𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 "𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆" 𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔. "𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕" "𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚'𝒔" 𝑰 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆, 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒚. "𝑹𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚" 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞🥇 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭🥇 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 🥇 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚 🥇 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 🥇 𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 🥈 𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞🥉

Moving to the rough streets of Harlem is a step back for Lorena after running from her supposedly good life in the suburbs of Miami. She searches for freedom in the most unlikely of places yet in meeting Cross, she couldn't find herself more trapped in the hands of a ruthless thug who is also her brother's best friend. ❝𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁?❞ 𝐍𝐎. 𝟏 - #𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓, 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑

Nia: He's a broken soul with a dark past. He's a fearful man who sees nothing but red in the world. I want to hug him. I want to, dare I say, love him. But will he let me? Apollo: She's a ray of sunshine that burns my eyes with every smile. A flower with poison hidden beneath her petals. I want to break her and uncover her hidden dark desires. There's something about her and I can't let go even though I know I should. A world like mines isn't a place for her delicate soul and I fucking hate that. ~~ "Submit to me." He repeats, harder this time as he steps closer to me. "I am not some puppy you can command to do as you say. Who in the fuck do you think i am? Kali?" His frown deepens at my tone and in a second his cold rough hands are wrapped around my neck. I whimper at the sudden move and my body goes tense when he squeezes. "Apo-" "I said to fucking submit! Do you need me to force you to?" He growls in my face. His scent suffocates me more than his hands are and I remain silent, fearing that I will say the wrong thing that'll end in me buried six feet under. "What? Cat got your tongue?" He taunts with an evil smirk on his face. He's trying to scare me into submission. I refuse. If me dying saves my dignity then so be it but I will not let this evil man think he can control me. "I am not yours to submit to, Apollo," I say as loud as can with his hands still choking me. "I am not your pet. If you want to hurt me, then hurt me but I refuse to be the woman to fall at your every command. You tried that once, remember? And where did that get me? In the hands of your enemy. I fucking. Refuse." I used all of my strength to shove him away from me with heavy force.

Beauty's never been free. Especially when survival has a price tag. Cam learned that early. Pretty enough to be wanted. Never safe enough to be kept. So she adapted. She turned attention into currency. Desire into leverage. And herself into something no one could ever fully have. Because being wanted? That's how you get trapped. That's how you get hurt. That's how you disappear. But the past doesn't forget what it once had. When it comes back-familiar, dangerous, and calling itself redemption-Cam makes a choice she knows better than to make. One drop. No questions. And walks straight into a situation that reminds her exactly what being wanted used to cost her. Then there's Javier Reyes. A tattoo artist with dangerous connections and a gaze that doesn't just linger- it understands. He doesn't offer salvation. He offers something worse. Recognition. He sees the survival. The damage. The girl who learned to run before she ever learned to stay. And that might be the most dangerous thing of all. Because for the first time- Cam has to figure out the difference between being wanted... and being chosen. Marked By Him is a standalone in the interconnected Inked Line series.

Kason "Khotic" Brewster never planned on living long. At seventeen, he buried both of his parents in the same week. His mother died instantly in a car crash. His father held on just long enough to make Kason promise one thing before he passed. Take care of your brother and sister. So that's exactly what he did. Twelve years later Khotic is the man the streets call when things get ugly. Feared. Respected. Untouchable. Everything he does is for the two people depending on him to make it out of the life he's stuck in. He's content with that. Until Beauty Cardwell crashes into his world. Bee is nothing like the women Khotic usually deals with. She's a twenty-five-year-old brain surgeon, a child prodigy who finished school before most people finished learning who they were. She's blunt, literal, and socially awkward in ways people don't always understand. Diagnosed with high-functioning autism, Bee doesn't believe in pretending to be something she's not. She says exactly what she means. And for some reason... Khotic likes that. What starts as a chance meeting turns into something neither of them expected. Bee sees the man behind Khotic's reputation. The older brother trying to keep his promise. The boy who never got the chance to grieve. And Khotic sees something in Bee that the world keeps missing. But loving a man like Khotic means stepping into a life Bee was never meant to be part of. Enemies. Loyalty. Violence. The kind of danger that doesn't care how smart you are. And Khotic knows one thing for sure. Good girls like Beauty Cardwell aren't supposed to fall for men like him.

Janeisha "Neisha" Bambi has always survived by keeping a low profile. She don't get caught up in the kind of business that comes with bodies, secrets, and street names that echo. But all it takes is one night-one favor for her best friend-to slide her straight into the orbit of Seven "Saint" Carter. Saint is discipline wrapped in menace. A man the streets don't just respect,they fear. The type Neisha promised herself she'd never look at twice. He doesn't chase, beg, or explain. Yet somehow, he does all of this for her. And when that calm, unreadable gaze settles on Neisha, her careful world starts to crack. Now Saint's patience is running out, Neisha's defenses are falling apart and the pull between them is starting to feel less like a choice and more like fate. He's trying to shield her from the life he lives. She's trying to decide if loving him is salvation or self-destruction.

"I don't know how to do this." He was almost embarrassed to admit it. "I ain't been right with you in a long time, but I'm gon' ask anyway. Please don't take her from me." His plea cracked something open inside of his chest. "I know I ain't a good man. I done did some shit that I can't take back and I can't make it right. But she is, she's good. She's the light in so many places I didn't know were dark." "So if there's a price that needs to be paid for all the pain that I have caused in this word and done onto others put it on me. I'll pay it. I swear I will. I'll protect her with my last breath. I'll listen and heed her warnings. I'll slow down and come home more and stop thinking that I'm alone in this world." "Just please let my baby wake up. I love her, I'm in love with her and I can't do this without her. If waking her up means I got to sacrifice letting her go so she can be safe. I'll do that. Just don't take her from this earth." "In Jesus name I pray. Amen."

Noelle's quiet life shatters overnight, when she receives a call that her father has died. Once the daughter of a feared crime boss, she's spent the last 5 years trying to outrun her family's shadow, evening changing her name - until the debts her father left behind drag her straight back into the world she swore she'd never return to. To protect her mother from the brutal retaliation of the DeLuna syndicate, Noelle agrees to the unthinkable: marriage to the new Don, Kairo DeLuna, a man as dangerous as he is magnetic. Kairo rules with ice in his veins and secrets in his eyes-known for his lust of sadistic brutality, Noelle is given no choice. Save her mother, or watch the only family she has left face the consequences. Their union is meant to seal a business deal and bury her father's mistakes - yet what begins as an arrangement of power soon becomes a battle of desire, trust, and survival. As Noelle is pulled deeper into Kairo's world of betrayal, bloodlines, and revenge, she must decide whether her heart is her greatest weakness... or the weapon that could change everything.

𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗶𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵. 𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁. "𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘂𝗹𝘁. 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂.." 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵. 𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝗹. "𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗺𝗮? 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻' 𝘁𝗼𝗼. 𝗛𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻' 𝗯𝗮𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼."