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Our Little Spanish Cousin by Mary F. Nixon-Roulet

WARNING : EROTICA ONLY Addicted to Sex . '' l wanted you to just pretend as my girlfriend but now no , l have changed my mind , you gonna sign up this contract become my wife. , give me an heir and then you will leave after giving birth to him , l really need an heir '' , Calling him an a*s hole annoyed the hell out of him that he said every word with a serious hint in his voice . '' Forced marriage contract now , oh ! Gosh what if l don't ? '' , l asked in a whisper . This conversation was becoming serious.. How could he just seriously say that , after giving birth that l will leave , before all the gods , l wasn't going to accept that . '' Oh ! Rinna of course you will lose more than your job , l ruin Aria's life your best friend together with your family's life '' , He smiled darkly.

A past that haunts her. A billionaire who won't let her go. After a life shattering prom night, Ondina swore she'd never trust a man again. Moving to New York in hopes of starting fresh, she meets the Raphael Lahsen ,CEO of Lahsen Enterprise. This dark-haired, russet-eyed, impossibly handsome, and persistent billionaire takes interest in her. Slowly, and carefully, he helps her believe in love again. But the past isn't done with her. Not only is the man who destroyed her, back. But she also has to deal with someone from Raphael past who would stop at nothing to see them apart. Can Ondina embrace the future she's just begun to dream of, or will her enemies take everything from her? Now that I've found her, I won't let her go. People may see a billionaire CEO, but I've lived enough to know that power alone doesn't protect the heart. I don't give it easily - but with her, I give all that I am completely. Ondina. Caring, soft-spoken, funny, often timid and impossible to resist, even when she's trying to avoid me. She is my obsession, my choice, and I would stop at nothing to keep her. "I will never grow tired of you, little flower."

Angela's Business by Henry Sydnor Harrison

She married him out of desperation, becoming the perfect docile wife while he treated her like dirt beneath his shoes. But everything shattered the night she overheard him mocking her with his friends-and discovered the necklace she'd cherished, her only link to the boy who once saved her life, didn't even belong to him. It was all a lie. No longer the doormat he married, she discards her fake identity and reclaims her birthright as the hidden heiress of Salvadore City. Now she's on a mission: find the necklace's true owner among his circle of friends, no matter how many hearts she has to break along the way. But her husband isn't ready to let go. Convinced she's playing games to make him jealous, he's blindsided when divorce papers land in his hands. By the time he realizes the woman he dismissed was never who he thought she was, she's already moved on-living her truth, chasing her destiny, and leaving him choking on regret. Some cages, once opened, can never be closed again.

Excerpt: ...we lay under a heavy fire from all the vessels. Evidently the buccaneers did not wish to sink us, for they directed their fire principally at our spars and cordage. Once we were captured they would remove our stores and other valuable gear, and scuttle the ships, so as to leave no trace of their fiendish handiwork. Such has been the fate of many unfortunate merchantmen in West Indian waters, with hardly a fragment left afloat to tell the tale. \"Stand to it, my lads,\" shouted Captain Jeremy encouragingly. \"Spars can be replaced and cordage refitted. They'll get tired of that game ere long. Lie down, all of you.\" It was indeed a trying ordeal. We had already lost our foreyard, which had tumbled down across the fo'c'sle, bringing with it a litter of ropes, blocks, and torn canvas. Our spritsail yard, broken in two places, dangled from the bowsprit; while our mainmast was splintered from the futtock-shrouds to within ten feet of the deck. Several shots had torn gaping holes in our sides, and as a result four more dead men lay on our decks, while nearly a dozen badly wounded were carried below. Nor was our consort in a better plight. Her fore topmast had been shot away early in the cannonade, her poop lanterns and part of the taffrail had disappeared, and several ominous dark holes were visible in her bulging yellow sides. \"How much longer are we to stand this?\" asked Touchstone, as he bound his wrist with a kerchief. \"Patience, man, patience!\" was Captain Jeremy's only reply, as he calmly surveyed the scene of destruction--the blood-stained deck littered with the prone figures of seamen, whether they were dead, or wounded, or unhurt; and the tangle of shattered spars and cordage--and the smoke-enshrouded outlines of our ferocious attackers. Ever and anon a shrill cry of pain or an exclamation of rage would be heard, as a mass of timber dislodged from aloft came hurtling through the air and struck some unfortunate man crouching near the guns; and...

My name is Gabrielle Johns, a rising architect with everything going for me – a dream career, a great apartment, and loving parents who sacrificed for my future. I was heading to my family's lake house for a long weekend, my best friend, Jen, complaining beside me as usual. That' s when the vintage hearse hit my car, a minor fender-bender that Jen immediately declared my "lucky day." Bizarrely, her words seemed to come true: my career soared, and my parents had the full down payment for my new condo. Jen, consumed by envy, became convinced the hearse was a source of "luck," deliberately getting herself hit by it. But her "luck" turned into ruin. The hearse was priceless, and its owners sued her for damages that would devastate her. Spiraling into a paranoid rage, she blamed me for "stealing" her luck. One night, as I left my new condo, her madness culminated in the ultimate betrayal. Jen, my childhood best friend, plunged a knife into my chest, hissing, "This was supposed to be mine." Darkness consumed me, my last thought of my parents and their future, stolen. How could someone I loved become such a monster? Why did she believe my hard work was just "luck" she was entitled to? Why did this happen? Then, I gasped awake. I was in my bed, in my old apartment, on the very morning the nightmare began. My phone buzzed: a text from Jen, "I've got a feeling this is going to be a very, very lucky weekend. ;)" She was back. And this time, I wouldn't be kind.

I remember dying. Not from the Crimson Scourge, but from the mob, their faces twisted with rage. They called me "murderer," believing the lies my husband, Mark Jensen, fed them. He claimed I was holding back the cure while accepting humanitarian awards, a hero to the world, a monster to me. The irony choked me, thicker than the blood in my mouth. I had the universal vaccine, the one that could have saved everyone, but he buried it-and me-for profit. My final thought wasn't of my lost family, but of his betrayal, the only thing real in my last agonizing moments. Then, nothing. Until now. I blinked, the harsh fluorescent lights of a conference room burning my eyes. I was back, a year younger, untouched. It was the day Mark would announce "unforeseen delays" for the vaccine, the day his lies truly began. He stood at the podium, smooth and confident, introducing me, his "brilliant wife," Dr. Evelyn Reed, with a patronizing smile. In my last life, I' d stood there meekly, trusting him despite bitter disappointment. Not this time. "He's lying," my voice cut through the room like shattered glass, every head snapping my way. Mark's smile faltered, his eyes warning me, "My wife is a perfectionist. She' s never satisfied." Alana Vance, his ambitious consultant, chimed in with fake concern, "Evelyn, are you feeling alright? You' ve been working so hard." It was the same condescending script. I remembered giving up a global award for his fragile ego, only for him to criticize my research a week later. The sacrifice forgotten, a weapon in his hand. But this rebirth was a chance. A cold calm settled over me. "No, Mark," I said, my voice clear and steady, loud enough for every microphone. "I think we need to discuss this right now." I stepped away from the wall, away from the role of the supportive wife, into the light. "I' m done."

Sharon had been married to Julio for two years, spending those two years feeling like nothing more than his housekeeper, gradually wearing away all her love for him. When the woman he had always cherished—Lillian, the one he had always idealized—returned from abroad, Sharon finally resolved to leave for good. From that moment on, they would be free of all ties to each other. While waiting for her divorce papers and her approval to join Doctors Without Borders, Sharon never expected Julio to repeatedly humiliate and hurt her, all for the sake of Lillian. This time, she truly lost all hope in him. And yet, it was only then that Julio began to deeply regret everything.

The Romance of Plant Life by G. F. Scott Elliot

I was five years old when my dad traded me to a dying billionaire. He called me his lucky charm, a living prophecy, and in return, I got a mansion, a trust fund, and a fancy title: "Madam Chair" of a multi-billion-dollar foundation. I grew up navigating the opulent halls, an outsider in a gilded cage. My only real connection was with Ms. Chadwick, the formidable chief of staff, and the quiet, observant Wesley. But my twisted stepsister, Jennifer, refused to let my past stay in the past. She, along with my opportunistic father, saw my position as their ticket into the Blakely empire. They relentlessly schemed, first trying to marry Jennifer off to the heir, Caleb, then, when that failed, she orchestrated a horrifying corporate sabotage. She framed Caleb, leading to scandalous accusations and the collapse of a crucial merger. Then came the news: Caleb's fiancée, Victoria, was dead, killed in a suspicious car accident. I knew in my gut Jennifer was behind it, her ruthlessness finally escalating to murder. The Blakelys were in chaos, desperate to cover up the scandal, so they gave Jennifer a high-profile role, silencing her with money and status. They bought her silence, but they ignited my fury. This wasn't just about family feuds anymore; it was about justice and survival. I, the quiet girl dismissed as a symbolic chairwoman, decided to wield the foundation's immense power like a sword. It was time to expose every lie, every betrayal, and tear down the very people who thought they could control my destiny.

Gael D'angelo is a mega entrepreneur from a network of accounting and law firms. A lion of numbers and a predator when he wants something. But the ambitious young billionaire wants something more than a bank account full of money. He longs to have in his hands everything that once belonged to his father, Roland D'angelo, and to achieve this, he is willing to do anything, including signing a marriage contract. Ivy Dixon is a young accounting graduate. A girl who was born with a silver spoon. However, overnight she lost everything she had. His father and her older brother, and all he had left was his sick mother and many debts to pay. Until an opportunity knocks on her door and she can't resist saying yes. * A marriage contract. * An untamed young woman. * A determined man and a signature that will change everything in these two's lives!

For three years, I poured my entire merchant family's fortune into helping my husband, Ethan, awaken his dragon soul and become a Dragon Knight. But on the very night we celebrated his knighthood, he brought a noblewoman named Blanca into our home. He coldly announced that the King had granted him permission to take her as a second wife, claiming my merchant blood was no longer worthy of his new status. When I unlocked the estate's hidden ledgers, the devastating truth finally hit me. My massive dowry hadn't just funded his knightly training. Ethan and his entire family had been secretly funneling my gold to Blanca for months, paying off her family's debts and buying her lavish gifts. They had drained me completely dry, expecting me to quietly manage their bankrupt household as an unpaid servant while Blanca enjoyed the title of his wife. When I demanded to dissolve our sacred marriage contract, his family just laughed in my face. "You're a Dragonless woman! Where would you go without the protection of House Franks?" Ethan mocked. They were so certain I would swallow the humiliation. They truly believed a discarded, penniless woman had absolutely no cards left to play. So, I tossed the matron's ring onto the empty ledgers and walked out the door. Taking only my mother's last hidden relic, I boarded a carriage straight to the capital. It was time to cash in a dangerous favor with Gideon Carlisle, the terrifying Dragon Lord of the North.

Bon-Hwa Rohan Fernando was nicknamed 'Gravity' by his friends and 'Acada' by his family. His life was unpredictable and full of controversy. Handsome and super rich, he broke the hearts of many women and stepped on the toes of many men. On his wedding day, his wedding was interrupted by an aggrieved woman, prompting his bride to run away, Rohan was ashamed, embarrassed and too annoyed to leave the wedding hall without a bride. He threatened to kill the father of the bride if he fails to bring back his daughter within 30 minutes. When the bride's father; Chin Elvis could not find his daughter; Chin Sun, he forced his second daughter; Chin Cho to replace her step sister. Bon-Hwa Rohan cared less whom he was married to. Chin Cho refused at first, but latter agreed. after the wedding, the couple had an accident in the night of the wedding and was taken to the hospital. in the hospital, it was found out by the doctors that Chin Cho was 14 weeks pregnant. Rohan was mad and said to the doctors "take care of my wife and the baby in the womb, let nothing happen to them. when i come out of this hospital, am going to kill both the father of my wife and the father of the baby in her womb. At the end, he found out that he was the father of the child in the womb. will he kill himself?

She was misunderstood and unnoticed-the rebellious and bad daughter. She never cared what people thought of her, as long as she knew she wasn't stepping on anyone else's toes. They considered her a self-centered brat and a humiliation to the family, but she remained indifferent. That is, until she met Cedric Miguel Villacencio-the man who captured her heart for the first time, but unfortunately, the man is in love with her stepsister.. He showed her nothing but hate, yet she continued to love him, even hating herself for it. It reached a point where Cedric Miguel chose to believe Leanna's lies over her own words. No matter how hard she tried to hate him, she found herself falling even deeper. As things spiraled, her life fell apart. She was misjudged, misunderstood, and mistreated, leading her to run away from home. Her feet carried her to the beautiful place of Calor Del Cielo, where she met Inigo, who gave her the strength to live and dream again. She rose up, rediscovered herself, and learned to dream again. When she returned, she found a different Cedric Miguel, one who showed signs of interest in her. Will she give him a chance, or will she choose Inigo instead? Can she stand by her decision to love Inigo, or will she be betrayed by her own feelings and follow her heart's desire?

Quianna, a girl who is constantly receiving messages about forewarned crimes or killings in places she goes. She did not believe it the first until she witnessed a murder happened in front of her and gone as nothing happened. One day a killer appeared and murdered her whole family as the messages stated then a mysterious man appeared in front of her and vanished together with the corpse. As she starts investigating about her parents' death, those messages were starting to be her warnings, coming from the parallel world. Who is sending these messages to her? Will she solve the case and catch the culprit when parallel universe is hindering her greatly? Read and join Quianna as she walks into her own world adventure, friends, family and most importantly, her lover.

I am a top-tier assassin. My ultimate target is Apollo Buck, the ruthless billionaire head of the Ninth Circle, known in the underworld as Thanatos. To infiltrate his impenetrable fortress, I used his dying nephew as bait, disguising myself as a pathetic, terrified janitor with a ghost identity. It worked. But Apollo has a deadly secret: a cursed Wyvern mark that makes him violently despise women. Yet, the moment his skin touched mine, his agonizing pain vanished. Obsessed with this unnatural peace, he dragged me into his heavily guarded estate. But when night fell, the trembling maid vanished. I broke into his exclusive club to slit his throat, only to realize I had walked straight into a trap. The real Thanatos was waiting for me. We engaged in a brutal fight on the roof. His strength was inhuman, and he nearly killed me, slashing my thigh open with a combat knife. How did he anticipate my every move? And why did his murderous rage suddenly falter the second he smelled the cheap mints crushed in my pocket? Bleeding out, I barely managed to scale his electrified fence and crawl back into my oversized maid uniform just as he kicked my bedroom door off its hinges. "Don't shoot! Please!" I sobbed hysterically, perfectly masking my agonizing combat wound as sheer terror. As Apollo grabbed my collar, desperately searching for the assassin who had just fought him, he only saw a fragile, trembling girl. The hunt had just begun.

Insomnia; and Other Disorders of Sleep by Henry M. Lyman

The "Brewery of the Year" award felt like a cold stone in my hand, heavy with the unspoken weight of my wife, Jenny's, silence. She was the General Manager, the face on stage, thanking everyone but me, the head brewer, the one who actually crafted the award-winning beer. I was used to being invisible, just "Ethan Clark, the technician," a replaceable employee in her eyes, despite being the silent 65% owner of the brewery I started with my college roommate. At the party, a sales rep asked when Jenny and I would start a "brewing dynasty," and she laughed a sharp, dismissive laugh. "I'm not putting my career on hold to have a baby for any man. It's not worth it." Her words hung in the air, a public declaration that numbed me. Back home, I found a package from a fertility clinic addressed to her. My heart pounded as I opened it. Inside, a detailed IVF statement confirmed she was one month pregnant. Then, my blood ran cold: the donor was listed as "Wesley Todd." Wes, her "gay best friend," the man with the pitying, contemptuous gaze. The pieces slammed into place. She stormed in an hour later with Wes, scoffing at my divorce demand. "It's not about the joke, Jenny," I said, voice flat. She brazenly explained her twisted plan: "Wes's family is very conservative... I agreed to be a surrogate for him. We did IVF. We're going to have a modern family together." The audacity, the gaslighting, the sheer arrogance of their betrayal left me with a wave of pure disgust. "The divorce is final," I told them. "And I'm selling the house. You have twenty-four hours." The next morning, they tried to fire me from my own brewery, strutting in with fake authority. That' s when my CEO, Matthew, finally revealed the truth to a stunned Jenny: "He was never just an employee, Jenny. He's the boss. He's always been the boss." Why did she, the woman who claimed "visionary leadership," never bother to check who truly owned the company she flaunted? And what dark secrets about her and Wes were about to spill out?

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.