Three-card Monte

"Bless me daddy, for I have sinned." Geoff Vasily was a sick bastard. He was depraved. I knew something was off about him the moment I saw his slicked golden hair and stony gray eyes. I used to live a cheap, albeit independent life supporting myself and my mother, despite my eighteen years of existence. The day he walked into the cafè, I knew the Devil had just walked into our lives. I told her not to take the card, but she didn't listen. Now, he doesn't even look at my mother. He's fixated on me. My stepfather. My doom.

Birthdays were never Summer’s favorite. She particularly despised them when her best friend gifted her a tarot card reading. Skeptical of the warnings about encountering a dangerous wolf who would alter her life, she couldn't help but laugh out of it. Romance was the furthest thing from her mind. Yet, the young woman’s prediction turned out to be eerily accurate. Julian Wolf radiated an aura of danger and allure. With his suave demeanor and distant charm, his gaze seemed to pierce through to Summer’s very core, igniting a fire within her.

My life is terrible enough. My dad died robbing a jewelry store. My sister hates my guts. An enforcer shows up out of nowhere and tells us we owe a shit ton of money. My mom? Ran off with my credit card and all her fancy jewelry at her first opportunity. So that leaves me... With no cash and a pissed-off crime boss. Raoul gives me a choice: pay up or belong to him. Now, I’m stuck in his world, living in a fancy apartment, clashing with his bossy rules, and realizing he might not be all that bad, after all.

Looking at the divorce papers my lips curled up into a mocking smile. ‘How big fool I am? How can I think that he will give a chance to this marriage? How can I forget that I was nothing more a tool in his eyes to vent his anger until his beloved Tara is back. Since, she was back, how can he let me stay there?’ “After you will sign these papers, you will receive 100 million dollars as alimony.” the lawyer added. Because of his words, I came back to my senses took the pen from him, and signed the name. After taking the papers from my hand, the lawyer gave me the bank card, turned around, and was about to leave when he paused at the door. He then turned around and added, “Mr. Carter said that he hoped that you won’t pester him, or you have to bear the consequences.” The lawyer's words were like a knife stabbing in my heart, but I still nodded. Anyway, I also don’t plan to have anything to do with him anymore. I just want to live a good life with my children. After the lawyer left, the ward fell into silence. I placed my hand on my belly and said to my children, “Baby, I am sorry, Mommy can’t give you a complete family! But I promise you, I will do my best to give the love of both mother and father.” ‘As for giving one of my child, I will never do that. They are my babies and my alone. I and I will give birth to all of them and raise them no matter what…’ Four Years Later... Anya came back to the country with her three kids, to inherit the company left by his grandfather...

Great career, decent looks, at least twenty bucks in his wallet, debit card stacked with zeros, but good fortune had the opposite effect when it came to relationship issues. That's the gist of what Thomas Adam feels. Heartbreak from being left at the altar lingers and makes him distrust love. For him, being alone is no big deal. His life doesn't encounter complications either. His job skyrocketed like a rocket. Until Olive came along. She disrupted his straight path like a highway. It left him helpless and willing to take colorful detours just for Olive. But one question haunts him, "Will Olive leave him? Like what Diana did a dozen years ago?"

Her name is Nancy Wilson, a last year history student at the city collage. Not a topper but still manages to get good grades in the finals to show her report card to her elder brother proudly. Her life is simple and ordinary with some basic regular issues like she's too broke to buy an iPhone that even saving her pocket money for an entire year is not enough for her to afford it and too clumsy to pull up something hot so that she could fancy a boyfriend for herself who could buy her one, she's a ordinary next door girl but everything is about to change as someone is about to intrude in her life and turn it upside down.

When Wakely transfers to a new university, she has one goal: keep her head down, finish her final credits, and get out. The plan is simple: stay invisible, avoid drama, and leave behind her abusive past. But the moment she steps onto campus, she has no idea what is about to happen to her. She quickly crosses paths with Cora, a bold, orange-haired wild card who takes Wakely under her wing. Cora introduces her to the unspoken hierarchy that rules the school, warning her about the campus “gods”: the Walker brothers. Sinfully attractive, effortlessly powerful, and notoriously cruel, the Walkers are known as much for their charm as for their dangerous pranks. Students either worship them or fear them. Wakely? She wants nothing to do with them. But Waylon Walker, the darkest of the three, has other plans. Unlike the others, Wakely doesn’t care about his reputation. She doesn’t flirt. She doesn’t chase. And she certainly doesn’t fall for arrogant boys with too much control. That only makes her more fascinating to him. What begins as curiosity spirals into obsession. Waylon watches her, follows her, learns everything he can—and slowly starts crossing lines no one’s ever dared to before. As their worlds collide, Wakely finds herself drawn into a twisted game of desire, secrets, and violence. Her carefully buried past begins to unravel when she discovers that her abusive father holds a far darker secret. A secret that she was unaware of, that could change her life forever. Now, with the weight of betrayal, obsession, and legacy pressing down on them, Wakely must decide whether to run from the danger or face it head-on, with Waylon at her side. And some secrets are never meant to be uncovered.

This is book 2 in the King of Vampires series. It can be read as a standalone. The second most feared vampire in Moon City, the pawn was a face that had remained unknown for years on end among the vampire race. But in the normal light and to the outside world, Leon Vinerza was the face card of the ten hottest eligible bachelors in the whole of Moon City...and my did he love to play and party hard. Sacked on grounds unbeknownst to her, Sacha finds herself in between jobs and desperate to make ends meet when a job offer to tutor two boys in computer programming and basics lands on her doorstep.... literally. Her boss? The cocky and hot gorgeous male whose presence irks her to know ends but his body pulls her in and incites unimaginable things in her mind. But fate will still and always remain a bitch.

Isabel Hudson craved nothing but to feel loved and valued. All her life she had been looking for a reason to live, but finding none in her luck, she survived on a victim card in a less-orphanage-more-brothel. Overwhelmed by the liberation urge, she betted on her life and ran off on the fortunate night of her orphanage. Falling between a blind road of hunger, poverty and death. She almost gave in to the death angel. Until a living knight in shining armour passed by. Until he came to the rescue. Adriel Dormer was no longer excited for any adventures his way, but his life has stored many anyway. Starting with a single encounter between him and a dying girl, on the new moon night, when she was ready to be feasted upon.

She needed to rebuild her relationship with God. May be that was going to help ease the burden and loneliness in her marriage. This desire birthed a personal decision for the fresh start to begin with the sacrament of confession. Surprisingly a new connection began... A priest . He was looking to save souls while redeeming his soul from condemnation. However, unknown to them Fate had a different card in their destinies which they couldn't avoid. Even if they could, they didn't want to. The whirl entanglement began. Two souls unable to stop the desires of their hearts and flesh which seems stronger than they ever imagined. This unholy coitus yearning overpowered their individual will to be honest and faithful to their chosen vocations. Sin shouldn't be this tasty... Maybe this would be a better way to get redemption. Who knows?