The Parting Glass Novels & Stories

Blurb I thought I married him for love. That wide-eyed, naive girl who jumped into the arms of the first man with eyes that shone ever in the dark, and with curly dark hair that made her fingers itch….didn’t know the truth. He didn’t marry me for forever. Ares Brooker – ruthless, untouchable, and devastatingly sexy- only made me his wife to get back at my father. And for a while, I thought the worst thing he could do was ignore me, bring other women into our home, and treat me like I was a prisoner in his glass mansion. I was wrong. The worst thing was overhearing my father tell him on the phone that he could "Kill me for all he cared." That I meant nothing to him, it was walking in on him with my best friend, and watching him let me believe it. I walked out, building walls around my heart and telling myself that I would never be that naïve and pushover girl again. But one night changed everything, where a fight, one kiss, and too much heat brought about a mistake. And a child, I swore he would never know about. I thought I was free, starting a new job and a new life, until I realized that Ares Brooker signs my paycheck. And just when he decided he wanted me back, someone else stepped in, willing to burn the world too. His rival, Cole Elrod. And the most dangerous choice is the one I can’t stop wanting.

​To the world, Nathan is an ice-cold titan—a billionaire CEO who built an empire on ruthless dominance and a predator’s intuition. But beneath the charcoal weave of his tailored suits beats the heart of a beast. Behind the reinforced glass of his penthouse, he battles a primal hunger and a violent history that his public persona can barely contain. He is an Alpha without a mate—a king ruling a lonely, concrete forest. ​Then he catches her scent. Santa. A brilliant, broken university student, she is a flicker of light surviving on the fringes. She is a survivor fleeing a nightmare, her pulse thrumming with a fear that calls to Nathan’s most lethal instincts. The connection is instant—a soul-deep recognition that shatters Nathan’s control. He doesn't just want her; he recognizes her. ​When her past finally catches up to her, Nathan doesn't rely on human laws. He yields to the wolf. In an act of savage protection, he claims her, whisking her away in a meticulously orchestrated "rescue" that feels more like a kidnapping. ​Now, she is trapped in a gilded cage of silk and steel. Her every need is met by the man who watches her with glowing, possessive eyes. As the walls of the penthouse close in, she is forced to reconcile her terror with a devastating truth: the only person capable of shredding her enemies is the monster who stole her freedom. ​As the lines between protection and possession vanish, she realizes that in his quest to keep her safe, Nathan hasn't just caged her body—he has marked her soul.

“Don’t you want to see how manly your husband is, honey?” he whispered huskily, his voice tinged with seduction. Even in his madness, he licked the tip of her ear as he nibbled it gently. His breath was hot, and the tip of his tongue was rough, sending shivers down her spine. She tried to break free, but it seemed that her strength was no match for his. “You’re hurting me, Ace!” she snapped as she squirmed. Seizing the opportunity from his loosening grip to escape from him. However, before she could spin around, he slammed her body violently against the glass wall again, causing her to whimper as her nose hit the glass. He was nothing but a heartless fucking gay man. *********************************************** Sierra Carlson is a hot and gorgeous model trapped in a loveless marriage with Ace Valentino, a man who keeps a shocking secret of being gay and will never love her. Forced to marry Ace solely to cover up his dark side, Sierra feels her life has been taken hostage by a twisted, possessive man who is arrogant and has a hidden agenda for himself. Ace Valentino is the CEO of Valentino Enterprise, known for his public image as a man of mystery. No one knows that he secretly identifies as gay. He even forces Sierra, a model under his own company, into a loveless marriage, and even worse, he has a secret lover working under the same company. Will she be able to win over her gay husband, or will she and Ace forever be stuck in this ridiculous marriage filled with drama and lies?

I was an orphan being adopted by a simple family. My dad was a driver of a very powerful businessman. My mom was one of their maids. She was in fact their lady butler. This family with gazillion bank accounts had an only heir, drop dead gorgeous young billionaire, Albert Michaels. He was always the talk of the news both in mainstream and social media along with either a popular pop star diva or a hubristic socialite with voluptuous body and kittenish voice. I, Samantha Reynolds, one of their servants had been stealthily trailing him since the day that I stepped in their grand top of a kind living room. His stone cold aloof aura as he stared at me everytime he caught me gawking at him made him even more attractive and charming than he already was. Till one rainy night, a magical or should I say disaster happened. Arriving at home late and intoxicated while I was busy wiping the glass tea table, he was almost dropping himself on the cold marble floor. Guiding him towards his room, his heaviness was weighing up my petite body. Till we both dropped on his king sized bed with me under him. His glassy eyes tingling my long time desire. His warm rims made me want to wrap them with mine. Till time stood still as the rain continued pouring engulfing the atmosphere with its coldness while him covering me with his burning libido. As we both reached the top, he called a name, ''Madeline!'' D*mn!

Gabriel Black and I had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, and when we reached adulthood, our families arranged our engagement. From the day the engagement was announced, I started counting down the days. However, Gabriel thought the whole thing was unfair. “Other people get to fall in love a few times in their lives. Why should I be stuck with just you my whole life? You should date a few people, too. Don’t shortchange yourself.” And he meant it. In the year after our engagement, Gabriel went through seven girlfriends. Every time he changed partners, I would simply smile and say it didn’t matter. After all, I thought he would always come back to me. That was until the eighth girlfriend came along. He brought her to the Black family’s annual banquet. She clung to his arm and called him Gabe. I quietly set down my utensils. Right there in front of both families, I took out the engagement agreement and slid it to the center of the table. “Gabriel,” I said calmly, “you were right. Staying loyal to just one person really is a loss.” Later, I stood before him again, this time with my hand linked with the only son of the Graham family. Gabriel smashed his glass on the spot. For the first time, his eyes turned red. “Erin, what do you mean by this?” I smiled and said, “Didn’t you tell me to try dating, too? Well, I did, and it suits me just fine.”

When I went to register my son, Cody Vantor, for medical insurance before his first year of kindergarten, I was told I wasn’t his biological mother. "Are you sure this is your child? The system shows a different woman listed as the mother." I said nothing. I quietly snapped a photo of the unfamiliar home address, then followed it to the neighboring complex. When he saw me, my husband, Dorian Vantor, froze. His hand instinctively moved to block the doorway. "So you found out. But making a scene won’t change anything. I haven’t treated you badly these past three years." I looked past him, and my body went cold. The woman behind him was my younger sister, Summer Walsh, fresh out of college. She handed him a glass of water and gave me an apologetic smile. "Don’t blame me, Lennie. The doctor said I have postpartum depression. I can’t handle hearing a baby cry. Thank you for raising Cody for me all these years. I really am grateful." Just then, Cody, who had been waiting in the car downstairs, ran up. He rushed into Summer’s arms like it was second nature, then turned to look at me. "Aunt Lenora, don’t cry. Mommy said you’re a good person. That’s why she asked you to help. Daddy said if I behave and call you ‘Mom’ at your house, I can come back on weekends to see my real Mommy."

The day before the spacecraft launch, I am anonymously reported for concealing a mental illness and lose my qualification to board. After being confined in a psychiatric hospital for three years, my husband, Simon Bergman, who is now a decorated figure in the aerospace field, personally brings me home. "I had no choice but to send you there. I even applied to be demoted just to bring you back. Let's just live our lives well from now on," Simon says. Burdened by guilt for affecting his career, I spend the rest of my life carefully taking care of him and busying myself in the kitchen as a dutiful wife. But before I die, my daughter finds the letter accusing me of having a mental condition—it is written in my husband's own hand. She also discovers decades of correspondence between him and a deceased war buddy's widow named Charmaine Marlowe. In those letters, he writes that to fulfill his buddy's dying wish to take care of Charmaine, he fabricates a false mental illness record and inserts it into my astronaut application. As a result, I was sent to the psychiatric hospital, and my position was taken by her. The glass shatters, and the sharp fragments pierce me, like they are stabbing into my heart. I was supposed to be the one to go to space. But my husband sacrificed my chance so that another woman could have it! I die in despair. When I open my eyes again, I am back on the day of the astronaut selection for the manned spacecraft launch. This time, when Simon offers to help submit my application, I refuse to let him.

It's hard to tell who has your back, from who has it long enough just to stab you in it.... "Why are you making it so difficult?" I screeched on top of my lungs. God, why does he have to make everything so difficult? "I'm your boss and you're responsible to follow my orders. You have no authority to defy me." He snarled, his hands balled into fists. "Are you even listening to your baseless blabbering?" "Shut the up!" He roared with pure antagonism and fisted his hand on the glass painting that hung by the wall. I gasped at the sight of glasses shattered into tiny pieces, droplets of blood oozing down his knuckles. His jaw was clenched as he shot daggers to my eyes, not because of the pain that was inflicted from the quick punch, but the remembrance of my betrayal. ~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~ Mystery. Romance. Deception. It's a famous saying that, hate is a strong emotion- so is love. You can only hate someone you place in high esteem since you care about what they think. Just when Evelyn Williams thought she could bring some light into her miserable life, destiny played its cruel game again, bringing her back to the place where she started. Five years later, she is forced to work with one and only Xavier Blake Knight, the one who remembers how Evelyn Williams has broken his heart. After what she did to him, would she be able to look into his eyes? Unbearable secrets will be revealed with a mixture of irresistible desires. Desires that Evelyn fears would only deepen her wounds, but somehow heal Xavier's.

My sister has awakened her mermaid bloodline, but it is incomplete. Her skin is her curse. A single touch, too hard, and it cracks. For her, everything hard in our house has been thrown away. I love to dance, but the hard tips of ballet shoes are forbidden. I love music, but the strings of a guitar or the keys of a piano are too dangerous. Every dream I've ever had has been strangled in its cradle because of my sister's condition. My brother, Liam, who raised us both, always looks at me with tired, pleading eyes. "Elara is fragile, Isla. You have to be understanding." But I was only eighteen the first time I truly understood. I came home from my high school graduation ceremony, the scent of sunshine and excitement still on my clothes. The moment I stepped inside, Elara's hand connected with my cheek. Hard. For no reason at all. Everyone rushed to her. Liam pointed a furious finger at me. "Look what you've done! You've hurt her hand! How could you be so careless?" He shoved me aside and rushed out with Elara to find a doctor. I fell back against the glass coffee table, the impact jarring. And then, a strange, cold pain bloomed across my back. I felt my skin... tear. It was then I remembered the doctor's words from my last check-up: "You carry the Siren's Gene, Isla. It could manifest at any time." As my vision blurred, my own blood pooling on the pristine white floor, I finally understood. The curse wasn't just my sister's. It was mine, too.

Alessia Volkov, the ice-princess heiress to a powerful Russian syndicate, believes her life is mapped out: a strategic marriage to secure an alliance. But on the night of her engagement gala, her world is shattered. Dante Moretti, the most feared and ruthless Mafia Don in the city, storms the event. His reason? A blood debt owed by her fiancé's family. And he’s taking Alessia as collateral. Dragged from a life of opulent privilege, Alessia is thrown into a gilded cage: Dante’s impenetrable penthouse high above the city. Her defiance is immediate and fierce. She fights him with every weapon she has, venomous words, calculated escapes, and sheer, unbreakable will. But Dante is a master of breaking things. He doesn't use fists; he uses desire. His relentless, calculated seduction is a war of attrition against her body and mind. A rough hand pinning her wrists against the cold glass wall. A bruising kiss that tastes like victory and sin. A whispered threat that sends a shiver of unwanted arousal straight to her core. As the lines between captor and captive blur, a dangerous, twisted passion ignites. Their encounters are explosive battles of dominance and surrender, each feverish fuck chipping away at her resistance until her hatred transforms into a dark, addictive need. She begins to crave his touch, his possession, his punishing cock. But outside their penthouse fortress, enemies are closing in. The very war that brought them together threatens to tear them apart. Alessia must decide: is she the prize in this bloody conflict, or is she the queen destined to rule beside the king who stole her? This is a story of obsession, betrayal, and a love so violent it can only be born in the dark.