London Novel Novels & Stories

London’s dawn had always promised a certain anonymity. The city was a web of lives, each one secreted away in its corner, and Isabella Hart had once found peace in that noise. But now, as she pushed open the door to her apartment, sleep-deprived and raw from another night of strategizing with Lily, she felt exposed in a way she never had before.

POV: Finn | London, Rookeries London is louder than I expected, which is the first thing I notice when we come off the train at King's Cross and which is the first piece of information I add to the London I have been building in my head from Papa's letters, because the London in Papa's letters is a place of specific people and specific events and specific feelings and none of those things have a sound, and the actual London has sound in a way that Scotland's hills do not, the specific compressed quality of very many people in a small space all making noise simultaneously.

Nor did Esther Davis a little comfort and inspirit me to venture with her, by piquing my childish curiosity with the fine sights that were to be seen in London: the Tombs, the Lions, the King, the Royal Family, the fine Plays and Operas, and, in short, all the diversions which fell within her sphere of life to come at; the detail of all which perfectly turned the little head of me. Nor can I remember, without laughing, the innocent admiration, not without a spice of envy, with which we poor girls, whose church-going clothes did not rise above dowlas shifts and stuff gowns, beplaced with silver: all which we imagined grew in London, and entered for a great deal into my determination of trying

“Possibly.” Ryan walked over to the coffee machine in the corner. “You know…” He poured himself another cup. “…I thought tonight was supposed to be the big finale.” Daniel glanced at him. “This is just the beginning.” Ryan sighed dramatically. “I liked the finale better.” Emily leaned against the desk. “So London.” Adrian nodded. “Yes.” Daniel looked at the map again. “There are thousands of financial companies in London.” Ryan shrugged. “That narrows it down.” Daniel rolled his eyes. “Not really.”

The penthouse suite of the Obsidian Hotel felt less like a sanctuary and more like a gilded cage, though with Julian Thorne as the warden, I found myself less inclined to escape. The city of London sprawled beneath us, a carpet of twinkling lights that seemed to mock the darkness of the corporate war I’d just declared.

"But how did things work out with your new girlfriend? I thought she would give you all the next you want." London shakes her head. "That's a failure, and I'm depressed. I've walked around in my sexiest clothes and lingerie to get her attention, and she ignores me. All she's interested in is her work. I think I could go in her room nude and she wouldn't notice."

London was a fresh start. I pulled out my phone to distract myself. Scrolled through emails I’d already read. Checked my bank account balance. I looked at photos of my new apartment in Notting Hill that I’d never actually seen in person. I tried to imagine myself there. Happy. Settled. Free. The gate area started filling up with other passengers. Families with small children. Business travelers in suits. Couples holding hands. Everyone going to London for their own reasons. None of them running from a destroyed marriage and a secret pregnancy. Just me. Always just me.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" I tilted my head back to look at him, and the intensity in his dark eyes made my breath catch. "Tell me about London," I said, suddenly needing to break the tension before it consumed us both. "London?" He looked amused. "That's what you want to talk about right now?" "Tell me something interesting. Something I don't know." Hunter was quiet for a moment, his thumbs tracing small circles on my lower back. "Did you know that London has more languages spoken in it than any other city in the world? Over three hundred."

The penthouse, usually a sanctuary above the chaos of London, felt different that night. The city lights spilled across the floor-to-ceiling windows, glittering like a thousand unblinking eyes, but for Liam Adeyemi, the brilliance of the skyline could not mask the shadows gnawing at his soul.