Duke Library Hours Novels & Stories

Thirty days. One month. A single, heartbeat-stopping wager. Benjamin Parker was the sun. A golden-haired scholarship recruit with flour on his hands and a heart that he wore—vulnerable and beating—on his sleeve. He spent weeks chasing the school’s "Ice Prince," offering handmade tarts and a smile that could melt the coldest winter. He thought his persistence finally paid off when Jonathan Hayes—the obsidian-eyed, terrifyingly beautiful heir to a tech empire—pinned him against the school gates and claimed him in front of everyone. But the "Golden Romance" was a lie from the very first kiss. Jonathan didn't choose Benjamin because of his heart; he chose him because he was a convenient target for a cruel poker-room bet. The stakes? A vintage motorcycle. The duration? Thirty days of manufactured affection. Now, the countdown is ticking. Between the silk sheets of Jonathan’s penthouse and the shadows of the St. Jude’s library, the line between the game and reality is blurring. Jonathan is the predator who accidentally caught himself in his own trap, growing addicted to the very light he’s destined to extinguish. Benjamin is the lamb who is slowly realizing the wolf isn't just at the door—he’s in his bed. When the moon turns red and the thirty days are up, the truth will do more than just break Benjamin's heart. It will shatter his soul. One month of sweetness. A lifetime of ruin. In the game of hearts, the house always wins... and Jonathan Hayes never plays fair.

My name is Lena, and until last week, my biggest worry was the late return fees at the library where I work. I was ordinary, invisible, and I liked it that way. Then a pack of rogue werewolves attacked me in a dark alley, and two monsters saved my life—or so I thought. The first was Caspian, a vampire prince carved from ice and centuries of solitude. His gaze held no warmth, yet when he looked at me, something ancient and hungry flickered in his eyes. The second was Kael, the Alpha of the Northern pack, all burning muscles and wild possessiveness. He took one sniff of my skin and declared me his “mate” without a second thought. Now I’m caught between a cold, opulent castle and a warm, chaotic pack territory. Caspian’s touch sends shivers down my spine, while Kael’s fierce protection makes me feel safe for the first time in years. They are sworn enemies, bound by a blood feud older than any city, yet both refuse to let me go. But the real danger isn’t their rivalry. Strange things are happening to my body—I can hear thoughts, heal faster, and the full moon sings to my blood. I’m not just a human caught between two worlds. I am the last of the Hybrid Blood, a forgotten lineage that could either unite the species or destroy them all. And the one who controls me, controls the night.

"I want this," I repeat my words. "And what exactly is this?" he smiles and holds my back with his hands in all his casual sexiness. "I want my orgasm," "You're not there yet, baby girl." He stated softly, his hands trail down to my ass and squeezed them making me pouted at him. "I can get there, you can get me there." "I will, but not right now," ***** Jessica had tried her hardest to rebuild the family legacy, but her brother's scandalous past has proven hard to make her bounce back. And when her family business was bought out, there was nothing she could do but follow her lawyers' advice. But what she didn't expect was her new boss. The fact that she has someone to report to annoyed her, and for that someone to be handsome and smart it infuriates her. She knows he's a player, he knows she's a fragile woman with a very dark past. Can she shake him off and live peacefully with her job? or will he push himself and break out from his comfort zone to make her fall for him? ***** The love story will be emotional, irritating, and eh...I'm still not sure what else :p But the happy ending will be inevitable. So, add this book to your library and join me as we read about Jessica's happy ending. ***** Warning! R-Rated for 18+ due to strong, explicit language and sexual content*

You want revenge, Michelle? Then marry me." The words came from the last person she ever expected—Kieran Castellan, her ex’s cold and ruthless stepbrother. Hours earlier, Michelle’s world had fallen apart. She caught her fiancé cheating—with her best friend—right before saying “I do.” Humiliated, betrayed, and drowning in debt, she ran from the altar with nothing but pain in her chest. Then Kieran found her. He needed a wife to keep his CEO position. She needed a way to survive. It was supposed to be a deal—a one-year contract marriage, no feelings, no complications. But the more time they spent together, the more dangerous their connection became. Kieran’s touch burned, his words softened, and somewhere between hatred and healing, Michelle started to fall. Until old secrets, jealous enemies, and the ghosts of betrayal returned to tear them apart. Now, she’s faced with a choice: walk away before her heart breaks again… or fight for the man she was never supposed to love.

With her father's design company bankrupt and her mother's medical bills crushing her, Elara Quinn had 72 hours before she loses everything. Then Lucien Blackwood walks into her office with an insane offer: marry him for one year, get paid $3 million and save everything. The catch? A contract. Lucien needed a wife to secure his inheritance after his grandfather's will trapped him with a deadline to get married before the age of thirty three. He needs someone who would marry him. Someone desperate enough to follow the contract but proud enough to make it believable. Someone he could never actually fall for. Elara needed money while Lucien needed a wife. It was supposed to be clean and transactional. Until it wasn't. Denying their bond could cost them their happiness. Admitting it could cost them everything else. Can love rewrite a marriage built on rules? What happens when the cursed clause becomes the only truth that matters?

​The first rule of heartbreak: don't lose your dignity. ​Too late. She caught her fiancé in bed with her twin sister. Then, she drowned the pain in alcohol… and woke up naked beside a gorgeous stranger. Lauren Hill swore off men forever; her new vow was to focus on herself. But fate clearly had other plans. Less than two hours after her walk of shame, she stepped into Moore Technologies to start her new job, only to find her one-night stand sitting behind the CEO's desk. ​Colt Moore is a billionaire CEO: gorgeous, demanding, and engaged to someone else. Lauren is done with love, and Colt is totally off-limits, but their chemistry is impossible to ignore. What's going to happen when a life-changing truth ties them together, threatening to wreck everything — Colt’s company, her fresh start, and her guarded heart? ​Will she risk her heart for a man engaged to another? ​Or will he destroy her to protect his empire?

On her wedding anniversary, Brielle plans on gifting her husband, Alpha Argon, a news on her pregnancy. But she's left shattered when she found Argon proposing to his first lover, Estelle, a super model and daughter of Alpha Deron from Red Wood pack. Argon rejects Brielle for his first love. He and Estelle don't hesitate to mock her for being wolfless and a burden with no family. When she planned to hide the news of her pregnancy, a curious Estelle fishes out the report, shocking Argon with the news. Brielle thinks the goddess would mend her broken relationship, but her whole world came crumbling when Argon and Estelle pushed her down the stairs, resulting to her miscarriage. Broken, she receives a divorce letter from Argon, giving her twenty four hours to sign and leave. In her pains, something was awoken in Brielle. Something rare and deadly. "Don't sign it, Brielle. That's not the way of the IVYs. Make them pay." Her eyes glowed green.

After Calvin’s older brother passed away, he devoted himself to taking care of his brother’s wife and daughter. He justified it by saying that ‘family should look out for each other.’ To others, the three of them looked just like a close, happy family. When my mother was on her deathbed, he was busy comforting his sister-in-law, who had been brought to tears by her own son. I knelt on the floor, crying and begging him, “My mom is dying. Please, just visit her one last time, I am begging you!” However, Calvin’s voice was ice-cold as he snapped back, “Tell your mom to die later! I am busy!” I waited for two whole hours, and in the end, my mother never got to see her son-in-law one last time. Broken and exhausted, I finally asked for a divorce. “Why don’t the three of you just stay together and enjoy your happy little family.”

Kayla is s seventeen year old werewolf and a member of the Blood Stone Pack. She's living life in the fast lane. At the start of Senior year, she had love, friends, and a casual boyfriend. The Alpha's son laying claim on her. Life was all planned out. Until one fateful day, she never saw coming, when her scoundrel father admits that he is in tremendous debt. He arranges to sell her to a brothel. Disgraced, she finally gets her chance and runs away from the abusive household she has dreamed of escaping. She drives for hours until she reaches the farthest areas of the country, and She starts to build a new life. Enrolling in college, love is something she never thought she would find again. What happens when she is discovered and she is being hunted again. What happens when the truth is revealed that Damien is her Mate? Sparks will fly and Passions will rage. How will she find her freedom? Which Alpha will she choose?

The day Naomi Blake would be the happiest of her life turned out to be the worst and it changed everything. Dumped by her fiancée two hours before their engagement party, Naomi drowned her heartbreak in alcohol. She woke up the next morning hungover…with a stranger in her bed. Desperate to forget the night, she left him a note calling him the worst mistake of her life and walked away certain she'd never see him again. But fate had other plans… Weeks later, the same man appears with a contract that could erase her family's crushing debts if she agrees to marry him, now Naomi is caught between danger and desperation. Six months. That's all rehearsal requires: six months of marriage, six months of pretending. No falling in love, no digging into his past, no breaking the contact, the rules are simple enough. Will Naomi be able to walk away after six months or will this dangerous arrangement turn into something real she can't escape?