The Center Cannot Hold

Sometimes love demands a second chance, but it will never be bought, no matter the amount. Michael Carrington promised himself after losing his wife that he was done with love. No more investing in anything he wasn’t capable of walking away. Sex and high-dollar business deals would become the center of his world. Throw in a touch of danger, and he has all he needs outside of a new assistant. Rainey Foster has finally graduated college, and as a struggling single mom, she just needs someone to give her a chance. She’s willing to go all in with the right employer, as long as the buck stops there. He can have her time, her commitment and her attention, but no one will ever have her heart again. She thinks she has things figured out until she comes face to face with the illustrious Michael Carrington. Powerful. Confident. Sexy as all get out. Lust might ignite the flame between them, but love will have its way.

Ryo Matsuda is the Prince of the Entertainment business but he is fed up with love. He always finds himself in a relationship where he was either just seen as a tool to enter the show business or as a living ATM. Liz Ross is a young passionate pastry chef. Her love life is nowhere close to the sweetness of the cakes she makes. She'd been in a number of relationships where she finds herself cheated on. Their world unexpectedly collided in a beautiful stroke of luck. Will they hold on to their promise to keep love out of their lives or will they take another gamble and give love a chance?

Everyone in Sparrowville said that Margaret Chapman was the happiest woman in town. Gavin Hartley showered her with gifts—a sapphire ring, an asteroid after her name—treating her like she was the center of his universe. Margaret had always believed it, too. Until the day she accidentally discovered the woman he had been hiding in his villa. For ten years, he had kept her there—his childhood sweetheart. After she lost herself to schizophrenia, she had said, "Margaret is me." And so, for nearly seven years, Gavin had courted Margaret and cherished her, playing out a love story that had never truly been hers. Margaret's heart crumbled to ash after she found out the truth. She left without looking back, moving to a country thousands of miles away. But she never imagined that Gavin would lose himself to rage, his eyes burning red as he nearly tore Sparrowville apart. "Where the hell is Margaret?!"

Kiara has always lived in her father and mother's protection. Things change when her parents put her in a dangerous situation. They can't protect her anymore and she's now on her own. Forced to live in a new world will she be able to fit in and become one of them or she's just not strong enough to hold on? Battles will be fought. Lives will be lost. Secrets will be revealed. Hearts will be broken. Can Kiara stand triumph above them all or she can't handle the truth. * Be with Kiara as her life is being tossed back and forth.*

Sometimes the strongest promises are the ones we’re afraid to say out loud. Tae Min and Haru have always been inseparable — top students, childhood best friends, and the quiet center of each other’s world. But as their shared birthday approaches, small misunderstandings begin to reveal something deeper beneath their easy laughter. A jealous glance. A stolen phone. A secret rooftop meeting. What starts as playful teasing slowly turns into a confrontation neither of them is prepared for. Tae Min hides his feelings behind irritation, while Haru struggles to understand why his heart races whenever Tae Min looks at him a little too long. As rumors stir at school and emotions grow harder to ignore, both boys must face a difficult question: Is their bond strong enough to survive the truth? Tender, emotional, and filled with slow-burning tension, Unbreakable Bonds is a coming-of-age story about friendship, vulnerability, and the courage it takes to risk everything for someone who already means everything.

Late at night, with heavy rain pouring down, in the city hospital. "She has a mild concussion, and her abdomen was hit. The baby couldn't be saved..." Anna was given anesthesia but was still conscious. She felt something disappearing inside her, a tearing pain that the anesthesia couldn't numb. "Have you reached her family?" "Her husband's phone is off. I'll try contacting someone else..." She vaguely heard voices, and a tear slid down the corner of her eye. Her body couldn't hold on, and she lost consciousness...

"You don’t need to see the world to survive it," Lucian whispered. "You just need to belong to the right monster." Seraphina Vellaro, blind, limping, and silenced by years of cruelty, is the forgotten daughter of mafia queen Celeste Vellaro. After her mother's brutal death, she is imprisoned by her father Danta, a sadistic man desperate to seize control of Celeste’s legacy. But fate changes course when Seraphina’s loyal nanny Gloria escapes with a powerful relic—Celeste’s blood-coded journal—and places it in the hands of the most feared family in the underworld: the Morettis. Now under the protection of Lucian Moretti, a scarred mafia prince cold enough to make death shiver, Seraphina becomes the key to a buried empire—and the center of Lucian’s growing obsession. He doesn’t love her. He claims her. But in a world of velvet prisons, power-hungry enemies, and dark inheritances, Seraphina must decide: Is she still someone’s pawn—or will she rise as the queen her mother raised her to be?

“An obsession is a way for the damaged people to damage themselves more.” Martha Ann, a qualified and beautiful nurse who was recently transferred to her new job at the rehab center didn’t know that she would fall in love with a guard named “Jacob” on the very first day of her stay. She started fantasizing herself and him together and always tried to stay close to him and keep an eye on his every moment, Jacob was unaware of her love that soon turned into her obsession. Things turned bad when she found out that Jacob had fallen in love with the another nurse in the Rehab named “Emma” but what makes her felt more angry that the person who had taken her love away was also the biggest rival of her in the center. Her hatred for her and obsession for Jacob made her do the things that no one could imagine she would be capable of.. Will Jacob be able to protect Emma and himself from her obsession or would it be too late for him to realize Martha’s real intentions?

The last thing Sienna Carter expected from her one-night stand was for him to be mafia. A rich, cocky man? Sure. But a crime boss? Never. Adrian Volkov knew exactly who she was from the start—an investigative journalist who should have been off-limits. But the thrill of the night was too tempting, and now, their worlds were colliding in the worst way. When Sienna stumbles into the middle of a blood-soaked scene, Adrian is right at the center of it all. Run? That’s the smart choice. And she tries—until she’s taken by Adrian himself. Trapped in his world, they strike a deal—one that ties them together in ways neither of them expected. But their arrangement doesn’t come without consequences. Betrayal brews among Adrian’s men, old enemies rise from the past, and amidst the chaos, an undeniable, dangerous passion burns between them. And once you enter the mafia, there’s no way out. A steamy, action-packed mafia romance filled with danger, obsession, and a love that could destroy them both.

"You don't belong here.""Perhaps to you I don't, but I'm not going anywhere," I replied, unwilling to let him scare me.A deep chuckle left his throat as he stepped closer. "I can do terrible things to you-"Damian, and his brothers, were a mysterious sort and every moment with them, I was begging for pleasure.~~~When Ivy Thorne got accepted to one of the best Universities for Agriculture, she refused to miss the opportunity. The only problem she never expected was the four shifters who lived in her father's home would gradually turn her world upside down.Dangerous things don't live just in the wild. Often, they lurked closer to home and if she wasn't careful, she would find herself the center of their hunger.Little Red thrown into a world of wolves.This story is rated 18+ for explicit language and sexual content. And Then There Were Four is created by Lillith Carrie, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.