"Solè, why'd you stay?" "Because, Zaire... you the first thing that ever felt worth staying for." ❀ 🝳 ❀ Harlem held the noise. Solè gave Zaire the quiet. Zaire Knox, Harlem's quiet storm, known for his ties to the streets and a gaze that read people faster than they could lie to him. Respected. Feared. Loved. With scars buried deeper than his tattoos, he never planned to love soft. Until a Harlem vinyl shop left behind by his late grandfather forces him to slow down, to breathe, to find his real purpose in the world beyond the streets. Solè Sinclair, soft but unbreakable, raised by her father after loss. By day, she serves warmth behind the counter of a café. By night, she disappears into her art, trying to paint the parts of herself no one ever sees. When their worlds cross, the city shifts. What starts off tense and unexpected turns tender. Together, they learn love can hold you just as fierce as the streets ever did, and softer, too. But love in Harlem always asks one question: what are you willing to risk when the heart wants more than the streets ever offered? A Harlem story. A hood love. A soft place to land. ❀ 🝳 ❀

She's a man-eater with a badge and a body count of broken hearts. As a DEA agent, Jonika's mastered the art of seduction, manipulation, and emotional detachment - using her beauty like a weapon and keeping her feelings locked behind armor no one gets past. But when her mission leads her straight into the arms of a dangerously magnetic man, the game changes. He's charming, calculated, and unknowingly the exact criminal she's been sent to take down. By the time she pieces together who he truly is, he's already slipped past her defenses - touching something real beneath the surface she swore no one would ever reach. Now, with a federal sting operation closing in, Jonika stands on a razor's edge: turn him in and complete the mission... or betray everything she's sworn to protect for the only man who ever made her feel something.

"Your heart has no concept of time, if it wants to move on, it will. With or without you,"

𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇- He told her one thing "you ain't see shit if you wanna keep that pretty face connected to your body." She was never supposed to cross paths with Giomani "Gio" Blackwood, suit-wearing, gun-toting underboss of New York's most feared family. But one wrong night put her in his world, and Gio don't believe in coincidences. Now she's tied to the man the streets call a monster. And the craziest part? The more she learns about him, the harder it gets to hate him. Cold. Calculated. Fine as hell. Gio runs everything - and when his father steps down, he's coming for the throne. But love and loyalty don't mix in the mafia. And in Gio's world, you either with him... or you against him. Ain't no in-between. 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐃 & 𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃!

Mob ties, wealth, prosperity. Those were the three things that circulated Luciano; A wealthy businessman's life. Wealth, Mafia ties, and Murder were Kyrei's diversions. Two cutthroat sociopaths trying to survive in the jungle-also known as the streets. Will they let their wrongdoings define them and pin them against one another, or will they learn to coexist and put their differences aside? Cover made by @triceynexttdoor 💕

... 𝑩𝒂𝒃𝒚, 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐-𝒐-𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒃𝒚, 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆? 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 kylian mbappé x fem!oc book i of the "as you are" series started- april 23, 2024 finished- © -chxyzctrl 2024

SEQUEL TO THE ART OF MANIPULATION Jonika thought the bullet ended everything-his empire, his hold on her heart, and the man she loved but was forced to betray. She tried to rebuild, to bury the grief under the illusion of a normal life. But grief doesn't stay buried. It claws. It festers. And some ghosts don't stay dead. When fate drags Jonika back into the shadows she thought she'd escaped, she finds herself hunted by the very man she once destroyed. His face is the same, his eyes colder, his love and fury tangled into something she can't escape. Now she doesn't know if he has returned to reclaim her heart... or claim her life.