"Little Valerie," said Kai, bending closer to me. "Are you blackmailing me into dating you?" He didn't seem particularly disturbed by the notion. In fact, he remained completely amused. "Yes?" Kai grinned. "Very mafia of you. I'm weirdly kind of into it." *** When Valerie Williams discovers that her long-term boyfriend is sleeping with her best friend, she devises a revenge plot to get back at them both. But when she asks bad boy Kai Delaney to pretend to date her, she never thought her heart would be on the line. *** Self-proclaimed pessimist Valerie Williams is definitely your glass-half-empty kind of girl. However, Valerie is surprisingly optimistic when her (ex) boyfriend cheats on her with her (also ex) best friend. Valerie doesn't believe in holding grudges; she believes in getting even. Which doesn't seem easy, until her boyfriend's least favourite person and her best friend's long-standing crush, the sarcastic, cocky and popular bad boy extraordinaire Kai Delaney crashes, quite literally, into her life. When Kai accidentally hits her car with what is practically a monster truck, and can barely afford to cover it, Valerie has an idea. If Kai agrees to pretend to date her, for long enough to make her boyfriend and best friend regret their actions, Valerie will give him the duration of their scam to pull together the money to pay her back. Revenge is a dish best served fake. [150,000-200,000 words]

FREE STORY WITH EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. This is *not* a Paid Story. Eighteen-year-old hockey prodigy Elliot Wexler has three goals for senior year. One: somehow graduate with a 3.5 GPA. Two: hide his bipolar disorder from his peers. And three: make it into the NHL with no scandals. Piece of cake. What he doesn't expect is to find Lucy, a homeless girl, hiding from the winter frost in his dad's shed. Elliot's busy, complicated life doesn't permit room for error, and falling in love with a girl from a totally different world sounds like the opposite of a good idea. But Elliot can't help but be drawn to Lucy and her elusive ways--even when she seems to vanish from his life non-stop, each time leaving him with a bigger hole in his heart. But Elliot is determined to break down Lucy's barriers. And when he does, he discovers that her life is more complicated--and dangerous--than he could have imagined. With drafting season approaching, and Elliot's fragile mental health deteriorating, he's forced to face a difficult question: Is first love supposed to hurt so much? *** PLEASE DO NOT ADD THIS STORY TO GOODREADS.