I'm obsessed with her. Skylar Hayes, the woman who saved my life all those years ago. I tried to forget the warmth of her hands, the softness of her voice, and those haunting eyes that followed me long after the war ended. She was the only good memory I brought home with me. And now that fate has put her back in my path, I'll be damned if I let her slip through my fingers again. Mine. All fucking mine.

𝐢𝐥 𝐯𝐨𝐫·𝐭𝐢·𝐜𝐞 /𝐢𝐥 ˈ𝐯ɔ𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐭ʃ𝐞/𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧 𝐀 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬, 𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐧𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧.

His hand was wrapped around my throat, and I couldn't breathe. Whatever air I was getting was thin as hell, borrowed, barely enough to keep me from blacking out. And his face was right there, way too fucking close...so close all I could smell was cedar, whiskey, and that familiar scent of him that pissed me off even more. "You blocked me on everything." His voice came out low and rough, but there was something cracked underneath it. Something he was fighting like hell to keep buried. His thumb pressed harder against the side of my throat. My hands flew to his forearm, fingers digging into his flesh, but that shit was solid as stone. He didn't even flinch. "So I wouldn't catch you." His jaw flexed and he clenched his teeth hard. Those gray eyes searched mine, and somehow, it wasn't anger staring back at me anymore. It was worse than anger. "When you spread your legs for another man." He dragged every word out slow, deliberate, his voice damn near a whisper. "Hm, mama?" My chest rose hard against his. "Do you like seeing me like this?" His forehead dropped against mine. His voice cracked, just barely, and I swear to God, I had never heard that sound come out of Viktor Ascher in fourteen damn years. "I'm about to lose my fucking mind, Ayanna." His grip loosened. Just the slightest. "Please." The word brushed against my face, so quiet I almost thought I imagined it. "Baby." He let out another shaky breath. "Please don't do this shit to me." I had never heard this man say please. Not since 10 years of marriage. Fourteen months after signing the divorce papers, Viktor Ascher cannot watch his ex-wife breathe without making it his business. He said he didn't want her, but now regrets ever uttering those words. He can't stomach another man touching what his hands still remember. And in his mind Ayanna is still his.

Sasha Evangeline Carter never wanted a husband. She wanted a bookstore. In 1876 Savannah, a Black woman with ambitions of owning her own business was already asking for too much. But Sasha had never been particularly good at asking permission. Working at a small bookshop was supposed to be temporary. She would save her money, build her future, and eventually put her own name above a door. Then she crossed paths with Zephyrus Beaumont. A wealthy businessman with a temper, a cruel tongue, and enough power to make most people think twice before looking him in the eye. Their first meeting ends with a broken pocket watch. And a debt Sasha could never afford to pay. Three hundred and forty dollars. Thirty days. Zephyrus knows she doesn't have it. And when he comes looking for his money, Sasha quickly realizes that the debt isn't the only thing he wants from her. He wants control. She refuses to give it to him. But in a city where being a Black woman already means living by rules she never agreed to, Sasha is about to discover that some men don't need permission to take what they believe belongs to them. And Zephyrus Beaumont has already decided she belongs to him. ⚠️ AUTHOR'S NOTE: This book is strictly 18+. Contains graphic sexual content, dark themes, coercion, historical racial violence and language. This is a work of dark historical fiction - not a moral guide. Read responsibly.

Everyone on campus seems to have a story about Ryder Hayes. Some say he was arrested. Some say he got expelled from his last college. Others swear he's been in more fights than they can count. Claire Bennett learns those rumors on her very first day. After transferring schools to escape an abusive relationship, she's determined to keep her head down, trust no one, and never give anyone the chance to hurt her again. Then one night, leaving the library after midnight, she realizes someone is following her. Campus security tells her to stay where she is. She expects an officer. Instead, Ryder Hayes shows up. The quiet, tattooed stranger everyone warns her about. The one who somehow knows exactly how to make someone feel safe without asking for anything in return. As Claire slowly begins to heal, she discovers the most dangerous-looking person on campus has spent years quietly helping anyone who needs him, whether it's walking students home, changing flat tires, or answering late-night calls no one else can. But the past has a way of finding people who are trying to outrun it. And when Claire's finally does, she'll have to decide if she's ready to stop surviving and start trusting. Because sometimes the safest place isn't a place at all. Sometimes... it's a person.

❝ ᴵ ʷᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᶜᵒᵐᵉ ᵇᵃᶜᵏ ᵗᵒ ʸᵒᵘ. ❞ ❝ ᴵ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵐᵉᵃⁿ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ˢʰⁱᵗ, ᵐʸ ˡᵒᵛᵉ. ❞ ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ ...☦︎︎ Steal from the rich to feed the poor or just simply to give the rich more. Everyone just wants to survive in a world so below surface that every breath you take you either fight for it or pay for it. And others are just selfish enough to take others. A serial killer a robber neither loves each other, but there always an opportunity to see what they can feed off of one another. Love, death, pain, a constant reminder an theme both are so use to seeing. He kills the people who he thinks the world would be better without and he takes from the people that he simply sees has enough. Though you might've already gotten this they both revolve around separate worlds. Incompatible disastrous as we already know their worlds will soon collide and one will be formed. Chaos, Tears, and of course love will be the themes of theses two people unfilled lives.

Madeline Johnson, a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, has dedicated her life to saving others. But during World War II, not even the most skilled nurses can save everyone. After the D-Day invasion, she is transferred overseas to a German prisoner-of-war camp where she forms an unexpected relationship with a wounded German soldier, Lukas Adler. Madeline knows some lines weren't meant to be crossed. In the 1940s, the world has little imagination for a Black nurse, let alone an interracial relationship. But as the lines between "good" and "bad" begin to blur, Madeline must decide whether her duty and survival will guide her, or if she will risk everything to follow her heart.

Six years ago, Blanchard Collins packed her bags, boarded a bus to Houston, and never looked back. She left behind her abusive father, the town that never forgave her for speaking her mind, and Rueben Bailey, the boy who broke her heart the night before they were supposed to run away together. Now twenty-four, Blanchard returns home with her five-year-old daughter, Willow, and a dying mother who's asked for one final thing-her presence. But coming home means facing the ghosts she thought she'd buried, including the man she's never truly stopped loving. Rueben "Benny" Bailey did what his family expected. Stayed, took over the farm, and proposed to the girl everyone said was right for him. But when Blanchard walks back into church with a little girl who looks just like him, everything he's built starts to fall apart.

⚠️ In this story I leave the characters aesthetic totally up to your imagination although I might describe how they look every once in a while the rest is up too you⚠️ She was bound to him by contract, not consent. A forceful arranged marriage delivers Alix Beaumont into a world where power is inherited and obedience is expected-and into the hands of Cesare Bellini, a man who believes ownership is permanent. He does not raise his voice. He does not rush. He watches. Waits. Controls. Cesare is her husband in name and law. In presence and shadow. In every locked door and quiet command. What begins as obligation turns into something far more dangerous as his attention sharpens into fixation. He memorizes Alix's silences. Anticipates her defiance. Moves her like a piece already claimed. In his world, marriage is possession. Freedom is a myth. And love-if it exists at all-is indistinguishable from obsession.