Smiles Softly

Letta Letishia finally found herself living in luxury and wealth. However, it wasn't all she had hoped for. She obtained it all at the cost of marrying a man who would become the father of the child conceived from their one-night stand. This relationship completely changed Letta's life. The man was Marco Jovanka, a CEO of the airline company JV Airlines, where Letta worked as a flight attendant. The forced marriage transformed Letta's life 180 degrees, bringing the ups and downs of life and the story with Marco. Although everything initially seemed normal to Letta, everything changed when Letta had to lose the fetus she carried on her own wedding day with Marco. The heaviest loss and pain had to be borne by Letta alone as Marco blamed everything on her. Marco considered Letta the cause of the potential loss of the child he had been anticipating. Marco promised to punish Letta for her wrongdoing, making Letta feel like a prisoner in the large house that felt like a prison. There were no more smiles, friendly gestures, or attention from Marco, However, an incident made Marco realize his fear of losing Letta. His body trembled when he saw Letta covered in blood, especially when Letta fell into a coma with their second fetus. Marco was afraid that Letta would never wake up again, or even worse, hate him. This dilemma made Marco feel incapable of facing it. However, fate sided with Marco again when Letta regained consciousness from the coma but lost all her memories. This allowed Marco to plan a happy marriage for both of them. This is the second season of Marco and Letta's story, titled "Trapped: I Can't Escape from the Billionaire." The first season can be read under the title "Trapped: Pregnant with a Billionaire's Child."

Blurb **She's promised to his brother... but branded by his touch. And now the past refuses to stay buried.** *** **SIENNA** I thought I buried that night. The night I gave myself to a stranger. Reckless and wild. No names. No rules. No future. Just heat. Desperation. A body that made me forget who I was supposed to be. Now I wear his brother's ring. Planning a future with the man I'm supposed to love. Then he walks into my engagement party and everything shatters. Landon Callahan. The black sheep. The rebel. The man who touched me before I knew his name. He acts like I never existed. Like that night was nothing. But I remember every breath. Every broken rule. Every moment I came alive. I should walk away. Should marry Noah and forget. But Landon has always been the fire I was never meant to touch twice. *** ** **LANDON** She was never supposed to be his. The night I had her, I didn't ask her name. Didn't want to know. I just knew I'd never forget the way she looked at me. Like I was the only thing she ever wanted. Then I walk into the engagement party I should have skipped. And see her standing beside my brother. Now I'm back in the world I swore I'd left behind. And she's the one thing I can't outrun. She wears his ring. Smiles like she hasn't been in my bed. Pretends I never made her come undone. But I remember. And so does she. One night should have been the end. Instead it was only the beginning. Because I don't let go of what's mine. Not even for my brother.

He stares into her eyes like a mirror. He tears his shirt and she bites down on her lip as his body seduces her. He puts an arm around her and draws her close to his body. Rachael’s heart pounds in her chest like a drum. She can feel his hot breath against her neck. “Rachael,” she hears a familiar and alluring voice. Rachael can hear Samuel’s voice but she cannot see him. “I want to hold your small hands and kiss them,”. She feels little kisses on her fingers. “I want to touch you,” his voice says and she closes her eyes. Rachael feels a soft hand press hard against her nipple and she lets out a moan. She raises her head to see Gabriel still looking at her. He bends and kisses her neck, he nibbles her neck and traces his way to her collar bone. Gabriel smiles as Rachael’s body grows weak against his. He says something but Rachael cannot hear his words. His mouth moves but he has no voice. “Rachael,” Samuel’s voice calls out to her, a voice without a body. Rachael is a girl trying to come to terms with her father’s death. Things seem normal until she meets the twin supernatural. Things change when the twins develop feelings towards her. Bonds are tested between them as they long for her all the while running from Dracula. Rachael learns about her family secrets. She endures pain and finds courage in her journey. The twins face Dracula in a grand finale and their love for Rachael will be tested with a heavy sacrifice. Secrets will be discovered. Bonds will be tested. Will Rachael survive her new chaotic world?

Elena had once believed that silence could mean safety. That a gentle hand and a warm cup of tea placed quietly on her desk every morning could be a form of love. Lucien was never cruel—not in the obvious ways. He remembered how she liked her eggs, noticed when she swapped her perfume, and sent flowers on days he knew she wouldn’t expect them. He raised her like one would raise a pet—softly, without question. And Elena, foolish in the way only the very lonely can be, mistook his quiet affection for devotion. She told herself he was reserved. Mysterious. That love didn’t always wear its heart on its sleeve. But when the old flame returned—the one who spoke his language without needing to try—Elena saw it. The difference. He looked at her like a man who had found his lost religion. And Elena? She had simply been convenient. No tears, no scene. Just papers on the breakfast table, beside the eggs he cooked perfectly. She didn’t accuse or beg. She only asked for freedom. He didn’t sign. He chuckled. A soft, dismissive sound. “A cat raised indoors doesn’t know how to survive on the street, Elena. You’ll come back." But she didn’t. She disappeared, like smoke—except she didn’t vanish, not really. She lived. She wore colour again. Laughed at bad jokes. Let strange men hand her coffee and ask for her number. Lucien? He watched. He watched her become someone without him. And it drove him mad. The night he cornered her outside the gallery, rain in his hair and desperation in his eyes, he looked like a man undone. "Elena," he breathed, "please. Look at me. Just once." She did. Calm as ever, and her love already gone.

"Stop it, Ethan! Stop doing this to me!" I wished I could utter those words, but my body betrayed me. His touch alone made me lose all connection with my senses. Internally, I screamed for freedom as his seductive kisses rendered me tongue-tied. I was tired of being treated like a mere sex toy by this man, yet my body continually danced to the rhythm of his waist. I let him have his way, gasping softly, my lips defying all moral sanity. After a few rounds of pleasure, he pushed himself off me, put on his pants, and walked out the door as if I meant nothing. The realization hit me hard: I shouldn't have let this happen. I should have stood my ground this time and not succumbed to his wishes. I picked up my clothes, the last pieces of dignity left in me. "Ethan!" I yelled, chasing after him. "Please wait!" "What is it, woman?" he halted, looking disgusted by my presence. "We're married, for crying out loud! You can't keep treating me like trash. Tell me what I did wrong. Tell me if there's anything I should change about myself. I'm willing to do anything, please, Ethan. To make this marriage work, I'm willing to do whatever you want. Just don't pick her over me again!" I sobbed, halfway on my knees, begging with my hands clenched to his trousers. --- Elizabeth Douglas, a young heiress, finds herself falling for her father's driver, Ethan Haynes. But there's a twist - Ethan is already engaged to Stella. Just when Lizzy decides to walk away, she uncovers a shocking betrayal that changes everything. Get ready for a story of untold secrets, broken ties, new alliances, romance, revenge, and a love that refuses to be forgotten.

“It's just me who can protect you!" Ethan yells as he slams Valentina against the wall, before she can move away, his body has covered the distance in an instant, and he brings his face extremely close to hers, his minty breath fanning her face. "With my power, no one in school can dare to hurt you, ever again.” Valentina couldn't believe her ears, her eyes blinked back fearfully, she had never dreamt that Ethan would one day try to "protect her" He is a hypocrite, silence hung briefly between them and a certain anger surged through her. “You mean the same power you used against me? Do you think you're any different from the rest of them?" She asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper. Ethan frowned and he gripped her shoulders tightly pressing her even harder into the wall, Valentina squeezed her eyes shut from fear. "I don't care what you say, Val." He whispers against her face, he grabs her jaw roughly and she winces slightly in surprise. "You won't be leaving here anytime soon." Valentina Chandler is a teenager suffering from depression and abuse from everyone around her, but despite that she struggles to get through every day, the more she tries to live a normal life, the more impossible it gets with the hope of one day having a "better life". Then there is Ethan Lords, a powerful school figure no one dared to cross and her mortal enemy who would stop at nothing to make her life more miserable. But what happens when he suddenly stops to bully her and he tells her he needs to protect her? What dangers lie ahead for Valentina? What does Ethan see that she doesn't? Who is he trying to protect her from?

"Take my life but don't ruin my soul, please... I...I am a widow, " Tears streamed down from her eyes watching that sinister man hovering over her and she softly hissed, when he slightly pressed the tip of the knife against her chin. "I didn't take your husband's life in front of your own eyes so that I could let you go, " And her gaze got befuddled when she had found him to wipe the that knife against those tears in the corner of her eyes which made her fear to engulf her more vigorously because she thought he was going to pierce it into her skin because she had seen him taking uncountable number of lives with no remorse. She again shut her lashes and waited to feel the sharp pain of her skin penetration but in the very next second, she felt the knife to get apart from her skin and warm drops of liquid falling on her lips and her eyes got opened when that liquid proceeded inside her parted lips and her tongue felt that metallic taste and see saw his palm bleeding. She teared up like a child by watching his soul quivering smirk. "Leave me.. Lea..." Her words got stuck into her throat when she felt his palm to grab her jaw which made her stirred and then she looked into his flaming darken eyes with her redden watery ones and her body turned numb ,feeling his palm getting inside her panties whereas, her eyes never stopped shedding tears . "Why? " That question fell out from her mouth which was reeking over her whole existence. Why was she going to endure all of that and why was she fated to get ruined by him ? "Because I am insane for you…." *DARK ROMANCE*

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

I shoot without any kind of fear, with violence, I advance in the lair of the Romans that I hate so much, while I protect my belly. The confrontation is complicated, because we have the same level and weapons, but, if I have come here, it is because I want to end right now with the hatred that has prevented us from advancing. My babies in my belly move and I transform into a wolf to advance quickly through the place, until I collide with a big wolf that makes me angry. The man transforms into a human and smiles at me. “I didn't think you would be so vindictive. It was just a little rejection, Rain, you should let me go.” Lake says, the man that in the past, I loved with my soul. The desire to transform into a human and shoot him flashes through my mind, but I can't give myself away. So, I jump to bite his neck, but, he grabs me in his arms and throws me to the other end of the room, where one of my men grabs me and I, out of shock, transform into a human. “Are you all right?” my bodyguard asks worriedly and I nod in fear. “Are you pregnant?” Lake asks in a daze, looking at my bulging belly. 'Oh, no. Now he knows. Darn.' I mentally tell myself with worry. “'That baby... “If you came to talk, you can talk in hell.” I say shooting at him and he doesn't dodge my bullet, but, instead, rushes towards me. “It's my son, isn't it?” Lake asks. “I don't have to answer anything you ask me; our connection was broken when you rejected me as your moon.” I say coldly.

When Rocco Morelli, a mafia don, finds me, it's when I'm working as a stripper at an illegal bar, pleasing the men around me with sultry smiles and provocative dances. He throws his jacket over me and grabs me by the jaw, saying, "Come home with me." From that day onward, I fell in love with Rocco. After doting on me for five years, he proposes to me. Yet, in the month leading up to the wedding, he suddenly disappears. I launch a frenzied search for him before eventually seeing him in a jewelry boutique. With his arm wrapped around the dolled-up woman beside him, he picks out a 20-carat wedding ring. That woman is Emilia Leone, who is my father's illegitimate daughter. He stares at her, his eyes filled with affection. "I'll prepare the grandest wedding ceremony for you." "What about Cassandra?" Emilia asks with a coy smile. "You proposed to her, too." Snorting, Rocco replies scornfully, "Can't you tell? That's just my way of toying with her. Her older brother nearly took your life. Now that he's gone missing, it's only right for her to suffer the consequences in his place. "On our wedding day, I'll abandon her at the altar and marry you instead. She'll become the laughingstock in all of Langshore. Only you, the daughter of the Leone family, the largest mafia family, are worthy of me." The wedding day arrives, and I skip out on the ceremony as well. At Rocco and Emilia's wedding ceremony, I broadcast 99 photos of Emilia fooling around with other men. He panics and tearfully begs for me to return to him, but I take the gun my brother hands me and point it at his head, saying, "Actually, I'm the real daughter of the Leone family."