Just This Once

For eight years, I lived as a wife no one knew existed, built my life in silence, loving a man who never truly saw me. I gave him everything and he gave me nothing but cold nights…and quiet tears I cried alone. Still, I stayed. Day after days. Years after years. Enduring. Hoping. And breaking…slowly. Not until she came back. His first love. And he didn’t just welcome her into his wife, he brought her into our matrimonial home, right on our matrimonial bed. And the little girl I raised in my arms…now calls her momma. Choosing her over me. He thought I would stay. He believed I would keep loving him the way I always had—quietly, and endlessly—no matter what he did to me. But he thought wrong. Because that day…something inside me shattered, and something far more dangerous took his place. So I left. No tears. No begging. No looking back. And when I returned… I made sure I wasn’t the woman he remembered. Now, I stand beside a man the world fears. A man who doesn’t hide me. A man who looks at me like I am everything. “Stay away from her. She’s my wife.” Clyde growled, his hand tightening into a fist. I almost laughed. Because for the first time in eight years…those words meant nothing to me. He broke me once. Now he wants me back. But I didn’t come back for love. I came back to take everything he ever chose over me.

In a fit of bravado, I save someone's life, only to sustain a head injury. Jenna Newson, my girlfriend of eight years, comes to visit me at the hospital. In order to pull a prank on her, I pretend to be amnesiac and ask who she is. While Jenna is momentarily stunned, she soon answers calmly, "I'm a classmate of yours."

Zaria’s world fell apart the day she learned she was pregnant. That same day, she also discovered the truth about her marriage: her husband, Renzo, had married her only to give his Mafia family an heir. The woman he truly wanted, Elix, could not have children—so Zaria had been used in her place. Afraid she would lose her baby and be pushed aside, Zaria made a desperate choice. She drugged Renzo and disappeared without a trace. Eight years passed. Zaria rebuilt her life in China and became known as the “Healer,” a respected expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine. When she was ordered to take a temporary job in New York, she agreed only because she had no choice. She planned to stay for five months and then leave forever. But her new patient turned out to be the least person she expected, Renzo, her ex-husband. He had used a fake name, to book her services. Zaria refused to treat him. Renzo refused to let her walk away. Old wounds reopened, jealousy grew, and dangerous secrets from the past began to surface. As Zaria focused on finishing the job and escaping once more, Renzo uncovered a truth that shook him deeply: Zaria had a child, and the child looked exactly like him.

My husband's first love posted a video on her social media. In the video, the two of them were passing a playing card with their lips. When the card fell, their lips met in a kiss. They didn't stop—lost in the moment, they kissed passionately for an entire minute. Her caption read: [Still the same clumsy piggy! PS: Steve's skills are as good as ever!] I quietly liked the post and left a comment: [Congrats.] The next second, my husband called, yelling at me furiously, "No other woman is as dramatic as you! I was just playing a game with Lanie. Why are you acting crazy again?" It was then that I realized seven years of love meant nothing. It was time for me to leave.

For the sake of my happiness with my boyfriend, I decided to go to the hospital to treat my congenital narrowness. But the attending physician turned out to be my boyfriend's friend—and the treatment plan itself made my face flush and my heart race. "During the course of treatment, there will be a great deal of intimate physical contact. That's unavoidable," he said. "For example, kissing, touching, and…"

KIDLAT DERMOTT RIUS is a son of a kingpin. He was train to be ruthless mafia. He was train to kill those weaklings. Wala siyang kinatatakutan at kailanman ay hindi siya nagkaroon ng kahinaan. But when he became a father ay nagkaroon ng kakaibang katangian at bagong pakiramdam ang namuo sa kaniyang pagkatao. Just because of that one hot steamy night with someone he didn’t know, his life change. Four years later, Kidlat met this girl who was really obsess with him, named Vera. VERA VELASQUEZ was a assassin and a dangerous woman. Alam ni Kidlat kung gaano ka-obsess sa kaniya si Vera kahit pa na kakikilala pa lang nito sa kaniya. Kung kaya ginagawa ni Kidlat ang lahat ng makakaya maiwasan at malayuan lang si Vera. Dahil sa oras na maging intimate ang relasyon na meron siya kay Vera ay maaari nitong malaman kung ano ang itinatago niyang sekreto na itinago niya ng apat na taon.

Falling in love with Zyair cost Adola more than she could pay. First, a threat, then a cruel eviction to save the life of the only family she had: only… she doesn’t go without a gift, a gift that made her situation much worse. But after six years of staying away, she returns to the same city she’d been evicted from. Not as a pauper this time, but a renowned realtor, an estate developer and a mother to a beautiful set of twins. Her plans to live a quiet life with her kids are distorted with two men barging into her life: her ex, Zyair Henderson— an eligible bachelor of Texas and a wealthy billionaire— who shattered her heart into pieces six years ago and is bent on making her life a living hell again. Then his charming younger brother, Chase Henderson, a celebrity popster and the country's sweetheart who has unabashedly fallen head over heels for her. She's torn between two grueling options: choosing the man that almost pushed her to the brink of madness or his younger brother who ticked all her boxes. But even that becomes twice harder when she realizes that her past's secrets are connected to the man she chooses.

Selene never imagined that the scrawny, awkward boy she rejected years ago would become a rich, powerful Alpha. Back then, Kyle was weak, poor, and certainly not someone she thought fit to be her mate. But time changes everything. Fleeing the pack with her lover, and ending up with nothing but a son and debts. Selene was left down in the dump. However, once she got news of Kyle's success, her interest in him piqued and she wanted to have him back, thinking it'd be as easy as snapping her fingers. But Kyle being a ruthless, dangerously handsome Alph that was wealthy, feared, and untouchable, Selene finds herself on her knees, chasing the man whose heart she once shattered.

Viatrice Thaliya Rosales was never meant to beg or bend. Heiress to one of the country’s most powerful families, she walked away from the wealth and the name, determined to build a life on her own. But when the Rosales empire nears ruin, she’s dragged back into a world of power plays and secrets. And waiting for her is a man who holds the key to saving everything—on one condition. Marriage. It was supposed to be nothing more than a transaction. A contract bound by signatures, not emotions. But the more Thaliya finds herself tangled in his world, the harder it becomes to tell where duty ends and desire begins. She thought she was giving up her freedom. What she didn’t expect was to risk her heart.

Dorian Keene was once untouchable—admired, feared, and cruel in the way boys are when they believe the world belongs to them. Caspian Vale was the opposite: quiet, brilliant, marked, and easy to target. What Dorian never admitted was the truth beneath the cruelty—he was terrified of how badly he wanted the boy he was meant to destroy. Years later, life shows no mercy. Penniless, grieving, and battling a worsening illness, Dorian takes a job that feels like a miracle only to discover his employer is Caspian. No longer the boy he buried, but a powerful tech mogul with an unreadable stare, a carefully constructed life… and a fiancée at his side. Dorian tries to keep his distance. Caspian pretends nothing ever existed. But desire doesn’t die, it waits. And the closer they get, the harder it becomes to tell where control ends and longing begins. As secrets surface and memories fracture, Caspian is forced to confront a truth he’s spent his life denying and Dorian must decide how much of himself he’s willing to lose for a love that was never supposed to exist. ~~~~~ “Once His Nightmare, Now His Employee” is a slow-burn MM romance that drifts from longing into obsession, where power shifts, choices cut deep, and loving the wrong man may cost everything.