Christmas Truce 1914

They wanted me to be the forgotten daughter. Quiet. Invisible. The one nobody notices. I let them believe it. My sister Isabella is the favorite. Beautiful. Fragile. Protected by everyone, including our father, the most powerful mafia boss on the East Coast. So when a rival kingpin demands a bride to seal a deadly truce, the world expects Isabella to cry and suffer. I have other plans. I sign the contract with her name. I wear the wedding dress meant for another woman. I let Rex Marchetti cold, brutal, and terrifying, believe he married the wrong bride for his revenge. What he doesn't know is that I've been waiting for this moment since I was thirteen. A network of spies. A decade of secrets. A revenge plan aimed at my father's throat. He thinks he's the predator. He's about to learn I've been the predator all along. But Rex is not what I expected. He watches me like I'm the only person in the room. He touches me like he's been waiting his whole life. And when I discover that he knew exactly who I was all along, that I was his real target,I face a terrifying question. What if the enemy I marry becomes the only man I can trust? The wrong bride might become his undoing. And my perfect match.

I’d been dead a month before my family even noticed. It wasn’t concern that brought them to that realization. It was my silence after the so-called “dinner” with Adam Rossi, the infamous mafia boss. My father scoffed like always,“She probably shacked up with that bastard. Too busy spreading her legs to pick up the damn phone.” My sister texted me a photo of them smiling under the Christmas tree, ornaments twinkling like nothing was wrong. Bitch, she wrote. You better talk Mr. Rossi into working with Dad, or you might as well be dead already. And my mother—once the softer one—was now colder than the frost on their windows. “I told you, we should’ve sent Gia to charm Mr. Rossi. Serena always screws things up.” They didn’t think I would die. Not until they found my body—broken, rotten, and forgotten—in Adam Rossi’s basement.

During Christmas dinner, my mother-in-law hinted for the umpteenth time that she wanted a grandchild. However, my husband, Zachary Cole, who had insisted on staying child-free in the past decade, only smiled and filled her plate. After dinner, he slipped onto the balcony. "There, there. Daddy will come see you on New Year's Day," he whispered. I stood in the corner of the living room with a glass of water in my hand, feeling cold as the words sank in. I stepped forward and forced a playful tone. "I just heard you say 'Daddy.' Got a secret kid stashed somewhere?" He rubbed his nose, his voice stiff. "You must've misheard. That's… just a friend's kid." My heart sank. I'd been married to him for a decade, so I knew exactly what he looked like when he was lying.

My boyfriend, Miles, finally invited me to his family’s Christmas dinner. I passed out on the way there. Half-conscious, I heard him whisper, “Sorry, Eva. Those thugs said you’re just their boss’s type. Too pretty for your own good, babe. Blame that—not me.” “Don’t be scared. If you help me pay off the debt… maybe they’ll let me have you back. I’ll make it up to you. For the rest of your life, I swear.” He wheeled me through the back of a casino. My family’s casino. The boss he was selling me to… was my brother. Ever since our parents died in a crossfire, my brother had taken full responsibility for me. More than a brother, he’d become a father figure—a protector. My stupid boyfriend should be scared—he had no idea how fiercely my brother protected me, or how ruthless he could be to anyone who dared hurt me.

In my last life, my sister Serena Vega ran to Monaco the night before her wedding, and my family shoved me into her dress before dawn. Damian Lucchese, the young Godfather of New York, had been waiting at the altar for her. The moment he lifted my veil and saw me instead, the warmth in his eyes went cold. For five years, I was his hidden wife. The underworld knew he was married, but no one knew to whom. My parents blamed me for stealing Serena’s place and still failing to keep his heart. Then Serena came home. That Christmas, Damian took her and my parents to his mountain estate. When a blizzard hit, his men rushed everyone onto the helicopter. No one remembered me. I died in that frozen house, three months pregnant with Damian’s child. When I opened my eyes again, Serena had just returned to New York. This time, I would not beg for love. Only when I truly walked away, none of them had the right to regret it.

During Black Friday, the intelligent system I develop helps the company run highly targeted ads and brings in 30 million dollars in revenue. But when I apply for the project bonus, the director rejects it. "The system is just an auxiliary tool. The performance belongs to the sales department." I hold back my frustration and pull up the system logs. "88% of the orders come from the system's targeted pushes. According to company policy, I should receive a 0.5% commission." The director glances at me, twirling his pen. "If the sales commission doesn't go to the sales department, should it go to you? And your lousy system exceeds the API limit and racks up extra fees. You still owe us a hundred thousand dollars. We'll deduct that from your salary." Three days before Christmas sales are set to begin, the system completely shuts down because of API restrictions. Late at night, the director calls me. I stare at my computer screen. "Since the system is just an auxiliary tool, why don't you start with manual targeting?"

Grace dreamt of a threesome with her husband and his brother she woke up to something far worse. After a brutal accident at a Christmas resort, Grace pretends to lose her memory to test her husband Mason's love. His response? He claims his brother Aiden is her real husband and walks away. Stunned, Grace plays along, moving into Aiden's cabin while Mason disappears into the arms of someone else. As she digs deeper, Grace uncovers seven years of lies, a hidden affair with her best friend Sophia, and Mason's dark secret life. But the biggest shock? Aiden, the brother she's resented since he tried to ruin her wedding, might be the only man who's ever truly loved her. Now Grace is caught in a dangerous game where love and hatred blur, where her best friend wants her dead, and where choosing the wrong brother could cost her everything. The lies are unraveling, and someone won't make it out of this holiday alive.

The summer that Allison Hart graduates from high school, she has one thing on her mind- to lose her virginity before she goes away to college in the fall. The only problem is she doesn’t want a random one night stand with a stranger. So when her stepbrother James Carter comes home for the summer, it seems like her problem finally has a solution. At first James is apprehensive about the entire thing, but then gives in to Allison’s request. They both swear that it will be just a weekend of sex and fun, but then the weekend turns into an entire summer of sneaky sex. As the summer comes to a close and both prepare to go off to college, both realize that they have fallen in love with each other. Neither of them are brave enough to tell the other, so they go off to college, both confused about their situation. When they finally reunite for Christmas, James confesses his feelings for Ali and asks her to run away and travel the world with him. She accepts and once school ends for the summer, they run off to start their adventure.

Reese: I know all too well the sting of heartbreak and rejection. Not a lot of men can handle a woman of my stature. I only hope that love is out there. When I agreed to meet up with my Frost cousins and their kids for a Christmas event after another breakup, I didn't expect sparks to fly with their friend Don Hunter. Don: I was surprised to be invited by my coworker Darius Frost to join his family and friends at the holiday lights at the park. It's not like I have family in the area, and I'm self-aware enough to know I wouldn't have some hot date. So why is the gorgeous Reese Nikolaidis giving me the time of day? It has to be a joke because she is out of my league. This is a standalone story but is the four book in the Ravenwood series. Book 1 - The Princess of Ravenwood Book 2 - Chasing Kitsune Book 3 - Expect The Unexpected Book 4 - Out Of My League Book 5 - Man's Best Wingman

Mila is a young girl of 18 who has been abused by her stepmom most of her life, you could call her another 'Cinderella'. Things gets worse when her Stepmom pushes her into an arranged marriage with the One and only McCarter Spencer, New York's biggest business mogul... At age 24, he owned over 45 percent of properties in New York, which included Hotels, Club houses Restaurants and even the Prestigious 'Spencer Conglomerate'. On a mission to acquire the bedridden Edward Monteiro's Company, Carter finds himself in a situation where he has to marry Camilla, Edward's only daughter and supposed heir of all his wealth. After a few weeks of keeping to themselves and thinking the worse of each other, they finally call a truce and become friends, to the extent someone could have sworn they noticed a love string attached to their "friendship" Things take a fateful turn when Camilla jilts Carter at the altar, leaving no trace of herself and leaving an already smitten Carter devastated and heartbroken. What happens when 5 years down the line, Camilla shows up at Carter's wedding. She doesn't only show up with a bundle of joy, she comes having a mission to execute. REVENGE. Things go haywire when Carter also sees this as an opportunity to get his own revenge. You can never tell what's gonna happen when everyone has an ulterior motive in mind. They become covered in a web of lies, secrets and untold feelings.