Flinch

A desperate young woman, Lucy, enters into a contract marriage with the cold-hearted CEO, Drey Jackson, to save her mother’s life. But as their lives collide, hidden secrets lie around Drey’s family, and a dangerous rivalry emerges to tear them apart. Stuck between love and loyalty, Lucy and Drey must navigate a treacherous path where trust is shattered, and survival becomes their only choice. Will they overcome the darkness, or will the price of love and power destroy them both? ******** “So, a contract marriage,” I said slowly, testing the idea. “What makes you think I would even consider something like that? And with you?” I asked, letting out a little laughter. She leaned in slightly, her lips curving into a small, confident smile. “Because it’s the perfect solution for both of us. You need the public to believe you’re happily married. And I need the money. We both walk away with exactly what we want—no strings attached.” I chuckled, feeling I was on the edge of it. “You’re a bartender. What makes you think you can play the part of a billionaire’s wife?” I chuckled darkly as my breathtaking face twisted into a Mona Lisa. “I can have you fired for this, you know.” She didn’t flinch, but I noticed her sweaty palms. She could lose her only surviving job if I wanted that to happen. It was obvious how desperate she needed money but I couldn’t just agree with her even if it was a good idea. “I think you’re misunderstanding me. I’m not some desperate woman trying to snag a rich man,” She suddenly snapped. She was only an inch away from me now, trying to avoid any direct touch. “We don't have to be in love.”

WARNING: MATURED CONTENT "Every time you flinch when I get close, it burns me up inside. I’ll prove to you that whatever monster I was before… I’m nothing but yours now." — At twenty-four, Hera was a licensed agriculturist serving her hometown. She walked through life alone, yet found anchor in her father—the provincial governor—even as she remained his secret child. Her world was stitched together by nothing more than trees, earth, and the creatures that roamed the land. Then came the murder that shattered her peaceful existence. She watched in horror as a masked figure committed a brutal killing just steps from her home. The assassin turned to silence her next, but Hera struck first: one desperate swing of her shovel to his skull left him bloodied and still, lost to unconsciousness. Convinced she would be thrown in prison for what she’d done, she called her father. It was in that moment she learned the truth—the man she’d felled was no ordinary stranger. He was a dangerous mafia member. She had fought the mafia. And worse: he would not wake anytime soon. He had slipped into a coma. To escape the wrath of those who would hunt for him, Hera followed her governor-father’s stern command: “Hide him. Keep him alive. Never ask why.” He became her darkest secret—but secrets do not stay hidden forever. A year later, the man opened his eyes with no trace of his past. Fearing he would kill her the moment his memories returned, Hera spun a perilous lie: “I am your wife.” As days bled into months, he craved the warmth of her touch, while she prayed his mind would never piece together what was lost.

“Five million dollars may have bought my chains, but it didn’t buy my loyalty — and it definitely didn’t buy my heart. I never dreamed my life would come down to a transaction of hundred million dollars. But my father’s betrayal puts me at the mercy of Adrian Costa, the ruthless Sicilian, head of Cosa Nostra whose name makes the mafia world quake with fear. Including me. He bought me in an auction and then made me his wife. Saying no to him is not an option. He is dark and dangerous. I have done underhanded work against him using my hacker identity, CIPHER. I have to escape his gilded cage before he finds out my alt identity. Each of our battles ignites a deadly game of power and lust. As secrets unravel and Adrian’s enemies close in, I find myself faced with the ultimate dilemma: Will I fight for my freedom, or will the king I hate become the one man I cannot live without? ***** “You think you can outrun me, Elena? You're wearing my ring on your finger.” I don’t flinch, meeting his gaze with defiance. “So what? I don’t belong to you.” He leans in, his lips brushing against my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. “You don’t, yet. But I can make you. Do you want that?" I swallow hard, my pulse racing. “Don’t flatter yourself.” Adrian chuckles darkly, his hand lingering on my waist. “Trust me, I’m not the one who needs to be flattered.” ***** # Dark Mafia Romance #18+ #Hacker Female Lead and Italian Mafia Lord # Touch her you die #Marriage contract # He falls first #Fast Paced #Strong FL and ML #A Not so cute Pet (Oh he is cute. Don't go by his looks) #HEA

"No! It can't be!" I let out an internal hiss. "He would not dare come here!" "What the f*ck, Zara!" Levi bumped into me and growled behind me. "Sorry," I mumbled, wide-eyed. "What's going on with-" Levi's voice faltered when my father turned away from us and approached his table, confirming my worst fears: Noah f*cking Flinch! "Is that?" Levi mind-linked, and I nodded my head. "What brings him here?" He mind-linked. "Zara, I understand that you are familiar with Alpha Noah," my father said. I slowly nodded my head. "Great, Noah has also informed me that you are his fated mate." I slowly nodded, unable to utter a word. "He has requested your hand," my father continued. "Is that so?" I said. "Were you told by Noah that he rejected me more than a year ago?" "He did what?" Levi roared behind me. "There is more," I said. "He rejected me in favor of a mate he chose." **** Zara Silverwood is a silver wolf descended from one of the most powerful packs on the continent. A year after he rejects her, her fated mate comes knocking on her door to tell her he is back to claim her. After Zara turns down his proposal, he goes behind her back and asks her father for her hand. The old Alpha agrees to the arrangement. Zara is unhappy and decides to handle things on her own. She informs her father that she has taken a chosen mate, her Beta, and her best friend, Levi—only he has a little secret. What will happen when Zara's second chance mate attends her and Levi's mating ceremony? Will he stop the proceedings and claim her as his mate? Or is Zara's destiny already set? Will Zara find the happiness she so deserves?

I never should have let my mother hold my future hostage. She paid my tuition with his father’s money. Locked my birth certificate, my transcripts, every scrap of paper I need to survive in a safe I’ll never open. And the one thing I had left of my dad, his old watch, she dangled like a noose. Run, and I lose my education. Fight, and I lose the last piece of the man who actually loved me. So I moved into the Hunters’ mansion. Into the lair of the boy who spent years making my life hell. Chase Hunter. Six-foot-five of pure venom wrapped in muscle and money. The senior who cornered me in empty hallways, who whispered filth in my ear just to watch me flinch, who smiled that sharp, cruel smile every time I broke a little more. I thought graduation meant freedom from him. I was wrong. Now he’s my stepbrother. He hates that I’m here. Hates my mother for sinking her claws into his father. Hates me most of all, for breathing his air, for walking his halls, for daring to exist where he can reach me. But hate isn’t clean anymore. It’s tangled up in heat. In the way his grey eyes strip me bare every time they land on me, the way his hand closes around my throat, not to hurt, but to own. In the way he punishes me over his lap, in his car, against walls, until I’m shaking and soaked and furious at myself for wanting more. He calls me Little Lamb, I call him every name I can think of under my breath. How long until we stop fighting the deadly inferno raging between us and finally let it consume us both?

My husband—one of the top elites of Raventon Street, cold and ruthless to his core—keeps a stray orphan girl he rescued from the slums hidden in an apartment. Rowena Fletcher is clean and fragile, like a newborn creature untouched by the world. And somehow, that innocence softens something in Micah Benson—a man who's spent years clawing his way through the brutal wilderness of capital. He thinks this secret game of his goes unnoticed, but I find out anyway. At the Benson family's charity gala, I smash his favorite antique vase in front of everyone. He doesn't even flinch as he simply signals the bodyguards to clean up the mess and then hands me a divorce agreement. "Sign it, Sabrina. The penthouse in Ashbourne City is yours." I burn the divorce agreement—and that's when he finally shows his true colors. He freezes all my accounts and launches a hostile takeover of my gallery. On the night the storm hits, I get a call from the hospital. My sister, Roberta Slater, has been in a car crash—she needs emergency surgery. In the security footage, he stood there, watching coldly. "Sign the papers, or start planning a funeral." I dropped to my knees and slammed my forehead against the floor, blood trailing down my face as I begged, "Micah, please… don't…" A long, flat beep echoed from the other end of the line, slicing through the sound of rain. Then a voice on the line says, "We did everything we could." However, I have gone back in time—to the day I first found out about Rowena. This time, I no longer cry. Instead, I plan my divorce on my own terms. I call Valebrook Bank that same night and begin preparing for a quiet disappearance. But the moment I truly vanish from his world, Micah loses his mind.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Past trauma and revenge. Explicit sexual content. NB: Any resemblance to a real person or actual event is purely coincidental. —----------------- “I’ve been jerking to your photo every night for five years,” Tristan's calloused hand guides me along his crotch. “Aren't you happy to see me, Bunny?” “You murdered my father. Broke out of jail. Shot my fiancé at our wedding altar.” My voice flares. “Happy to see you?” “Because you’re the love of my goddamn miserable life,” he seizes my chin, forcing me to meet those frosty, possessive eyes. “The moment you said ‘I do,’ you became mine. You bear my hickeys, my ring, and my name. And it’s our wedding night, Husband.” Who chains their husband naked and dangles him from the top of a skyscraper on their wedding night?! Death isn’t romantic. I’m not a masochist. So why the fuck is my cock hard? Tristan grins, “Still lying to yourself?” I bite down on his lips. He doesn’t flinch even as blood trickles out. “Say that again and lose your tongue.” His grin widens with bloodied teeth. “Right, you're not into men… just me.” —------------- Tristan ‘Mad-Bishop’ Alister got busted by the Feds and locked away for five years. Now, he’s back to claim his obsession: Carlton Dickson. Tristan isn’t just Carlton’s captor. He’s Carlton’s former step-father, and their connection is more taboo than their forbidden affair. As Tristan serves justice to those who destroyed him, using ways that would make the devil shiver, Carlton is trapped between hatred and a dark desire he can’t escape. Can Carlton survive the truth of their relationship to each other? Or will they burn in the flames Tristan’s lit to consume everyone in his path?

This isn't a fairytale. Mirror Mirror on the wall. A fairytale that became her fall. “Over my dead body will I let a man whore father my child. You're in every way incapable, irresponsible and definitely incompetent of becoming a father.” She said with a smile. "Stop acting like a saint, you're not one. You're only pregnant because you're a slut yourself, so what exactly is the difference between you and me?” She stepped up to him with a mocking smile. “Maybe, I'll show him pictures.” Anger flared up inside him. Who the fuck does she think she is? “Show him pictures!?" His fingers grabbed her throat. His eyes held hers. She didn't flinch, instead, a small smile played on her lips. Crazy ass bitch. He isn't used to being challenged. “I don't need to beg you for anything.” He growled. "You have no other option.” She scoffed. "I have a lot of options, Kim.” He continued. "I can take him away from you after birth,” “I want to see you try.” The smile on his face told her otherwise. “What will you do? Take me to court? Fight for custody?” He chuckled. “I can bribe the whole fucking court.” Her heart skipped a beat. No. "You don't get to decide.” He lit a cigarette. "Everything will go my way.” "It'll not!” “Maybe I'll show him your pictures. Or let you visit him once a week, who knows?" He shrugged. “This is my child!" She screamed, tears welled up in her eyes. “So it's either you do as I say, or I'll do as I please." “What do you want?" Hot tears rolled down her cheeks. “Where I come, illegitimate children aren't accepted in the family." “I'm not marrying you!" “I'll never marry you!" She screamed. "You have no choice..”