In the fading grandeur of 1874 Tuscany, a young restoration specialist arrived at Villa Laurent with nothing but a damaged portrait, a locked cottage, and questions no one wished to answer. Cassia Drake had inherited fragments of a history that the noble Laurent family had spent generations burying beneath marble and roses. What she had not expected was the young count who guarded those secrets with the same ferocity he guarded his own wounded heart. Lorenzo Laurent was bound by duty, betrothed by tradition, and trained since birth to sacrifice desire for legacy. Their worlds were never meant to collide. Yet every locked room they opened together, every storm they weathered in silence, and every truth they unearthed from the estate's shadowed past drew them into an intimacy neither could name, and neither could survive admitting. As the seasons turned from blooming spring to frost-covered winter, Cassia and Lorenzo discovered that some inheritances were more dangerous than wealth, some devotions more costly than obedience, and some houses remembered every heartbreak that had ever happened within their walls. Between masquerade balls where identities were hidden and exposed, opera houses where passion was performed but never permitted, and gardens where dead roses held living secrets, they found themselves caught in a web of obsession, betrayal, and desire that threatened to unravel everything the Laurent name had been built to protect. This was not a story of rescue. It was a story of two people who had to decide whether love was worth the destruction of everything they had been raised to believe, and whether a heart could survive being truly seen. ©️ _RelleLebby_// R. L.

𝗥𝗛𝗘𝗔 𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗘 was raised to be a shadow. Sit straight, smile when you're spoken to, don't make people repeat themselves and don't you dare draw attention and learn to be grateful they let the deaf daughter stay in the room at all. In Northvalle, perfection is currency. Her sister, Alina, is priceless. Rhea is the problem they keep just out of frame.. .. She's had her eyes on 𝗘𝗭𝗥𝗔 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗢𝗩 longer than she'll ever admit. The city's quiet threat. Fixer, the man you call when you're out of options and ready to sell whatever's left of your soul. He doesn't play about what's tied to his name. He doesn't repeat himself and when you keep him waiting too long, he collects more than debt. He's invited into the Lore empire for one reason.. Alina. A marriage on paper. An alliance at the table. Lore influence for Markov protection. Breaking that kind of deal would cost more than money and everyone at that table knows it. Ezra knows what's at stake. But the wrong girl keeps catching his eye... the daughter who was never part of the offer, the one who moves like she's been taught her whole life not to be seen. He should keep his distance. Instead, he starts to toy with the line.. a glance held too long, a touch he has no business giving, secrets in dark corners that would ruin her if anyone ever found out. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧. 𝙃𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⋆ 𐙚 ̊. "We shouldn't be doing this..." "Then stop trembling every time I breathe your name, Malyshka." ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⋆ 𐙚 ̊. • 𝘼 𝘿𝘼𝙍𝙆 𝙈𝘼𝙁𝙄𝘼 𝙍𝙊𝙈𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙀 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Mature| 18+ Copyright ©️𝗐𝗋𝗍𝖾𝗇𝗂𝗆 2025 All rights reserved.

//Please note this story is under heavy construction! Read at your own risk.// If you look for perfection, you'll never be content. ~Leo Tolstoy . . . . . . . A flower is to be always beautiful lest it is cast away. A flower is to be innocent and pure. Delicate in nature, ever to bring squinting smiles to those around. A flower is perfect. Always perfect. She was the perfect embodiment of a flower. Her name, Iris. A thorn is sharp like a knight's blade. It inflicts pain and draws blood if one dares to get close. A thorn protects a flower from the wickedness of the world. A thorn is attached to the king, ever guarding. He was the perfect embodiment of a thorn. His name, Luca. She was an iris in no need of a thorn and he was a thorn in no need of a delicate iris. Thrust together by an arranged marriage, the unlikely pair, the thorn, and the flower must now find a way to co-inhabit in the same garden. Bracing the strength of the winter, will their love and companionship last for the spring season or will the cold betrayal of a parasitic orchid, the overflowing herbicide of lies and the perfect perfection of the Iris trample the delicate budding bloom of their affairs of the heart?

" 𝐈-𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐈𝐦 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 ". " 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐲"

Valentina do you have any idea what you do to me on a daily basis? He said as I walked back, he got closer and closer to me till I was blocked by his office desk. He moves his hands to my waist and hoist me up on the desk , with my legs slightly apart he stood in between them while his tatted hand moved to My exposed thigh. Tell me ,I said as I moved my hands to his shoulders then to his hair ,playing with it as his hand moved higher up my thigh till he reached my laced underwear and started rubbing my clothed pussy through them. You make me wanna... ⚠️mature content ⚠️strong language

" you what? " " i killed them. I might've not wanted this marriage but you're still my wife. " ________________________________________________ SECOND BOOK IN NEEDED ME SERIES CAN BE READ AS STAND ALONE