Watching Paint Dry: Stories From The Trade

She is meant to forget the past, but she received a new job from her past fiancee a hundred years ago. Not knowing the real, she accepted the job. Your ex-fiancee asked you to kill his brother. But what if you met your hybrid mate and he was your fiance’s brother? Grab your popcorn! Read more about Lucy, Leon, and Cedric’s love triangle.

I’m done with men! Not because I hate them, but because everyone I meet, and is just fine enough to pique my interest, I compare to him. And it ends right there and then. The ridiculous thing is that my love interest isn’t real. He is a figure that hunts my nights and brings pleasure into the few seconds that I’m captured by my sleep paralysis. I know that, and I am totally okay with it. Just as I start a new job, and my life seems to take a better turn, determined to forget the man from the shadows, I find my forbidden pleasure standing right in front of me. Suddenly my dream man wears a tailored suit and frowns at me. He is my boss. And he is very real.

"A web of lies, love, and betrayal—where secrets are born, and destinies collide.” In a world where ambition clashes with loyalty and love battles against betrayal, lives are forever entangled by secrets. Solo Delaney, a gifted designer, seeks a fresh start far from her turbulent past, only to find herself drawn into a web of deception that threatens her newfound peace. Dominic Hale, heir to a powerful empire, is haunted by the woman he threw away to reunite with his first love, unaware she carries the key to his future. Their paths cross again five years later, but schemers lurk in the shadows, fueled by greed and vengeance. Buried truths threaten to surface, Solo and Dominic’s lives spiral into chaos. With lives at stake, manipulations unraveling, and a love that refuses to die, can they overcome the forces determined to tear them apart? Or will the past claim their future forever? Love, betrayal, and secrets collide in this gripping saga, where every choice reshapes destiny.

One night. One kiss. One unforgettable love that time couldn’t erase. Phillian Zodiac has spent ten years searching for the woman who slipped through his fingers after a single night of passion. A free-spirited fisherman bound to the tides of Alcaraz, he never expected her to return — and certainly not like this. Therese Cataley "Calley" El Mundo vanished a decade ago, running from a deadly diagnosis and a broken past. Now a successful pediatrician, she returns home only to find herself trapped once again — this time by a family desperate to claim her fortune at any cost. When fate throws her back into Phillian’s world, old sparks ignite and secrets rise with the tide. But danger is closing in. As betrayal, abduction, and long-buried lies surface, Phillian and Calley must fight for their lives — and the second chance neither thought they’d get. Love lost them once. This time, it will save them both.

Every Thanksgiving, my husband, Salvatore, brings home a showgirl from one of his clubs. He makes me kneel and serve them drinks. A lesson, he calls it, in how to please a man. This was the eighth Thanksgiving, and this time, he brought back a girl poured into a tight leather dress. "She doesn't have any decent jewelry," Salvatore announced. "Give her your heirloom diamond ring. Your grandmother's pearl earrings, too. And take off that silk choker for her." He smirked. "And listen, she's young, doesn't know the rules. You'll have to show her the ropes. Especially how to handle a man in bed." Every member of the Genovese family was watching, waiting for my humiliation. I didn't disappoint. I opened my mouth and asked Salvatore for a divorce. Salvatore let out a sharp, ugly laugh, his eyes full of contempt. "Francesca, you pull this same shit every time," he jeered. "Your act is pathetic. Even more dramatic than your performance in bed." He leaned in. "You really want to divorce me? Fine. I'll give you five million in cash if you actually walk out that door." The living room erupted in laughter. They all said I was playing hard to get, that I didn't know my place. But they didn't know. This was the 88th time I had asked for a divorce, and it was the first time I truly meant it.

My fiance's precious childhood crush, Amber Sweeney, was in a political union with the infamous Julian Grant, heir to the Grant family empire and a notorious playboy. Unable to stand the thought of Amber being "sacrificed", Ryan Carter barged into her wedding to stop it. They registered their marriage that day, making headlines across the city. The whole of D.C.'s elite waited to watch me and the Grant family become the city's biggest joke. What they didn't expect was that on the very next day, Julian would roll up to my company in his high-key sports car, leaning against the hood like he had all the time in the world. "Your fiance stole my bride. You'll be repaying that debt by marrying me. Fair trade, right?" I stared at his blazing red hair and wild grin, and smiled back coolly. "Sounds fair to me."