More Than A Carpenter

Chatrine Madison had everything, an elite career, a powerful name, and a life built on ambition in New York. But one rainy encounter with Liam, a rugged and irresistibly calm carpenter from a small town, shatters the world she thought she wanted. Drawn to a man so different from everything she knows, Chatrine makes a reckless choice... to leave it all behind and chase a love she doesn’t fully understand. But in Liam’s quiet world, she soon learns that not every heart is easily won… and some risks may cost her everything.

I was laid off. Having reached middle age and lacking any special skills, I could only work as a warehouse manager in a private company. On the first day of work, I saw a large, dusty object in the corner. An imported precision instrument worth four million dollars sat there as scrap metal. My new colleague scoffed. "Stop looking. The boss spent a fortune on it. Even ten experts couldn't handle it. It's just a decoration." I walked up and touched the familiar body of the machine. "I can fix this." The entire workshop fell silent. My boss came upon hearing the news. He looked at me with contempt. "If you can fix it, I'll give you half of my shares. If not, you'll pay with your life."

Ailani Hart works as an architect for Skyframe Consortium, a small firm under Dominion Industries, owned by the most feared man in all of Denburg. With complications with her grandmother's health and medical debt from insurance, she is forced to take up a project from a dangerous man that would turn her whole life into different shades of black. With each shade less prettier than the last. Dominion Industries is sketchy; Ailani knows this. What she doesn't know is that the CEO of the company she works for is the leader of the Denburg Mafia. But the real question is… Will she find out who he is? And even if she did, is she ready to rub shoulders with the King of the criminal world?

Living with my aunt and her family was meant to be a temporary, quiet arrangement just helping out and keeping to myself. On the first day of the new year, while everyone else was out celebrating, I stayed home, enjoying the rare silence and catching up on sleep. But when we ran out of water, I reluctantly stepped outside to fetch some, and that’s when I saw him. He stood by the gate of the house next door, effortlessly commanding attention with just a glance. A smirk played on his lips, and a flicker of amusement danced in his eyes behind his blue-ray glasses. At that moment, he was impossible to ignore. Meanwhile, I felt disheveled and barely awake, my hair was a mess and still shaking off sleep. But he didn’t seem to mind. There was something about him an air of mystery that made me wonder who he was and why he was there. Before I could look away, he spoke, “Hi.” Caught off guard, I managed a quick, “Hi,” while trying to pull myself together. “Can I know your name?” he asked. I hesitated but replied, “I’m Clara,” and kept walking. “Can I have your number?” he called after me. “Just as friends.” I almost refused but reluctantly agreed, entering my number into his phone. “There,” I said, handing it back. “I’ll call you,” he promised with a smile, as I turned to leave. What began as a chance encounter soon became an inexplicable connection. He had secrets, but there was something about him that saw through me, understanding things no one else did. The man I met next door wasn’t just a fleeting stranger,he became the reason I started questioning everything I thought I wanted.

Vanessa’s life was falling apart. Her marriage has failed, her company made her redundant and the lease on her apartment is up and the landlord plans to sell. Fed up, miserable and alone, she buys a country manor and vows to start a new life. When she arrives, she discovers a house almost in the same condition as her life. The roof needs fixing, the plumbing is older than some countries and the draft blowing up her skirt seems to be the only thing brave enough to go near her lady parts for years. Then comes Clay. Gorgeous with smouldering green eyes and a V that can make any girl forget the rest of the alphabet, but 15 years younger than herself. Clay seems to be the handyman she needs to get everything sorted, including between the sheets. But with the town gossip ladies against them due to the age difference and Vanessa’s ex dead set on destroying her, could handyman Clay be the fresh start her heart desperately craves?

The only way where someone can ever be more than a man is when the person is a woman pretending to be a man. It was never Penn wish to don on male clothing and act like a man but it was the only thing she could do if she wanted to survive. Living on the streets before she came across a man whose character was erratic and unpredictable, the man offered Penn to be his heir and Penn had no choice but to accept because her life depends on the protection which the man could offer. Penn secret was discovered by her new adopted father who wanted her to remain in her guise as a man to deal with certain issues and cause an insurgency which the man was convinced that Penn was perfect for. Keeping her identity a secret from others and at the same time planning to take down the empire is more than enough work for anybody could handle and as if that was not enough. She just had to learn some deep secrets about her family that seemed to tilt everything she believed in and fall for the Prince even when she knows that she was trying to dethrone his father. Yeah, Penn life was capital letters COMPLICATED. ••