Thirteen Going On Thirty

I was checking out our own hotel. Got hungry, so I snagged a tiny bread roll before my order came out. Then the lobby manager strutted over and slapped me with a fine. "Hi, miss. No outside food. You stayed eight minutes and thirty seconds, spent $150, and your fine's $128,000." I stared at the ticket like, What the hell? Snapped a pic and sent it to the board, tagging my lovely brother: [Getting fined at our own hotel—so THIS is how you're boosting revenue?]

Alex, a CEO and university professor, struggles with his disabled legs, leading him to be harsh on himself and others. Claire, the daughter of a prostitute, feels low self-esteem and faces numerous challenges in her life with nothing to offer. They are afraid to approach each other, yet their hearts yearn to be together. 'I never chose to love her; my heart did, and I was powerless against it.' 'Three years, thirty years, three hundred years... as long as your heart still loves me, I will still be here waiting for you.'

“Thirty minutes for 10 thousand dollars.” That was the deal. Julian Valentino is the “Holy Billionaire,” an ice-cold CEO who views love as a liability. After a brutal Valentine’s Day betrayal, he didn’t just swear off women…. he chose a path of strict celibacy, vowing to keep his body as untouchable as his empire. For years, he has been a saint in a world of sinners, until he is anonymously drugged in his own hotel. With his control now crumbling and his body on fire, he turns to the only woman who can quench the flame: THALIA. Popularly known as "Tee" in elite lounges, she is a high-end sex worker who doesn’t believe in fairytales love and only lives for the bag to fund the search for her lost identity. What she expects to be an easy paycheck turns into a nightmare when a city-wide murder triggers a 48-hour security lockdown. Now trapped with a possessive, drug-fevered billionaire, thirty minutes of service becomes two days of raw heat and secret whispers. But when the doors finally open, Julian doesn't want to let her go. He wants a new deal... a new contract to buy her time and be her exclusive client. And that is when it dawns on Thalia that she has walked into a trap. Behind the closed doors, another contract was waiting. She isn’t just a worker anymore… with the outside contract? She’s now the very weapon sent to destroy the Valentino empire. CONTENT WARNING: This story is strongly 18+

Marry a stranger in thirty days. Stay married for one year. Inherit three billion dollars. Refuse, and lose everything. Elena Castellano is a broke art teacher in a dying Vermont mill town when a letter arrives that changes everything: she's the secret granddaughter of hotel empire matriarch Victoria Ashford. The grandmother she never knew has left her a fortune—with one impossible condition. She must marry Victoria's ruthless CEO grandson, Dominic Ashford, within thirty days. Dominic has spent fifteen years proving he deserves the Ashford legacy. He's built the empire into something even greater, sacrificed everything for the family name, and he's not about to lose it all to some small-town teacher who appeared out of nowhere. But Victoria's will is clear: marry Elena or lose everything. He'll do whatever it takes to secure his inheritance. Even if it means threatening everything Elena loves. Forced into a devil's bargain, Elena and Dominic enter a marriage that's pure warfare. She won't be bought. He won't be beaten. But as they're pulled deeper into the Ashford family's web of secrets and betrayals, the lines between enemy and ally begin to blur. Because Victoria's will wasn't just about money. It was a test. And someone in the family will do anything—including murder—to make sure they both fail. A forced marriage. A billion-dollar inheritance. And one year to survive each other.

They are in love and they both have the same desire. To safeguard the lives of their respective families and the whole village. Raiden and Harriet are naturally born leaders and hunters. Werewolf hunters are what they're called. Trained to become cowboys and campers. They had their first kill at thirteen and they became addicted. Raiden served as a trainer, dedicated truck driver, and loyal to his advocacy as a werewolf hunter. An accident occurred and it changed him into a monster. How and why did it happen? He wasn't sure. The capture of him by the pack of wolves revealed his real color and origin. He was a half-blooded werewolf. He will soon become the strongest weapon to defeat the enemies. Now, he was confused about who the enemies were. The ones who raised, trained, and gave him much love or the group of new friends who look up to him as their future Alpha king?

Cassie Jones was the girl who went unnoticed—plus-sized, shy, and silently battling her self-esteem issues. But she had a secret: a gigantic crush on Jeffery Richards, the star athlete, golden boy and basketball hero of their school. What she wasn't aware of was that he too idolized her, secretly drawing her and composing poetry about her silent beauty. That was until the day a cruel bet forced his secret feelings out in the worst way imaginable. Cassie, heartbroken, disappeared from his life. Thirteen years later, fate brings them together again. Cassie is a tough PR executive, prosperous, aggressive, and not interested in revisiting the pain of her past. But Jeffery is resolved to demonstrate to her that he has changed—that his love for her never has. Will she learn to trust him again, or will the past repeat itself?

(The Queen And The Freak Sequel, BUT... Can be read in your comfort.) *** The hybrid mates, Blair and Pryce, have just woken up from sleeping and are surprised to know that thirty years have passed since the last time they were awake. Things were about to change in their lives as they had to cope with the things in the new era. Old-looking old friends and new people to meet, new ways of living, new schools, new status, new powers, new roles, new problems, and new almost everything. How can they survive if their new lives are about to be destroyed by old enemies?

A young doctor who has had to work hard at overcoming her unusual upbringing from leaving a religious organization when she was thirteen and then adjusting to the outside world. She is transferred to a new place but it was close to her orginal home. She went exploring and everything in her life changes. She is lured to a building by someone asking for help. When she enters the building the world falls apart around her. Then in the blink of an eye when she meets someone else who comes from the same group that she lived with, but never lived among them. He wants to learn about it to understand his parents. While they figure out all that is around them they find love as well. The two find something that they were missing in the other as they build on a friendship they didn't know they needed.

At thirty years old, Alara doesn't need dreams. She has no use for it. Work, love, and family are all she needs—Until her boyfriend cheats on her. Five years later, her ex-boyfriend’s younger stepbrother sets his pretty playboy eyes on her, her work is threatened, and the balance in her life is upended. All Alara can do now is dream about desires she can't satisfy, yearn for glory beyond her reach, and hope she makes it with her life and her heart.

After my husband, Joseph Adams, hired thugs to smash my taco stand again, I pushed the destroyed remains to his company’s anniversary banquet. Joseph had his arm around his little secretary, Monica Martin, when he announced that she would soon be joining the company’s management team. I pressed the horn and called out, “Tacos for sale to support my husband’s mistress—three thirty a piece!” Amid the stunned and bewildered stares of the crowd, Joseph’s brows twisted into a deep frown.