"Some love stories don't begin with confessions. Some begin with silence, missed chances, and two people pretending they never cared." ------------ She was supposed to marry someone else... but destiny made her his wife instead. 🤍 A soft-hearted girl. A dangerously calm man. And a marriage neither of them expected. Avantika Rathore & Avyukt Vardan #SlowBurn #ArrangedMarriage #WattpadRomance

Rayne has a routine, a plan. He lives life according to this routine. A few times a week, his routine allows him a few hours to hide away in his diner. Everything is always the same in this diner, even the variances are consistent. That is, until the gray-haired manager hires a new waiter who moves about like a tornado. This boy does not know Rayne's "usual" or his proclivity to be left alone so he can watch and study the people living around him. This new waiter disrupts his routine in all the worst ways and Rayne can't help but hate him. He doesn't seem to care, however, continuing to disrupt Rayne and see Rayne and pop Rayne's bubble of safety, and ask Rayne questions that he doesn't want to answer. It was all quite aggravating really. •••••• He looked vaguely familiar, like an ancient statute carved from marble or a delicately crafted oil painting you can see only in the galleries in Europe. He was all but perfect, just one minor flaw over his eyebrow- a scar where hair refused to grow, leaving a pale gash to interrupt his dark eyebrow. I noticed, between all my studying of this strange man's face, that his lips were moving. I had no desire to hear what he was saying. I was content to just watch. The ways his lips parted and pressed together, his porcelain teeth teasing an appearance behind them. I watched him speak, not hearing a word, until he stopped, his lips curving up and open on one end in an aggravating smirk. I don't know why it aggravated me, but it did. I furrowed my brows and removed an earbud, moving my eyes back up to his. His eyes seemed to aggravate me too. They looked all too teasing, all too amused. 🎖️ #1- lgbtlove- Jul 20, 2026🥇 #1- yearn- Feb 18, 2026🥇 #1- love- Dec 18, 2025🥇 #1- slowburn- Dec 18, 2025🥇 #2- boyxboy- Dec 18, 2025🥈 #2- bxb- Dec 18, 2025🥈 #2- manxman- Dec 18, 2025🥈 #3- literature- Feb 14, 2026🥉 #10- lgbt- Dec 26, 2025

She's cold, untouchable, and used to being feared. He's the one man who's not afraid to get too close. Isabella Black doesn't do fear. She doesn't do help. And she definitely doesn't do protection. As the icy CEO of Blackstone Enterprises, she's built a world where no one gets close - and anyone who tries is crushed. But when threats start slipping past her security, the board sends her a solution she didn't ask for: Cade Wolf. Ex-military. Sharp-eyed. Silent. And not the type to take orders from anyone - not even her. He's supposed to be her bodyguard. A shadow in the background. But Cade sees what no one else does: the cracks in her armor, the pain she hides, and the war she's waging behind those cold eyes. They're complete opposites - fire and ice, control and chaos. But the danger circling them is personal. It's tied to both their pasts. And the deeper he digs, the closer he gets to the truth... And to her. Enemies are closing in. Secrets are bleeding out. And the one thing Isabella swore she'd never give - is the one thing Cade won't stop taking. A slow-burn, high-heat romance full of power games, dark secrets, and a love that could ruin them both.