Playing Hard To Get Monica Murphy

I was eighteen when I left Italy for Chicago. My brother Leo handed me over to his most powerful ally for “protection.” Don Damien Volkov. His eyes locked on me the first time we met. They never looked away. By day, I was his private doctor. By night, I was the only thing in his bed. His seduction was a slow, deliberate hunt. The way his body brushed against mine during an exam. A stray kiss that landed behind my ear. The weight of his hand resting on the small of my back. I fell fast and hard for his dark charm. I gave myself to him, letting him claim me, again and again. For four years, our affair was a secret hidden in the shadows. In that time, he sculpted my body, teaching it to crave his touch, molding me into his perfect obsession. Then she came back. Isabella, his exiled ex-fiancée. He sent his private jet for her. I swallowed my pride and crashed his reunion. An hour ago, his hands, still smelling of blood, gripped my chin. He forced his kiss on me. But now, right in front of me, he was stroking another woman's hair. "Elara, you're the one who climbed into my bed four years ago." "You act like a whore, but you expect me to treat you like a Donna?" The way he looked at Isabella was so tender. The way he looked at me was pure scorn. Shame burned through me. Head down, I sent my brother a coded text. Accept the Moretti proposal. I looked up. A smile bloomed on my face. "Fine. Then this is goodbye, Damien."

This is my second month trying to win over Lucian Moonshadow, the Alpha. Lucian smiled softly as he said, "Do you really think I would want an inferior Omega?" Later on, he was furious to find me with another wolf. "Didn't you say you wanted to be my Luna? You're nothing but a hustler, aren't you?" I chuckled angrily. "I'll be the Luna of whoever spends the night with me." Lucian uncovered the Alpha from another pack in bed and sent him away. "Leave right now. Ilyra belongs to me."

Emma thought she had escaped the city that broke her, but when her family’s business teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, she is pulled back into the orbit of the one person she vowed never to see again. Zane Mendoza. Now the heir to a billion-dollar fintech empire and the boss of a secret mafia dynasty where Emma’s parents work as underdogs, Zane holds all the cards. For years, he had been searching for Emma, who had disappeared without a trace after their divorce. When Zane discovers that Emma is the daughter of the family who now owes him everything, he makes a ruthless proposition. An arranged marriage. In exchange, he will wipe away her family’s crushing debts. Desperate to save her parents, Emma agrees to Zane’s conditions but negotiates a deal of her own. Their marriage will last one year, and if she is not happy in the marriage, she will leave. Zane agrees, but with a twist. If she falls for him again before the year is up, she will remain his forever. But Zane doesn’t just want Emma as his wife. He wants her in every way. His obsession with her runs deeper than she realizes, and he is ready to eliminate anyone just to have her forever. With a jealous best friend that wants to take everything she loves, an ex boyfriend who wants her back, betrayal lurking at every corner, a secret daughter that Zane doesn’t know is his, and a love that refuses to die, Emma must navigate this web of lies and emotions. Can she resist Zane’s magnetic pull, or will she be caught up in his game for good?

After her father’s sudden death, Sofía discovers a shocking clause in his will: she must marry before turning twenty-eight, or the company they built together will pass to her reckless cousin. Determined to protect her father’s legacy, Sofía embarks on a desperate search for a groom. Her first choice, Roy—the love of her life—refuses. Left with no other option, she turns to Carlos, an ex-boyfriend whose arrogance and selfishness make him the worst possible candidate. As the wedding plans unfold, Sofía grows closer to Sebastián, a man she met at her father’s funeral who is helping her investigate the suspicious will. But their bond is forbidden: his mother harbors a dark connection to Sofía’s past, one that makes their love impossible. When Roy reappears, begging for another chance, Sofía must decide between duty, desperation, and the dangerous pull of her heart. With sixty days until the deadline, every choice could cost her the company, her family’s honor, and the only man she truly loves.

After five years in a secret relationship with my boss, Eric handed my hard work to his childhood sweetheart, Shelly. Suddenly, they were the perfect power couple. And me? Just the girl he kept hidden. He never even looked my way. So why was I still holding on? One phone call later, I was done. Time to leave—and see what else was out there.

Venice once rejected Lucien during their university days, believing he was someone far beneath the world she desired. Ambitious and drawn to wealthy and famous men, she never imagined that the quiet man she dismissed would one day become someone powerful. Years later, Lucien has everything—wealth, influence, and a marriage arranged under complicated circumstances. During a grand Bachelor’s Party he hosts, fate brings Venice back into his life. The moment he sees her again, Lucien hires her on the spot. Now Venice finds herself working for the very man she once ignored—Lucien, who is no longer the quiet student she remembered, but a cold and irresistible billionaire. Determined to keep her distance, Venice focuses on her job and reminds herself that Lucien is a married man. Yet the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore the tension growing between them. What Venice doesn't know is that Lucien didn't hire her by coincidence… he had been searching for her for years. Caught between resisting the man who now holds power over her and confronting the feelings she never expected to feel, Venice must decide: will she walk away before it's too late… or will she find herself trapped in a desire she can no longer escape?

Dear best friend, I had sex with our daughter after you died. 🦪 Dora lost her father on her eighteenth birthday, and she swore to find his killer and end his life herself. Because of this, she signs a ‘fight till death’ deal with Umbra, a deadly secret organization her father worked with. A fight where only one of the two fighters would walk out of the ring alive. Dale Lazarus, a man secretly in love with his best friend’s daughter, killed his best friend in a fight. One of them had to die for the other one to live, and it was Dora’s father who didn’t walk out of the ring. Dora doesn’t know this: that Dale Lazarus, her father’s best friend, and also the man she’s shamelessly obsessed with, is the killer she’s after. She swore to his face that she was going to wipe her father’s killer off the planet, not knowing she was talking about him, and He trains her to kill her father’s killer, knowing he was training her to kill him. What happens when Dora realizes she signed a deal to kill the man she is obsessed with? ~ Content warning: This book contains several sensitive topics that may be disturbing to some readers. Reader's discretion is advised. Specific warnings include: Graphic violence and gore, Explicit sexual content, Description of grief and loss, and strong language.

My husband, Don Reginald, and my parents threw me in prison on the very night I gave him his heir. All because my sister, Felicia, set me up. She claimed I gave her a wild horse at the family races—a horse she knew she couldn't handle. It went crazy. It trampled a senator to death. With the FBI breathing down our necks, the whole family made me take the fall. Three years. Reginald didn't care that I'd just had our son. He pushed me. Over and over. "It was your horse. If you hadn't given it to her, the Feds wouldn't be after Felicia. Just do the time. When you get out, you'll still be my Donna." Three years later, I came back. Nothing had changed. They still chose her. Even the son I bled for now calls Felicia "Mama." He looks right through me, his own mother. I didn't fight. Not like the old me. I just walked away. But when I finally vanished for good, Reginald lost his mind. He tore the world apart, begging me to come back. To be his Donna again.

No clue what kind of karma got me stuck with William Wilde as my roommate. College was supposed to be chill, finally some freedom. But with him? It felt like SAT season all over again. I gamed, he hit the books. I went out, he grinded certs. I tried everything to mess with his groove. Then one day, he looked up and went, "Isaac, do you like me?"

I caught his scent before I saw them, my husband's scent, saturating another woman's skin. Three years. I gave Alexander three years, my father's territory, my people's loyalty, and a slow poison quietly destroying my body from the inside. I made him — pulled a fallen, abandoned Alpha from the dirt, merged our packs, convinced every dissenting elder, and stepped aside so he could wear the crown I built. I called it love. He called it convenient. The night I walked into that ballroom uninvited, his mistress was already on his arm. By the end of the night, she was on her knees — telling the entire pack she was carrying his heir. That was the moment I understood: I was never his wife. I was his ladder. I walked out without trembling. And I started planning. There was only one move left — to go to the man I had once rejected. The most powerful Alpha in the word. The one who never forgot.