I learned that time was never the promise. Love was.

"𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐘, 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄? 𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐄." Dejah Champagne has always believed sweetness solves everything until the Santiago name walks through the doors of her bakery. Tony Santiago isn't just any customer. He's a mechanic with oil on his hands, a kingpin with weight on his shoulders, and the last man she should ever let close. Their families' blood runs thick with betrayal, and everyone in their world knows the two names don't mix. But Tony keeps coming back. For cupcakes, for chai... for her. His quiet persistence chips away at Dejah's resolve until one yes changes everything. What begins as a dangerous flirtation soon unravels into something deeper, something Dejah never thought she could feel. Yet love is never simple when loyalty is a battlefield. When Dejah's family discovers the truth and Tony's fear of commitment collides with the weight of his empire, they'll both have to decide: is their bond strong enough to survive the sins of their families, or will history tear them apart for good? Sweet meets street, sugar meets steel, and nothing will ever taste the same.

Join Coia as she navigates her adult hood, trials and tribulations, successes and losses, learning and unlearning both people and habits.

Pushing himself from the door Gulian neared her, standing in front of her. "I want you to stop seeing 𝙝𝙞𝙢, that's what I want." Kyomi scoffed as she shook her head. "Why would I stop doing that? Just 'cause you call yourself asking nicely?"

When a deadly crash on an icy mountain road claims the lives of Giselle and Sai Whiteford, their world stops overnight. Solani Kross-a compassionate social worker who grew up in foster care-and Saint "Spider" Whiteford-a feared kingpin who built an empire from the shadows-are left with the same unimaginable loss. Then the lawyer reveals Sai and Giselle's final wish. They've both been named legal guardians of two-year-old Isabella "Issy" Whiteford. To keep Issy out of foster care, they must sign immediately. To honor her parents' wishes, they must raise her together... in the home Sai bought for his family. Neither of them understands why Sai chose Spider-a man whose name carries fear throughout Pleasant Mount-to raise his daughter. Not even Spider understands it. His brother spent his entire life avoiding the streets, yet somehow believed the man everyone else judged was the one who would protect Issy with everything he had. Grief leaves no room for pride. Now two near-strangers must become roommates, co-parents, and the only constants in a little girl's life as she asks the same heartbreaking question every night: "When are Mommy and Daddy coming home?" As seasons change, bedtime stories replace silence, shared dinners become routine, and a house built for one family slowly becomes home to another. Somewhere between sleepless nights, preschool mornings, therapy appointments, and healing hearts, Solani begins to see the man behind the nickname... and Spider realizes the sunshine he never thought he deserved has been living under the same roof all along. But loving each other is the easy part. Learning to build a family from unimaginable loss-and protecting it from the life Spider thought he'd never escape-may be the hardest thing either of them has ever done.

Aujani Mitchell has never believed motherhood should depend on whether a man chooses to marry her. At twenty-seven, she has built a life she is proud of-a successful career as a pediatric nurse, financial stability, a close family, and enough love to give the child she has always wanted. After months of researching sperm banks and anonymous donors, Aujani realizes she cannot bring herself to choose a stranger. She wants to know her child's medical history, their family, and the kind of man responsible for half of who they will become. There is only one person she trusts that deeply. Her best friend, Cartier Moore. Cartier has been beside Aujani since fifth grade. They have grown up together, shared clothes, secrets, arguments, firsts, heartbreaks, and every version of themselves in between. He is also a devoted father, a successful businessman, and the one man Aujani knows would never abandon his child. But when she asks Cartier to help her have a baby, he makes one thing clear-he is not interested in being a donor. If they create a child together, he will be the daddy. Five months later, an appointment is booked, their plan is in motion, and the friendship that has survived almost everything begins changing in ways neither of them expected. Morning sickness brings Cartier closer. Late-night cravings become routine. Baby names, tiny clothes, doctor appointments, and quiet moments start feeling far more intimate than friendship should. Cartier falls first. Aujani does not realize she is falling until the man she has known nearly her entire life starts looking at her differently-and she begins looking back.

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!

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.

Aurora Fletcher thought she had seen it all. As a psychiatric nurse, she's spent years helping people navigate trauma, addiction, grief, and the darkest moments of their lives. Then David Blackwell is admitted to her unit under a fake name. A man haunted by nightmares he refuses to talk about and a past he can't escape. Aurora knows he's hiding something. What she doesn't know is that David Blackwell is one of the most powerful and feared men in the city-and four years ago, he lost everything when his three-year-old daughter, Dove, was killed. Now he's left carrying a grief that never healed, memories that won't let him sleep, and a guilt he can't outrun. The closer Aurora gets to him, the harder it becomes to ignore the man beneath the reputation. But David has enemies. Aurora has boundaries. And some secrets are dangerous enough to destroy them both. He was supposed to be her patient. She was never supposed to become his reason to keep living.

"𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏?" - 𝑱𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒙𝒙