Skinny Dip

Summer Shrap is an ambitious, cunning, manipulative reporter, slim and skinny, the second daughter and the last child of the Shrap. Desperate, could be tricky sometimes, manipulative, just the definition of a dangerous beauty. Her only dream is becoming the next owner of her father business, that is her only desire but an obstacle seems to be standing in her way. And that is her sister Dora, who has always disliked way because of their father love for Summer. In order to win the war started between her and her sister, she decided to walk on an ice. She found out a secret about one of the most powerful man in the country, the gay billionaire. She approached him and placed down a deal, in exchange of his secret. Which is to Marry her and support her with his shares.

I am not my parents' biological son. When they find their son and bring him back, he looks skinny and malnourished. My parents feel sorry for him, so they offer him compensation. But Kenneth Lawson says, "I am your son. If you are going to compensate me, then give me the company." My family persuades me by saying, "You are not related by blood after all. You should return the position to him." With a smile, I hand everything over to him. The next day, the company's biggest client, core technical team, and all distributors announce that they will only work with me. My parents panic and rush to beg me. I fold my arms and say, "Tell your biological son to come and beg me—the employee—to go back."

My husband chooses to stay in a honeymoon suite with his secretary during a company teambuilding event. "I'm in poor health, so I need Mr. Lowe by my side to care for me when I'm taking a dip in the hot springs. I'm sure Elaine won't be mad because she's so generous, right?" My husband wraps an arm around her waist, sounding displeased as he says, "Ignore her. I'd have wasted my time on her if she's so petty!" Our colleagues chime in. "Exactly! It's best to get a divorce if your wife gets jealous so easily! Now, Ms. Klein is gentle and considerate. You're a lucky man, Mr. Lowe!" I'm the one who recruited all of these people into the company, yet they all now despise me. Since none of them like me, there's no need for the company to exist anymore. I text my parents. "Don't bother investing in the company anymore. I no longer want it."

My roommate sets me up. She deliberately forces me into a death-trap survival game. As I shut my eyes and wait for death to take me, I realize that the game's bosses can read my mind. "Look at the blood spurting from this baby doll's neck. It's like a fountain of pee." The baby doll is baffled. It's about to launch its ultimate move, but it falters. "Man, look at how this guy is still sweeping the streets when he's so old. Does he not have a pension?" The old man is about to swallow me whole, but he suddenly gets a heart attack. An ambulance takes him away. "Oh, so this is the amusement park's owner. Oh, dear god, he's handsome, albeit a little skinny. I can send him flying with a kick!" The handsome owner's expression darkens. He instantly takes off his shirt to reveal his washboard abs. "Do you still think I'm skinny?"

My sister gets into an accident and needs an emergency blood transfusion when I'm six months pregnant. After a round of tests, my blood is the only suitable one. I'm exhausted and too skinny after being tormented by morning sickness. I have to say no. However, my family forces me to do it. I have no strength to resist; I can only beg my husband for help. To my devastation, he stands by and watches me coldly. "It's fine for you to donate some blood since you're so healthy. Queenie isn't the same as you—she has a bright future ahead, so we can't let anything affect that." I pass out after the blood donation. The first thing I do when I wake up is make an appointment for an abortion.

My African American Mom married a rich Japanese man. As I moved the skeleton of my new bed next to the window, I felt a gaze focused on me. Outside my window, was the house next door. The house shape was similar to ours, so it also had a window facing mine at the same level. Standing there on the other side was a skinny Japanese boy. As soon as I laid eyes on him, he stiffened, then shyly smiled and waved. His hair was all over the place, seeing him in his tanktop I thought to myself that he must've just rolled out of bed. But wasn't it the afternoon already? The boy says something but of course I can't hear him with my window closed so I slide it open. "Eto....hi." He tried in English. If someone were to tell me later I'd come to care about him deeply, I'd find that hard to believe. For as long as I could remember I've always felt empty. And that emptiness, I hid on instinct.

Persephone Jade Velasco is the heiress of the great Venge Intelligence Org., a secret agency where the country's biggest and most dangerous undercover missions happen. Home of fearless and smart agents, Persephone's also a baddie herself. Meanwhile, Sidapa Aiden Delgado, the heir of one of the country's richest families that is not just that known, is a tall and handsome yet skinny soul that has been isolated all his life because of his very strict parents who just recently died. With his little to nothing knowledge about the world, he was overwhelmed when he was left with only one other female presence after Persephone captured him to get a rare gem off his possession. Considering that she's already the greatest agent to walk the earth, Persephone thought the job would be easy. But one look from the Delgado heir and she immediately knew that that mission of her might not be going... the way it should be.

The Horror Game invaded the world. Real players entered the game, and their every move would be broadcast live. My adopted son shoved me—an eighty-eight-year-old woman—straight into a deadly dungeon to save his own skin. One of the comments in the live stream predicted: [What? They’re tossing in such an elderly woman? No way she’s gonna survive the first night!] On the first night, a frost-bitten ghost exhaled icy breath in my face. I shrugged off my thick floral coat, feeling sorry for her. “You poor thing! You must be freezing. Listen to me and bundle up quickly!” The second night, a starving ghost lunged at me with blood dripping down his chin. I sniffed the air, then found a jar of pickled cabbage. “Look at how skinny you are! Come on, let me get you something hot to eat.” On the final day, the last surviving players tied me up, desperate to steal the one ticket to escape. However, before they could touch me, every ghost in the dungeon came storming out, cleavers and rolling pins in hand. “Touch her, and you’re dead meat!”

All her life, Calla Hayes has been invisible, the awkward neighbor girl with tangled hair and a frame too skinny to be noticed. Until the night of her eighteenth birthday, when the Moon Goddess reveals her fated mate: her arrogant stepbrother, Lucas Blackwell, the pack’s golden bad boy. But instead of claiming her, he rejects her in front of everyone. Humiliated and heartbroken, Calla runs only to awaken a power inside her no one in the pack can ignore. Now, two dangerous men want her. On hand there’s Lucas, the stepbrother who spurned her, now unable to resist her new strength, and Darius, her childhood neighbor and best friend’s protective older brother, whoshe has always crushed on. One is her fated mate. The other is her forbidden desire. Both are willing to burn the pack to have her. Calla’s no longer the ugly duckling. She’s the storm that will either break their world or remake it.

**This book is the second book in the Billionaire series. It can be read as a standalone novel, but it is highly suggested that you read The Billionaire’s First Glance prior to this novel.** I, Zander Cavanaugh, the all-American football quarterback, have done something that could get me killed. I fell in love with the brilliant, curvy mafia princess Isabella Aventini at first sight. Everything about Isabella called to me: her captivating blue eyes, her soft caramel skin, every dip and curve of her voluptuous body was just the start. Isabella was smart, kind, and funny. The kind of girl you can’t help but fall in love with. I know she felt the same way as I did. We were drawn together like magnets, but that’s not how the mafia works. Isabella is a commodity to be sold or brokered for the sake of alliances and has been promised to the ruthless and cutthroat DeMarco family since birth — a fate she neither wants nor needs. Isabella’s father, Mafia Don Salvatore Aventini, has managed to keep us apart by sending Isabella away to finish high school. However, when fates aligned, Isabella not only ended up attending the same university as me, but she’s also my college-assigned tutor. I know there is no chance for us, and still I fell in love with her, knowing it could mean my death.