I Can't Think Straight

“Eden…” Her name was a curse and a prayer. “I can’t—God, I can’t think when you’re like this.” --- Professor Adrian Hale begins the semester expecting order—sleepy students, predictable discussions, and the safe distance he’s mastered for years. He does not expect Eden Marlowe. Twenty-two, brilliant, quietly bold, and unafraid to meet his gaze like she sees straight through him. Her questions cut too close, her attention lingers too long, and every glance shakes the discipline he’s built his life on. He knows the rules. He teaches them. And Eden is the one woman he has no business wanting. Yet the pull between them is immediate—magnetic, wrong, irresistible. What starts as lingering looks spirals quickly into charged silences, taut boundaries, and moments that feel anything but innocent. The more he tries to distance himself, the deeper she draws him in. The more she pushes, the faster his restraint frays. Desire becomes risk. Obsession becomes choice. And crossing the line might cost them everything.

On our sixth wedding anniversary, my cheeks burn as I dodge my husband, Ethan Grant, leaning in for a hungry kiss. I push him toward the nightstand for a rubber. What he doesn't know is that I've tucked a surprise in there, a positive pregnancy test. I can already see it, the way his whole face will light up the second he finds it. But the moment his hand goes for the drawer, his phone goes off. His best friend, Henry Miller, comes on the line in Danish. "Mr. Grant, how was last night? That new love couch our company rolled out is treating you okay?" Ethan lets out a low laugh and answers in Danish, "The massage feature's great. Saves me from having to rub Sandy's back myself." He still has me pulled tight against him, but his eyes look straight through me, like he's seeing someone else. "This stays between us. If my wife ever finds out I slept with her sister, I'm done." It feels like someone just put a knife through my chest. What they don't know is that I minored in Danish in college, so I catch every single word. I force myself to stay calm, but the arms I have looped around Ethan's neck won't stop shaking. At that moment, I stop hesitating and decide I'll take the offer from that international research project. Three days from now, I'll be gone from Ethan's world for good.

After an extended silence, she gathered the courage to speak. “Mum, what do you mean? I have my life in Paris.” she implored, clutching her mother’s hand. Lois diverted her gaze, the moment slipping away. “Refusing my offer means also returning all the assistance I provided when your business was in trouble,” she said, rising to leave. “You have just 48 hours to agree to my terms, and remember, I dislike waiting.” Dianna has always been in love with Clinton Blackwood before he married her twin sister and since then she has despised him. She maintained her distance from her twin sister, Daphne, and her husband enjoying her peaceful and lonely life. Her life took a turn when her sister died. Dianna's mum, Lois Aaron, proposed a new business contract for the Blackwood's, leaving them in a tight corner. She was made to get married to her sister's husband a year after her sister's dismay.

It's been five years since I started trying to win over Zachary Pierce. I even went so far as to have a child through IVF, hoping it would finally make him care. But no matter what I do, I can never reach 100 percent affection from him. It always stays at 99 percent. Sometimes it even drops lower. One day, exhausted and aching, I go looking for him. As I reach his room, I hear laughter coming from inside. "She still hasn't figured out the egg wasn't even hers. The moment the baby was born, Zach's affection score for her dropped to zero." "So what if she finds out? She should be grateful that her face looks so much like Yvonne's. Honestly, I'm done entertaining her. It's exhausting." At that moment, everything clicks. All the hope I've held onto, every sacrifice I've made, they were all just a joke. I turn away and say to the system, "End this for me. Send me to another world."

She was meant to marry Kaelen, the heir of the white pack, that would unite their clans in peace. But she defiles tradition and enters the Pack tournament as a male and one mistake changes everything. Her mask falls…and her fate is claimed by Draven, the ruthless Alpha heir of Duskbane Pack. Bound by the mate bond she never wanted, Liora finds herself torn between loyalty and desire, between the boy who once promised her forever and the wolf who marks her as his. But her secret hides something far greater than the tournament—inside her lies a dormant power the Moon Goddess herself has kept bound. A power that could cure or destroy. As war brews between packs, betrayals fracture the people she thought she could trust. Liora must decide: follow the path the Goddess carved for her… or burn it all to the ground to claim her own destiny.

On our fifth anniversary, Henry Judd—the guy who once swore he'd propose—rented out an entire mall for Cecilia Cheape's birthday. A diamond the size of a pigeon's egg sparkled on her finger. I'd been dumb enough to think it was meant for me. "Cece, I'm gonna give you a birthday you'll never forget," he announced, loud enough for the whole world to hear. Then he yanked the tab off a soda can and handed it to me. "Lulu, those gaudy things don't suit you. You deserve something unique." He slid the can tab onto my finger—his version of a proposal. Cecilia got the dream birthday. I got a piece of trash and a slap of reality. Later, when he found out I was marrying someone else, he got down on one knee with that same ring and begged me to say yes.

The girl my family sponsored was a manipulative opportunist. She had my childhood friends wrapped around her finger. I helped her out of pity for her poor background, but she climbed her way up, slowly taking my place. She faked innocence in front of the brothers while sabotaging me behind my back. When they found out, they called me petty rather than blame her. I got fed up, married my college crush, and moved on. But they flew in overnight, begging for forgiveness.

The day he first saw her, one thought consumed him, "I want to fuck her." Their first meeting, which seemed like an unexpected encounter, turned her life upside down. Rainee humiliated him in front of everyone just because Alex bullied her beloved brother. Alex Fraser swore to own her all for himself, to make her beg on her knees until he was satisfied. But their obsession led them to get deceived by their own desire.

In a world where wolf hierarchy ruled, power could either be given to you by birth or you take it with rough, unyielding fists. Jax was an Omega by birth. Of course no one knew. He hid the documents. Got totally rid of them and thought no one would ever find out. Not until he came. Cipher Hart. His biggest rival. With a cocky attitude and a perfect way of getting under anyone's flesh, it didn't take him long to realize the highly revered hockey god, Jax, had a secret beneath his golden boy facade. To everyone, he had a perfect life with an alpha status, great grades, a great hockey future. When Cipher placed his hands of his bottle of suppressants, they stumbled on an even bigger realization. They were mates. Now with a reality-shattering bond they must hide, and a league watching their every move, Jax and Cipher are trapped in a game no one prepared them for. A game where the only rule left is: Don’t fall for your enemy.

My husband, Ryan Costa, is one of the most renowned scientists in the apocalypse. To retrieve a reagent, he goes deep into the high-risk zone with his secretary, Clara Gibson. I, Alice Ashford, lead an elite squad to protect him all the way. But when a zombie horde besieges us, he refuses to retreat. "With the reagent Clara brings back, I can develop a serum that saves all of humanity! Just ten more minutes! Ten minutes, please!" Ryan insists. I feel torn as I see the zombies closing in. I can't gamble with the lives of my squad on a vague, uncertain sliver of hope. In that split second, I knock Ryan out and drag him onto the helicopter. As a result, Clara dies being torn apart by the zombies. When Ryan wakes up, the first thing he does is slap me hard across the face. He rages, "How can you be so selfish? You've doomed all of humanity!" I am sentenced to be burned at the stake. I die in unbearable pain as the crowd curses me relentlessly. When I open my eyes again, I am back at the moment when Ryan stands in front of the helicopter, blocking our retreat. I am just about to speak when I suddenly hear his inner voice, "Clara should have grabbed her makeup bag by now. Hopefully, she brings something back with her. Otherwise, I'll have a hard time explaining myself to Alice." My mind goes blank, and I stare at him in shock. He smiles at me just like he did in my previous life and asks, "Darling, don't you think we should wait?"