Learning With Pibby

Blurb When I was fifteen years old I fell in love, he was a walking wet dream and for a teenage girl that was only learning to control her hormones, he was Death. I grew up in a religious household, my grandfather was a catholic pastor and so we were raised on a biblical perspective but somehow I always galloped more to worldly things. I was taught no cussing, no deception, and certainly no fucking a hot boy you just met two weeks ago, but- I loved him. I wanted to love him in all the ways I could, and I think he too loved me because he always promised forever. Somehow forever lasted short, I ended up in the wrong hands, terrible hands. I saw some bad things and did worse, my perception of life was ruined long ago now I have nothing, nothing but scars and demons. I had long forgotten about him, but years later, he crashes into my life, and he's married. His wife, making me an unwelcome proposal, and him, making me feel like the indistinguishable stupid girl I was seven years ago. However I'm no longer her, and he isn't the same eighteen-year-old I lied to, he breathes power and seduction that can be seen from miles away. All I want is to get my life in order but with my past feelings and demons resurfacing, I know one thing for sure, I am screwed. We both are. Caelum thinks he is the only fiend in my story, yet there's a far bigger demon lurking in the dark, and no matter the times he goes hunting, he won't find it, the demon hides in the most open places and the longer Caelum searches, the more broken he will be when he encounters it.

I loved eating cakes. My dad would bring me one every day after work, and my mom bought a full set of oven and baking tools, patiently learning how to bake them for me. I once thought I was the happiest little princess in the world until the day my parents divorced. The person who came to pick up my dad turned out to be the bakery owner. My mom turned to me, growling, "This is all your fault! If you hadn't asked for cakes every day, your dad never would've cheated!" She stretched out her hands, covered in burn scars, and screamed hysterically, "I slaved away making cakes for you, and these hands have never healed since. What did you do? You both think the stuff from outside is so much better!" She grabbed a baking sheet and smacked me hard with it. I bit my lip, not daring to make a sound. That night, she brought home a little girl. Ignoring the pain all over my body, I begged for her forgiveness. "Mom, I'm sorry. Please don't throw me away. I swear I'll never eat another cake!" She slapped me across the face, but that wasn't enough to quench her anger. She tossed me into the big oven. "I'm not your mom! You love cakes so much? Stay in there and reflect on what you've done! You and your worthless dad both deserve to die!" After she slammed the door and stormed out, the little girl skipped over to the oven, grinning smugly as she hit the switch. "From now on, your mom is gonna be mine!" The oven kicked on, and the temperature began to rise. I smiled bitterly. At least this way, my mom could finally be happy.

Love…. You could lose yourself in it or find yourself. It all depends on you. Jealousy…. It drives one to the edge of madness. It paralyzes the mind, and drains the heart, damaging the soul. It teaches you what it takes to care. That's what their relationship was made up of. His eyes made her shiver with pleasure, it took her to euphoria. That's what she felt whenever she was with him, but not every day was sunshine and rainbows. He made her cry, he made her feel pain. He taught her the real definition of love; pleasure and pain. She liked how cold and rough he could get and he liked how innocent she played. He liked teaching her new things and she liked learning from the best. They'd survive the intoxication of each other. They made it further than they thought they would on the grounds of love, jealousy and pain. "What are you looking at?” he asked looking in the direction she was looking, “So... That's your type, huh?" he whispered in her ear with his hand on her thigh, clearly pissed. Siana moved away slightly from his warm breathe blasting on her face and his hand squeezing her thigh firmly. "Everyone out now!" he shouted then a smile came bursting through it all. She was alone shaking with fear and anxiety. She knew how he'd get whenever he was displeased, she knew the kind of psycho he was. He pulled her up from the chair and pushed her up against the wall, her hands enfolded in his and her breath breaking. He looked down then back up at her with a tiring look on his face and sighed "You know you really drive me crazy." his lips hovering over hers.

My stepmother, Mary, hated me to the bone. All because when I was little, I went to a classmate’s house to play and forgot to close the courtyard gate. Her son ran onto the road and was hit to death by a car. My father loved my younger brother the most. After learning what happened, he was heartbroken. “Were you jealous of your brother? That’s why you deliberately left the gate open?” I desperately explained that I had closed the gate, but Dad didn’t believe me. He locked me in the basement and raised me like a dog for the rest of my life. Until one day, when Dad went on a business trip, Mary didn’t give me any food for three days. Starving, I crawled upstairs to the kitchen to look for something to eat. That was when I saw Mary sitting on a man’s lap, saying softly, “If you hadn’t forgotten to close the gate back then, I wouldn’t be living in fear every day of my husband finding out… We’re the ones who killed Ethan.” Only then did I understand that I wasn’t the one who had forgotten to close the gate and caused my brother to run outside, but my stepmother’s lover. Just as I was about to sneak back to the basement, my stepmother noticed me. “What did you hear? No! I can’t let your father find out that I killed our own son!” In a panic, she grabbed me and threw me down the stairs, killing me on the spot. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day the car hit my brother. I blinked my innocent, childlike eyes and pointed upstairs, speaking in a soft, baby voice, “Dad, I closed the gate. It was the man in Mom’s bedroom who didn’t!”

WARNING: Matured Content. Read at your own risk. Credits to Carla Agus for my book cover. <3 He was labeled as taciturn man, because during the course of his 30-year life, he spoke less and acted more according to his own convictions and ideas. Aslan Jade Lopez was satisfied and happy in his home together with his dog, Midnight. He was already standing on his own two feet when he finished his degree and decided to persue his own career. Ngunit dahil likas na bukas ang kaniyang isipin mula pa noong bata ay hindi naman niya sinasarado ang mga posibilidad na may mga magbabago sa kaniya basta ang nasa isip niya, he was far different from the others. When Aslan Jade finally met the guy who made him realize how different he can be, even more than he was before, he was craving a fantasy, something fresh and exquisite. He has been one of the most dangerous men in the underground realm since he was in his early teen. Kazimir David Cirillo built an empire where he can and must feed his fantasies. But when he caught a glimpse of a pair of lustful eyes of a guy who had caught his facination, his sexual urge became even stronger. Ginawa lahat ni David para mapasa kaniya ang misteryosong binata na nagmamay ari ng mga matang isang beses pa lang niyang nakita ngunit nagpatigas sa kaniyang pagkalalaki, pero paano kung ang paraan na ito ay humantong sa dahas na naging bangungot para kay Aslan Jade? Will Aslan continuously desire David after learning the truth about his worst nightmare? Or will he let his fantasy instead to decide for an option- to never let go of David?

BLURB They sold me for five million dollars but two wolves paid ten million, and now I belong to both of them for six months. My name is Beatrice, three days ago my mate sold me at auction to pay gambling debts he created while I secretly ran our pack and kept us from collapsing. He called me defective because I couldn’t give him children. That was his lie to hide his own failures and I let him spread it because the truth would make me a target for something worse than a bad marriage. Now I stand in a billionaire's penthouse owned by Vincent who bought me for revenge and Christopher who bought me because we were friends when we were children before I disappeared to escape a fate I would rather die than accept. Vincent treats me like a fascinating problem to solve and Christopher treats me like fragile glass that might shatter and neither one understands that I already broke years ago and put myself back together. Six months with two wolves who both want to own me in different ways, six months to plan what happens when the contract ends, six months to remember that before I was property I was a person who survived impossible things and I can survive this too. But somewhere between business dinners where Vincent watches me like I might be worth more than he paid and late nights where Christopher reminds me what it felt like to be seen as human, something dangerous is happening. I am starting to want things beyond survival and wanting things means having things to lose. They think they bought a broken Luna who will be grateful for rescue. They are about learning that surviving taught me to be something more dangerous than broken.

Deck the halls with daddy issues and scream "yes, Santa" until the neighbors complain. She sold herself to save her mother. He bought her to settle a score. Neither expected twelve days of captivity to feel like coming home. Ten years ago, Evangeline Rose fled Willow Creek and the cruel boy who made her life hell. Now she’s back with a new name, a new body, and one desperate choice: enter the town’s secret Christmas auction where wealthy men bid on willing women. When the hammer falls at five hundred thousand dollars, Eva expects a stranger. Instead, she gets Grayson Holt—her former tormentor, now a devastatingly dangerous man in a half-open Santa jacket who just bought twelve uninterrupted nights with the virgin he once swore no one would ever want. She should be terrified. He's the reason she hid in bathroom stalls and cried herself to sleep. But the first time he kisses her, his hands shake. The first time she fights back, he groans her name like a prayer. And somewhere between the firelight and the snow and the silk ribbons around her wrists, they both realize the ugly truth: He didn't buy her to break her. He bought her because he's been broken without her. The boy who spray-painted "fat ugly bitch" on her locker is the same man who falls to his knees in the snow on the last morning and begs her not to leave. The girl who swore she'd never forgive him is the same woman who has to choose: walk away free, or stay with the monster who finally admitted he's been in love with her since the day he made her cry. Eva spent a decade learning to hate Grayson Holt. Turns out she's been loving him the whole damn time.

How long does it take to give up on a man you've loved for ten years? It takes me 3 seconds. The first second, I signed my name on the contract to become the chief designer of a renowned studio in Paris. The second second, I lock away ten years of my youth in my heart. The third second, I completely prepare to leave Levi's world. My fiancé Levi is the heir of the Smith Group, the absolute aristocracy. For others, he is untouchable. But for me, he's the childhood sweetheart who, with a crooked paper ring he made himself for the first time in his hand, told me, "You're the only girl I'll ever marry, even if I have to wait a hundred years." From that moment on, the only person I wanted to marry was Levi, and I never doubted that I would eventually marry Levi. But on the day of our engagement, he disappeared. I waited for a whole year, waiting for a message, a phone call, or a knock on the door, but nothing came. Later, he finally appeared. He stood next to a red Ferrari, holding flowers, and said that he still loved me, that he wasn't ready before, and begged me to give him another chance. I almost believed him. But at the same time, I received a provocative message from Levi's first love, Ruby: [Aren't you curious where he went during the time he eloped from your engagement? I'm already pregnant with Levi's child, and he loves kissing my pregnant belly the most.] I wiped away my tears, turned around, and applied to study in the Sorbonne University Faculty of Medicine, leaving only one sentence: "Levi, we're breaking up." Learning that I was leaving, Levi went crazy. He braved the heavy rain and blocked the entrance to my new place, his eyes red, asking me: "Stella, if I make Ruby abort the child, can you come back to me?"

Six years of marriage. All passion at night, but never tenderness in the daylight. Amelia Sinclair loved Christopher Zephyr deeply, and she swallowed the bitterness as if it were sweet. Her own daughter wasn't allowed to call him father, yet the son of his first love sat on his lap, learning to say the word "dad". The entire family treated that adopted boy as a precious heir, while her own flesh and blood was treated like a shameful stain. It wasn't until Amelia and her daughter paid with their lives—until Christopher signed the cremation papers with his own hand and then took the boy to attend his first love's welcome banquet—that Amelia finally understood. Love couldn't win love. A heartless man had no heart to give. When Amelia was reborn, she swore she would never again cling to that cold and humiliating marriage. In her past life, she had foolishly given up her studies, content to be a housewife and devote herself to her family. In this one, she submitted the divorce papers without hesitation, took her daughter far from the mire, and rebuilt her career until she stood at the top again. In the first week after Amelia left, Christopher dismissed it as one of her tantrums. By the first month, he brushed it off completely. It didn't matter to him what she did, so it was fine to let her go. Later on, he saw her again, standing tall among the industry's elite! Amelia was focused only on her career, and her daughter was focused only on finding herself a new father. And Christopher finally realized that they really didn't want him anymore. The man lost all reason. The one who had always been cold, proud, untouchable, suddenly threw away his dignity. He blocked the mother and daughter pair in full view of everyone, his voice breaking as he pleaded, "Honey, I'll kneel here if I have to. Please... just love me one more time."

The night before high school graduation, Ethan Luciano pulled me into his bedroom. His hands were rough, his touch demanding, yet my heart overflowed with a decade's worth of unspoken longing. I'd loved Ethan for ten years, and finally, it seemed my silent wishes had come true. Afterwards, as we lay tangled in his sheets, he whispered that he'd marry me after graduation. Once he took over the Luciano family's empire from his father, he'd make me the most cherished woman in the family. I believed him. The next morning, I sat curled up against his bare chest as he casually told my foster brother, Lucas, about us. My cheeks were flushed, and my heart raced, still clinging to the sweetness of the night before. However, then their conversation shifted into Italian. Lucas smirked, leaning back against the doorframe. "Not bad, Young Boss. Your first time, and the school's 'it girl' just threw herself at you. So, how's my little sister taste?" Ethan gave a lazy chuckle. "Looks like an angel, but a freak in the sheets. Who would’ve thought?" The room erupted in low, conspiratorial laughter. Lucas raised a brow. "So, should I call her my little sister or my future sister-in-law?" Ethan’s tone darkened, his arm tightening around my waist for a moment. Then he let out a sigh. "She’s nothing. Just practice," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I’m trying to hook up with the cheer captain, Sylvia Dawson, but I don’t want her thinking I’m clueless in bed. Cynthia Saville’s just a warm-up." He paused. "But don’t tell Sylvia. I don’t need her getting all emotional." They didn't know that I’d spent months secretly learning Italian, preparing for the life I thought I’d share with Ethan. I didn't say a word. Later that day, I quietly withdrew my early decision application to Caltech and applied to MIT instead.