PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS "The softest place to fall" "Who did this to you?" The question hangs in the air between us. I can't look at him. I stare at my hands instead. "Ella." His voice breaks on my name. "Please. Talk to me." "I- " The word comes out as barely a whisper. "I can't." "You can. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I'm not going anywhere."

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ 𝐈𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. ..⃗. ☁️ 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐦. "Why are you always looking down? My face is right up here." He gently held my chin in between his fingers, tilting my head up so that our eyes could lock in on each other. "You're so pretty, you make nervous," I quietly confessed. A blush made its way on both of our faces, making laughter fly past my lips. He's so cute. He shook his head and brought the blunt in his hand to his lips, taking a long drag. I curiously looked up at him through my lashes, secretly wanting to try it. As if he knew what was going through my mind, he gripped my face in his hand and bent down, pulling us closer together. My heart thumped against my chest, begging to be let free. "Uh-" He cut me off by placing his lips on mine, making my eyes widen when I felt him allowing the smoke to blow into my mouth. "Inhale," he instructed. ೃ⁀➷ 𝐀 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲; 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫. ..⃗. ☁️ 𝐀 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐟𝐢𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞.

"You hear that baby? We're unbeatable." He whispers against my lips. - Adeline Mckenzie never paid much attention to professional hockey players- hard not to when she grew up surrounded by them. To her, they were simply her brother's teammates, off-limits by default. Especially Harvey Brooks, Jake's right-hand man, her constant shadow through childhood and the one boy who was always strictly out of bounds. Harvey has been part of her life for as long as she can remember... and nothing more. Until one night changed everything. Now, the easy familiarity between them has cracked open into something deeper, something simply impossible to ignore. But with Adeline carving out her own future and Harvey under the relentless pressure of the league and the media, timing couldn't be worse. Their connection is undeniable, but so are the obstacles: hectic schedules, unwanted attention, and the unspoken rule Harvey has lived by since they were kids. Adeline is Jake's little sister. Harvey's forbidden line. As old feelings resurface and a second chance hangs between them, one question remains: Is Harvey willing to risk the one friendship he's always valued... for the girl he's never been able to forget?

She's the captain's little sister. He's the transfer with everything to prove. Their love? Forbidden. Their chemistry? Explosive. Emily Thompson has mastered the art of pretending-on the mat, for her parents, and in the mirror. But behind the perfect image is a girl unraveling, and a boy she can't stay away from. Jake Cavanaugh didn't transfer to Trentwood for love. He came to chase the NHL-not fall for his teammate's sister. But Emily is fire wrapped in silence, and staying away was never an option. When secrets surface and an arranged engagement threatens everything, they'll have to decide what's worth fighting for-the future they were raised to chase, or the love they were never supposed to find. 💔 Love didn't break them. Everyone else did. 📅 Updates: Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays Copyright © 2025 Everleigh Blake All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

Zane Woods is the NHL's hottest star-and a virgin. Not by accident. He's saving himself for the real thing. No games. No puck bunnies. Just something real. Julia Starnes is loud, wild, and impossible to ignore. The total opposite of Zane-and exactly who ends up fake-kissing him at a charity event. Now she's set on cracking his icy shell, and he's trying (and failing) to keep his walls up. But Zane's hiding more than just inexperience. A disgraced brother. A team scandal. And a past that just hit the ice under a fake name. She's the chaos he never saw coming. He's the secret she never expected. Game on. [18+ Mature Audiences Only] [Smut Warning: Starts Chapter 31 and + ]

In the blink of an eye, I lost everything - my mother, my home, and my life. The only thing she left me was a debt I couldn't repay and a bounty on my head, and desperate times require desperate measures. ---------------------------------------- A mischievous smile spreads across his lips as he takes a big step toward me, and as soon as I am within his reach, he grabs my hips and pulls me against him. I lay my hands on his chest and trace my fingers along the outlines of his tattoos as he maneuvers me back to his desk. My ass presses against the edge of his desk as he lets his hands run down my sides until he grabs my ass cheeks " Are you sore from last night, baby?" "I'm fine." "I hope you're not lying to me," he whispers against my lips.

Laurel and her parents move to a new town in the beginning of her senior year of high school, leaving behind her childhood home, friends and everything she knew. Reserved and guarded from her first love she meets Wes and his friends, a tight knit group. She finds herself becoming a part of their group and with it secrets unravel.

Isabella is desperate for her own independence, but her overprotective father stands in the way of her future. When she demands that she attends a University two hundred miles away from her home, her father only has one exception; a bodyguard. Elio is dedicated to his career to honour his late sister, but when he owes a favour to an ex-mafia boss, he takes body-guarding to a completely new level. Isabella is reckless and likes to push her bodyguards limits. Elio has zero patience and a desire to punish his client. When things start to get heated and unexpected feelings get in the way, their forbidden relationship becomes a distraction when Isabella's life is on the line. Elio is desperate to not let down another important woman in his life. But he can't save everyone, including his own bleeding heart. Tropes: - Mafia Romance - Bodyguard - Age-gap (8 years - FMC is 21 and MMC is 29) - Forbidden Love - Brat FMC/Grumpy MMC - Light BDSM (sub/dom vibes) - Size difference (5'4 & 6'6) - University/College Setting - Past Trauma/Healing - ANGST (so much of it)

FIRST BOOK OF THE VELVET & VOWS SERIES ♟️❤️‍🔥! ------------------------ Isabella Romano left her parents with nothing but a dream. Years later, she is a famous fashion designer with her own luxury brand in New York. Power. Money. Success. She has it all. What she doesn't know... is that New York is owned by the mafia. And the man who controls it is Matteo Lorenzo Moretti. Their worlds should never collide. But when they do, there is no escape. Because Matteo never loses what belongs to him. And once he sets his eyes on Isabella... she becomes his obsession. ----------- "Dio, Isabella... guarda cosa fai a me." (God, Isabella... look what you're doing to me.) he murmured, my name falling from his lips like a warning and a confession at the same time. I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly too tight. He lifted his hand, slow enough that I could've stepped back. I didn't. His fingers brushed my waist. Just barely. A ghost of a touch. But it lit every nerve in my body on fire. I exhaled shakily, my voice barely a whisper. "Matteo..." His jaw flexed. His eyes dropped to my lips. Heat rippled through the space between us. And then - completely undone - he whispered, "Fuck it." Before I even realized he'd moved, his mouth crushed against mine. The kiss hit me like a shock - fierce, hungry, weeks of tension igniting in one impossible explosion. His hand slid behind my neck, pulling me into him as if he'd been holding back a storm and finally let it break loose. ------------ #1 gunfights - 01/22/2026 - 01/25/2026 #1 fashiondesigner 01/25/2026 #1 badboy 01/25/2025

In which a poor and struggling 19-year-old college student sends an application as an assistant to the most powerful businesswoman in the world. She is wicked. He is gentle. --------------------------------------- Asteria Viotto is a woman who doesn't take no for an answer and is used to getting what she wants. After building her company from the ground up, she won't let anyone get close enough to her to let her empire, that is New York City, burn to ashes. That is until she meets the prettiest ocean eyes she'd ever seen. Silas Gray is a soft-spoken and stuttering man; his delicate features are enough to make any woman fall to his feet, but he's completely oblivious to them. He's strikingly smart but often overlooked by everyone else. Except, when he's thrown into the world of business and power alongside a very pretty woman, does he fall trapped by her smoky silver eyes. . . . . . . "Her silver eyes are my heaven and hell, and I am the saint and the sinner. "