My Best Friends Mom

“I’ve been in hell for years, Bella. Trying to forget. Trying to do the right thing. Trying to be the man Victor thinks I am.” I stood up, closing the distance between us. “What if the right thing is being honest about what we both want?” He reached out, cupping my face with one large hand, his thumb stroking my cheekbone. The touch was gentle, completely at odds with the hunger in his eyes. “If I kiss you now,” he said hoarsely, “I won’t stop. I won’t be gentle. And I won’t be able to pretend anymore that you’re just Victor’s daughter.” “Good, I don’t want you to.” I leaned into his touch, my own hand coming up to cover his. “I don’t want you to pretend.”

“Please, Mr. Kaiden, this is enough,” I begged, forcing my voice and face to look weak, almost tearful. “I’m not done.” I stared at him in disbelief. This man was insane. What more did he want than this? One kiss was not a big deal, but what we were doing was still betrayal. On both sides. “Both of us? You and I are cheating…” He cut me off, rolling his eyes with boredom. “It doesn’t matter who gets hurt as long as we both enjoy what we’re doing. When you’re with me, don’t think about anyone else.” “That’s not easy for someone getting married in two months.” “And what about someone who got married a month ago?” After I said that, he spoke words that hit me like lightning. “Married a month ago.” “A month and a half, to be more precise.” Damn it. I wish I had even a little of his cold calm. “It was like the first day of my honeymoon was yours. I played for you that day.” I froze. “Do you mean you left your wife sleeping on the very first day of your honeymoon… and went out to play music for a girl on the beach?” “Exactly.” ************************×************************ Tara Blackwood never thought her quiet life would turn upside down because of one man. A forbidden man. Kaiden Draven. A powerful lawyer. Her father’s closest friend. Married. A man older than her, dangerous enough to tear down every rule she had lived by. Caught between an engagement that suffocates her and a marriage bound with no love, Tara stands on the edge of a choice that could destroy everyone… or save her heart. So can she resist a man she should never want?

"Come for daddy, little Eli." Those words from my dad's best friend, were my undoing. I lusted over this man for years and he never noticed me. To him, I was just a kid. I devised a plan to get him to fuck me. When the truth gets out, will it be the end of this fire between us? And what happens when my dad—the world finds out about us?

️️ Trigger warnings: Explicit sexual content (R18+) Strong language. This book contains explicit,unapologetic dark romance content. Read at your own risk. My best friend's dad has been in my dreams since I was sixteen. Everytime I went to bed and dreamed about his hands and woke up ashamed and did it all over again the next night. I was managing it. Then my heat hit, he's the only one home and everything I'd spent four years managing came apart in one night in ways I'm still not fully recovered from. He's thirty-eight, I'm twenty and he is the most dangerous thing I have ever wanted. He made me beg for it, took me apart so slowly I cried before he even started, pushed me past every limit I thought I had and then looked at me like I was something worth ruining himself for. My ex said I was cold. Now I realize, I'm not cold, I was never cold. I was just with the wrong man.

While we're having our dinner on Christmas Eve, my mom suddenly asks me loudly, "Do you have your chastity?" I look confused. "What?" My mom just smiles very smugly. "I knew you were the adventurous type! You must have lost it because of someone else!" After that, she shoots my husband, Louis Hartson, a knowing look. "You don't know about this yet, right? Before Yvonne married you, she was an absolute player in the dating pool. Her father and I couldn't keep her under control at all!" I widen my eyes in shock. "What are you talking about?" My mom is even happier when she sees how angry I am. "Oh? You have the guts to do it, yet you're too cowardly to admit to it?" I can only clench my fists tightly under the table after hearing my mom's slanderous accusations. Since she likes spreading baseless rumors about me this much, I'm not going to keep her secret for her anymore.

I brought home eighty dollars’ worth of durian. When my sister-in-law, Lily Ward, saw me, she clutched her stomach and screamed from the couch. “Ugh, my stomach! Summer, you know I can’t stand that smell. Are you trying to suffocate my baby?” Before I could even steady myself, my mother, Rosemary Ward, slapped me across the face. It made me see how much my mother favored my younger brother, Jasper Ward. When we were children, she always reminded me that he was younger and told me to give him a pass. I thought things might change after he grew up and got married. Instead, her favoritism only got worse. “Summer, you jinx! Hurry up and sign over your apartment to Jas to make up for this!” Watching Jasper pull out a property transfer agreement, I covered my swollen cheek and smiled. So, this whole act was just to get the apartment I had bought. “Sure.” They were delighted to see me agree readily. However, they failed to consider one thing. I might have willingly given it away, but I wondered if any of them had the nerve to take it.

Olivia Holton used to have a secret crush on her brothers bestfriend, that is until he changed. Once they had gotten into high-school his entire personality changed. He forgot that he used to wear braces, and was a nerd before working out two summers ago constantly. He worked out until he was built like a god, got rid of the braces and suddenly popular girls were falling at his feet. It also doesn't hurt when he wears that black leather jacket, has brown shaggy hair and dark green hazel eyes. Jesus the boy is gorgeous but she couldn't can't stand him now. Her secret crushed faded when she realized it was never going to happen with Sean Walker. She gave up on getting her brothers best friend to notice her a long time ago and she wants to move on. She needs to move on but as soon as she started dating a boy, Sean had problems with it.

Ethan Cole is a billionaire tech heir who needs a relationship as soon as possible. Not for love, but to secure a powerful merger and win control of his family's empire. Desperate, he turns to the most unexpected person: Jamie Rivera, his charming, openly gay best friend with dreams of owning an art gallery. What begins as a harmless fake romance soon turns into real emotions, with stolen glances, strange desires and forbidden kisses. But with jealous exes, ruthless family rivals, and the media watching their every move, pretending to be in love might destroy everything, unless they’re brave enough to make it real. A swoon-worthy, slow-burn romance where fake love turns dangerously real and one kiss was all it took.

I was born broken. My Alpha mother was the one who branded me. She said emotion was a sin. A weakness. Especially for a werewolf. Especially for an Alpha’s heir. The day we were born, she clamped emotion-suppressing collars around our necks. Mine and my twin sister's. The slightest flicker of emotion, and the collar flashed red. My mother would then push the button, injecting me with a diluted "silver solution" to suppress my feelings. But my sister Cassia's collar? Always a calm, steady blue. Even when she shattered Mom's precious moonstone, it just pulsed gently. And me? I’d just whisper, "Mom, the thunder scares me," and my collar would erupt in a violent red. Then came the sting of silver poison burning through my blood.. I used to argue. But Mom always said the same thing. "The data doesn't lie. Pain is a teacher. This is for your own good." After thousands of these injections, I started to believe it, too. That I was born out of control. The night of the alliance's Moon Goddess Festival, Mom was taking my sister to the rooftop party. Something scared me during the day. The collar flashed red, and my mother started the punishment. But this time, the collar malfunctioned. It shot a dose a thousand times stronger into my neck. I collapsed on the carpet, begging, "Mother, the collar... it hurts so much... help me." My collar was flashing a frantic red. My mother just looked down at me, drenched in a cold sweat, and pressed the button for the maximum dose. "You'd lose control like this just for attention? You're a lost cause." She turned, took my sister, and slammed the door. I couldn't help but think, Mom must be right. The collar is red. It doesn't really hurt. I'm just being dramatic, looking for pity again. I'm sorry, Mom. In my next life, I'll be the perfect daughter you always wanted.

My best friend, Maya, flew in from Miami for my bachelorette week. My last days of freedom. She insisted on a girls' night in to celebrate, ordering all my favorite takeout. She asked me to hold her mobile phone and wait.Then her phone lit up. A message from some guy. A shirtless pic. Text: I need you tonight. Another photo buzzed through. Sex toys. Bondage gear straight out of a movie. My face burned. My heart hammered against my ribs. I’d just stumbled into her secret life. But the next image made my blood run cold. A close-up of the man's chest. A jagged scar I knew better than my own reflection. It belonged to my fiancé, Luciano Carbone.