Robert E Smith Library Novels & Stories

Synopsis of The CEO's Reluctant Bride Elena Carter never imagined that a single contract would turn her life upside down. When her father’s failing business leaves her drowning in debt, she is forced into a marriage with Damien Sterling—the cold, ruthless CEO of Sterling Enterprises. To him, love is nothing but a weakness, and their marriage is just another business deal. Determined to regain her freedom, Elena swears to resist him at every turn. But the more she fights, the more she finds herself entangled in his world. Beneath Damien’s icy exterior lies a man scarred by the past, and as sparks fly, lines blur between duty and desire. Will Elena break through Damien’s walls and discover the man behind the mask, or will their contract-bound marriage end before love has a chance to bloom?

I was dying of kidney failure. Henry Colombo—the ruthless Mafia heir who once swore he’d burn the world to keep me alive— found me a donor. But the price… was her. Susan Miller, the woman who’d always lingered between us, smiled as she set her terms: “Be mine for one month. Pretend you love me—and I’ll save her life.” He agreed. He said it was just to save me. But every lie, every kiss, every photo she posted online was another nail in my coffin. Each time the surgery drew near, she invented a new delay—a fever, a nightmare, a tender bruise. And Henry believed her. He always believed her. The night my heart flatlined on the operating table, he was across the city, feeding her grapes under candlelight, whispering her name—the name of the woman who had let me die. When he finally learned the truth—that every tear she shed was rehearsed, every promise she made was poison— he destroyed everything. Her lies. Her wealth. Her family name. His own empire. But none of it brought me back.

I gave Evan Cole six years. I changed my name, walked away from the Moretti family, and became the kind of woman he could handle: quiet, useful, easy to overlook. I paid the bills, fixed his proposals, opened doors he thought had opened by luck, and waited every time he said we were almost ready. Then Maracame back. His first love. The woman he swore he hated until the second she needed him again. After that, I became the problem. Too jealous. Too dramatic. Too hard to please. Evan thought I would break down and beg for my place. While he played house with Mara, I saved every receipt, every post, every lie. Then I cut off the money behind his perfect little life and called my family. On Christmas Eve, he asked if I would wait. I smiled and let him believe Leah was still waiting. By the time he learned my real name, Alessia Moretti was already gone, and the mafia princess he never knew had finally chosen herself.

Everyone envied my marriage to Luca Moretti, the ruthless mafia king who ruled the city with blood and power. To the world, I was the one woman he would never betray. For five years, he put me above everyone else. Protected me. Chose me. Worshipped me. Until I found out even a man like him could cheat. I tricked him into signing the divorce papers and disappeared overseas, determined to cut myself out of his empire for good. But Luca refused to let me go. He used the full reach of his underworld network to find me, then begged me for another chance. He swore he had been drugged, that the other woman meant nothing, that I was the only one he had ever loved. He promised he had already cut her out of his life. And for a year, he proved it. He chased me across countries, tore down every wall I built, and in the end, he asked me to marry him again in front of the whole world. Under fireworks and a global livestream watched by millions, I said yes. I thought this time we would finally get our forever. Then I went in for a prenatal checkup… and found him with them. Sofia Romano. And the little boy. A perfect little family I was never supposed to see. In that instant, every promise he had made turned to ash. So I arranged a fatal car crash. If a divorce still wasn’t enough to escape a mafia king’s obsession, then I would vanish the only way he could never drag me back. This time, I’m not leaving alone. I’m taking our unborn child with me—and disappearing from his world forever.

The three Cavalli heirs once acted as if I were the center of their world. They fought over me, made enemies for me, and swore no one would ever force me into a marriage I did not want. For years, I believed them. Then I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. The surgeons warned me that saving my life might cost me my memories. I was terrified of forgetting the three men I had loved for so long, yet when I needed them most, all I got back was anger. Later, Viola sent me a video of fireworks bursting over the coast, her name written across the sky, while the three silver saint medals I had once begged for in their names gleamed at her throat. That was when I finally let go. I left the country, had the surgery, and built a life that did not include them. Much later, three strangers ended up on their knees outside my door, begging me to remember them.

All of Italy knew Kayson Moretti was obsessed with me. He was the untouchable Don of the Moretti family, a man who never lost control in public, yet he broke every rule for me. He declared his love at a gathering of the most powerful mafia families in the country, then bought an entire private island just to build me a glass-domed garden when he proposed. For years, he laid the world at my feet—power, jewels, territory, status. If I wanted something, Kayson didn’t promise it. He made it mine. That was why everyone believed I was the luckiest woman in Italy. They were wrong. Because the same man who swore he would die for me was sleeping with his private secretary behind my back. Worse, he got her pregnant. The day she sent me her ultrasound, their bed photos, and every intimate secret she thought would destroy me, I didn’t cry. I didn’t beg. I didn’t confront him. Instead, I erased every trace I had ever left in his world. My name. My accounts. My records. My past. I staged my death. I let the world believe I had died in a private jet crash.

My father came from Italy to watch my first wedding. He watched Luca Romano let go of my hand ten minutes before the vows, because Celeste called and said she could not breathe. That day, Don Moretti did not scream. “Take the time you need. But when you finally understand he will not choose you at the altar, come home.” I thought he did not understand love. So I stayed in New York. I gave Luca seven weddings. Every time, he came back with flowers, apologies, and a new wedding date. “Elena,” he always said, “this is the last time.” Even his friends had stopped pretending not to laugh. “She won’t leave,” one of them said. “She just wants him to apologize harder.” I would have stayed for real love. I would not stay for a man who only remembered me after choosing someone else. That was when I finally understood. He had mistaken my love for a place he could always return to. On the morning of our eighth wedding, I put my engagement ring into a white velvet box. Just then, my father called. “The helicopter is ready,” he said. At the altar, Luca waited for me with the wedding ring in his hand. This time, I let him wait.

“I need your help to fake a private jet crash,” I said quietly. “It’s the only way I can ever leave Luca Moretti.” People said he’d given up the Mafia throne for me. They called him the man who traded power for love— the heir who walked away from blood and gold just to marry a waitress from the slums. For years, he made the world believe in us. He built empires under my name. He sent me roses every Monday. He told the press I was his salvation. But love doesn’t always mean loyalty. While I was busy believing in forever, he was building a second home behind my back— one filled with laughter, toys, and twin sons who had his eyes. The night I disappeared, his empire burned. He tore apart cities, bribed governments, and buried men alive just to find me. But by the time he did— I was already gone. And the woman he’d once died for no longer loved him enough to stay alive.

Blake is the kind of man people whisper about—ruthless on the road, fiercely loyal to his brothers, and carrying shadows of his own. He wasn’t looking for a woman to save, and Lucy wasn’t looking for a man to need. Yet something unspoken pulls them together, a slow-burn attraction edged with danger and longing. As the world of the Steel Vipers collides with the demons Lucy has tried to bury, trust becomes a weapon, and love a risk neither of them is sure they can afford. But when past and present threaten to destroy them both, Lucy and Blake will have to decide if they’re strong enough to fight not only for survival— but for each other.

Overthrown by her stepmother, sold to one of the most brutal alphas in one out of three kingdoms, and then mated to his other two rival alphas. She has the opportunity to choose and she chose but when fate slaps her with the most bitter betrayal, she gives up. A bed with the three most brutal alphas, all fighting for her for their own need and her stepmother on the side carefully orchestrating a lot of evil, she has a lot on her plate but not enough because fate wasn't done with her yet.