Can I Read When I Found Her In The Dirt, I Swore They'D All Pay?

Bella Hale has known suffering her entire life. Orphaned at sixteen, she survives on scraps and desperation. She does whatever it takes not to starve with only little dignity intact. She envies the rich—people who seem immune to hardship and pain. Yet she promised herself that if she ever got her hands on one of them, she would never let go. She was done suffering. Lucian Rodriguez is everything she should despise. A cold, selfish, ruthless billionaire with little conscience and no mercy… a man who knows how to smile for the world while keeping his darkness well hidden. Their worlds collide when Lucian’s four-month-old daughter goes missing… and Bella finds her. Lucian offers no gratitude…and Bella refuses to let the opportunity slip. She demands compensation. Not just money, but security. A lifetime guarantee that she will never be poor again. In return, she will do whatever he wants. Her body. Her life. He can have it all. Bella is taken into his world—strictly as a deal. What she doesn’t realize is that when you make a deal with the devil, you should never expect it to be fair. And she will learn too late that being poor was far better than belonging to Lucian Rodriguez. A deal turns into obsession. Survival into desire. Desire into Hate. Hate into Love. That love and commitment becomes the biggest and worst mistake. Will Bella’s desperate deal destroy her? Or Will she become Lucian’s destruction?

Not every fantasy is gentle. Not every desire plays by the rules. Some pleasures are dangerous. And these stories? They come with teeth. Behind closed doors and under tight sheets, women surrender to the hunger they’re not supposed to have… and the men who know exactly how to feed it. From a gynecologist who crosses the line with a patient who wants more than a check-up… To a reverend’s wife who falls for a man she sees every Sunday and sins with every chance she gets… To a virgin student who learns her first lesson in the back office of her lecturer… To a nanny who becomes the one thing her boss can’t resist… This isn’t about love. This is about lust… raw and dripping. Forbidden romance. Unholy cravings. So if you’re looking for soft kisses and fairy tale endings… Turn back now. But if you’re ready for something that makes you squirm in your seat… If you want stories you’ll replay in your head long after the last line… Then go ahead. Open the book.

For seven years, my CEO girlfriend never once came home with me to see my parents. She told me that she hated social obligations, and that she didn't want to deal with the gossip and hassle that came with meeting my parents and relatives. Even in daily life, she treated me with cold professionalism, never spending any anniversaries with me in favor of working overtime. I'd always thought that it was just a simple matter of her being too rational and prideful, and I was fine with slowly teaching her how to nurture a relationship. That was, until Thanksgiving arrived. Once again, she stressed that holidays were just a capitalistic norm, and that she was going to work overtime instead of coming home with me. By chance, however, I accidentally stumbled upon my intern's social media. Inside a private room at a five-star hotel, he and his family sat at a table as my girlfriend sat beside him, carefully serving him food. [Yo, my boss secretly brought my parents into the city for Thanksgiving, and even gave me gifts! She told me that I was worth special gestures, too. Where can you even find a boss this romantic? My parents even told me to marry her as soon as I could! LOL!] So she knew better than anyone how to make people feel cherished. I just wasn't worth any of it. I commented: [How romantic.] Then, I messaged my girlfriend. [Let's break up.]

Myra Darius has spent her whole life being the girl who almost belonged. Growing up on the Blancham estate as the daughter of the household staff, she knew exactly how close she could get to their world without ever really being part of it. She learned early which doors to avoid, which secrets to keep, and who she was never supposed to fall for. She broke that last rule, and so did Danny Blancham. What they had was real, quiet, and deep, and completely forbidden, the kind of love that doesn't care about class lines or family names. Then someone split them apart, not by accident or some big fight, but by careful, quiet manipulation that neither of them understood until it was already done. Now Danny's home, and within a day, every wall Myra spent eleven months building starts to crack the moment he walks back through the gate. This is a second-chance romance, but it doesn't stay simple for long. Because what Myra and Danny are fighting to get back to each other turns out to be only half the story. The Blancham family has been hiding something for twenty years, something that goes all the way back to before Danny knew what questions to ask and before Myra knew she should be looking. Her father wasn’t just absent; someone erased him. And the person both of them trusted most, the warm, steady presence who seemed to be on their side the entire time, is the one who buried him. Everything He Owed Her is a steamy, fast-paced forbidden romance with a hidden heiress and a villain twist that reframes everything. Myra isn't just fighting for Danny. She's fighting for her own name, and what she finds out she's owed is bigger than either of them expected.

• My mom died saving me during a kidnapping. At least, that’s what everyone believed. My dad—once the man who spoiled me like his little princess—turned his grief into hatred. He adopted a girl who looked just like Mom and gave her all the love that used to be mine. For five years, I lived in that shadow, broken and unwanted. Until the day I was beaten and left for dead… and my mom came back. Alive. He used to call me his treasure. Now he calls me a curse. But the night my mom returned, everything shattered—his lies, his obsession, and the truth I was never meant to know.

My wife, Alisha West, has always been obsessively frugal. After marrying her, my single guilty pleasure became blowing money on luxury watches—almost like revenge for how absurdly tightfisted she was. By the time our daughter, Elyse Day, turned 7, she had inherited every bit of her mother’s penny-pinching nature. The two of them looked completely out of place in our sprawling mansion. And I loved it. I’d slip into my latest custom-tailored suits and watch them wince at my credit card statements, their expressions twisted in quiet pain. Until one day, lines of floating text suddenly appeared before my eyes. [This spendthrift idiot is still shopping? Doesn’t he know his wife’s company is about to go bankrupt?] [She’s been drained dry supporting this parasite. Her T-shirt collar is practically worn out from washing. Good thing the financially savvy male lead is about to show up and save her.] [Can’t wait for Alisha to file for divorce and kick this useless freeloader out. Let’s see how he survives fighting stray dogs for scraps under a bridge.] I slammed the limited-edition Richard Mille watch onto the table. Alisha, who was crouched on the floor breaking down delivery boxes for recycling, and Elyse, who was helping stomp them flat, both jumped in shock. A chill ran through me. I lunged forward, snatched the battered cardboard box from Elyse’s hands, and held it tightly against my chest. "No… no more buying. I’m returning this watch. "And these boxes… don’t sell them. I think we might need them someday… to lay out under a bridge when we’re sleeping outside…"