Present Mic

Harry DuBois is the name everyone knows. At 6'4", sharply dressed, with silver at his temples and a velvet voice, he commands attention the moment he enters a room. Owner of DuBois Fine Arts & Jazz Lounge, the town’s cultural heartbeat, he offers a haven for music, poetry, and taste. Women adore him, men envy him, and all assume he’s living the dream. But Harry is haunted. Beneath success lies a past that won’t let him go, a tragedy he never speaks of. For Harry, love isn’t just risky, it’s dangerous. He’s a single father to Naomi, his teenage daughter, the only light he’s allowed to stay. Yet even with her, there are walls. When new art curator Elena Rivera arrives from New York to partner with his lounge on a revival series, a celebration of Black art, music, and history. Harry is drawn to someone he hasn’t been with in decades. But Elena has secrets, and she’s starting to notice cracks in Harry’s perfect image. As past and present collide, Harry is forced to confront the pain he has buried for over 25 years. A love lost, a betrayal unforgiving, and a night that changed everything. The question is: can Harry finally allow himself to feel again, or will the past claim him once and for all?

My roommate is the kind of person who has to get to the bottom of everything and doesn't stop asking questions until she's satisfied. One night, while I'm sound asleep, she suddenly stands by my bed and calls my name, "Melissa, are you asleep?" Having been awakened by her, I shoot her an annoyed glare, but she just says, "See? You weren't really asleep. Otherwise, how could you have answered me?" One day, she decides to skip class. Thinking that I could help by signing her in on my phone, I do just that. However, near the end of the lecture, she suddenly bursts into the room and asks the professor, "I wasn't here today, so why does it show I was marked present? Is the system down?" The professor traces it back to me, fails me on the spot, and makes me retake the class. Later on, I join a speech contest. My roommate stands up in front of everyone and asks why my speech sounded exactly like her ideas. I get disqualified, lose my scholarship, and am labeled a plagiarist. Devastated, I climb onto the rooftop late at night. When I open my eyes again, I'm back to the night when my roommate first asked if I was asleep.

**Synopsis**: When Claire Mason, a successful but emotionally guarded architect, returns to the small coastal town of Seabreeze after nearly a decade away, she expects nothing more than a brief stay to settle her late grandmother’s estate. But as she strolls through the familiar streets, memories of her first love, Ethan Hayes, begin to resurface—along with the pain of their abrupt and unresolved parting. Ethan never left Seabreeze. Now a local business owner, he’s built a quiet life by the sea, haunted by the ghost of the girl who left him behind. When Claire unexpectedly walks back into his life, the old spark between them reignites. However, both have changed in the years apart, and neither is willing to easily trust the other again. As they are drawn together by the memories of their youth, Claire and Ethan must confront the mistakes of their past and the truths they’ve been avoiding. But with the wounds of their old love still fresh, and new challenges threatening to pull them apart once more, they must decide if they can leave the past behind and take a second chance on each other—or if their first love was always destined to remain just a memory. "My First Love" is a heartwarming and bittersweet tale of love, loss, and the enduring power of first love, set against the backdrop of a picturesque coastal town where the past and present collide. ---

Sara Meyers, a young woman who was run over on her way back from work, was taken to a city hospital by the man who ran her over, Mason Clark, a young millionaire, who is known in the city for his eccentricities, his holidays, and the enormous way he spends his money, but above all for being an inveterate Casanova. She did not carry any information about her family, so Mason did not have a legal problem and agreed to take care of everything related to Sara during her recovery, while he takes care of her daily in the hospital and the visit begins to arise feelings between the two inexplicable, she loses her memory completely and the only thing she perceives as someone she knows is Mason. The life of the two of them takes an unexpected turn, because Mason changes his ostentatious life for this woman, but what neither of them knows, is that she has a family and a past that is looking for her, Sara does not manage to recover the memory, but she is debating between who she should love, since it is her past that was what she had before the accident, Or this is his present and what he loves most at the moment. A story with endless emotions and sentimental entanglements, which will make us think at what point in our life it is worth fighting for someone.

Lily Montgomery had always believed her life was marked by goodbyes. Her father, a mystery buried beneath lies. Her ex-fiancé, Matteo, who disappeared without explanation, shattering her heart and dreams. And now, her mother, taken by a cruel illness, leaving her completely alone. Returning to New York for the funeral, Lily—a failed writer struggling to rebuild her career—only hoped to close this painful chapter. But fate had other plans. Her father wasn’t dead as she had always believed—he was Luigi Romano, one of the most powerful mafia leaders in the city. And Matteo? The man who walked away without a trace belonged to that dark world… and now he was her future husband. Forced into marriage for her own safety, Lily finds herself trapped between betrayals, secrets, and a love that never truly died. As she fights to escape the mafia’s grasp and uncover the truth about her origins, a new dilemma arises: Did Matteo really betray her, or did he leave to protect her? And worse… will he do whatever it takes to win her back? In a game between past and present, between duty and desire, Lily must decide if she can still trust the man she once loved… or if he is just another lie in her life.

Bound by his secret Ameera Clarke has always known how to fight for survival—working endless shifts, barely keeping her sick mother alive, and holding her world together with nothing but grit and late-night prayers. When she lands a job as secretary to the ruthless billionaire Kevin Black wood, she tells herself it’s just another paycheck. Another mask to wear. But the first time she steps into his office, her breath stills. Those piercing eyes… she’s seen them before. Under the moonlight. In the shadows of a night she swore she’d never speak of again. Kevin Blackwood is every rumor come true—cold, merciless, untouchable. He thrives on control, and Ameera’s defiance is the one thing he can’t bend to his will. She infuriates him. Challenges him. Tempts him. And the more he pushes her away, the deeper she burrows under his skin. But Kevin has a secret. One powerful enough to ruin them both. And when past and present collide, Ameera will have to decide whether to run from the man who could destroy her… or fall for the one she can’t resist. One thing is certain: in his world of power, lies, and dangerous desires—love is the most dangerous game of all.

Surrounded by luxury and comfort, Dominique Le Blanc does not miss anything, except excitement. His life as the owner of the largest casino in Monaco requires a lot of time and dedication to enjoy this refined and electrifying, but unimportant, environment. Bets and money are no longer able to excite you. Could that change with a gunshot-covered escape in a hospital parking lot? Without knowing why, a young woman flees from her armed captors. The reason for the chase is unknown, but the escape leads her to get into the first open car she sees. Driven by the instinct to fight for her own life, she hides in the vehicle, while the passengers agree to flee the scene quickly. The young woman carries nothing with her, no belongings, no clothes, no name and much less memories. What is the first thing she should look for? “An Inconsequent Desire” is a dark novel full of action and chaos, with two protagonists who know very well what they want… or almost. Tension, desire, luxury and danger mix as Dominique and the fugitive try to resolve their relationship and their desires in a world as opulent as it’s reckless. Violence and attraction go hand in hand for a couple covered in the past, immersed in the present and with almost no future. What is the price of unearthing their memories? How much can it change what is yet to come? Love or obsession. Salvation or ruin. In the end, everyone has something to lose... and maybe that's everything.

. . . (Past is past. Future is future. The Present is who I am now.) BORN WITH UNUSUAL GREEN EYES AND BLACK WINGS. A CHILD OF A BEAST. HIDDEN FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD. Cyan just wanted to be normal and to be treated normal for her entire life. Unfortunately, she wasn't born fully human. Being like that, she didn't experience a normal life, in fear of getting found out by others. One afternoon, out for a walk, she encountered a woman, but she was someone who have the same green eyes and black wings as her. Also claiming to be someone who will take Cyan where she truly belongs. However, that was not only that. The woman told her that there were enemies that also want her for actually being the daughter of a General with unknown whereabouts, and a war between their own kind was brewing. A war that had stopped long ago and was starting again. In order to track her father who left her since birth and to keep her human mother safe from danger, she had no choice but to go with the woman. Now, she was caught with all the troubles she didn't know would come to her. TRIGGER WARNING/ CONTENT GUIDELINES: This story contains mild to strong language and deceptions of violence that may be triggering and not suitable for some readers.

Who said the weak can’t become strong? Even without powers I can become the most powerful. The Hunter race had existed for several millennia working both in the shadows and in the light protecting humanity from creatures that aren’t from this world, at the age of seven every child in the Hunter race would visit the Hunter god’s temple and receive his blessing in the form of a supernatural ability. Amongst the Hunters were different kinds of people with different types of abilities but one this was common amongst all of them and that was the colour of their eyes, they were all green. Marcus Fault on the other hand was born with icy blue eyes which made majority of the Hunters view him in a different light and from the moment he was born, his life was in danger and each day was like walking on the edge of the abyss, one slip off and he would fall never to return. When he was seventh birthday just like the tradition he was to head to the Hunter god temple to receive his blessings, his talent was first tested and stunning everyone present as he was tested to have legendary talent but unfortunately he wasn’t blessed by the Hunter god and thus the first powerless Hunter was born. RR this note is to you to prove my ownership of this book.

She was a slave to the pack that slaughtered her family. A rogue Omega, broken, but set for revenge. Amaya’s world was turned upside down when the Grayhide Pack wiped out her rogue clan, taking her captive. Forced to serve under the Alpha who commanded the attack, she hides her pain beneath a mask of obedience, until fate takes a cruel turn in the darkest way. Rejected in secret at the mating ceremony, the bond should have broken. But it didn’t. Every whisper, every touch, every graze the Alpha gives his betrothed, waves of agony meet Amaya. She is forced to watch. Every dream she has is permeated by his presence; he is at every corner she turns to. Haunted by vengeance, Amaya begins to work in secret, but the more she moves, the more shattering truths are uncovered. What if everything she has been made to believe was a lie? What if she isn’t the only one set out for revenge? What if the person her soul truly craves is totally different from the mate the moon goddess has fated for her? As her forbidden powers awaken, rewriting the very fragment of fate itself and creating a forge between the past and the present, Amaya must choose between blood and destiny. Because in the Grayhide Pack, some secrets are deadly, and some bonds refuse to be broken.