Slow Pacing

"Tell me, Mr Blue. Was it worth it? Is it worth it? Will it be worth it?" It wasn't and it never will be. Not in Erin's eyes tinted blue. Not in the eyes of the hopeless young man doomed to the clutches of fate; doomed to eternal pain. Did beauty lie between the cracks of fate? Does the Moon know of the Sun who died every night to let the Moon breathe? Erin, a poor, hospital bound boy just wants to be like everyone else, to love someone. Every day, he escapes to the virtual world with his wings of freedom, creating his own reality where things goes the way he wants. That world gave him a real, painless body, with infinite possibilities. Life got that much harder when, Uriel, a rich boy enters this realm and steals Erin’s world. The man who says the ugliest of words with the smoothest of tones. Does he help Erin, or dig him deeper? OR Erin wanted love and got pain instead. Things changed, and so did Uriel. INCLUDES: futuristic virtual reality, Persian mythology (minor), romance, sci-fi, slow burn, enemies to friends to lovers, rich/poor dynamic, mythology, distance, cold families, battles, quests, stars and moon metaphor. WARNING: includes mentions of depression, swearing, and sexually explicit content.

He’s the alpha king, my crush, my guardian. And he’s 20 years older than me. ** “How old are you?” “T-Twenty,” I bit my lower lip, stuttering on the lie. “I’m an adult.” I trembled but turned my head, allowing him to drag his nose along my neck and breathe in my scent. I didn’t know what I smelled like to him. Did I smell like I was lying? I held still. He shifted just a bit, seemingly retreating, and I flung my arms around his neck, holding him down. “Please, Alpha King,” I said. My voice trembled even as I tried to sound sultry. “I’m… sure I can please you.” “Do you know what happens when you lie to the Alpha King, little girl?” He knew. I should have known that he would know I wasn’t twenty. “You seem so deliberate, but I’m not interested in your offer. How about we play a game?” “A-A game?” He narrowed his eyes and gave me a slow, cruel smile. “If you win, I’ll grant you sanctuary.” My eyes widened with a spark of hope. “But if you lose….”

At that moment a slow song came on and Aurora got close to him. "What are you doing?" he asked and backed away. "Just go along with it." she took his hands and placed them on her hips. Aurora put her arms around his shoulders and they swayed to the music. Her head rested on him and he simply followed her lead and they stayed like that for a while. Aurora didn't realize how exhausted she had been until she did that. For the past few days, so many things had happened and all this time she was pushing herself to keep going. She was especially tired after having to straighten her hair for hours. "Aurora," Caden called her gently. "Something needs to happen. I just saw another one of them enter." "Hmm," she murmured. Her arms felt weighed down on his shoulders. She felt like she was being swaddled. "Don't tell me you're getting tired?" he asked. Aurora chuckled. "I would not be this tired if it weren't for you. You're so big and you smell good. Where did you get your cologne by the way? I want it." Aurora looked at him and he was already looking down at her.

"You should be scared," I whispered, brushing my fingertips along her spine, slow and teasing, then down over the swell of her ass. My palm lingered, gripping one cheek possessively. "Because you've just given yourself to the devil." I leaned down, my lips brushing her ear. “And the devil? He doesn’t believe in mercy." .... I should have known better than to sign his contract. My new husband was never meant to be real. He was supposed to be a name on paper, a shield against the vultures circling my late husband's empire. An arrangement with an expiration date. But Killian Cross doesn't let go. He's ruthless, obsessive, and dangerously possessive. The kind of man who doesn't just own his empire. He owns everything in his grasp. And now, that includes me. I thought I could play his game and walk away unscathed. I was wrong. Because my contract husband has made one thing clear. I belong to him now. But what happens when the shadows surrounding him become my prison? What if love isn’t enough for the hell awaiting us? Will I be able to save him when he needs me? Or will we both drown in the raging tempest?

WARNING!!! - Adult story (21+) - Slow burn romance (alur lambat) ***** Airin terkenal sebagai wanita baik-baik, dia anak yang sangat berbakti kepada kedua orang tua. Airin tidak pernah sekalipun membantah apapun yang orang tuanya perintahkan. Termasuk ketika Bapak dan Ibu menyuruhnya menikah dengan seorang pendatang kaya raya di desa mereka, Tuan Saka Januar Pradipta. Airin tidak masalah kalau Tuan Saka masih lajang, tapi pria berusia 33 tahun itu telah memiliki 3 istri. Yang artinya, Airin... akan jadi yang keempat. Namun apakah akan sesederhana itu? Tentu saja tidak. Karena Airin menolak menjadi wanita yang tertindas. Sifat yang selama ini mati-matian dia tutupi dari orang-orang perlahan mulai muncul. Airin bukanlah gadis baik seperti yang selama ini mereka pikirkan. Dia licik dan manipulatif, sayangnya tidak ada yang menyadari itu karena wajah polosnya. Kecuali... kecuali tentu saja Tuan Saka yang terhormat. Di hadapan suaminya itu, Airin tidak pernah bisa menutupi apapun. *** Start : 31/12/20 Finish : 31/08/21 2020 by Asia July

The day before our wedding, Luke Murray got wasted. On the ride home, he looked right at me and slurred, "Cassie, don't bring the kid to the ceremony. Arya can't know I'm the dad." I hit the brakes. Hard. He smacked into the seatback, halfway sobering up. When he finally realized it was me, he just... froze. Then he said real slow, "Guess you heard. Wedding's off—for now. Cassie doesn't want marriage, but the kid's mine, so I gotta step up. She's your bestie, right? You probably feel bad she's doing this alone. So once he's in school, I'll come back and marry you." I let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "...That's fine. I don't mind." He didn't say a word when we got home—just grabbed his suitcase and left. I wiped the last tear off my face, sat on the bed, and just stared at nothing. Then my phone lit up. My childhood friend's voice cracked on the other end. "Arya, don't marry him. Please." I didn't say anything for a sec. "Okay."

“Take it off, dusha moya.” His voice was a low, feral growl against my ear. His kisses trailed down my neck—slow, claiming, deliberate. His gaze burned where it landed… on my ring. The ring my husband gave me. The husband who wasn’t him. “Why?” I whispered, breathless. Cassian’s lips brushed my chest, hot and possessive. “I don’t want any trace of him on you while I fuck you.” The ring slid off my finger. The jewel hit the floor. And my world shattered all over again. — Elara Mei was the perfect daughter—obedient, quiet, raised to follow orders without question. Even when it meant breaking her own heart by leaving Cassian Ivanov. Years later, her father signs a contract with the powerful Ivanov family. The price? Her marriage to their second son. She accepts. Like she always does. Until she discovers the truth— Her new husband’s brother is the man she once loved. The man she never stopped loving. The man who will burn the world to claim her back. Caught between loyalty and desire, duty and obsession, Elara must make an impossible choice: The man she’s bound to by contract… or the man who owns her heart, her body, and her ruin?

Arranged marriage, age-gap, forbidden love, enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, Romeo and Juliet vibes, family saga, Mafia/cartel romance, slow burn, redemption, morally gray hero, dangerous romance The Roríguez cartel is spinning out of control, tragedy putting the alliance and our future in question. I’m Emiliano Ruiz and throughout the last few years, I’ve witnessed my sisters being doled out to members of the Luciano Mafia. The cartel has also taken famiglia women. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Luciano famiglia’s turn to take a bride. My mind is set—it’s my turn. I never imagined marrying a young bride until I caught sight of Isabella Luciano. She’s only eighteen, and with her long yellow hair and big brown eyes, she’s a vision to behold. She sees me, however, through the tinted lens of her father’s hatred. Carmine Luciano’s disdain of the cartel and the alliance isn’t a secret. His opinion won’t stop me. I’ll prove to Isabella that even bad men can be good husbands. No matter what her father says or what happens in our war, Isabella will be mine. Have you been Aleatha’d?

She Was Just the Nanny… Until She Became His Everything. After losing everything in one night… her career, her home and the man she loved, Veronica Hales thought her life couldn’t get any worse. Framed by her stepsister, betrayed by her boyfriend and tossed into the streets, she had no choice but to start over from nothing. But fate intervenes when she saves a mute little girl from a speeding car, unaware that the girl’s father is Leonard Armani, the reclusive billionaire who secretly owns the mansion and wealth her ex-boyfriend has been flaunting as his own. When Leonard offers her a job as his daughter’s nanny, Veronica accepts, determined to rebuild her life quietly. Yet the deeper she becomes part of Angel’s world, the harder it is to ignore the slow, burning tension between her and the mysterious man who signs her paychecks. Leonard, wounded by a past betrayal and haunted by distrust, swore never to love again. But the warmth Veronica brings into his home and his heart awakens something he thought he’d buried forever. As secrets unravel and old lies return to destroy them both, Veronica must choose: walk away again or fight for the love she never saw coming. She Entered His Mansion With Nothing. She Left With His Heart.

“Fine,” I heard myself say, the word tasting like rust. “You want an open marriage? We’ll do open.” A slow smile curved his mouth—victory, not warmth. “Good girl. Then I suppose you won’t mind if I reintroduce Kisha.” The camera panned. There she was, curled on what I now realized was our hotel suite couch, her legs tucked under a cashmere throw that used to be mine. She waved, manicured nails glinting, belly softly rounded under a silk camisole. My world tilted. I forced a smile that felt like glass. “So she’s your girlfriend?” Daniel’s hand settled possessively on that gentle swell. “Not just my girlfriend,” he said, eyes locked on mine. “The mother of my unborn child.” Jayla Carmichael smiles for the cameras as the perfect senator's wife while her world burns. But queens don't kneel. They conquer. Fueled by whiskey and wrath, Jayla ensnares Warren Christopher, a brooding billionaire CEO, after saving his empire in a bar-side twist of fate. Love was the first lie. Revenge is the foreplay, and the truth? it's coming for them all...naked, ruthless and dripping in karma. Will Jayla's vengeance destroy her soul or will warrens fire forge something eternal?. This book isn't just romance, it's war with benefits.