Briefly Synonyms Novels & Stories

At the dinner table, my wife's best friend suddenly speaks to her in Lytian. "Three years ago, you married Julian in a grand wedding just to help Jace get Julian's letter of forgiveness. Over the years, I've seen Julian fall more and more deeply in love with you. Yet, you're still lying to him. "You gave him sterilization pills but passed them off as his depression medication. Aren't you afraid that he'll fall apart if he finds out the truth?" My wife, Erica Inman, briefly shows a conflicted expression on her face. She then gives a bitter smile and says, "A child unwanted by their mother has no reason to be born. As long as Julian doesn't stand in the way of Jace's happiness, I will keep my promise and stay by his side for the rest of his life." No one knows that I've learned Lytian to keep up with Erica. I stand in the living room and look at the fresh kiss mark on my neck. As I glance at the medication I take regularly for my depression, my whole body turns cold. It turns out that all of Erica's affection toward me was fake. What I thought was my salvation turns out to be nothing but a carefully planned deception. Since that's the case, I'll do my part to make sure they all get what they want.

Eliza Ward does not fall through time. Time bends toward her. Pulled from the present into Revolutionary America, Eliza becomes trapped in a landscape where history repeats unevenly, battles restart with variations, and memory functions as both anchor and weapon. She is not a chosen heroine, but a constant: a woman whose awareness destabilizes the moment itself. She meets Mercy Hale, a midwife and witch who understands time as a negotiation rather than a force to command. Mercy aids Eliza’s survival while refusing the role of savior, having already learned the cost of standing too close to history’s center. During a looping battle, Eliza saves Thomas Reed, a Continental soldier who does not shift when time does. Thomas is an anchor: steady, observant, unchanged across iterations. Their bond deepens in an almost-normal village where time briefly behaves. Eliza’s intervention triggers time’s response. Rather than immediate destruction, time collects interest. Mercy bargains to spare Eliza and Thomas, sacrificing her own future to stabilize the present. Time extracts payment from Eliza as well, stripping away her voice, the very tool she uses to name and hold moments in place. Silenced and unmoored, Eliza is violently displaced back into the original battle. Unable to anchor the moment, she watches Thomas die in the version of history that was always waiting beneath her defiance. Told in rotating perspectives between Eliza, Thomas, and Mercy, The Hours That Refused to Behave is a lyrical time-travel novel about revolution, restraint, and consequence, asking not whether history can be changed, but who pays when it is.

Leah is back on the family farm in Mozambique, where she meets doctor Sergio Martinez whom she immediately feels attracted to. But Leah is certainly not happy to see that her ex-husband Ralph is also back here. Apparently to complete the dream eco-holiday destination he originally planned, when they were married to each other. What is really uncomfortable is the fact that he wants her back as his wife. He still wants to make a baby with her! Leah acquired a little bit of money after selling her grandmother's house in Pretoria. And Ralph knows about it. He is a dangerous man if he believes there is money somewhere that he can get his hands on. But for some or another reason, Ralph Jameson suddenly has money of his own as well. Did he inherit it from the much older deceased woman he briefly married, after divorcing Leah? Or did he steal it from her while she was still alive? Sergio Martinez is happy with the card life dealt him. He is a veterinarian working for an international company dealing with the relocation and breeding of wild animals for National Parks all over Africa. The lion project, wildlife sanctuary and hospital for injured animals is on a farm neighboring Hurters Retreat. He rents a flat from John Hurter, as he got himself a pet now, an African Wild cat. Gato needs to be kept away from the vet's patients and other threats in the bush. Hurters Retreat felt like a safe haven for his cat and his heart. But suddenly he is not that sure anymore. Why does it feel as if Leah was the woman he waited for all his life. And why did her ex-husband follow her there? Is this the day trouble started in his paradise?

Cinzia, brutalized and sold off after the death of her parents, found herself at the mercy of the ferocious Hybrid King. She lost all sense of reasoning while with him, and even her main goal, which was to avenge the death of her parents. He was known as the Hybrid King, a man of mixed blood, shrouded in mystery. But no one truly knew who he was. Cinzia, in his eyes, was the solution to a problem he had suffered for many years – a possession he acquired on impulse. Despite his treatment of her, her presence in his life was somehow redeeming. Could she succeed in penetrating his frozen heart and curing him of the curse before it was too late? Would she succeed in bringing justice to her dead parents when she found the killer, or would she cower forever in the presence of the Hybrid King, who now more than ever treated her as nothing? ______ "I, Cinzia Aetos, daughter of the slain Alpha and Luna of the Royal wolf tribe, reject all your possible advances, whatever you have in mind..." His anthracite eyes swirled into a dangerous golden color, and his grip on my wrists tightened. "W-what are you doing?" I sputtered. "Let go of me this instant!" "I, Raphael Grace, The Hybrid King, accept you, Cinzia Aetos, as the mate sent by the goddess Selene. I promise to do as I desire with you. I swear on the river Styx and by my father, Zeus, the god of the sky!" The heavens thundered, and I saw a lightning flash in his eyes briefly before he pushed me away from him. What had just happened? He swore and accepted me as his mate?!

When Samuel Larson came to pick me up from work at the county clerk's office, he suddenly slid a marriage license through the service window. "Actually, this one was fake the whole time. Getting back together with you was just a joke." Before I could process what he'd said, he waved a brand-new marriage license in front of me and grinned. "Yesterday, Jessie sat on my lap and kissed me. It felt so good I couldn't help myself. So I went and got a real marriage license with her." The second betrayal hit me as a bucket of cold water dumped over my head. I stared at him in disbelief. "Why?" I asked in a trembling voice. "Because you're gullible." He narrowed his eyes and savored the sight of me tearing up. He then smiled and handed me a tissue. "Back then, it took you three years to figure out Jessie and I were secretly seeing each other. "So we made a bet. We wanted to see how long it would take you this time." His gaze shifted to the fading hickey on my neck. He paused briefly before shrugging. "She bet it'd take you a year at most. That's why I've been leaving obvious clues all year. "But I got tired of acting, and you still didn't catch on. "Today's the last day of the bet. I wanted her to win and be happy. "I had no choice but to just tell you myself."

Layla is standing too close to him. She knows it the moment she stops moving, when the space between them shifts from accidental to deliberate. Luca doesn’t step back. He never does. He only looks down at her, dark eyes steady and unreadable, as if he’s been waiting to see whether she’d do exactly this. “You’re doing it again,” he says quietly. “Doing what?” Her voice gives her away—soft, breathless. “Standing where you shouldn’t.” His gaze drops briefly to her mouth. “And pretending you don’t know.” Heat coils low in her stomach. “Maybe I don’t care.” That gets his attention. Something sharp flickers across his expression—control tightening. He reaches out slowly, giving her time to pull away. She doesn’t. His fingers hook lightly under her chin, tilting her face up. The touch is barely there, but it steals her breath all the same. “Careful,” he murmurs. “That’s not something you say to men like me.” “Why?” she whispers. “Because you might misunderstand?” His thumb traces her jaw, deliberate. “No,” he says. “Because I won’t.” His hand stays there, steady, grounding. She feels the restraint in him now—the effort it takes not to close the distance completely. “There are lines I don’t cross lightly,” Luca says. “And once I do, Layla, I don’t step back.” She swallows. “Then why are you still here?” He leans in just enough that his breath ghosts her skin. “Because you haven’t asked me to.”

“If I ever crossed that line with you,” he said, calm enough to chill me, “It sure as hell wouldn’t be because you’re rich.” His thumb brushed my jaw, making my lower lip sag . “It would be when you’re no longer hiding behind any of it.” A second passed “It’d be when you’re flooded up to your eyes with your wetness but still thinking straight enough to plead with me fuck you. It’d be when you’re on your knees begging to have my cock shoved in you in any hole I please,” I released a heavy exhale and he swallowed it up as his lips were mere inches from mine. “It’d be when all that pride finally shuts up.” His eyes dropped briefly, then returned to mine. “Until then, I’ll be here to watch you convince yourself you’re not unravelling under my gaze, to watch you struggle to understand what’s happening to you.” “Fuck you!” I spat “Sure. Whenever you’re ready.” he replied, releasing my neck Raina Cole doesn’t believe in love not after being left at the altar by the man she thought she’d spend forever with. So when her ex invites her to his wedding, she does what any humiliated woman with money and pride would do; she hires the most dangerous man she’s ever met to play her perfect boyfriend. Gorgeous enough to make her ex choke on regret. Only the man she hires isn’t what he seems He’s not a date-for-hire. He’s an assassin sent to end her life. But the closer he gets, the harder it becomes to remember which side he’s on.

One night of boldness leads to a marriage of convenience. Just a plain agreement. No commitment but a lot of sex. She is liking the setup until the 'right one' came back. Without a fuss, she left, bringing the memories and another heartbeat. ********** Dumped by her two-year relationship for the reason of her being prude and frigid, Alexzia Montes proves she was otherwise. With four glasses of wine in her system, she delved into a passionate night with a stranger she randomly picked. "Do I need to pay you? How much?" she outrightly asked. "Can you afford me?" he snickers. "Just tell me how much" she stubbornly retorted. She is getting pissed by his arrogance. "500 billion dollars" he briefly replies with raised challenging brows. "What?" she mumbles in disbelief. "My present net worth is more or less 500 billion dollars" he unconcernedly replied. Stunned, she becomes quiet. "That's why you look familiar..." she frustratedly whispers, facepalming herself. The man she often sees on tv and in newspapers but hasn't met in person. The only person in the country who has a five hundred billion net worth. "CEO Lucien Wright..." she whispers in despair, almost indistinct. Of all people, she had chosen the cold and ruthless CEO of Wright Group of Companies. How could she afford him? He could even buy her, body and soul. "I need a wife, a bait for my girlfriend to come back. Name your price" he casually announced, handing her the documents. "Once she is back, you will sign the divorce paper and peacefully leave. I will pay you, just name the amount" he added. The offer is tempting Alexzia. She needs ten million dollars and it's an impossible plight but she has an easy way out, being a Ten Million Dollar Wife to CEO Wright.

"Answer my question and I would more than love to continue." I find myself nodding frantically and his chuckle echoes in his body. "Use your words." I find myself blushing again but I say nothing. He pulls a breath away from me. When I continue to say nothing he leans back down, briefly brushing his lips over mine with no pressure behind it. His hand on the base of my neck moves up slightly, tilting my head back to his side so my neck is to him. His fingertips brushing over my skin sends a large wave of tingles through me and I can't suppress the shudder that leaves me. He brushes his nose against my neck and I tighten my fisted hand to a point of pain. His hand on my waist quickly goes to my fisted knuckles and smooths them out onto his chest once again. "Can you feel how fast my heart beats for you, Celeste?" It is much faster now. "It's because it belongs to you. All of me? Belongs to you." ~ Finding herself suddenly alone and injured, Celeste finds herself on the grounds of one of the largest packs in the country. Scared of what will become of herself, she never expected to meet her mate and she definitely didn’t expect him to be the Alpha of the pack. Xavier always longed to meet his mate, longed to complete his family. And when she, a rogue and a runt, ends up on his pack lands, he vows to protect and love her. Only how can he protect her when mysteriously scentless rogues are attacking more packs every day? When an old enemy of Celeste’s makes an appearance in plain sight? When every sign of danger seems to be pointed in Celeste’s direction?

“It's just me who can protect you!" Ethan yells as he slams Valentina against the wall, before she can move away, his body has covered the distance in an instant, and he brings his face extremely close to hers, his minty breath fanning her face. "With my power, no one in school can dare to hurt you, ever again.” Valentina couldn't believe her ears, her eyes blinked back fearfully, she had never dreamt that Ethan would one day try to "protect her" He is a hypocrite, silence hung briefly between them and a certain anger surged through her. “You mean the same power you used against me? Do you think you're any different from the rest of them?" She asked softly, her voice barely above a whisper. Ethan frowned and he gripped her shoulders tightly pressing her even harder into the wall, Valentina squeezed her eyes shut from fear. "I don't care what you say, Val." He whispers against her face, he grabs her jaw roughly and she winces slightly in surprise. "You won't be leaving here anytime soon." Valentina Chandler is a teenager suffering from depression and abuse from everyone around her, but despite that she struggles to get through every day, the more she tries to live a normal life, the more impossible it gets with the hope of one day having a "better life". Then there is Ethan Lords, a powerful school figure no one dared to cross and her mortal enemy who would stop at nothing to make her life more miserable. But what happens when he suddenly stops to bully her and he tells her he needs to protect her? What dangers lie ahead for Valentina? What does Ethan see that she doesn't? Who is he trying to protect her from?