O'block Chicago

I stretched lazily on the bed, much like a contented kitten, before opening my eyes. Hovering above me was a face that could have been sculpted by the gods—a handsome, well-defined face with sun-kissed golden eyes. My first groggy thought was that Cara had finally brought home a decent, well-groomed man for a change. But…. Why is he in my room? I abruptly shoved him away, ending the spell. "Get off your asshole!" With a scowl on my face, I got up quickly. “Was personal space not mentioned by Clara, huh?” I spoke in an irritated tone. “Clara?” He turned and casually picked up some papers from a nearby table, settling down with an annoying smile. “And who might that be, if I may ask?” He doesn’t even remember her? Asshole “Well, if you must know, Clara—” I started, but my words faltered as something shiny caught my eye. What is..? Then my memories began to flood back. —it’s a damn golden sofa. Shit. Brain Freeze. ~~~ Growing up as the oldest kid on a Chicago farm was no picnic for Mary Johnson. Her folks, good ol' Mr. and Mrs. Becky Johnson, were salt-of-the-earth types, who worked hard on their small farm not far from the gritty backstreets of Chicago. They taught Mary and her siblings the value of hard work, self-value. But as much as Mary loved her family, she dreamed big, but those dreams took a backseat when she needed to step up and help support her family. Then, out of the blue, fate threw her a curveball. A chance in the US came knocking, and Mary didn't hesitate. And then she crossed paths with the Blacks – New York’s high society, dripping with wealth and power, who offered her a deal she couldn’t refuse.

When my father asked me who I wanted to marry for the sake of our family alliance, I made a different choice in this life. I no longer chose Leonardo Vittorio. Instead, I chose his older brother, Ivan Vittorio. My father looked confused. After all, everyone in Chicago knew that Leonardo and I had grown up together. I had chased after him for ten years. As the eldest daughter of the Lucien family, my name had long been inscribed beside his on the list of arranged marriages. Everyone believed our union was destined. Recalling my past life, I forced a bitter smile. Back then, I had indeed married Leonardo as I had always wished. But after our wedding, he never once touched me. I thought he had some unspeakable illness and went to great lengths to cover for him. It wasn't until our sixth wedding anniversary that, by chance, I opened the safe in his study. Inside, neatly arranged, were photos of him with the orphan girl I had begged my father to adopt. In those pictures, there was also a two-year-old boy—their son. They were a happy family of three. It was at that moment that I finally understood. He wasn’t sick. He had never thought of me as his wife. To get rid of me, he and my adoptive sister plotted my murder. Now that I have been given a second chance, I chose to give them my blessing. But when I walked down the aisle in my wedding dress, my hand resting on Ivan’s arm, Leonardo burst into the church with a gun in his hand. He looked deranged and completely out of control. "Madeline!" His voice was hoarse and nearly breaking. "How dare you?"

I slept with my brother's best friend. And I didn't even know who he was. --- The first time I saw Rafael De Luca, he was a stranger by the pool with sin in his smile and hunger in his icy blue eyes. He kissed me like I was air and he'd been drowning. Then I learned his name. My brother's best friend. The heir to the De Luca empire. My family's sworn enemy. I should have walked away. Instead, I let him ruin me. One night of passion. One whispered "my little sunshine" against my skin. One secret I took with me when I disappeared without a trace. Now I'm back. Six years later, Rafael is colder than ever, Chicago's most feared mafia prince, and the man I'm being forced to marry. He doesn't know why I left. He doesn't know about the five-year-old secret waiting at home with his father's blue eyes. And he definitely doesn't know that one look from him still sets me on fire. "You're mine now, sole," he whispers against my lips on our wedding night. "And I'm going to find out why you left. Every. Damn. Reason." He thinks he's in control. He thinks he's the one ruining me. But Rafael De Luca doesn't know the truth yet. I didn't just sleep with my brother's best friend. I gave him a son. And when he finds out, this monster who wears obsession like armor will have to decide: Destroy me for my betrayal... Or surrender to the passion that could save us both.

The day I win a brand-new BMW, I suddenly receive a call from myself, ten years in the future. "Kieran will ask to borrow your car in a bit. And whatever you do, do not lend it to him. He intends to use it to pay off his gambling debt." Even with such an impossibility happening to me, I do not doubt a thing. When Kieran asks for my keys, I shut him down at once. That very night, he drives his old beater car to visit our parents. Along the way, he loses control of the car and collides with another vehicle. Just like that, he slips into a coma. The guilt hit me so hard that I eventually pass out. Mom and Dad stay by my side day and night until I can stand on my own two feet again. But the future version of me sounds cold when she calls again. "They only want to push you onto an operating table. They want your heart to save him!" Growing suspicious, I check their bags and find a donor report. Rage burns through me. I immediately block them on all platforms and throw them out of my home. When news that Kieran dies from blood loss arrives, I learn that they only ever needed my blood—not my heart. I try to find them to tell them the truth and apologize for my mistake. But the mysterious phone rings again. "They hate you because Kieran died. If you go to them now, they will drag you into a suicide pact." I freeze at the revelation, then tell my future myself that I will wait until they calm down. Later, I learn that a thief breaks into their home and kills them. I try to rush over and see them one last time, but a truck hits me and kills me on the spot. I die without ever understanding why the version of me from ten years in the future wanted me dead. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day I won the prize.

Damien and his ex-wife got divorced five years ago, and then he married me. When I married him, he had a 13-year-old adopted daughter named Lily. After our marriage, Damien treated me exceptionally well and I always treated Lily like my own daughter, even when she occasionally showed hostility towards me, I didn't mind. That's normal for a teenage girl. Until my father was accidentally hit by a car and left in a vegetative state, I accidentally overheard a conversation between Damien and his assistant. "Boss, I don't get it. Why block the craniotomy?" the assistant asked, sounding confused. "The doctors say there’s a high chance he could recover. Why are you insisting on conservative treatment?" "He can't wake up," Damien’s voice was suppressed with pain. "He saw Lily's face." I clamped my hand over my mouth, my fingernails digging deep into my flesh. Lily is the adopted daughter of Damien and his late ex-wife, Sarah. Sarah died saving Damien, so he has always treated Lily with a mix of guilt and utter indulgence. Damien continued, his tone incredibly conflicted. " But Lily didn't do it on purpose! She is only thirteen... If she gets a criminal record, her life is over. Sarah’s only dying wish was for me to take care of Lily and see her grow up safe and sound. I can't give up on her." The assistant fell silent for a few seconds. "And what about your wife?" "I’ll make it up to her," Damien’s voice softened. "I’ll provide her with the most prosperous life, and secure the largest private ward along with the best caregivers for her father who’s suffered from the car accident. I don’t care how much it costs." My heart sank completely. Just because you feel guilty towards Sarah and Lily, you're going to sacrifice my father? With trembling hands, I saved the recording and had my lawyer prepare the divorce papers. But when I completely disappeared, the once powerful CEO went mad.

Giulia Cavalieri grew up running from the mafia, and she always knew that one day they would find her. Fruit of a forbidden marriage between his mother, sister of a capo from Chicago, and a member of the Russian mafia, sealed his fate, and aroused the fury of the Villani family. Five years ago Giulia was entrusted to the care of the same hands that welcomed her mother, when she had nowhere to run, in the care of the sisters of a small convent a few kilometers from Rome. Now, about to complete adulthood she is awakened with gunshots in the middle of the night, and tries to escape, even knowing that it is impossible to escape from Michael Villani. Michael knew that the marriage between his parents was an arrangement, which is very common in the mafia, but what he never imagined was that his father had loved Donatella Cavalieri all his life. On his deathbed, Erico makes a last request to him, who claims Giulia, and ensures that she stays under his protection as his wife. All Giulia wanted was an ordinary life, studying, traveling, knowing the world. Among Michael’s goals, marriage would appear, and he was very happy with Carolyn, his mistress. But an agreement must be made in the name of peace between men of honor. Kept in a property and watched constantly, Giulia sees little of her future husband, until the night of her eighteenth birthday, when the engagement would be announced. When Michael kisses her, after putting the expensive ring on her finger, a spark ignites between them, in acombination of attraction and repulsion. Two sides of a story that had a tragic outcome that can either hate each other all their lives, or allow themselves to live an overwhelming love story.

Nicholas Hunt loves testing me a lot. When I just graduated from university, he tried to make me take on a five-million-dollar house mortgage. After I turned him down, Nicholas was quick to buy Yvonne Myers, the campus belle, a villa that was worth eight million dollars. It was even paid in full. As he held the property deed, he told me, "The truth is, I'm super rich. I've been pretending to be poor just so I can test your integrity. "It's a shame that you never passed my test. I'm very disappointed in you, Elizabeth. Let's break up." I just smiled at him casually. Then, I walked away without hesitation. What a coincidence. I'm the daughter of the richest man in the country. I, too, had been pretending to be poor. Four years later, we bump into each other at the Fortune List Summit. At that time, Nicholas has just squeezed into the top 50 rank. He walks into the venue with Yvonne clinging to his arm. It's then he notices me. I'm wearing plain-looking clothes without any jewelry adorning me, and I happen to be holding a child. Thinking that I'm a nanny, Nicholas begins mocking me. "Wow, you really went all out just to steal one more glance at me, huh? I can't believe you're able to follow me all the way here. "You should learn to accept reality, though. I'm on the Fortune List, while you're working as someone else's nanny. The gap between us is far too wide, so you should stop dreaming already!" I just ignore Nicholas in favor of resenting my dad for making me attend this stupid event. After all, I've just managed to block out one full day just to spend time with my son, and yet I have to waste my precious time on this dumb event.

"Let's play a game." "What game?" "One that involves you not screaming." ★★★★★ I'd been the perfect girlfriend to my star hockey player for two years. Stood in the rain at his practices. Drove hours just to watch him warm benches. Wore his jersey like it meant something. And he repaid me by fucking his way through half of Chicago—including the sister of the one man he's been obsessed with for years. Zane Mercer. The NHL's most dangerous player. My stepfather's worst enemy. And the man who looked at me like I was something worth destroying the world for. One impossible offer. One desperate bet. One night that changed everything. Zane doesn't do fake. He doesn't do half measures. When he tells me I'm his for two months, he means it. In every way that matters. But Zane has secrets buried so deep they connect to my family's past in ways I never imagined. Dark secrets. Deadly ones. What starts as a transaction turns into obsession. What starts as revenge turns into something I can't walk away from. And what starts as a lie might be the only truth that matters. They say some men are too dangerous to love. They're right. But I was never good at following warnings. ********** This book contains explicit sexual content, dominant/possessive behavior, morally gray characters, family conflict, and themes that may be triggering. Intended for mature readers 18+. This isn’t your normal hockey romance. It’s dark, raw, and unrelenting—where obsession, desire, and power collide, and nothing is off-limits.

"Turn," he growls, and I can see that he's barely containing himself. I immediately face the wall and wait for the next command. It feels dirty, like I'm his sex toy, but I love it. "Hands on the wall, feet apart," he says. He kicks my feet apart at the same time as he gives the demand, just as impatient as I am. He pulls out my hips so I'm leaning forward, then smacks my ass. He groans deeply in his throat and says, "Seeing your ass jiggle under my hand is f-cking beautiful." I'm squirming, wishing I could put my legs back together to get some friction. "Please Cass, I need it," I whine in a voice that doesn't sound like my own. "You know I can't resist when you beg, my angel," he praises, then slams into me brutally and starts f-cking me hard. *** Alexa relocated to Chicago to work as an assistant and Cassio was exiled by his older brother, the don of the biggest Italian mafia family in New York. Alexa is Cass's assistant at Ombra, the company he built over the 10 years he's been in Chicago. Both are independent and have no interest in love. A mistake at work turns into an opportunity and Cass offers Alexa a contract as his fake girlfriend to keep women away. The two make a great team and in such close proximity they discover that their sexual chemistry is off the charts. Alexa just has one condition and Cass easily accepts. Don't fall in love. As their fake relationship develops, Alexa learns that Cass isn't the upstanding businessman she thought he was and Cass learns that his heart can still beat. Too bad it takes Alexa's kidnapping for him to realize how much she means to him.

In the heart of Chicago, the story No More Regrets is a true story based on two best friends, Sade and Isla, whose bond started in kindergarten and grows stronger through all of life’s twists and turns. They’ve been through everything together, from school dances to teenage heartbreaks and even the loss of a mother during high school. Their friendship is unshakable, so they thought. As they get older, life seems to fall into place. Sade marries her charming childhood, sweetheart, and Isla finds love with her steady and supportive partner. Their lives become so intertwined it’s hard to imagine one without the other, but just when everything seems perfect, one Halloween night changes everything. Sade’s world comes crashing down when she discovers a betrayal of the largest magnitude. Her husband and her best friend are they really having an affair? The betrayal cuts deep. Deeper than she ever thought possible, leaving her feeling broken and lost. She struggles to hold herself together, and the pain is overwhelming. When her perfect marriage falls apart, her friendship crumbles, and she’s left wondering if she’ll ever feel whole again. At her lowest point, Sade allows someone unexpectedly to begin breaking down her walls of dispare. He doesn’t try to fix her or make grand promises. Instead, he gives her the space to find her own strength and reminds her of who she really is.. No More Regrets is a heartfelt story about love, loss, and finding yourself after everything falls apart. It’s about realizing ones worth and picking up the broken pieces life gives you by proving to yourself that no matter how broken you feel, you can always come back stronger.