Romans & histoires Key West Pandora Charm

For seven years, I've kept my identity hidden while secretly helping my girlfriend, Natasha Doyle, become one of the top designers in the world. A major design awards ceremony is being held tonight. My plan is to reveal my real identity and propose to her after she receives the award. But then, I see her walking up on stage, hand-in-hand with Connor Gibson, her partner in the design studio. "All of Natasha's accomplishments are the result of my hard work and effort," Connor proudly declares. Natasha smiles and nods in agreement. "Without him, I wouldn't be the person I am now." Thunderous applause rings from the crowd. The camera flashes keep going off. I stand in the corner, my heart in despair. As I walk out of the venue, I make a call. "Cut off all the funding and investments into Natasha's studio. Don't help her with the patent infringement lawsuit either. Let her deal with the legal consequences herself."

After the breakup, my ex mocked me and called me a coward scavenging for scraps, then lured me to her new lover's winery just to humiliate me in front of everyone. Later, she accidentally shattered a bottle of priceless red wine and tried to pin the blame on me. What she didn't know was… the winery belonged to my family.

I discovered that my mother had remarried this dangerous man upon my return from abroad. The drastic shift blindsided me. The strict rules he imposed and my mother's constant defense of him made me want to run away. However, I am only nineteen years old. If I recklessly walk out, I will forfeit the entire inheritance left by my late father. Therefore, I plan to drive my stepfather out instead so that I will not have to lose anything. I began breaking his rules one by one. Until one night, while my mother was out of town on business, I broke his absolute strictest rule at a nightclub. It was not my mother who came to my rescue when my safety was threatened, it was Alexander. Under the influence of a spiked drink forced on me by a male friend, my sanity failed me, and I recklessly threw myself at his broad frame in a desperate search for warmth. The events of that night exposed a massive secret he had been keeping all along just to protect my family. My hatred is slowly crumbling, replaced by a dangerous fascination. Now, I am trapped in a forbidden attraction that could destroy everything. Should I run from this feeling, or should I surrender to the charm of the man who is still my mother's husband, the very man I am supposed to call my stepfather?

Eight years married, and my wife? She asked for a divorce 99 times. I thought it was just her usual drama—testing me. Then I found out she'd been wiring half a million every year to some dude. Always with the same note: ILU. When she hit me with divorce number 100, I finally signed. I pulled my money out of her little passion project and ghosted—moved my company overseas, wiped my tracks clean. Now she's out there losing her mind, trying to find me.

Minerva, the biggest architectural design company in the country, once belonged to the Iverson family. Years after it was acquired by the Peyton Group, Henry Iverson decided to retake the company. Henry's friend, Vivi Baby suggests Henry to become close with the CEO, seduce him, and retake the company. Henry changes his name to Henrietta, disguises as a hot blonde, and becomes the secretary of the current CEO——Jamie Lee Peyton. Everything is going smooth with their plan, yet what Henry does not know is, he has always been mistaking the gender of Jamie. Everything starts to slip off their track and goes terribly wrong. Well, let's just hope that Jamie won't find out about Henry's real identity and their horrible plan.

I was eighteen when I left Italy for Chicago. My brother Leo handed me over to his most powerful ally for “protection.” Don Damien Volkov. His eyes locked on me the first time we met. They never looked away. By day, I was his private doctor. By night, I was the only thing in his bed. His seduction was a slow, deliberate hunt. The way his body brushed against mine during an exam. A stray kiss that landed behind my ear. The weight of his hand resting on the small of my back. I fell fast and hard for his dark charm. I gave myself to him, letting him claim me, again and again. For four years, our affair was a secret hidden in the shadows. In that time, he sculpted my body, teaching it to crave his touch, molding me into his perfect obsession. Then she came back. Isabella, his exiled ex-fiancée. He sent his private jet for her. I swallowed my pride and crashed his reunion. An hour ago, his hands, still smelling of blood, gripped my chin. He forced his kiss on me. But now, right in front of me, he was stroking another woman's hair. "Elara, you're the one who climbed into my bed four years ago." "You act like a whore, but you expect me to treat you like a Donna?" The way he looked at Isabella was so tender. The way he looked at me was pure scorn. Shame burned through me. Head down, I sent my brother a coded text. Accept the Moretti proposal. I looked up. A smile bloomed on my face. "Fine. Then this is goodbye, Damien."

Book Three of The Luminary Quartet The bears were currently considered enemy number one, right alongside the elders of my species. The problem was, I didn't know them as that. To me, they were simply friends, family even. My mother's mate had been a bear shifter, and I had ultimately found my own other half within the Ursidae family, as well. Everything had been perfect for a single moment in time, and then I was fleeing my home, right after rejecting the bastard who thought he could put his hands on me. I vowed two things then: to never return and to never give a male that much power over me again. Yet, Luna apparently had some twisted plan laid out for my life because circumstances seemed to keep arising, bringing me ever closer to Reese in spite of my best intentions. The wolves' rapidly declining numbers sent us careening across the county in a race to prevent the destruction of our species by the bears, though I struggled with picking sides. New and old faces appear along the way as rogues and other heretofore unknown foes emerge to stop us, making it difficult to know who to trust during these tumultuous times. Will Scarlett hold fast to her deep-rooted beliefs during the journey, or will her perceptions shift as much as the reality she returns home to? *Note: While the main characters in each book will receive their HEA, I wouldn't recommend reading them out of order due to the overarching storyline that continues throughout them all. ***Warning*** This book is intended for adults 18+. It contains mature themes and adult language. Please read at your own discretion.

The moment I was born, my mother implanted a chip in my brain and began shaping me into her idea of a perfect daughter. She blocked my sense of hunger so I would only have simple meals daily to maintain the "ideal" figure. She erased my ability to feel pain so she could inject me with endless chemicals to keep my skin smooth and flawless. She tampered with my senses, deleting every trace of negative emotion from my mind, all so I could remain eternally innocent. I couldn't tell right from wrong. I didn't know sadness or anger. I only knew how to smile. When the neighbor's dog died, I smiled and was scolded harshly for being heartless. When my classmates bullied me, I smiled and became the class freak. When my grandfather passed away, I smiled again, and my relatives cursed me for being soulless. Eventually, my father couldn't take it anymore. He left us. Mom, however, didn't seem to care. "They don't understand," she told me. "Everything I've done is for your own good. One day, you'll thank me." … On my 18th birthday, she planned a grand live broadcast, ready to show the world her perfect creation. She never knew that the day before her grand broadcast, I had already lost myself completely. By then, I was no longer human. I had become a machine.

The battery on my front door smart lock died, so I called a locksmith to come over. While he was working on the lock, he made small talk. "Dude, this lock comes with six spare keys. Did you lock all of them inside the apartment?" I froze. I've lived in this apartment for three years. My wife and I each have one spare key. The other three were always kept in the hallway drawer. That makes five total. So where's the sixth key?

In the two weeks leading up to our fifth wedding anniversary banquet, my wife's secretary, Ronald Piper, sent me photos of the two of them in bed every single day. I pretend not to know. On the day of the banquet, my wife, Jessica Tuttle, books out an entire hotel and gives a heartfelt speech, saying that I am the person she is most grateful for in this lifetime. Everyone applauds through tears. Over the years, Jessica, the aloof and capable CEO, has flown a thousand miles overnight just to come home and cook me broth when my stomach hurts. And when she is sentenced to imprisonment, I willingly serve two years behind bars in her place without hesitation. To outsiders, we are a perfect couple who are deeply in love with each other. While cutting the cake, I notice the pendant on Ronald's wrist. I had to call in every favor I had to get that pendant for Jessica. Back then, she says to me, "As long as the pendant stays on, our love remains. If it's ever removed, our relationship is over." I look at Jessica, who sighs with a helpless and indulgent expression. "Felix, Ron has been having nightmares lately. He's been down with a fever, too. I lent it to him for a few days to ward off bad luck. Don't argue with a kid over something so small, okay?" She then pats Ronald's shoulder reassuringly and urges, "You should thank Felix. He's always been understanding. It's just a trinket. He wouldn't be reluctant to part with it." Ronald looks at me timidly and says, "Thank you for letting me have it. With it protecting me, I can finally sleep peacefully every night while holding it in my arms. When I get better, I'll give it back to you." My best childhood friend is furious upon hearing this. "How can you turn a blind eye to all this?" he hisses. Of course I can.