Private

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Elea Jemima is the definition of a dedicated fangirl. A history major with a genius-level photographic memory, she prefers skipping classes to track the whereabouts of her ultimate obsessio, Drex Ethan (D.E.), the world’s most enigmatic and haughty solo idol. Drex is perfect—flawless face, melodious voice, and a cold, distant aura that only makes his fans crave him more. Desperate to catch a glimpse of him after arriving late to a signing event, Elea sneaks into his private dressing room. But instead of the handsome idol, she finds something that shatters her reality: a massive, terrifying black wolf sitting in Drex’s chair. Terrified and allergic to dog hair, Elea runs for her life. But she can’t outrun a predator. Cornered in a deserted room, she watches in horror as the beast shifts, bone by bone, into the very man she worships. Drex Ethan isn't just an idol. He is a Lycan. Now, Elea’s photographic memory has become her greatest curse. She has seen his secret, and the golden-eyed Alpha has no intention of letting her go. From superfan to a Lycan’s captive—Elea is about to learn that loving an idol can be a deadly affair.

I thought I was the Conti family's "legitimate wife." Until the day I saw it with my own eyes, my husband, Christian, resting his hand on my stepsister Emma's bump belly, gentle like he was cradling the future. Everyone told me to be "big-heated": when the baby was born, they'd put it under my name, make him call me Mom, because the family needed an "heir." Even the private doctor they hired announced it in front of everyone—steady heartbeat, and from the ultrasound, it looked like a boy. I didn't cry and didn't make a scene. I just picked up the phone and told my lawyer to initiate the divestment. Twenty-four hours later, Christian's cards were frozen, his projects got their loans yanked, and assets started getting seized— That's when he finally understood: he hadn't betrayed a wife. He'd betrayed the lifeline of the entire family. But what I really wanted to know was— When he dropped to his knees and begged me to come back, would I tell him— I had already picked out his grave?

When billionaire Liam Vance is found barely alive after a mysterious yacht explosion, the headlines explode with an even bigger shock: He has a secret wife. Her name is Ava Quinn, a quiet waitress from a nowhere town who claims they married in private months before. There’s just one problem, she is lying. Ava has every reason to hate the man unconscious in that hospital bed. Before the accident, Liam Vance destroyed her family’s livelihood without a second glance. He ruined everything. Now, he’s vulnerable. And she’s the only one close enough to find the truth and make him pay. She told herself it was just a plan. Get revenge. Uncover the truth. Break his empire from the inside. But as Liam slowly recovers and finds himself drawn to the beautiful woman he supposedly married, something shifts. The chemistry is real. The danger is closer than they realize. And Ava’s plan begins to crack under the weight of a truth she never expected… What happens when the man she came to destroy becomes the one she can’t let go of?

At the underground black market auction in New York, Lorenzo Moretti won a rare red diamond with a bid so high it made jaws drop. The entire Commission was waiting for the other shoe to drop—waiting to see me become a joke. Because in the Moretti family, every time Lorenzo gives away a diamond, it represents another one of his betrayals. White diamonds are hush money to cover up tabloid scandals. Blue diamonds mean he had a "slip-up" at some wild party. Pink diamonds mean I caught him in his private apartment, rolling in the sheets with another woman with my own eyes. But this time was different. It was a rare red diamond. Everyone guessed the Don was preparing to divorce me. Instead, Lorenzo publicly declared his love. He said this red diamond represented a "Blood Oath"—a symbol of his true heart and loyalty to me. He said that from now on, he would return to the family and pledge his allegiance only to me. Everyone congratulated me on finally taming the Sicilian Wolf. I, however, left the signed divorce papers in the safe, and all alone, I left him forever.

Not long after Josh Stewart proposed to me, the Stewart family went bankrupt. He took on three jobs, pouring everything he had into taking care of me. Every morning, he handed me the first cup of coffee, and the only fresh bagel on the table was always mine. He would pull me into his arms and promise, softly but firmly, that once he had saved his first 100,000 dollars, he would marry me. I believed every word. Until the day I stepped into an exclusive private club and saw him with his childhood sweetheart, their fingers intertwined, as he ordered a bottle of Lafite without a second thought. "If Yvette still hasn't realized in three days that Donald's been pretending to be you, then you win," she said with a smile. "Her eyesight isn't great," Josh replied, a hint of amusement in his voice. "And Donald avoids women. She won't notice. If I win, you're coming abroad with me for the wedding." I stood there, just out of sight, listening. A small smile tugged at my lips. Perhaps… it was time to find myself a different groom.

“One night, no memories… and now she’s his fake fiancée.” Emily Carter was already late to the biggest break of her career—an interview with the untouchable tech tycoon, Baek Jin. But nothing could have prepared her for waking up in his bed with zero memory of the night before. Her dream interview? Gone. Her reputation? Hanging by a thread. And Baek Jin—the cold, impossibly handsome billionaire who hasn’t spoken to the press in ten years—has a shocking proposal. He’ll give her the exclusive every reporter would kill for… if she agrees to be his fake girlfriend. His family wants him to settle down. She’s the perfect cover. And what starts as a contract drags Emily into a dazzling world of private jets, penthouse dinners, a flirty rival billionaire—and a dangerously magnetic man who isn’t as heartless as he seems. But the longer she plays his girlfriend, the harder it becomes to ignore the sparks between them. And when fake kisses start to feel real, Emily has to ask herself: What happens when the contract ends… but her heart doesn’t want to let go?

My husband bought me a pair of red lingerie for our wedding anniversary but only because he wanted another man to take it off me. ***** My husband, who hasn't looked at me in years, changed a month to our 5th wedding anniversary. I thought our dead marriage would finally pick up again when he booked multiple spa and salon sessions that transformed my skin and body in anticipation of our anniversary night. I prepared too, desperate to do anything to save our marriage. I was prepared to moan and fake my orgasms like I always do. Anything just to be the perfect wife I was expected to be. On the morning of our anniversary, he gifted me a pair of lingerie before we set off to the private suite we'd celebrate the anniversary in. But a greater surprise awaited me behind the door of the suit. My husband didn't buy me that lingerie because he wanted to take it off me later. He bought me that lingerie because he wanted to trade me to the Lycan king in exchange for a business contract.

She broke into his world to expose him. He tied her to his bed to claim her. When Justina Ashes sneaks into billionaire Carson Wills’ penthouse, she expects to leave with stolen secrets not wrists bound in silk and a ruthless man staring into her soul. Carson is powerful, magnetic, and dangerously obsessive. To the world, he’s untouchable. But in private, he hides a secret that could cost him everything. The little boy he calls his nephew is his son and he’ll do anything to keep him. Justina should hate him. After all, he’s the man she blames for her family’s ruin, the man she was sent to destroy. But hate burns into desire, desire into obsession, and soon she’s tangled in a web of lies, lust, and forbidden longing. Their deal is simple,a fake marriage to save his child. But their hearts? Anything but simple. When secrets explode her hidden identity as his best friend’s sister, his hidden son their passion becomes the most dangerous game of all. In a world of money, power, and silk ties, can love survive the truth?

Lexi is forced to live with her estranged mother, who left her when she was a child. Her new stepfather owns one of the best private schools in the country. Her mother is sending her to attend Blackmore Academy alongside her new stepbrother Zane. What she didn't expect was for her new stepbrother to immediately hate her and for his best friend, Alec Crestwood, to go along with the cruel, twisted game she found herself playing with her new stepbrother. Zane and Alec will stop at nothing to make her leave or force her to become their pet. What Zane and Alec don't know, though, was that she grew up in a rough neighborhood and can get just as scrapy as them. The twisted games the three of them play turn into fire burning passion and uncontrollable lust. Lexi finds herself having forbidden fantasies and feelings regarding her stepbrother and his best friend. She can no longer stop her body from heating up and her heart skipping a beat when Zane Blackmore and Alec Crestwood, the knights of Blackmore Academy, touch her.