Smile Like An Idiot

The woman dreamed of sleeping on an incredibly soft and comfortable bed. Her skin was pampered by the smoothness of the vast expanse of fabric. Perhaps she was lying on a giant fluffy marshmallow. The pleasure made her smile, a wide grin that revealed her white teeth. Her hands moved around on the bed, enjoying the comfortable touch between her skin and the oh-so-soft fabric. When was the last time she enjoyed such a soft and comfortable bed? She wasn't sure. Maybe it was during her last business trip to London. Back then, Big Boss had rented a luxurious suite for her to stay in with his only child who couldn't be far from his daddy. The business trip felt more like taking care of a toddler. No, actually, she was taking care of two toddlers - Big Boss's favorite child and Big Boss himself, the big baby who was more troublesome than his little daughter, Nora. Hmn! The difference was that on this comfortable bed, she could get a good quality sleep. There were no interruptions from Big Boss's children, no annoying single daddy shouting.

"Mrs. Gardner, are you sure you want to hire our team to stage a fire and fake your death in ten days?" Camellia Shaw paused for a moment. Just as she was about to reply to the message, a video call suddenly popped up. "Camellia, look! Andres is spending a fortune on you again!" The video was of an auction in progress. At the front, a man of striking elegance and charm was decisively bidding on several antique collectibles worth hundreds of millions. The crowd was already abuzz with excitement. "Mr. Gardner is so good to his wife! He bought all these antiques just to make her smile!" "$400 million is nothing! I heard Mr. Gardner even built her a private estate and named it Eterna Haven. Just the name alone is proof of how much he loves her." A wealthy businessman nearby sneered. "It's all for show. Who knows what he's really like behind closed doors?" That comment immediately sparked a wave of backlash. Many argued back, talking about how devoted Andres Gardner was to his wife. As she listened to their murmurs, Camellia forced a bitter smile.

Kaliya Ortiz is the illegitimate daughter of the Reyes family who handles businesses around the country. Treated like a nobody in her own family she grew up to be a quiet woman, always hidden in plain sight. Caleb Cruz is the man behind the DY group that dominated the country’s economy. A known business figure and a bachelor on top of that. Many women attempted to make him theirs but the unmoving Caleb wasn’t easy to seduce. Fate somehow seemed to toy the two and decided to play Cupid. "Will you marry me?” "What can you give me then?" She frowned, seemingly lost in thought and then said, "I can give you money." "I'm not in need of money." "Then a house?" "I already have one." "A beautiful wife." He laughed but wasn't convinced. "That certainly is a good catch but..." he trailed off. "It's tempting but no." The woman stared at him, unsmiling. "Then my body?" His smile didn't fade. "Do you want to give it to me?" An encounter leads them to a tangle of messes and to contracts and maybe… towards love.

Ava thought that everyone in the world was just like another. Only caring about their interests. But when she was about to die alone on the streets, the man sitting in front of her had appeared like a guardian angel. His gentleness and concern had made her death not so painful and her life not so pathetic. Through him, she had felt that world could be a beautiful place. And now that she had been given another chance at life, the first thing she did was to find him. She looked at the man that she only knew of his name said through gritted teeth, “Sir, I know that we barely know each other, but as fate has it, I have to marry you!” Leo looked at the little woman sitting opposite him and smiled, “Well, if you were a man, I would say that you definitely have some extra balls. But since you are such a beautiful lady, I would just have to reluctantly agree.” Ava blushed when she heard the man. She never knew that she would one day ask a man to marry her. She said with the sweetest smile,“But before that, I have some personal business to take care of. I hope you don’t mind that I am almost a divorcee.” “Your past has nothing to do with me. Once you become mine, there will be no room for regret even if you want to.”

They say love is blind. But in a world like his, blindness is a luxury. Aurelio De Luca. A devil. He doesn't believe in love — to him, it is a beautiful lie. He alone is the truth — and the truth is brutal. Cold. Calculated. To him, emotion is nothing more than a weakness. Until her. Snow. The moment he laid his eyes on her, something stirred within him — something dark, wild, and utterly uncontrollable. She doesn't make him soft — she makes him want. She's everything he isn't. Everything he doesn't want. Pure. Innocent. Her beauty haunts him. Her smile torments him. Her beauty? A curse. Her softness? A poison. She makes his body burn with a desire he cannot extinguish. She's everything his world has poisoned. He's never been this out of control. Aurelio is bound by a contract — a cold, unyielding rule that forbids him to fall in love. She doesn't understand the rules. She doesn't understand that to fall for him is to play with death. But she wants him — her desire becoming a threat to him and the entire Italian mafia. But Snow, like fire burns with an untamed desire — a desire he can't contain. He doesn't fall in love... But he's about to fall into an obsession. No, not fall. He's walking into an obsession.

"She will come back," she promised. "She just needs time to sort her head out." "Not her heart?" The dry distinction made Charley wince. "I'm sure she loves you," she persisted. "She's just not ready to commit to marriage." If you just give her time, then I— Black eyebrows with a fascinating silken gloss gave her a curious look. "Are you actually standing there, Miss Jones, suggesting that I should wait for Adelina to sort her head out?" Well, was she? Lifting her chin, "If you love her—yes," she insisted. "Then you are a romantic fool because it is not going to happen." He moved suddenly, straightening away from the desk. "There is a wedding arranged for next Saturday morning, and I intend to make sure that it goes ahead." Without a bride? Charley stared at him. "You mean—you're going to find her and drag her back to marry you?" A silly kind of laugh left her throat at the very image of Adelina being dragged by this man down the church aisle, kicking and screaming. ‘No.’ Reaching behind him, his long fingers picked Adelina's letter up again—this time to fold it with slow, neat precision. "I mean to replace her with someone else."I want reparation for being taken for an idiot, and if that means putting you in Adelina's wedding dress and marrying you in her place, then that is what is going to happen."

I dated my younger brother’s best friend, Dylan Lane, for three years. More than once, he told me how much he loathed arranged marriages and how he hated being chained by family interests. However, one night, after another bout of indulgence, he wrapped his arms around me and begged me sweetly to design a wedding ring for his fiancée—someone he had never even met. The smile froze on my face, yet he just said indifferently, “Aren’t people like us all destined to marry for our families' benefit?” Seeing the blood drain from my face, he even chuckled. “Vee, don’t you tell me you're still as naïve as a 20-year-old girl, thinking I would ever marry you? At most, we're just… pillow friends." Later, I agreed to the marriage my family had arranged for me. Dylan showed up on my wedding day, disheveled and red-eyed. He fell to his knees and begged me not to leave. I stood beside my new husband, hand in hand, and smiled faintly as I chuckled. “Didn’t you say people like us were born for arranged marriages? I’m simply doing what you always wanted me to do. Shouldn’t you be happy?”

“Me?” I asked, a smile playing on my lips. “You already have me.” His response was immediate, like he had been waiting forever to say the words. “Not the way I want. Not the way that matters.” ******** I sat in a bar, determined to drown out every single one of my sorrows after my marriage came to a painful crash, but he strolled in, all seductive smiles and an accent that rippled through me. Theon Murphy, a man made of dark chocolate, velvet kisses, and sin. That one night wasn’t supposed to happen, and I wasn’t supposed to walk into my first day of work to find my one-night lover seeking a care nurse for his grandfather. Me. Now we’re forced into a fake relationship that feels all too real, and every time he kisses me, the world stops and stills like a chaotic painting. When he makes a declaration, expressing his need to love me for real; would I be able to take the tattered fragments of my heart and piece them into something that deserves his love, or would the external forces creeping in on us arrive before I can make up my mind? My Billionaire Rebound is a book wrapped in layers of seduction, indecision and the crippling need to belong to someone trustworthy. Would Alina finally find her happily ever after? Or does fate have one more cruel twist up its sleeve?

After Elias began working under Kael, his feelings for the aloof prince deepened every day. “What’s wrong with you?” Kael asked, reaching to feel Elias’ forehead. But Elias looked stuttered, avoiding his touch. “Please… don’t.” “Why are you acting like I want to eat you up? I’m not that desperate.” Kael scoffed, turning away. Elias followed silently, his head bowed. Kael stopped suddenly, and Elias bumped into him. “Why are you trailing me like some love struck puppy? Stop following me around, I don't need you to do anything for me.” “I just want to be near you.” “Why? Don’t tell me you’ve fallen in love with me.” Kael smirked. “What if I have?” Elias said, raising his gaze. Kael’s smile faltered. He assumed it was a cruel joke. “Don’t cross that line. You’re the same guy who reported me for being gay. What—suddenly you're in love now?” “I mean it. I’ve truly fallen for you. Tell me how to prove it.” “Enough. Just leave.” But it wasn’t that simple. Elias regretted ever reporting Kael before. Now that his wolf had found its mate, everything had changed.

"No, This is a mistake! A wolfless, overweight werewolf can't be my mate." His words hit me hard; Whispers erupted from the crowd, murmurs of disbelief and judgement that swirled me like a storm. But I won't let them see how much it hurts. I won't give him the satisfaction. I square my shoulders, forcing a smile that feels like it's going to crack my face. "Well, Bran, I guess the Moon Goddess has a sense of humour after all," I say, despite the pain running through me. "Too bad she didn't give you one." Everywhere is silent now, shocked by my words. Bran's eyes are turning red from anger. But I hold my ground, refusing to let him see how much I'm breaking inside. "Talia," he begins, but I cut him off before he can say more. He was going to reject me anyway. "Don't worry, Bran," I say, sarcastically. "I'm sure there's some loophole you can find to get out of this. After all, you can't have someone like me ruining your perfect reputation, right?" The tension in the air is suffocating, and I can see uncertainty in Bran's eyes. He wasn't me to fight back. And for a moment, I wonder if he's reconsidering, if the bond is pulling at him the same way it's pulling at me. But then he turns away, "This conversation is over, Talia. You should leave." Talia, a wolfless wolf in her pack has been a mocking object in her Pack just because she's fat, wolfless and eats like a glutton. Her situation turned worse when the Moon Goddess decided to give her Alpha Bran, their Pack 's Alpha as a mate. He rejected her on the spot. What would be Talia's fate after the rejection? Let's see.