Novel & Cerita Stay Close Harlan Coben Summary

Eve’s wedding is just a month away. Her mother's will is clear: If she wants her inheritance, she must marry before she turns twenty-five and have a baby before she turns 27. If she fails, everything goes to the family members who have been using her for years. The problem? She just caught her fiancé sleeping with her stepsister. Heartbroken and running out of time, Eve asks her best friend Devin to marry her. He's her only option and she has always believed that he is gay, so there's no risk of things getting complicated. But Devin has a secret. He has never been gay. He let her believe it because it was the only way to stay close to her. He has been in love with her for seven years. Now they're living together, pretending to be a happy couple to ensure she firmly secures her inheritance. Eve sees Devin as a sister presuming that he is gay and not attracted to her so she doesn’t care about going nude or wearing skimpy clothes in his presence. She invades his personal space using him as her personal stuffed toy. How long will this hot blooded man endure cold showers and blue balls before he confesses? How would he convince her to have a baby with him the natural way without revealing that he is straight? Time is ticking and those who stand to benefit if she fails are not waiting with folded hands.

“Elion,” Brielle’s voice was soft but charged with intent as she stepped closer, her eyes locking onto his. “You keep telling me to stay away, but I see the way you look at me when you think no one’s watching.” She brushed a stray lock of hair from her face, her fingers lingering just a moment longer than necessary. “Maybe it’s time we stop pretending. Maybe it’s time we risk everything—for us.” Elion’s breath hitched, torn between duty and desire. “Brielle, you’re so young… and I’m your Alpha, your guardian. Crossing this line could destroy everything.” She smiled, a mixture of challenge and invitation. “Sometimes the greatest risks lead to the most unforgettable rewards. Don’t you want to see where this could go?” ======= In the shadowed city of Silvercrest, eighteen-year-old Brielle Crest’s rare healing blood marks her as both a miracle and a target. Orphaned by a brutal attack that shattered her family, she is taken in by Elion Zaphiel, the formidable thirty-five-year-old Alpha of the powerful Zaphiel Pack—a man whose protection blurs the line between guardian and something dangerously more. As political alliances tighten and rival packs close in, Brielle and Elion must navigate a forbidden love complicated by their seventeen-year age gap, defying tradition and igniting fierce jealousy within their ranks. With dark magic, deadly enemies, and their own haunted pasts threatening to tear them apart, can their bond survive and change their fate?

Nubia has her life planned out. She is working on her master's degree in post colonial studies. She has a quiet apartment and a schedule she sticks to. Every Wednesday night she finishes class at nine thirty, walks to the bus stop, and waits. The bus is always late. There is always a stranger sitting on the bench. He wears headphones and draws in a sketchbook. He never speaks. She calls him Pencil Boy in her phone and does not think much about it. Then one October night the bus is delayed by forty three minutes. Eli studies architecture but he draws people instead of buildings. He has been sketching Nubia for six weeks without ever saying a word. He is quiet and pays close attention to things. He has learned to keep people at a distance because it feels safer that way. But when the cold night gets to Nubia and he gives her his hoodie, the silence between them finally breaks. What begins as pie at a late night diner turns into a Wednesday night tradition. Then a friendship. Then something much deeper. As Nubia and Eli grow closer, they must face the things that make them different. Race. Class. The dreams they are chasing. The families they come from. And the strong pull of a connection neither of them can ignore. Set over one school year, 43 Minutes is a warm and sensual love story about two people learning to truly see each other. It is about letting yourself be seen. And it is about the moments that change your life in less than an hour but stay with you forever.

"Please… stop pushing. I can't move." The concert crowd was packed and restless, bodies pressed tightly together. I found myself too close to the girl in front of me. She wore a short skirt that brushed against me every time the crowd surged. What caught my attention was how close we were: the faint warmth of her body through the thin fabric made my pulse quicken. For a brief moment, I thought I felt her react too, as if she sensed the same strange tension hanging between us.

Hara only desired to raise her expectant child away from her abusive and unfaithful partner, Roland. She chose the Red Cross pack, the strongest pack in the werewolf kingdom, as her safe haven. She gets a job as a waitress at a bar, which is as typical as any other job until she meets Ryder, the Alpha of the Red Cross pack and the owner of the bar. As soon as he sees the expectant Hara, who is also his destiny mate, he falls in love with her. Hara was caught in a tricky dilemma. No matter how she viewed it, the convoluted situation she found herself in could not end well. Not while her heart yearns for the enticing stranger who claimed to be her destined partner. Not when Roland returned and requested a second chance. Especially when she realizes there are so many secrets to be revealed. Would she be capable of making the right choices? Would she return to the man she once loved or stay with the man who loved her? Join Hara on her perilous quest to find happiness. ********************************* Having him so close was enough to shatter my resolve and rekindle my desire for him. His possessive grasp around my waist caused me to collide with him. When I glanced up, our foreheads touched. He closed his eyes while emitting a howl that would make any werewolf weak in the knees. "Ryder.." "You're mine, Hara. I knew it from the instant I laid eyes on you. And every time I fucked you senseless, that was me declaring, you're mine and mine alone."

"Once I fuck you, you are mine, so if you do not want this, all you have to do chocolate is leave right now." "I want you", with an uneven and shaking voice I responded, "I want this". The pleasure his hands gave was magical, just imagine what it would feel like if he claimed me right here and now"... With that he added an extra finger to my very tight pussy, working his way in and out, they ecstasy I felt, very ravishing, I could feel my self cuming close to the end, it felt good so damn good...... Everything Blue explores the story of two entirely opposite people, from age difference, to life's experience and expectation. Melio Blanchard is cut between the romance she seeks and the danger that draws her near. Their meeting at Anthony's and Cynthia's Child christening sparked something in Both of them, for Shaun, it was pure desire, living in a city where perfection and surgeons could be used interchangeably, he wanted to know what it felt like to be with an original, to bend her over, touch her bosom that held pure pleasure, suck on them till she would cum clean and straight. Then spread her and eat like someone whose been starved for days. For melio, it was a spark, she wanted experience, experience that would make Christian stay with her if ever she reached out. They both knew that their kind of relationship was forbidden, Melio wanted it to be pure lessons and Shaun wanted it to just be casual, moreover she is younger than and he knows how such story ends.

MINE Leon Keith He doesn't believe in love after his girlfriend of 8 years left him. He was going to propose to her but she cheated on him and going to married with someone else. His parents decided to arranged marriage him with their close friend's daughter. Ivory Evans Rich. Arrogant. Spoiled. She always gave her parents a headache ever since she was born. Her parents decided to arranged marriage her with their close friend's son. She hates the idea but after she met him, she changed her mind.

Heartless. That is what people see when they look at Veronica Beckett. A cold, calculating heiress who feels nothing. She has never given them a reason to think otherwise. Only a few know the truth: Veronica carries her late husband’s heart, a constant reminder of the accident that killed him. When her company begins to collapse, she turns to the only solution she believes she can control, a strategic marriage to stabilize her empire before it falls apart. She proposes it to the one man who hates her most. Alden Sterling, a powerful billionaire who has every reason to want her destroyed. And he accepts. But not for the reasons she expects. Alden believes Veronica is responsible for his brother’s death, that her inability to love drove him to the decisions that cost him his life. This marriage isn’t just business. It’s revenge. It’s his chance to keep her close and make her feel everything she once denied. But the longer they are bound together, the harder it becomes to hold onto that hatred. What begins as a strategic arrangement shifts into something neither of them intended. The lines between resentment, obsession, and desire begin to blur. Veronica is forced to confront emotions she has spent a lifetime suppressing and a passionate desire she has never felt before. At the same time, the truth about the accident begins to surface, and the man behind it all has been watching. Now, Veronica must choose: Walk away and carry a guilt that was never hers. Or stay and risk everything for the man who married her to destroy her.

“August, I don’t work for you anymore,” she said, voice steady. “I’m not obligated to listen to you.” A pause. Then, “Oh, but you will.” He stepped forward. She stepped back. Again. Until her back hit the wall. Her breath caught, but she didn’t look away. August placed both hands on either side of her. Blocking her in completely. No space left. No escape. “You’re not my employee,” he said quietly. A beat. “But for the next 90 days…” “…I own you.” Weeks before his wedding, August Thorne discovers something impossible, he is already legally married. To Genesis Michaelson, his former personal assistant who vanished three months ago without a trace. There is no memory of the ceremony. Only fragments of a night in Las Vegas that don’t fully add up. When the court refuses to annul the marriage due to time passed, they are left with one option: divorce. But even that comes with a condition. A 90-day consideration period in which they must live together as husband and wife. What begins as a drunken mistake turns into a forced arrangement between two people who can barely stand each other, yet cannot stay away. Tension rises. Clashes become constant, while external forces close in, determined to keep them apart and destroy Genesis in the process. But someone is lying about what happened that night in Vegas. And the truth runs deeper than either of them realizes, closer to home, and far more destructive than the marriage itself Will they survive this game of lies and deceit and fall in love or... ?

Book Two of Cruel Intentions Series. This book can be read as a stand-alone, but for better comprehension of the characters, it is recommended to be read after Betrayed the Mafia. Theodore is the second in command of the Irish mob in New York. He is known as a player, use and toss. Theo hates relationships seeing them as useless. Theodore is funny and lighthearted around his friends, but when dealing with business, he is ruthless and heartless. His cold heart always prevails. Theodore is manipulative and a great liar. Theodore is chosen to help forge an alliance between the Irish and the Americans. He needs to marry the daughter of the boss. He takes his job and position seriously and accepts his fate. He doesn’t believe in love anyway, so that nothing will change for him. He will just have to wear a ring and play house. What happens when she is the girl he has avoided for years, the girl he feels the need to protect? He sees her as a weakness. He condones how she lives her life, but the day he allows himself to get close to her, everything changes, and his addiction to her becomes impossible to resist. Theodore is everything Everly has always dreamed of as an online romance novel writer, and she is inexperienced and sassy. The only way she has experienced love is through her books. She lives almost in captivity because of who she is, and Her purity will be negotiable. But once Theodore pops her cherry, he can’t stay away, involving her in a thread of lies and manipulations that she could only imagine as a plot of one of her books.