Port Isabel Public Library Novels & Stories

Everyone in Palermo knew Alessandro De Luca had a reputation. He was the Boss of the De Luca family, one of the oldest bloodlines in Sicily — a name tied to the port, the courts, and half the construction contracts in Palermo. Wealth, power, discipline—those things were expected. Romance was not. He didn’t chase women, and he never went back to the same one twice. Until me. When we broke up after a brutal argument, he did something no De Luca had done in generations—he stood outside the gates of the Moretti estate, my family home, for an entire day and night. I watched from behind the curtains and never opened the door. The next day, he came inside the estate kitchen himself. Alessandro De Luca, who grew up surrounded by servants, tried to cook my favorite seafood pasta with his own hands. He burned the sauce. I threw it away without tasting it. On the third day, he found the necklace my grandmother had left me—something my uncle had sold years ago—and bought it back, paying far more than it was worth, just to return it to me. At a formal family dinner, in front of elders and allies, he made it clear: No more women. Only me. It took him a year to win me back. That summer, fireworks lit up the Palermo coastline as he announced our engagement. I believed he had chosen me. Until the night of a private gathering at an old harbor estate. A young woman was being pulled forward in the middle of the courtyard, her dress torn at the shoulder, tears running down her face. Alessandro went still. Then he stood up. He didn’t look at me. He didn’t explain. He just walked toward her. And something inside me went cold. I rested my hand over my abdomen. There was something I hadn’t told him yet. He broke his word that night. So I broke mine.

Xavier Bishops and Rain Simmons are an odd pair. Xavier is the quiet rich guy who instigates her bullies and Rain is the girl who finds him hot despite knowing this. They find themselves in a supply closet together on school prank night and they share their first kiss. Xavier's obsession with her increases after this but he still doesn't know how to act towards Rain. They soon enter a secret relationship but Xavier's attitude towards Rain in public doesn't change. He no longer eggs his friends on but he doesn't address her in public either. Rain convinces herself that she's okay with this but her patience continues to wear thin as Xavier's friends keep treating her worse. It all ends when they trash a car her father gave her for her birthday and she exposes her secret relationship with Xavier to everyone. Xavier denies it and laughs at her. Humiliated beyond belief, Rain leaves town for winter break but she doesn't come back and no one knew why. Rain is in a new town, pregnant and alone with grandparents who think she's worthless. They insist she has an abortion and when Rain refuses, they agree to give the baby up for adoption. When Rain changes her mind, they throw her out. She can't go back to her sick father with a baby she can't take care of so she drops the baby with Xavier, promising to come back soon. Twelve years later, Rain is back. She is a military investigator and is investigating a leak in Xavier's company. Her son hates her and his father still wants her. She has a lot on her plate, make her son forgive her, get Xavier to leave her alone and find the person selling government secrets in Xavier's company.

Welcome to Blackwood University, where the tuition costs a fortune, but the secrets cost your life. I thought a scholarship to the country’s most elite university was my ticket out of the shadows. I was wrong. I didn’t just walk into a school; I walked into a lion’s den. And sitting on the throne is Niccolò De Luca. Nico is beautiful, brilliant, and brutal. He is the heir to the most powerful crime syndicate on the East Coast, and he runs this campus like his personal kingdom. He breaks hearts, he breaks bones, and now, he’s decided to break me. Not because I’m the scholarship case. But because he knows who I really am. I am the daughter of the man who stole millions from the De Luca family and vanished. Nico intends to use me to lure my father out of hiding. His plan is simple: torment me until I break, make my life a living hell, and keep me under his thumb until the debt is paid in blood. But the line between hate and obsession is razor-thin. When his torment turns into possessiveness, and his taunts turn into touches I can’t refuse, the game changes. I was supposed to be his pawn, but I’m becoming his weakness. Now, with a rival family closing in on campus and my father’s enemies circling, Nico has to make a choice: Hand me over to settle the score... or burn the world down to keep me. "You think you can hide from me in the library, little mouse?" Nico whispered, his breath hot against the shell of my ear as he pinned me against the stacks. "You are living on borrowed time. And unfortunately for you, I’m the one collecting the interest."

When Brynn lands a sudden, great job at a management company in New Beerenland, she revels in the fact that she has made it. A great job means the end of all the financial atrocities: no sharing apartments, no ex-drama, no checking the menu before ordering. With the perks of managing a private management agency, she gets the occasional run-in with royalty hosting their public engagements and managing how they appear to the general republic. Enter Ryker Glucksberg, a prince who runs his eyes down all over Brynn’s body and can’t seem to keep her off his mind. They meet, and sparks fly. Brynn doesn’t believe in love. Ryker is not the prince who wants to settle down. And then zero in on the institution that will do everything in its power to keep them apart or bring them together?

I can understand Wolfish, but I've never told my Alpha mate, Felix Grayback, about it. In public, he's the mate who dotes on me the most. He even declines a pack trading contract that's worth billions of dollars just to celebrate my birthday with me. As Felix holds me in his arms, he declares in front of his pack, "Bankruptcy is nothing as long as you're happy." I'm so touched that I'm about to burst into tears. So, I embrace Felix's huge, wolf-like body tightly in return. At that moment, I hear him emitting a low growl from his throat. It's a language that only wolves can understand. "This woman is finally plump enough to eat. Tonight, I shall share her flesh with my pack members."

“She’s just a sweet, simple girl. It was never going to last anyway.” Maddison Carter’s ideal graduation day was a ruined disaster that left her broken and abandoned. That was, until a voice…a powerful one, provided a dangerous offer to her: “I can show you a life of a completely different kind.” So she stepped into CEO Grant Harrison’s world; the thrilling, dangerous world that was filled with corporate giants and hidden enemies of the billionaire. When a scandalous photo is about to ruin her, Grant makes a shocking announcement in public that shakes everywhere. Now, Maddison is being hunted by a past that won’t stay buried. Can Maddison go from a heartbroken Top of the class graduate to a Top CEO who can save her empire and the family she never expected to have?

Alina discovers the heartbreaking news that her sister Camille is engaged to her ex-husband Barry upon her return to London after two years overseas. A sex tape of the two is sent in an anonymous message further betraying the trust. In an effort to recover her life and fortune Alina suggests a contract marriage to Dante Navarro, a vicious billionaire who has a personal grudge against Barry. A sincere connection develops between them as they work through their fake marriage, public personas and secrets. They reveal Barry and Camilles deceit as they work together to destroy their schemes. Amidst the turmoil, Alina and Dante face their past traumas which results in an unexpected romantic relationship. In the end Alina regains her inheritance and her authority while discovering true love can find you anywhere at unexpected places.

A few years ago, her scumbag father had set her up. To save her mother, she clung to that man. “Mister, please help me. I’ll surely return your kindness.” Several years later, the Smith family was the most prominent in New York. Calix Smith was paralyzed and had a pitiful five-year-old son. The Smiths wanted to look for someone caring enough to help him in taking care of his son, and hence, they put up a matchmaking notice to find him a spouse. Blaire Willows came marching back with multiple identities and slapped the matchmaking notice on the table. “I’ll marry Calix Smith!” The public thought she was crazy. They made fun of her and made her the subject of their ridicule. Not long after they married, Calix finally opened his eyes.

Six years ago, tech titan Cassian Vale forced his terrified secretary into marriage after she witnessed him kill a man in his office. He treated her with icy cruelty until the day he discarded her. Now Vale Dynamics is weeks from total collapse. The only person who can save his empire is his ex-wife — Seraphina Laurent — the woman who vanished after signing the divorce papers and quietly built her own rival tech empire worth billions. She holds the capital, the lifesaving technology… and the one eyewitness testimony that could send him to prison. Sera offers him a deal: ninety days as her husband again — in public and in her bed — with zero mercy. This time, she makes the rules. This time, the devil will kneel.

Ayla has always been told by her mother that she should be different, not just because she is very unfeminine, or because her ways of acting and speaking are, as we might say; unrestrained and unfiltered; goes beyond the personality she imposed years ago. Marin went through a lot of things a little girl shouldn't, like seeing her father executed in the middle of a public square. Since that time Ayla has closed herself off from the world by setting standards for herself, putting walls in her heart and for love. For fear of losing someone she loves again, however, when being enlisted for a mind-blowing dispute where a royal position will be at the end as a prize, the girl sees herself accepting new challenges, and also finding love in a prince who shows so many scars like her.