Project Libitina Novels & Stories

On our seventh wedding anniversary, I was straddling my Mafia husband, Lucian, kissing him deeply. My fingers fumbled in the pocket of my expensive silk dress, searching for the pregnancy test I'd hidden there. I wanted to save the news of my unexpected pregnancy for the end of the evening. Lucian's right-hand man, Marco, asked with a suggestive smile in Italian: "Don, your new little canary, Sophia. How does she taste?" Lucian's mocking laughter vibrated through my chest, sending a chill down my spine. He replied, also in Italian: "Like an unripe peach. Fresh and tender." His hand was still caressing my waist, but his gaze was distant. "Just keep this between us. If my Donna finds out, I'm a dead man." His men chuckled knowingly, raising their glasses and swearing their silence. The warmth in my blood turned to ice, inch by inch. The one thing they didn’t know was that my grandmother was from Sicily, so I understood every word. I forced myself to remain calm, keeping the perfect smile of a Donna fixed in place, but the hand holding my champagne flute trembled. Instead of making a scene, I opened my phone, found the invitation I had received a few days ago for a private international medical research project, and tapped "Accept." In three days, I would disappear from Lucian's world completely.

"By day, I'm invisible. By night, I'm his darkest fantasy." Jane Puckett doesn't belong at Riverside Academy; not among the trust fund babies and silver spoon elite. She's the scholarship girl who keeps her head down and her grades up, desperate to survive four years in a world that wants her gone. Until she makes one fatal mistake: crossing Ace Monroe. Gorgeous, dangerous, and untouchable, Ace is campus royalty with a cruel streak and an axe to grind. After Jane tanks his grade on a group project he refused to touch, he makes it his personal mission to destroy her. Every day is a new humiliation. Every class, a fresh hell. But Ace doesn't know Jane's secret. When the sun goes down, Plain Jane becomes Jailbird; the most requested dancer at Fantasy Island, the exclusive club where lustful boys go to indulge their filthiest desires. It's the only way she can afford what her scholarship won't cover. The only way she survives. Then fate—or karma—walks through the door. On his twenty-first birthday, Ace Monroe buys a private dance from the masked siren who's been haunting the patrons of fantasy island. He doesn't recognize she is the girl he's been tormenting by day. But he is about to.

Celeste, Luca’s first love, and I were trapped in the Romano docks fire on the same night. He saved me first. By the time he went back for Celeste, the warehouse had already collapsed. She died in the fire and became the regret he carried for the rest of his life. Luca never said he blamed me. But after that night, my birthdays, our anniversaries, even private family dinners became days for him to mourn Celeste. He often said, “It should have been me.” Years later, the Chronos Project opened to the powerful families of the underworld. For a brutal price, it could send someone back to one moment in the past. Luca signed the waiver without hesitation. Before entering the machine, he said to me, “I saved you first because you were my wife. If I had saved Celeste first, the families would have called her my mistress and destroyed her. This time, I’ll save her properly.” After he vanished, the Romano elders turned all their grief on me. “If Luca had chosen Celeste first, he would have had the life he wanted.” “She died because of you.” “You should have been the one the fire took.” I did not explain. I signed the Chronos waiver too. This time, I would give them what they wanted.

After I dropped out of school, my parents didn't pressure me to do anything. But Nicole Hicks kept calling nonstop. She was my boyfriend's childhood friend who had established a reputation as a genius. I was too busy helping out in the fields, growing vegetables, and splashing around in the creek, living my best carefree life. Writing code wasn't even on my mind. In my past life, she had turned in a project just one day before I did. Her codes were exactly the same as mine. Everyone called me a fraud and said I had stolen it. I tried to explain, but no one believed me. Later, she even did a livestream, accusing me online of being a school bully. People went wild. They didn't just come for me—they went after my whole family. Some obsessed troll chased my parents in a car, and they died in a crash. I couldn't take it anymore. I jumped off a high-rise, my eyes still wide open, refusing to accept the way it all ended. Even in my last moment, I couldn't figure it out. That code was mine. My hard work. So how did she manage to post it before me? When I opened my eyes again, I was back, right before everything fell apart.

On the day I successfully conceived through IVF, my CEO boyfriend—the sole heir to a nine-generation business empire—finally agreed to marry me. Yet, after a flight of more than ten hours, I landed only to be greeted by a public announcement of his marriage to his secretary, with journalists watching from every angle. The secretary eagerly showed off the marriage certificate, fresh off the press. "Don't worry, everyone. From now on, I'll personally supervise Mr. Lane for the rest of our lives." When the journalists spotted me, they all focused on me, hoping I'd cause a scene. However, I merely smiled and congratulated the couple. "You and Mr. Lane are perfect for each other, Ms. Quinn. I wish you both a long and happy marriage." Everyone was shocked. No one had expected such generosity from me—Harold's girlfriend of nine years. As I turned to leave, Harold darted over to defend himself with a scowl. "Leila worked day and night with me on this international project. She refused every bonus and only asked to experience the fairy-tale romance of marrying a CEO. We already agreed to divorce once the project is over. I'll make it up to you with an even bigger, better wedding." Then, his voice softened. "For the sake of our baby, don't cause trouble, okay?" With a bright smile, I slapped his hand away. "Who told you the baby's yours?"

The company had just taken off when a project my wife, Lenora Peterson, was in charge of ran into trouble. To ease her mind during her pregnancy, I went overseas in her stead, spending ten perilous years abroad before finally returning home, barely alive. Instead of the joyful reunion I had imagined, she greeted me with cold detachment and thinly veiled disgust. "Why are you back?" Lenora asked. "Today is Nathan’s housewarming party," she added. "Let’s head there first—we’ll talk later." We rode in silence the entire way. When we arrived, a ten-year-old girl came dashing over and clung to Lenora affectionately. “Mommy, why did you take so long? Daddy’s been waiting for you forever!” Daddy? My eyes burned with rage—until I saw my old friend Nathan Grant stepping out to greet us with a smile. "Lily, come to Daddy. Mommy’s tired—don’t bother her now." When I met Lenora’s eyes, the guilt I saw there told me everything I needed to know. I turned away and texted my assistant, Morgan Williamson, to begin acquiring the company that, by right, had always belonged to me. He soon reported back. "Mr. Brooke, the acquisition process will be completed in three days."

To Bleed for You For seventy years, Elena has walked the earth as a creature of the night, blending seamlessly into the background of mortal institutions. Now posing as a sophomore at St. Jude University, her rule has always been simple: adapt, blend in, and never get attached. As a bisexual vampire who has seen centuries of human history, she knows that loving mortals only leads to heartbreak—or exposure. Then she meets Maya. It takes only one look across a crowded, rainy university lecture hall for Elena’s carefully structured world to shatter. Maya is vibrant, sharp-witted, and entirely human. From that single, electric moment of love at first sight, Elena is consumed by a terrifying, dual fixation. Maya’s presence is intoxicating, drawing Elena in with a romantic gravity she cannot fight, even as her darkest vampiric instincts burn to claim the warm blood rushing through Maya’s veins. Forced together by a university project, their magnetic attraction quickly turns into a passionate, secret campus romance. Maya is captivated by Elena’s mysterious aura and protective nature, eventually unearthing the dark truth of what Elena really is. But choosing to love a monster means stepping into the shadows. When a ruthless tracker from Elena's past catches Maya’s scent, their forbidden love becomes a dangerous game of survival. In a world where life and death collide, Elena must decide how far she will go to protect the woman she loves—and what it truly means to bleed for her.

For the last three years Virginia Elliot has been abused emotionally, physically and sexually. She has held on for so long that she is just about broken. She has been told every day that she will alone all her life and that the only one who will love her is Neil Carrington, her step father. She knows that he doesn't love her but is obsessed with her and ever since her mother died she has been under his control and abuse. Braxton James is the Alpha of The Shimering Falls Pack. He has bee looking for his mate for so long that he has lost all hope of finding her. He is under pressure from his parents to choose a Luna for the pack. He wants what the Moon Goddess has made for him and not some she-wolf that is power hungry. He is just about to give in to his parents demands when he accidentally bumps into his mate at a local gym that he is looking to invest in as a side project of his. Just from the little interaction he has with her he can tell that she is damaged but he is unaware of the extend of the damage or that it is still going on. He is determined to find out all of her secrets and help her build her self back up from all she has been through but when fate and duty clash will they both survive? Only time and patience will tell.

Samantha Sonnet, my wife who's also a hospital dean, decides to replace my name with Nicholas Spark, the intern's name on the surgical atlas that I've spent the last three years drafting without my permission. That atlas is then published. I burn the only original draft of the atlas in front of the entire department. Samantha blames me for being brash. "He's just leaving his name there so that he can ensure a smoother project closeout." After dusting the ashes away, I reply, "My academic achievements will always be mine. Since someone else's name is printed on my achievements, that means they are no longer pure." Later at midnight, Samantha hands me a glass of warm milk in an attempt to apologize to me. When I regain consciousness once again, I've already gotten strapped to a surgical table beneath a huge spotlight. I see a scalpel glinting coldly right above me. "You're a man of purity, right?" Samantha murmurs into my ear. "Three people's blood will be coursing through your veins soon enough. You'll be impure soon enough!" At the moment, Samantha is livestreaming an illegal organ removal surgery. As I stare at the camera hovering above my head, I say coldly, "If you've recorded enough evidence, then it's time to turn off the camera! Tell Captain Hardy that I've gotten my hands on the evidence he wants!"

Ethan Rivers thought he'd left his past behind—until the boy who broke his heart walks back into his life. Three years ago, Ethan confessed his feelings to Caleb Stone at their high school graduation party. Caleb's response? A cruel, public rejection that left Ethan humiliated in front of everyone. Now a confident junior at Riverside University, Ethan has rebuilt himself. New friends. New life. New rules: never fall for a straight guy again. But on the first day of the semester, Caleb transfers to Riverside. He's different now—quieter, more intense, and no longer the untouchable golden boy. When they're forced to work together on a group project, Ethan tries to keep his distance. But Caleb won't let him. Late-night study sessions. Accidental touches. Lingering stares that make Ethan's walls crack. Then Caleb drops a bombshell: his rejection wasn't real. He was terrified—of his family, of his feelings, of being anything less than perfect. He's been into Ethan all along. Now Ethan faces an impossible choice: protect his heart or risk everything for the boy who destroyed him. Through stolen moments, rain-soaked confessions, and heated arguments that end in desperate kisses, they navigate coming out, family pressure, and the question that haunts them both: Can first love get a second chance?