Grayslake Public Library

Jim Charleston is my foster brother. He and I have been dating in secret for 10 years. On the day we decide to go public, Jim receives an undercover mission assignment to Duskhaven, where he has slim chances of returning alive. The night before he left, he held me and promised, "If I come back alive, I will marry you in a grand wedding. I'll stay by your side forever." Foolishly, I broke ties with my family and waited for him. I became the laughingstock of the entire high society circle. Three years later, Jim returns but with a ruined reputation and enormous debts. Kneeling like a broken man before our father, he firmly declares, "I promised Anne I would take care of her for life, Dad!" The woman named Anne hid timidly behind Jim, clutching her pregnant belly tightly. Dad turns to me instinctively. Everyone is waiting for me to lose my mind and cause a scene. However, I just smile. Right then and there, I accept the engagement ring from the good-for-nothing playboy. On the day of my engagement party, Jim drives in recklessly. With a gun in his hand, he shouts, "Cecilia Forrest! If you dare go through with this marriage, I'll kill him!"

“Klein you…” My voice catches in my throat as I attempt to speak again. I shut my eyes close, let out a heavy exhale before prying my eyes open again to continue. “Are you having an affair?” I ask, my voice raspy and watch his eyebrows nearly fly off his face from sheer shock and mortification. His countenance morphs into a bewildered expression and I once more, regret ever opening my mouth. “What if I am? Are you going to ask for a divorce?” I stare at him, silent and unmoving, with my heart threatening to hop out of my chest. When he realizes that I have no response to his question, he gives me a reproachful head shake, while sighing like I absolutely exasperate him and says: “I didn’t think so. You can think whatever you want about what’s going on between Jasmine and I. I don’t care.” ... Our marriage was a business alliance. The perfect marriage in the eyes of the public, but a complete sham in reality. He said affection is the one thing I will never get from him and I learned not to crave it. I was the perfect trophy wife... until the kiss. It changed everything.

Augustina Darius never planned to marry—especially not a man known for breaking enemies without mercy. But refusing Alpha Kael Dravaryn isn’t an option. It’s a death sentence. Bound by pack law and political necessity, Augustina is forced into a marriage where obedience is survival. In public, she plays the perfect Luna—quiet, graceful, compliant. Behind closed doors, she walks on invisible fault lines, knowing one wrong step could destroy her. Kael Dravaryn is everything the rumors claim: powerful, ruthless, and emotionally untouchable. His mansion is ruled by silence and secrets, and the shadow of his late wife lingers in every corridor. There are rooms Augustina is forbidden to enter. Questions she is warned never to ask. A past that refuses to stay buried. Then Kael’s five-year-old son says something that turns her blood cold. “I still see my mommy at night.” What begins as a child’s whisper becomes a trail of impossible truths—hidden doors, locked memories, and a death that may not have been an accident at all. As Augustina digs deeper into the Obsidian Vale estate, she realizes the greatest danger isn’t her husband’s reputation… It’s what he’s protecting. Because some secrets don’t just ruin marriages. They kill the women who uncover them.

“I’ve tried…” he whispered against my ear, hands roaming my body. My breath hitched as his fingers slipped in between my thighs, circling the edge of my panties. “We can’t,” I gasped , my legs parting wider. “You’re supposed to be my step brother.” “And yet you’re soaked, Belle!” Fuck. *** After losing her mother in a tragic accident, Isabelle wakes from a coma months later with selective mutism. With this comes bullying and mockery at her new college as she’s nicknamed, ‘Ms Mute.’ She endured it all, but things take a different turn when her father introduces his fiancèe . Isabelle comes face to face with Lucas Graham—her cruelest bully, the college’s golden boy, and now future stepbrother. Despite every effort, Isabelle is unable to stop the wedding and is forced to live with Lucas who stops at nothing to frustrate her. When a viral video makes the headlines in school, and their new family connection becomes a public scandal, what starts as pure hatred, slowly leads to stolen kisses, uncontrollable tension, yearning and—sinful nights. The relationship is forbidden, their family reputation is at stake….Lucas, and Isabelle must decide if their love is worth fighting for.

After Celine Anderson let her newly-promoted assistant take credit for my billion-dollar project for the ninth time, I handed in my resignation letter. I also refused to show up in the same place as her. Whenever she was interviewed by talk shows as a public figure, I would switch off all the screens in the building. I also got the security guard to stop her from entering even if she brought me a cup of coffee in the middle of a tornado. To see me, she purposely rescheduled three virtual meetings with foreign companies. So, I immediately bought air tickets to leave the country. I blocked her everywhere and formatted the hard disk that contained all of our memories from the past decade. When I was twenty, I studied with her in the university library. When I was twenty-five, I ate the cheapest bread with her when she first started her company. When I was thirty, I finally knew how to let go of things that no longer serve me. On the ninth time I was accused of sleeping my way up, I came across a photo of her and her assistant kissing. Meanwhile, I was sitting at our dining table with food that had turned cold. It turned out that our decade-long relationship had been a joke. However, it was fine. It was not too late to come to my senses.

I gave up my surgical career to be his wife. He gave our anniversary night to his ex. Three years of cold shoulders, public humiliations, and a husband who believed every lie Celeste whispered. I endured it all—until I discovered I was carrying his child. I left without a word. No fight. No tears. Just divorce papers and an empty mansion. Now I’m Dr. Victoria Preston again. The renowned heart surgeon they said I’d never be. My brother helped me disappear. My best friend made sure the divorce was airtight. And I’m raising my daughter in peace. But Nathaniel Preston isn’t the same man who signed those papers. He’s seen my face on every medical journal. He’s lost sleep staring at the sonogram I left behind. And when he finally finds me, his eyes are no longer cold, they’re burning with obsession. He says he’ll win me back even if it takes the rest of his life. But Celeste isn’t done. She wants my child, my reputation, my life. And Nathaniel’s mother is helping her. They thought I was the docile wife who would break. They never met Dr. Victoria Preston.

In this post-apocalyptic world, all the supernatural species in the world belong to what is referred to as The Hidden. They have banded together to survive the humans destroying themselves and each other in hidden colonies around the world. Amara, future alpha of her pack, and her secret lover Trent, future alpha of an enemy pack, are caught in a love triangle of sorts. Amara’s parents keep trying to push her towards Tobias, alpha of an ally pack. Now the Council Collective is planning on going out to find human survivors and bring them back to integrate into their colony. Amara and Trent decide to go public and tell their families they are together. Alpha John, Trent’s father has other plans. He sends Trent on a mission to pick up survivors, making Amara think he has abandoned her. Not long after, Amara finds out she is pregnant. Amara chooses to go after Trent, and unbeknownst to him she discovers his deep dark secret. She runs away from Trent and everything she knows and ends up finding the last thing she thought she would ever find in this wreck of a world. Could she really have found her fated mate after all this time? And in a human? Will she go back to Trent? Or will she give this unexpected twist of fate a chance?

A Dark, Erotic Thriller Filled with Lust, Betrayal, and Revenge Seraphina Carter has been trapped in a luxurious hell for six years—married to Ethan, a man who thrives on breaking her spirit. Verbal abuse, emotional torture, and public humiliation are his weapons, and worst of all, she can’t leave. Their ironclad prenup states that whoever files for divorce first will lose half of their wealth, and Ethan is determined to keep Sera as his beautifully broken trophy wife while he openly indulges in affairs. One drunken night changes everything. Sera stumbles into Crimson Veil, an underground nightclub, and meets Raven Blackwood, a darkly seductive woman with a sinful smile and eyes that promise danger. One touch ignites a fire inside Sera she never knew existed, and by morning, she’s lost in a world of forbidden desire and uncontrollable addiction. But as passion turns into obsession, Raven whispers a dangerous proposal: Why not kill Ethan? What starts as a twisted love affair soon becomes a high-stakes psychological game of manipulation, seduction, and deception. Ethan is not as blind as he seems, and as the walls close in, Sera realizes she's caught between two devils—one she married and one she desires. In a world where love is a weapon and trust is a lie, who is the real predator, and who is just prey? ---

Ethan Lewis has been in the bright lights for as long as he can remember. He’s just turned the cusp of celebrating his twenty-fourth birthday, and yet he feels more like eighty. Living the life of a celebrity isn’t all it is chalked up to be, and dealing with the unruly number of women who are more interested in his billions than who he is as a person is getting old. He has resigned himself to giving up on love and focusing on the only thing that truly gives back – his career. Riley Phillips has always dreamed of being on a big stage with the warmth of the spotlight baring down on her, but she just couldn’t seem to catch the right agent’s attention. After giving a quick commencement speech as Valedictorian of her graduating class at Billmore High, she’s offered something she can’t refuse... The chance to work in Hollywood. It’s not all it’s chalked up to be, but she works hard and finally gets her big break four years down the line. There is a new movie that her agent wants her to audition for, and her co-star? The dreamy Ethan Lewis. She scores the part, but soon regrets it due to his callous, overbearing persona. He’s nothing like the public touts, and she for one isn’t impressed. Funny enough, he is - immensely.

“Top or bottom?” Ethan's timid voice echoed in the motel room, and Kane scoffed. “Suck me off first and I'll tell you,” Kane replied and seductively licked his lips. “What makes you think I’d suck you? How about you kneel for me?” Ethan spat with a grimace, trying to sound unbothered even though he knew he had a lot at stake. A low, husky chuckle slipped from Kane's lips, and the room fell into a strange silence, their breathing and the soft wind the only sounds between them. Suddenly, Kane wrapped his arms around Ethan's back, pulling him as his hand slid down and grabbed his dick, squeezing it. “Let’s fuck!” ****** Canada's top hockey star, Ethan Harrison, has it all, except control over his own heart. When his secret obsession with the United States’s star player, Kane Hau Alexander, is discovered, Kane doesn’t expose him; instead, he takes control and vows to claim him. Rivals on ice, lovers in secret, their forbidden connection must overcome, boundaries, trust, and desire. But with jealous families, manipulative fiancées, and public scrutiny closing in, can their secret survive the ultimate game?