who would ever want you?” I stood up abruptly and looked at him, my tone calm and resolute. “I’m married, Ethan.”

Mia Romano never wanted the mafia life. The daughter of a ruthless Don, she dreamed of freedom, of love beyond blood-soaked vows. But her world shatters when her father forces her into marriage with Mark DeLuca—his cold, calculating right-hand man. Handsome, loyal, and untouchable, Mark has secretly loved Mia for years, though she has always belonged to another. Trapped in a loveless arrangement, Mia despises him, clinging to her boyfriend, the one man who ever made her feel normal. But Mark’s world is one of power, protection, and unshakable devotion. And when rivals close in, Mia discovers the dangerous fire that burns beneath Mark’s calm surface. As they sleep in separate rooms, jealousy brews, especially when Mark’s alluring ex moves into their lives. What begins as hatred slowly twists into longing, obsession, and passion. But in the mafia world, love comes with blood, betrayal, and deadly consequences. Will Mia surrender to the man she swore she would never love—or will her heart destroy them both? Read to find out.

Eliza Rivers comes back from her vacation trip and accidentally hits someone with her car. Right from the start, Eliza had not been in a good mood, and it only seemed to worsen after the accident. Deciding to take him back to her house to treat him, she realizes she didn’t just hit her car on anyone, she hit the billionaire Kael Blackthorn. She knew him, or she only knew what little the internet knew. Amongst other eligible bachelor, Kael was the most reserved one amongst them. “You don’t have to pay me.” “I am not.” Kael’s voice was steady and calm, a contrast to Eliza shaken ones. “You should leave.” Eliza’s knew she shouldn’t get involved with him, at all. She had just met him a couple of days ago, and he was already making her feel so sort of way. “You feel it too. Don’t you?” “I don’t. I really don’t”

“Oh Eden, there is nothing little about Alexandro, and I’m not saying this to brag but a large percentage of your gender agrees with that fact.” He whispered his eyes piercing into me. “Don’t get ahead of yourself-” I tried to calm my raging heart. Why my body was betraying me right now was beyond means? Why was I feeling this way towards him? I wasn’t supposed to like the way his body felt against mine? “You want to deny a fact that your body agrees to “ Eden Maverick has lost a lot of things, her best friend, her parents, and now she must go back to save the one thing that her mother left with her. When she is stuck with no help, she is left in with no choice but to meet her father. When she finds out that her father's plan is an arranged marriage between herself and the city's billionaire, Percy Alexandro, her long-time nemesis, and a man her body won't stop longing for. Eden is left with no choice but to get things working again.

I knew perfectly well that open flames were forbidden at a gas-leak scene, yet as a firefighter, I still backed my girlfriend's childhood friend when he insisted on lighting a cigarette "to calm his nerves." In my previous life, a sudden gas leak erupted during a gathering. Her childhood friend insisted on smoking to steady himself. I slapped the lighter out of his hand and yelled at him for trying to get us all killed. Humiliated, he ignored everyone's attempts to stop him and stormed outside—only to be crushed by an advertising board blown loose by the explosion's shockwave. Later, when I saved a child who had fallen from a building and was left hanging in midair myself, my girlfriend—my second-in-command—maliciously cut my safety rope. She stared at my corpse and said, "If you hadn't humiliated George in front of everyone, he wouldn't have died." When I opened my eyes again, I was back in that room thick with the stench of leaking gas.

Kim Coleman is a very stubborn 21 year old who has trouble expressing her feelings. Her life was always very calm, but after a love failure everything begins to turn upside down. Kim never imagined that her best friend, Isaac, secretly loved her and his confession took her by surprise. Isaac has a unique sense of humor. He has always been very protective of her, but he is not the only one who tries to steal her heart. She has a new neighbor named Ezra, he is a very nice and chivalrous man. They both have very strong feelings for Kim, but there is not much they can do because she knows exactly who her heart belongs to. Kim thinks she has everything under control, but she couldnt be more wrong. Suddenly, strange things begin to happen to her, and it is clear that there is a person who is obsessed with her. Kim feels cornered and cannot trust anyone, anyone could be the culprit. She wants to find out who is behind it all, but the truth can be very difficult to face.

Ashley, a Turkish woman, who came to Switzerland to fulfil her dreams and in search of a happy and calm life. Hudson, a singer who is trying to make his name and be famous. As opposite attracts, they both, one who wants a peaceful life and another who strives for a famous, starry life, fell in love with each other. Meredith, Ashley’s friend and Hudson’s sister was the reason they both met and the story started. Life had other plans, Ashley’s marriage is already fixed by her family, who happens to be Meredith’s love. How would Ashley fight her family and reunite Meredith with her crush? Ashley strives hard and convinces her family. The wedding day appears and she is on the ninth cloud. But where is the groom? With the bride waiting on the altar, the groom disappeared. Will their love survive when they meet each other after 5 years? Will Ashley be able to love him again or will she find support in her loneliness? Will Hudson be able to justify his reason for running away from his own wedding or would a sweet love story end up in another despair?