French Poetry

“To escape a monster, she ran straight into the arms of a devil.” Lila Vance was a debt payment. Wrapped in fifty thousand dollars of French lace, she was minutes away from marrying Marcus Thorne—a man who whispered that she was nothing more than his "property." But Lila refused to be broken. With a ripped dress and a heart full of terror, she bolts from the altar and into the private elevator of the Grand Imperial Hotel. When the doors open, she finds herself in the lion’s den: the penthouse of Adrian Sterling, her fiancé’s most lethal rival. Adrian is a man carved from shadows and sin, a billionaire "Shark" who destroys legacies for sport. When Marcus comes to claim his prize, Adrian offers Lila a choice: go back to the man who will break you, or sign a one-year marriage contract with the man who will own you. As the line between their fake vows and real desire begins to blur, Lila must face a terrifying truth: Adrian Sterling didn't save her out of mercy. He saved her because she is the final piece in a game of revenge he’s been playing for years. In a game of power, who will be the first to break?

When I had just received an offer from a French ballet company, my right leg was amputated due to a car accident. My fiance could not accept my disability, so he married my competitor, Gabriella Smith. I was about to have a meltdown when my childhood best friend, Joe Anderson, carpeted my hospital room with roses and proposed to me with a diamond ring. Throughout our five years of marriage, he treated me extremely well and loved me as he did the very first day we married. I thought that he was a gift from God to compensate for my tragedy until I accidentally overheard his conversation with his friend. “Joe, I heard that Gabriella is the principal dancer of the top ballet company in Paris. If only you hadn’t turned Fiona into a cripple for her... Do you feel guilty?” “I feel guilty about it, that’s why I married her and treated her well. I’ll repay her with my life.” I grabbed the armrests of my wheelchair as I held back my sobs. The happy marriage that I thought I had was just a lie. The husband whom I thought loved me was the culprit behind my plight. He only loved Gabriella. If that were the case, I would give my blessings for them to be together!

Harry DuBois is the name everyone knows. At 6'4", sharply dressed, with silver at his temples and a velvet voice, he commands attention the moment he enters a room. Owner of DuBois Fine Arts & Jazz Lounge, the town’s cultural heartbeat, he offers a haven for music, poetry, and taste. Women adore him, men envy him, and all assume he’s living the dream. But Harry is haunted. Beneath success lies a past that won’t let him go, a tragedy he never speaks of. For Harry, love isn’t just risky, it’s dangerous. He’s a single father to Naomi, his teenage daughter, the only light he’s allowed to stay. Yet even with her, there are walls. When new art curator Elena Rivera arrives from New York to partner with his lounge on a revival series, a celebration of Black art, music, and history. Harry is drawn to someone he hasn’t been with in decades. But Elena has secrets, and she’s starting to notice cracks in Harry’s perfect image. As past and present collide, Harry is forced to confront the pain he has buried for over 25 years. A love lost, a betrayal unforgiving, and a night that changed everything. The question is: can Harry finally allow himself to feel again, or will the past claim him once and for all?

“You should end things with him.” A husky deep voice echoes from the darkness. I freeze in place, his thick Russian accent sent shivers down my spine. I could only make out his large form from the dim lights of the smoking area. “H-how long have you been standing there?” I shivered, not from the cold but from an unsettling feeling. He chuckles richly causing my heart rate to quicken as I watch a small flicker of light before smoke puffs out into the air. “Go inside, krasotka it’s too cold for that little dress of yours...” ******** Josephine Beaumont would’ve never imagined that working as a personal nurse for a wealthy French businessman would entangle her into a deadly web of mafia rivalries. Struggling with financial issues and a toxic relationship, she catches the attention of the dangerous and ruthless Russian pakhan, Sasha Romanov and a deep dark obsession brews takes root in his heart. He stalks her every move with burning desire and manipulates their meeting in the pretense of fate, pulling her into the dangerous dark world of the mafia. Delve into this dark, steamy mafia romance filled with obsession, power, and high-stakes danger, BRATVA'S OBSESSION will leave you breathless and craving more.

She tried to win him back. The kidnappers did not get the memo. Nora Hale’s life used to read like one of her bestselling novels - perfect husband, dream career, book tours- she was living her best life. Now, after two years of crippling writer's block, looming deadlines, and a husband who has packed his bags, her story has hit a brutal plot twist, and Nora is desperate to have the happy ending she’s used to writing. Naturally, she does what any logical, emotionally sane woman would do – plan a dangerous trip to Paris to rekindle the spark with her husband (and maybe spark a new book while she’s at it). The plan? Simple. The outcome? Absolute chaos. Between real criminals, fake ransom notes, French police, and one soon-to-be ex-husband, Nora’s romantic rescue mission quickly turns into an international disaster. But somewhere between the mayhem and macarons, Nora and her husband rediscover something they’d lost – the spark that started it all. Now if only she can keep him from finding out the truth behind the worst (and best) idea she’s ever had before the credits roll. Because in love and fiction… sometimes the best stories are total disasters. Billionaire romance story.

She was his enemy. Then she was his prisoner. Now, she is his soul-bound prey. Arielle Monet was raised to be a queen of the French Syndicate—loyal, lethal, and silent. When she is captured by the ruthless "Devil of Marseille," Girard Roux, she prepares to endure hell for her family. She waits for the rescue that will never come. Then comes the shattering truth: Her father didn't lose her. He sold her. Marcel Monet used his own daughter as a sacrificial lamb, a distraction to buy his escape while the wolf tore her apart. But Girard Roux doesn't want her blood. He wants her name, her spirit, and her life. In a move that shocks the underworld, he forces a ring onto her finger and a vow onto her lips. Trapped in his ancestral estate, Arielle expects a marriage of cold revenge. Instead, she finds a world of dark, carnal hunger and a terrifying secret hidden behind Girard’s golden eyes. He isn't just a Don. He isn't even human. As the moon rises and the beast within her husband begins to howl, Arielle faces a choice that will stain her soul: Run from the monster who bought her, or surrender to the Alpha who promises to burn the whole world down for her. One vow will bind them. One truth will break them. One taste will change everything.

I’d just left a creative meeting when a TikTok video popped up on my feed, slamming my company. The title: "Stay Away! This Austin startup is incredibly cheap. The perks are a joke." The video showed off the pour-over coffee from Austin's hottest independent cafe and pastries from a top-tier French bakery. The same ones I’d just had my assistant, Sam, hand out. I frowned. In the company's Slack channel, I tagged everyone. "@here Any suggestions for this afternoon's Happy Hour?" Leo, the new Gen-Z intern, replied instantly with a voice note. “Asher, with all due respect, these snacks with gluten and dairy are so unhealthy.” “A truly visionary company would hire a private chef to customize raw, vegan bites for everyone's dietary needs. That's what respect looks like.” I laughed. It was an angry laugh. The company's daily snack budget was $25 per person. For an Austin startup, that was top of the line. I typed back: "Since it's impossible to please everyone, the snack perk is canceled. I'll convert the budget into a cash bonus for all of you." Less than five minutes later, the TikTok caption was updated. "UPDATE: Y'all, I can't make this up. I made a suggestion about dietary inclusivity, and my toxic boss just canceled all the perks! This is how toxic bosses act. Can't handle a single piece of feedback!"

Dmitri Volkov is the heir to one of New York’s most ruthless Russian mafia families—cold, controlled, and carrying scars no one is allowed to see. He has spent his life obeying blood oaths and burying every part of himself that doesn’t serve the syndicate. Love, especially love for a man, is a weakness he cannot afford. Ethan Moreau is a twenty-two-year-old French art student on scholarship at NYU—soft-spoken, openly gay, and painfully trusting. He came to New York to chase beauty in a city full of sharp edges, never expecting one of those edges to look back at him with ice-blue eyes. Their worlds collide by chance in Central Park. A fleeting encounter becomes stolen nights, desperate kisses in shadowed alleys, and whispered promises neither of them can keep. For Ethan, Dmitri is intensity and danger wrapped in tenderness he’s never known. For Dmitri, Ethan is the first crack of light in a life built on darkness—and the one thing that could destroy everything he’s been raised to protect. But secrets have weight. Dmitri’s family is closing in, a rival syndicate is circling, and every touch between them pulls the noose tighter. Misunderstandings fester into silence, jealousy into rage, and love into something that hurts to hold. When blood finally stains the canvas of their fragile world, Ethan will have to decide if he can love a man who was born to break hearts—and Dmitri will have to choose between the family that raised him and the only person who ever made him want to be free. In a city that devours the innocent, their story is a slow bleed of devotion, betrayal, and the kind of love that can ruin you completely.

Bella French is a peculiar girl. That is what everyone says about her. She would rather have her nose in a book, forgetting the world around her, than to actually live her life. She has an odd father who likes to tinker in the shed and her mother is dead. The way he locks himself in the building and claims to be helping the FBI, people around the town find him crazy, but Bella knows that he isn't. At school she had no friends, because she prefers to be alone. Yet that does not stop Gus Stone from bothering her. For some reason, despite girls throwing themselves at him, he only wants Bella. She dreams of getting out of the small town that they just moved to. They live on the edge of town, next to the 'Forbidden Forest' as the town calls it. She had heard the town legends and lore about entering these woods. Especially not at night. But circumstances lead her there; Where she finds a beast. Adam Prince is King of the Wolves. He is the Alpha and he has even been called a beast. He is so jaded from life that he is angry at the world and he takes it out on anyone stupid enough to be around him. Especially Bella. The way that he finds himself drawn to her infuriates him. Yet, he can not stay away from her, even as he finds himself changing to please her. Can he really be falling in love with her? Is she the one that can break his curse and end his misery?

Clara Sterling is twenty-seven, polished, and on the move. After being wrongly blamed for a student’s breakdown at her previous school in Boston, she accepts a mid-semester teaching position at Blackwood, a prestigious private academy known for its reputation and the secrets. She hopes for a fresh start. Instead, she encounters Gabriel Vane. At nineteen, Gabriel is sharp and carries an unexpressed grief. He is the student who resists management and demands attention. After losing a year to his father’s death, he returns to Blackwood feeling incomplete but more unpredictable. When Clara steps into Room 14 on her first day and meets his intellectual challenge, something inside him stirs for the first time in a long while. What starts as a battle of wits over a poetry anthology evolves into a connection neither can put into words or control. Gabriel hacks into her private file, and instead of reporting it, Clara replies to his note. The distinction between teacher and student blurs gradually until one rainy Tuesday afternoon in a locked classroom, it vanishes completely. Yet Blackwood is keeping an eye on them. Someone has reported their interactions to the headmistress. Even worse, someone removed pages from Clara’s file before her arrival, indicating that she didn’t get the job despite her scandal in Boston. She was chosen because of it. As their relationship deepens and threats converge, both Clara and Gabriel must confront the same question: what does it cost to want something you were never meant to have? The Lesson Plan is a dark, slow-burning forbidden romance about desire, grief, and the precarious space between authority and intimacy.