This Escalated Quickly

Clarissa suddenly woke up with a start. Her head hurt… she was crying over what happened to her. She slowly got up, picked up her scattered clothes, and got dressed. She glanced at the man who was the first to take her virginity and quickly left before he could wake up. "I’m not a virgin anymore! Huhuhu… I’m really so stupid!... What’s worse is that I don’t even know the man!" She remembered begging the man to claim her last night… she felt like banging her head against the wall. She wasn’t raped, but she lost her virginity—she gave it away willingly to a man she didn’t know! She was drugged last night! What kind of drug did the man put in her drink?… why did it make her so horny… huhuhu… so embarrassing! She was even the one insisting with the man!

To encourage overall development, the kindergarten had asked each student to create a hand-drawn poster. My daughter Holly refused my help and insisted on doing it all on her own. Little did I know, most of the other children had their parents do the artwork for them. In comparison, Holly's delicate strokes were quickly dismissed. Not only was her work discarded into the trash, but her teacher also called her out in the parent group, criticizing her for being careless with the assignment. As I racked my brain trying to figure out how to help Holly regain her confidence in drawing, I was surprised to see Holly's artwork among the winning entries in the state-level children's art competition. But the signature wasn't hers—it belonged to another student from her class.

Book One Kelly Bradley didn’t need to worry about falling in love when she came up with her plan to marry Jack Sutton. She’d dated so many great guys over the years, but not fallen in love once. Not with any of them. It just wasn’t in the cards for her. So, when she approached powerful, sexy Jack Sutton and proposed a temporary marriage-of-convenience, she wasn’t one bit concerned that her heart would be on the line. But, when Jack agrees and she moves into his home, Kelly quickly discovers just how wrong she was. Before she knows it, not only is her heart on the line, but her life is, too. Book Two After a near-death experience, artist Ashley Price is compelled to paint visions of the dead. Then she paints a man buried alive and, recognizing the surroundings, she rushes to save him. Instead of being grateful to her for rescuing him, Detective Jack Sullivan accuses her of being in league with a serial killer. He swears he will put her behind bars. Except, the more time he spends with her, the more he falls under her spell. Can he trust her, or is he walking into another deadly trap?

The sleepy English locality of Middletown is about to get even sleepier, as a strange malady starts to affect the population. It spreads quickly, causing the authorities to quarantine this small city, and seek out the only person who might be able to help: Doctor Andrew Strauss. However, Strauss has a secret, one that has linked him to this place all his life, one that has linked him to a particular person there, though he doesn’t yet know who. But he’s not the only one hiding things – and as he ventures into Middletown to collect samples with an army escort, a mixture of UK and US troops, cracks soon begin to appear in the operation. Especially when his team comes up against the most terrifying threat humankind has ever known.

Colette Smith is a twenty-two-year-old university student who has big dreams and goals that she would like to achieve in the future. Upon meeting her boyfriend Callum Johnson, the two fall in love and quickly move in together. After trying to conceive for a while, Colette finally gets pregnant and the baby is all that she had been looking forward to. What happens when the pregnancy is suddenly terminated and Colette loses her mind? In pure desperation to become a mother, she would do just about anything to have a baby, but at what cost?

The night before the company went public, my wife told me she had a surprise for me and reminded me to dress up for the occasion. I thought she was planning to reveal our secret relationship, and I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep all night. However, the next day, in front of everyone, she announced that I was a creepy obsessive admirer. On top of that, she revoked my promotion and gave my position to her first love who had just returned to the country. Everyone was waiting to see me humiliated. I froze for a moment but quickly composed myself, walking up to her first love with a faint smile. Then, I took off the badge on my chest and placed it on him. “As the new director, you should celebrate, shouldn't you? How about a wedding? I’ll officiate for you two.” Glaring at me coldly, my wife told me to get lost and stop embarrassing myself. What they didn’t know was that I was the key connection holding the entire company together. If I left, none of the investors would back them anymore.

Chamicka Ventura (Chika) hails from a powerful family of South America Hunters. She finds herself in the woods, crying on her way to school, escaping her abusive parents; today she was told that she will be sold to a family in exchange for their help in hunting down a myth; running from her parents at the age of five, she quickly learned where to go and hide. She is just twelve years old today, and she is out walking in the rain with her raincoat on when she comes upon a metal box similar to the one her father uses, which she opens to discover two pups inside. She stuffs them inside her bag. Despite the fact that they are enormous for puppies, she runs to school, claiming to the school that her parents had hurt her again, and they send her to the local orphanage, where she hides with her two rescued puppies and raises them. During this period, her parents made several efforts to locate her; long after, wolves appeared and took the puppies from her; yet, they always hid together, until the day she awoke next to two strong, attractive men in her bed; where did these guys come from?

“Nate, don't you dare start with that nonsense too. I told you already, I don't care about those ridiculous traditions." Marcel responded irritably as she hopped into the copilot seat of her best friend's car, anxious to get as far away as possible from her home. “Hey, I've known you since you were four, so don't try and act all brave and mature. Tell me the truth, you're afraid aren't you?” “Humph! What's there to be scared of?...” “That Mike's ghost might come back to haunt you." The boy interrupted, carelessly blurting out his analysis, adding…“I just don't get it; everyone else knows his death wasn't your fault…” “I know it wasn't!” “Then why won't you pray for his safe journey into the afterlife? What if his soul is damn to roam the earth, wreaking havoc among the living or even disrupting the balance between the two worlds?” “Ahh! Don't be childish. There is no such thing as the afterlife; parents just use these pathetic excuses to trick their children into believing that our loved ones are better off. If that was the case, why don't we all join them… oh yeah, that's right, we can't commit suicide otherwise we'll go straight to hell. Grow up Nate! The spirit dies with the body.” Follow the journey of a young woman as she tries to keep her sanity when the world around her was quickly crumbling after one faithful night of honoring the dead. Will she be able to save the life of those closest to her? or will her soul be bound to an eternity of madness?

I yelped, squirming, but I quickly stopped myself because I knew that, judging by the position he had me in, one wrong move and I'd fall. And sure as hell, London wasn't going to catch me. The glint in his eyes said so. He had me trapped, subjected to taking whatever he was ready to dish without writhing. His head peeked up at me from in-between my legs, and he squinted before hoarsely saying, "Oh, and one more thing... not a single sound from you, and don't touch me. Don't say I didn't warn you." What? He wasn't expecting me to just shut my eyes and keep it in. Hell, soft were already leaving my lips when he was me like a deprived lunatic a few minutes ago, and now I was... "What?" I asked in blurry understanding. "Meaning, you're not allowed to make any sound, and you're not allowed to touch me, and that includes tugging on my hair; you'd give me a headache." He huskily said this before licking my inner thighs again, inching closer to my wetness. "Or else?" I dared to ask. He gave me a devilish smile before chuckling,"You're free to find out, no?" *************** London was a devoted Gamma in his former life but was reborn as the Alpha and Lycan King and harbors a deep hatred for women and the concept of a mate bond. Although he couldn't call his past life,he gets a second chance in his new life with a woman who had lost everything precious to her in one night, but he rejected her, and now his rejection might cause him to lose everything he had ever wanted, especially since his mate was hiding an important secret, or maybe he wouldn't since he doesn't give a damn.

Matthew Walsh, a young pickpocket, saves Arabella, a spirited young lady who's been kidnapped by the gang of thugs he's just joined and helps her escape. Soon they fall in love with each other, only to be too quickly separated by her aunt's wicked scheme. Being hunted by his former gang, Matthew flees to London, where he accidentally saves the life of Mr. Goddard, a notorious gaming club owner. The man recruits him to be his employee and bequeaths him an obscene amount of fortune. When Goddard draws his last breath, his final wish is for Matthew to marry his daughter Marguerite, who has been loving him from the first time they met. Unable to forget Arabella, Matthew is caught in a quandary. Just as he is ready to settle down with Marguerite, he comes across his long-lost love, Arabella, at a party. Obliged to marry a woman and desperately wants another, Matthew finds himself at a crossroads. Should he choose the woman he always dreamed of, or the one who's been there for him the whole time?