Held

The bread knife stuck in Jon doe’s chest had an unusual pattern, I grabbed a camera from the nearest person and clicked a few pictures of the design “Email them to me.” I said as I was handing the camera back to them. It looked ancient and rare, not the usual bread knifes you’d find at our local stores here in Seattle. I looked up to find a detective watching my every move, it seemed that his one side of the face looked sunken in, similarly you only see this in people who don’t have teeth, which prompted me to look into his mouth, to find that all of his teeth had been pulled out. I sighed loudly and said “well, here goes our identification route of checking dental records, this body was left in the hopes that no identification will be made!” Craning my neck to have a look at the coroner who had just arrived on scene, I recalled working with her once before on another case when I first started as a rookie, Dr Leslie Adams is an expert in her field and one of the most professional and efficient woman. She looked down at me, and stated “Detective Rush you do know that the body you are looking at has been dead for more than 3 days, and also looks as if it was stored in a body freezer before being planted at this scene” I shook my head and realised that this is getting more intense by the second, “I hadn’t realised so Doc, that’s the reason we have you here, to help me solve the mystery “- I said whilst walking up to her, I held out my hand and gave her hand a firm handshake.

"Good morning, Stace," said Scott, briefly laying his hand on my shoulder in passing. I reflexively shrugged my shoulder out of his grasp, then cringed. A little too late to run from his touch now. A little too late to pretend I don't love it. "Good morning," I said, the words coming out as a squeak. A pained look flashed in Scott's eyes as he withdrew his hand from me. I wished I could stop myself from acting stupidly around him. I wanted to drown myself in my coffee cup. Things were such a mess. When he held me after we did it yesterday afternoon, I thought we were good. Then nightfall came and it suddenly hit me. We boned. After that, I couldn't look him in the eye, much less let him hold me all night. How naive was I? Of course we weren't good. We did it. Boning seemed like the wrong word for what happened. Did Scott Brady make love to me? I don't know how much sleep he got. We had our backs to each other all night. I barely got any, and yet I felt wide awake. "You okay, Stace?" Kenny asked, looking at me with concern. "You're not coming down with something, are you?" Scott and I looked at each other. Again, I was the first to look away. Dammit. "All good. Thanks Ken," I said, raising my coffee cup to my lips. Flashes of Scott's lips lightly brushing up against mine danced before my eyes and I stopped drinking, setting the mug down with a thump.

Mitzie Damos had always considered herself to be just another average woman. She came from what would be considered an average middle-class family with a father who was now retired from construction work, and a mother who was a now retired schoolteacher. Even though most would consider her spoiled by her parents, she maintained an honor roll student status from elementary through high school and held a high GPA in college. She was not so good to where she qualified as Valedictorian or any of that other genius student stuff, but she made her parents proud. Mitzie was an only child due to the loss of her twin during her mother's pregnancy. She'd heard her mother recount of how she had a very rare and rough pregnancy. Mitzie's twin just was not strong enough to maintain sharing their mother's womb. Doctors had believed that Mitzie had somehow absorbed her twin and amniotic sac, but when and how that occurred was a mystery. In her mother's first trimester there were 2 fetal heartbeats and 2 fetuses, but by the second trimester, there was one heartbeat and one fetus. It had remained a scientific enigma throughout Mitzie's 28 years of life. Mitzie had a successful career of her own. She married well, a CEO for one of the biggest corporate umbrella companies in the world, and life seemed to be grand. Until Mitzie's pregnancy revealed things about her life that would change it forever.

"Don't ever leave me, Jae," he slowly met Jaesung's eyes, and gently inched his face forward, observing his beautiful confused profile. "You're the only thing keeping me alive." All he could see was Jaesung as he took in a low deep breath and released a shaky minty breath on Jaesung's lips. "Only thing." ♡ Jaesung has a secret, one he has held on to for years. Many in his position would've probably let it go but he can't. Even if it's been over 10 years, he would still be in love with his boss's only son. Yihai is an angry child and he hates the fact that his father got custody of him, moving him an entirely different country. For a second time. However when Yihai meets Jaesung, the orange haired boy whose smile makes his insides go warm, Yihai doesn't dislike the idea anymore. Just the way he doesn't dislike the feelings arising for the older male.

This is the first book in an 8 book series of hockey romances. All 8 books have an underlying theme of ‘life after loss’. My first book is about Natasha, a librarian in her 40s who lost a sibling as a teenager and never healed, preventing her from ever finding/committing to love…and the hockey coach who is twice divorced and has given up his dreams of ever finding his match and having a family-until he meets Natasha…. Will Coach Alex's love (along with his superior skills in the sack) be enough to break down the walls Natasha has held firm for over two decades? The 8 books go through the different players of the team, all having their own versions of loss to overcome, with the captain (Adam) being married to a woman (who happens to be a teacher at Natasha's school) who has a terminal illness and will eventually commit suicide in book 6 and the series ends with Adam's own second chance love story….

Cynthia Perin is a 19-year-old art teacher.She is kidnapped by mysterious people and held in a cage in a villa as she walks home from school after class. When Cynthia wakes up, she discovers that her abductor is Carlo Ricci, a wandering young fool she once took in.Carlo regains all his memories and his identity as the head of Mafia North. He turns back into a man full of danger. Carlo takes advantage of his drunkenness to have forced sex with Cynthia in his cage. He violently takes Cynthia's first time. Carlo hates Cynthia for treating him like an abandoned dog and abandoning him at will. He had loved his master-Cynthia Perin so faithfully. Now it's his turn to trap her in the prison of his possessiveness and torture her... And Cynthia is planning to inform Antonio, her former crush, to come to her rescue ...... "I can't give you the freedom to leave with another man! That's my bottom line Cynthia. leave me and I'll kill him!" ...... "No! Don't touch there!" Cynthia shrieked, it was the secret garden in the deepest part of her body.Cynthia could not struggle out of his grip, fear and terror taking over inside. Her sensitive body trembled uncontrollably beneath him. "Cynthia you ARE mine!!!" Carlo muttered in a drunken slur, but his hands kept moving. The warm touch enveloped his icy heart tightly.It was as if this was the only way he could gain what little security he had left. Dangerous lust burns beneath their bellies and the sound of the gang betraying gunfire seems surrounds Carlo. It didn't matter, as long as Cynthia was entirely under his control. It didn't matter...it didn't matter...

On the day of Charles Green’s birthday party, he put a diamond ring on Lilu Ximmer’s finger. Lilu stared at the ring and felt flattered. “Charles, are you really going to divorce her and marry me?” Charles raised an eyebrow in amusement. “I’m single.” We had been married for three years, but Charles, my husband, never once acknowledged me as his wife. It was because I caused his sister’s death. If I had not held Charles back and refused to let him go, perhaps his sister could have been saved. That was why I was the reason for his sister’s death. I always thought that he hated me, until one day…

His hands held me in place as he gently lowered his head. His mouth was only a breath away from mine. I breathed in shakily. “Tell me to stop,” he whispered hoarsely as his lips slightly grazed my mouth. “Tell me to stop, Amelia.” I couldn't. My lips failed to move as I stood there, eager to taste his essence, even if it was for one night. Even if he wasn't aware of who I was. **** Amelia Fray, a small-town girl moves to the bubbling city of New York to provide for her mother and little sister. Instead, she finds herself in a precarious situation and at the mercy of Alexander Smith, the heir to one of the biggest conglomerates in New York. To protect herself, she signs a marriage contract with him. Despite her disastrous past relationship, she opens her heart to Alexander, hoping her love will be reciprocated. In their marriage, Amelia is forced to battle with Alexander’s past and present. Will she be willing to risk it all for him? Knowing that her love may never be requited? What happens when he becomes her nightmare?

It was rumored that the curse of disappeared Hain family and their jinxed girl caused the fall of Lichens. Never did Chan had thought that its repercussions could shake up his life and love. But he endured everything, even the devious plans of the Shaws and Curzons just for two reasons. One, was Jina and his family and the other, was a secret. But he did all that, only to be backstabbed by Jina later. Since he wasn't the one to admit defeat, he decided to get back at everyone starting with Jina, by chaining her to him by marriage. While they both have ulterior motives and truths to uncover, only time can tell, who really fell into the plot of who and if Chan can have his lost love for Jina rekindled and reciprocated. Glimpse: Chan kept on mocking and irritating her. Jina was losing her patience and had an urge to attack Chan, but she held back thinking how he had just held her in capture. Seeing Jina not respond to his advice, Chan said, “You only know to connect me to everything happening around you. Why? Is it that I fill up all your thoughts? Am I that impressive to you?” Chan saw Jina clutching her fingers in anger and continued with a devilish smile, “I don’t have anything to do with you. Not before or now. Believe it or not is totally up to you. Instead I am here to make a proposal, because I am going to decide on everything that’s going to happen with you from now on.” ..... Chan walked to the door and said while leaving, “As I said before, the decision is yours. You can be either Leo’s plaything or my legal wife. I hope you can choose wisely.”

I feel his eyes on me, staring through the darkness—darkness as black as his soul. As the fiancée of a rich state senator, I should be living the easy life, but that’s not how it is for me. My mother’s sick with cancer, my fiancé smells like women’s perfume, and I’m not sure he even loves me. When I start to sense someone watching me, I should be terrified. Instead, I’m electrified. Kidnapped, held in a small room, but not tortured, I’m given a chance to study this man behind the mask. He’s intriguing in ways he shouldn’t be. He excites me in places I’ve never felt before. Should I give into the enticement and taste his sin? Or try to return to my regular life with a man I cannot trust who probably doesn’t care about me at all? It’s tempting—that’s for damn sure. Tempted by Sin is a steamy dark stalker romance that might be triggering to some. You won’t want to miss the shocking twist at the end!