Standing Ovations

My ex-husband Giacomo and my brother's widow, Zoya, are the reason I went to prison. Seven years. Gone. I crunched leaves on the way to Carlo's grave and—of course—they're there. Together. Right in front of his headstone. "Jessica?" His voice shook. Fake surprise. He wiped his eye like that meant something. "I've been looking for you for seven years. I thought you... were gone. "Where have you been all these years? Why didn't you ever contact me?" I said nothing. He kept going. "You're still mad about what happened? I had my reasons." 'Reasons?' I looked at him. Almost laughed. He and Carlo's woman killed Carlo. Framed me, kicked me out, and sent me to prison. He took half my life. And now he's talking about reasons—standing at Carlo's grave. But seven years of torment burned everything down. Love. Hate. All of it.

"Marianne, it's finally time for you to pay me back what you owe me." the cold man sitting on the sofa said to me. "Please Sir, a little more time is what I ask for, I'll get your money back as soon as possible." I pleaded tearfully. "You don't need to pay money." he smiled and looked at the man standing beside him. The man moved closer and placed a neatly fold brown envelope on my palm. "We have filled in for you, today you'll be going to sign in as Xander's next mistress in Xander's mansion and what you'll have to do there is just simple." the evil man started. I listened attentively even though I was almost shitting on myself. "Do everything you can to make sure Mr Xander Knox falls for you, then break his heart" My heart stopped squeezed immediately he said the word. How was I supposed to make a cold man like Xander Knox fall for me?

Eunice was happy when she married the man she loved, but she was also having a hard time dealing with him. Despite this, she cared for him and endured everything, as they had gotten married for the sake of their parents' wishes and their company. She hoped that one day her husband would learn to love her and accept their marriage, but she was wrong; he paid more attention to his ex than to her. One night, Eunice was surprised to see her husband standing in front of her room drunk. He suddenly pulled her into the room, and they had sex. She gave herself to him even though he was drunk. A month later, Eunice found out she was pregnant. Afraid that her husband would not believe her and would reject their child, she chose to stay away and walked away without saying anything about her pregnancy. A few years later, Eunice returned with their child. If their paths crossed again and destiny reunited them, what would Eunice do? Would she tell the truth that they have a child, or would she choose to keep it a secret?

Just as Justin proposed to me, a phone call interrupted him. Standing close by, I clearly heard the voice on the other end of the line. “Justin, I’m hurt. My leg hurts so much!” Justin snapped the ring box shut and looked at me. “Alice is injured. I’ll have to do this another time.” With those words, he sprinted away, leaving everyone around us staring in astonishment. I had never met Alice, but her presence lingered in every corner of our lives.  At meals, Justin would mention her fondness for sweet desserts.  When I dressed, I came to know her love for soft lavender hues. I argued, I wept, I lashed out, but Justin always countered with the same line. “You’re so jealous. Everyone has their first love. She’s my past, but you’re my future.” So, I turned to a man who had once called me his first love—Quentin—and made a bold proposition. “Let’s get married.”

After an explosion in Philadelphia, Mike loses his mother while his fiance, Rose , is at the verge of dying. He vows within himself to take up the fight and put and end to the national crisis. His best friend, Steve who was a brother stood with him in the fight. He goes through too many life seeking encounters in his course to know the truth behind the crisis. But he is stunned by a strange discovery. The head of the secret organization behind the crisis happened to be his biological father who his mother had left pathways to find. Was he going to put an end to his own father? While battling with this reality, he also finds out that his best friend, Steve, was not who he thought him to be. Steve was a traitor who was sent by his father to keep an eye on him. Justice demands that he end his father and best friend, Steve while bond calls on him to do otherwise. While standing at this crossroad, an outbreak of a deadly virus sought to wipe the whole country. Will this be the end of the United States of America? The answer now rested upon his shoulders.

Aj needs big money for her father's medication and operation, then he meets a guy and offers her a job that can make her problems solved. She needs to sign a marriage contract and be the wife of the lawyer's client. She doesn't know who her husband is, neither name nor age. Then suddenly someone knocked on her door, a man is standing in front of her, wearing a suit. The man introduced himself as her bodyguard. She had no choice but to accept him. When they started to live together in her husband's house, She became uneasy because of her bodyguard. He makes her uncomfortable because her feelings and desire for him are starting to build up. They happened to have a one-night stand because of her, he stopped her, but she wanted to feel him. That's when she started to have an affair with her mysterious bodyguard. But what if she found out the real identity of her bodyguard? Would she stop wanting him, or would she still let him own her?

My mate-to-be, Ethan, said he had some urgent work come up right before our planned full moon trip. He bailed. I was missing him like crazy, so I immediately drove for over ten hours to his city. I hadn’t told Ethan I was coming. There I was, flowers in hand, standing outside his mansion, ready to give my destined mate a sweet surprise. But then I caught the mixed scent of Ethan and another female werewolf. The scent was sickeningly familiar. Amber Collins. Ethan’s ex-mate. I fought back the burn in my nose, my eyes already red, and pushed the door open. And what did I see? Them, sharing a glass of red wine, cuddled up, practically on top of each other. When Ethan finally noticed me, he jerked his arm away from Amber, walked stiffly over, his voice laced with panic. "Scarlett, why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

After eating a poisonous, hallucination-inducing mushroom, I genuinely thought I’d woken up inside a spicy erotica novel. I was the heroine—a live-in housekeeper working for a rich heir, the kind of impossibly handsome, impossibly wealthy man who only exists in fiction. When I opened my eyes and saw him standing there, I felt… oddly disappointed. I muttered under my breath, “Only six guys? What, do I need to take Sundays off?” The heir let out a short, disbelieving laugh. A slow, dangerous one. “If I’d known you were this bold,” he said, “I wouldn’t have bothered being gentle.” The moment the hallucination faded, I grabbed his sleeve and practically burst into tears. “Honey, I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t mean any of that.” He loosened his tie with maddening calm and murmured, “Relax. No one here takes Sundays off. And if you’re that eager to follow the plot of your little erotica novel… we can start right now.”

They say tough situations don't last, but tough people do. They are bloody liars, whoever said that. My tough situation didn't make me stronger. It pushed me into the arms of Elias Thorne. CEO of Blackwood Holdings. One of the richest men in the country. And, apparently, my fake husband. I'm just a contract wife. A transaction. He needs me to secure his standing in the company. He hates me and I don't care. I need his money, his influence, his resources, anything to save my mother's and sister's life. Forty-five days. Then I walk away. That was the deal. No love or feelings. Just business. But a penthouse is smaller than it looks. And forced proximity has a way of cracking open doors you swore you locked up. He has his own wounds. His own ghosts. And sometimes, when he looks at me, I swear he's not seeing a contract at all. Forty-five days. Either we walk away untouched. Or we burn.

Xavier Blackwood is the man every girl at my college dreams about at night, myself included, but I'd never let anyone know that. Standing at 6'8 with steel grey eyes, he's a walking dream, but he's also a world-renowned jerk. Who would have thought that one night, after dragging myself home after doing double shifts at the diner, I'd be jumped by three men...only to have Xavier come to my rescue. Oh yes, Xavier bloody Blackwood saved my life...but the thing I saw, the CREATURE that ripped those men to shreds wasn't the Xavier everyone knows. He wasn't human... He was a wolf, a demon, a creature from myths, and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen until he attacked me too and knocked me out. Humans that learn about the existence of werewolves have to die. ...There are NO exceptions. The Werewolf Xavier saved me, but now I am condemned to death To make things worse, both Xavier and Axel claim I am their mate ...this can't be good.