Shark Suit Blanket

I, Isabella Norton, once made a promise with Julian Lawson, the billionaire CEO. After 98 proposals, he vows to appear at the doors of the city hall on my 99th attempt. But when the day comes, he doesn't show up. Instead, he brings his mistress, Natalie Mayer, to a concert. The sweet kiss they share under the camera's spotlight quickly turns into a trending sensation. At the same time, I also make headlines for turning up at the city hall for the 99th time. Speculations about the mysterious groom who never makes an appearance run wild. Everyone wonders when I will make my 100th attempt to propose. Out of guilt, Julian promises to show up next time when he realizes that I have carried out my promise. But when he finally arrives there clad in an impeccable suit, all he receives is a text message from me. "There won't be a hundredth proposal. It's over between us."

When Tessa Shoreman read Henry Jennings' cancer report, she immediately paid her hard-earned money of sixty thousand to the hospital. She had saved the money from working part-time while she was in university. However, she was worried the money was not enough, so she held back her fear as she sold a kidney to the black market to get more. As she walked to the ward door with a heavy bag filled with cash, she heard shrill laughter coming from inside. "That cheap woman, Tessa Shoreman, got tricked by us again. Haha!" Tessa's hand gave pause right when she was about to push the door open. What did he mean by saying she was tricked? Tessa looked through the glass on the door to see inside the ward. When she left, the man looked extremely weak, but he was now sitting up lazily in bed. Henry had a cigarette in his mouth, and he was blowing smoke rings nonchalantly. He did not look like a cancer patient at all. "It's been two years, and that woman still has no idea." "If she hadn't beaten Serene to first place, Henry would never have left behind his life as a rich heir and planned such an elaborate scheme to become a working-class man living in a cheap rental home. The way that cheap, penniless woman looks at Henry is so amusing." "We agreed that the punishment ends when Henry and Serene get engaged. It looks like time is almost up. We've probably punished her 108 times in the past two years." "The first time was lying to her that Henry didn't have a suit for a job interview. She worked tirelessly for 72 hours straight before she earned enough money for one, but that suit was given to the domestic help to use as a cleaning cloth. The second time was tricking her into believing Henry had a high fever. She forfeited during the finals of a scientific research competition to race home and take care of Henry in the hospital…" "Sigh. Too bad it's coming to an end. I'm going to miss entertaining myself with her."

Three days before my wedding, my younger sister staged a scene—one where I supposedly abandoned her in the mountains. She claimed I locked her in a cabin, left her to be nearly assaulted, and that she barely escaped with her life. Furious, my fiancé dragged me up the mountain and locked me in that same cabin. He said, "Wendy, a woman as vicious as you won't learn her lesson without punishment. I already told you I'd marry you. Why go after Chloe? Since you're so desperate to climb your way up, you can stay here until the wedding day." I begged him, over and over, but my scorched throat could only force out hoarse, grating sounds. Three days later, Mickey O'Brien stood at the altar in his suit, waiting for me. What he got instead was my remains.

With her heart-shaped face, Argentine eyes, sweltering lips, and gorgeous body, Ryza Reyes was branded as the most Seductress Supermodel of all time. Men fall at her feet, but she never catches any of them. Tired of being in the spotlight, she went to the Philippines to escape and found herself at La Roché - the all-in-one private Hotel where her unexpected "sexcapade" begins. ***** Ruther Ford had only three important things in his life. His friends, his mother, and the wealth that anyone was trying so hard to own. He got everything in life. Money. Wealth. And his private Hotel called La Roché. Women will do everything to get his attention or even just a minute of his precious time. But no woman had ever succeeded in doing so... except for one. Ryza Reyes - the world-renowned seductress who was drunken herself to the fullest as if that was her last shot. He was not supposed to like her. He was not supposed to lust over her. But what Ruther didn't see coming was falling in love with a woman who has a scandalous scandal with his soon-to-be-married half-brother after another scandal with his cousin's husband. He had a lot of things in his mind. A lot of plans, and he had no time for distraction even if that distraction was peacefully sleeping beside him underneath his blanket nothing but her birthday suit. But fate has a very twisted humor and things don't usually go according to his plan. So when things go south with the seductress Ryza Reyes, he knows he's in trouble. And that trouble started with his private room, in his very own private hotel - La Roché. “Welcome to La Roché, where anyone's most depraved desire and ‘sexcapade’ begins."

On our fifth anniversary, Henry Judd—the guy who once swore he'd propose—rented out an entire mall for Cecilia Cheape's birthday. A diamond the size of a pigeon's egg sparkled on her finger. I'd been dumb enough to think it was meant for me. "Cece, I'm gonna give you a birthday you'll never forget," he announced, loud enough for the whole world to hear. Then he yanked the tab off a soda can and handed it to me. "Lulu, those gaudy things don't suit you. You deserve something unique." He slid the can tab onto my finger—his version of a proposal. Cecilia got the dream birthday. I got a piece of trash and a slap of reality. Later, when he found out I was marrying someone else, he got down on one knee with that same ring and begged me to say yes.

My marriage to Dante, the Moretti heir, was meant to be a union of power, an alliance of empires. But for me, it was also the real deal. Then his adopted sister, Clara, showed up at a party. She was wearing his custom leather jacket, straddling his prized Ducati, and she looked right at me with a smirk. "Dante says," she purred, "that I suit these precious things better than you do." My smile froze. Dante had her on a plane overseas so fast it was like she'd never existed. Five years later, the night before our wedding. I found him staring at the design for our wedding rings. He'd changed the engraving. The "Amor Aeternus"—Eternal Love—was gone. In its place: "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa." My sin, my greatest sin. I took off my veil right then and there. "The wedding," I said, my voice like ice, "is off."

The wedding had barely started when the lights went out. Then came the moans—from the giant screen behind the altar. Hailey froze. Her skin went ghost-pale. Her whole body shook. A beat later, the doors slammed open. Leading the charge? Nolan. Cold eyes, sharp suit, and bodyguards in tow. He stormed the stage. The groom tried to stop him. Big mistake. Nolan's guys dropped him in seconds. Nolan grabbed a fistful of the groom's hair and yanked his head back. "Heh. I've slept with Hailey hundreds—maybe thousands—of times. Used condoms alone could fill your house. Wanna see the HD vids?" Hailey's eyes locked on Nolan, pure hate. She'd been his kept woman for eight years. He loathed her family. He loathed her. Swore she'd never know peace. Then she disappeared—and he lost his mind.

A few years ago, Olivia Sheridan packed her bags and moved to a new country, hoping to bury her grief and past so she could start a new life. Her only rule is ‘no attachments.’ You can't lose what you don't have. The rule serves her well until she moves into a house and meets her new roommate's brother. Dominic Moore always gets what he wants, and what he wants is a naked Olivia sprawled on his bed. But the playboy billionaire soon sees how reluctant she is, so starting a relationship with this reclusive girl will be difficult. Because of this, Dominic proposes an arrangement that will suit their wild attraction for one another while having no strings attached. The offer is almost too good to be true. Olivia accepts the terms, but not all is what it seems. Dominic has other plans and won't stop at lustful passion and desire. He intends to break her carefully guarded world so all her secrets are laid bare…

Without Kaelen's knowledge, I had his little plaything sent out of North America. That same night, he cast a blood-vine curse on my parents, banishing them to the wilds—a wasteland prowled by rogues. He was going to trade my parents' lives for the whereabouts of his plaything. Kaelen pushed a communication crystal in front of me. Inside it, my parents were ensnared by blood-red vines, the thorns digging deep into their flesh. Drops of dark crimson blood fell, one by one, onto the barren earth. A countdown timer pulsed in stark red digits on their chests. 23:59:59 23:59:58 He sat across from me, a black suit tailored to perfection molded to his lean, powerful frame. His long fingers tapped a light, steady rhythm on the solid wood table, as if he were waiting for a trivial business deal to close. "Estelle, you have twenty-four hours." His voice was low and calm, laced with a venomous tenderness. "Tell me, where did you send Cassandra?"

A contract. A night. A mistake that turned into something more. Naia Isadora Lastra never believed in second chances—especially not after catching her boyfriend red-handed and breaking down in the arms of a dangerously charming stranger at a bar. One night. One decision. One unforgettable mistake. She never expected to wake up sore, breathless, and tangled in the sheets with a man who disappears before dawn… only to reappear days later in a designer suit, announcing: "You're going to be my bride... on paper." Ammir Alejandro Silvestri is a cold, calculating CEO, forced to fake a perfect marriage for the sake of his dying grandmother—and the woman he shared a bed with becomes his only option. Now, all eyes are on them. The press, their families, and the ticking clock of a six-month contract. But the longer they pretend, the harder it gets to remember what's fake and what’s not. And when secrets surface, hearts aren't the only things at risk—because falling in love was never part of the deal.