Paint In Bathroom Bubbling

Campus food deliveries vanished so often that no one even commented anymore. Then it happened to me again and again. I never identified the thief, but by New Year's Eve I was finished with being an easy mark. I set out a bowl of soup as bait and soaked it with water wrung from an old bathroom mop. I meant to make whoever stole it regret touching my food. A week later, the police did not come for the thief. They came for me. The counselor slid a penalty notice across his desk—600 dollars for food costs and medical fees, due next week. The person who ate my food had been hospitalized for "poisoning." The school was already discussing a major demerit, the cancellation of my first-class scholarship, and the loss of my needs-based stipend. That stipend was the money keeping my sick mother alive. They planned to pin everything on me, shield the real culprit, and bury me under paperwork. Unfortunately for them, they chose the wrong target. I was the law department's resident argument addict, and I intended to turn their dirty little mediation into a public collapse.

Born as the only wolfless person in her pack, Blake's life had been nothing but misery and humiliation, and she never expected things to change. But one innocent accident would change the course of her life forever when she met an Alpha in the male bathroom of her school. Now that her path had crossed with his, her life as a wolfless hybrid would now become the life of a powerful rogue wolf, and when she thought her fate with Nero couldn't get any more twisted, she is faced with the dilemma of choosing or killing him. *I always knew Blake and I was an impossible force from the moment we met again, and I don't get why fate keeps trying to merge us… Only chaos can blossom from what we are, and I want to shield her from all of it. But after everything that has happened so far, I realized that the universe wouldn't allow that to happen, so I will give in to its intention until everything burned into ash for us.

I was the top bounty thief in the organization. The best they had. After turning in my final score, I announced on the spot that I was done for good. Then, I stood in my studio, blending paint. A single photograph was pinned to the wall before me. Black Viper filled the doorway, the light behind him casting his face in shadow. "What's it like," he asked quietly, "pretending to be an artist?" He stepped further inside. "Does paint smell better than blood?" I placed the palette knife down and wiped my hands slowly. "I'm done. I walked away." "Old Fox didn't approve of it." "That's not my concern." Black Viper crossed the room and tapped the old photograph on the wall. "Are you certain?" I did not want to look. I told myself not to. However, my gaze shifted anyway. A young boy stared back from the photo. "The blind kid?" I had spent ten years searching for him. "Where is he?" I moved toward the wall, reaching to rip the picture down. "One last job," Black Viper said, pressing his palm against the photo. My hand stopped in midair. "What's the target?" "The final lot at next month's auction that the Gilbert Group will be holding. "It's called Mermaid's Tear."

Feisty Water Princess Miriam has never known anything but her life in the water fae kingdom. Engaged to her best friend Xaviar, and with her brother Mikah backing her, she's never considered that she'd have her whole world turned upside down. Until tragedy strikes her family and kingdom, she takes up a plot for revenge that puts her in the direct path of the Fire Prince. But what will happen when Prince Aro turns out to be more than he appears, both for her personally and as an ally to stop the forces that threaten every Fae Kingdom. Misunderstood Warrior Prince Aro has never been rumored to be a kind man, earning the same reputation as his father for his actions on the battlefield. But dedicated to his kingdom and proving his worth to his subjects kept him from attempting to paint a different picture. Until the revenge-bent water princess collides with him in a skirmish within his borders shortly after discovering tragedy in his own midst. Her story proves that something more sinister is going on. Can they find a way to navigate the plot plaguing the Fae kingdoms, while navigating their own tenuous partnership? Or will the kingdoms tear each other apart? A single misstep could spell disaster for them all.

The world knows no master like Lucian Daiuz. While they claim that no one is above the law, he stands far beyond it—beyond governments, kings, monarchs, or mafias. All bow to him. His face is a mystery, his voice unheard by any who live to tell the tale. To some, he is a devil, a monster. Whispers and rumours paint him in a thousand shades of darkness, even questioning his manhood for remaining without a wife at 33. Every woman he takes as a wife vanishes before a month passes, and his wealth, so immense, could feed the entire country and still leave a fortune untouched. Lucian Daiuz—he is the man who haunts every nightmare. And now, I have been chosen to be his wife... She is the embodiment of grace in a world marred by shadows, a damsel whose beauty radiates across the kingdom. Men fall to their knees for a chance at her favour, but none have succeeded in capturing her heart. She turns them all away, waiting for the one who can truly claim her. Her purity and light are enough to banish the darkness that surrounds me. She is Princess Aurora von Dysheria, and I have claimed her to be my bride.

Raised in a quiet village, she grew up as an ordinary girl, or so everyone thought. Switched at birth with the wealthy family’s true daughter, she was only reclaimed by her birth parents at eighteen, a stranger in the opulent world she was born into. Rumors paint her as the “evil sister,” and few know her true talents, she’s a hidden protégé of a renowned jewelry designer, a masterful street racer, and a girl with a photographic memory who tops the class she started at the bottom. Then she’s handed over as the substitute bride to the wheelchair bound heir of the wealthiest family, whose own arranged fiancée, the girl who took her place at birth, refused him. He sees her as a pawn in their families' game. But on their wedding night, her quick wit and unexpected spark shatter his expectations when she teases, “Keep me happy, or I’ll let everyone know your legs are just fine.” Intrigued and captivated, he’s soon swept up in her unpredictable world of secrets, talents, and a charm that’s anything but tame. What begins as a marriage of convenience turns into a whirlwind romance as he discovers his "accident bride" may just be the love he never knew he needed.

They were my brother’s best friends—the HawkThorne brothers. Wealthy, ruthless, and filthy enough to make the whole city drop to its knees. I was the good girl once. The perfect wife. Until my husband had sex with half my office and shoved me into an open marriage I never asked for. One night at a bar was supposed to be my rebellion—a dirty little secret to make me forget. I never expected to run into them. Six years had made them look harder, darker, and so much hotter. I shouldn’t have let them touch me. Shouldn’t have let them ruin me against a bathroom sink with their filthy mouths and rough hands. Three men. One night. No promises. But the eldest HawkThorne pressed a card into my palm before I could slip away. I thought I could handle them. Thought I could survive their obsession. Now I’m learning there’s no such thing as just sex with the HawkThorne brothers. They don’t share. They claim. They corrupt. And they’re coming for every last filthy piece of me.

After I slips and falls in the bathroom, I calls out to my boyfriend, Jared Hammond, for help. But all he does is accuse me of trying to seduce him in my wet clothes. "None of your tricks are going to work! I'm not touching you until Elsie graduates!" he yells. He rushes out to help Elsie Sandberg—the younger sister of his first love, who passed away—with her thesis, ignoring my cries and slamming the door behind him. The pain's so intense I nearly black out, but I manage to use the last of my strength to call an ambulance. Later, the doctor tells me I've suffered a serious fracture and need to be hospitalized. I tried to call Jared over ten times, but he never picks up. Then, I see Elsie's latest Instagram post. "Help! How do I win over a ridiculously hot professor?" The photo shows Jared's hand resting on hers as he patiently walks her through her thesis proposal, again and again. After being discharged from the hospital, I agreed to the marriage that Mom and Dad set up. "Yeah. The sooner the wedding, the better," I said.

Loverina, a lonely girl trained by her poor grandmother, unexpectedly got into a shitty mess with the heir of the Oscars' family. To pay the price of her deeds, she was taken by the heir as a slave to satisfy his sexual urge. What power does a low class commoner have over such high status? *** Loverina was about to eat the food Alexis brought earlier when Jayden came out of the bathroom, naked. Seeing that, her fork dropped back in the plate and her mouth wide opened. Their eyes met and she looked away immediately as her cheeks got hot. He was just too perfect. And she wished he would come over and touch her, she was already daydreaming when his voice brought her back to reality. “Is it your first time seeing me like this?” He was in front of her with a towel in his hand, drying out his wet hair. He would have just tied the towel around his waist but instead, he came out naked with the towel on his hand. That’s hot! She swallowed hard, inwardly praying in her mind for anything. She didn’t even have a particular thing in mind. “No.” she finally mumbled.

My best friend and I were in relationships with the brothers from the Wilson Family, and we both got pregnant at the same time. She flaunted her relationship publicly, making everyone in Junopia know that Rick had left the monastery for her. On the other hand, I kept silent about my relationship with the heir of the Wilson Family. Thus, everyone mistakenly thought I was single. That was until my best friend saw my pregnancy report. In a fit of rage, she rallied a group of friends, stormed into my dorm, and vandalized my room with food waste. "I thought you were my best friend, and here you are, trying to steal my man," she accused. Not only did she live-stream this accusation, trying to paint me as the other woman, but she also spiked my chicken soup, hoping to get rid of my unborn child. In defiance, I poured the contaminated soup over her head. "Just so you know, Rick isn't the only Wilson brother," I retorted. Later, Rayden, the man who controlled Junopia, wrapped his arm around me and declared icily, "I've heard troubling rumors about my wife being called a mistress. We need to talk."