Ebony Morris is a beautiful and successful event planner. Things are going great until her violent ex is released from prison. Just when she's ready to give up... Handsome trouble, Dante Lumiere comes along with a solution.

Stunning and newly divorced, Jade Abara is living a peaceful life happily avoiding the male species to the best of her ability. But due to her circumstances and catching the eyes of two handsome strangers, things are about to change.

Valeria Moretti vanished in a blaze of twisted metal and smoke ...or so the world believed. But the plane crash was her escape, her only path out of a marriage poisoned by betrayal. Two lives torn apart. But one, a woman finally free to choose herself and a love on her terms. (Some details added 27 March 2026 due to repeat questions. Message added to Author Note in final part)

NOW ON KINDLE UNLIMITED! Read the full story, including exclusive scenes, via the link in my bio! 🔗 He came for a hiding place. He stayed for the cook. Serenity Davidson has no time for strays. She's too busy running the best soul food catering business in Greensboro and keeping her heart in the Dudley neighborhood. As a proud Dudley High alum, Serenity knows how to handle the heat but she isn't prepared for the starving, half-dead man collapsed on her front porch. She does what she does best: she feeds him. He says his name is Kevin. He says he's an unemployed factory worker with "bad asthma." He is lying. He is Lorenzo Moretti, the ruthless Don of the Sicilian Mafia, battered and hiding in plain sight. He intended to heal, exact his revenge, and disappear. But after weeks of Serenity's soul food, her warm bed, and her sharp tongue, Lorenzo realizes he has a new addiction. He's not just going to take back his empire. He's taking the cook with him.

Zahir "Zah" Creed has always been the quietest and most calculated of his brothers-the one who watches longer, thinks deeper, and moves last because his moves end things. After surviving a gunshot wound that should've taken him out, Zah's mindset hardens into something darker, colder, and brutally precise. He now runs the Creed family's underground operations with an iron hand and zero tolerance for mistakes. Loyalty buys protection, money, power-everything a person could want. Betrayal buys a grave. Emotions are a liability he buried a long time ago... until the one woman capable of unraveling him resurfaces and reminds him exactly where his weakness lives. Celeste Jones is Atlanta's top defense attorney-polished, brilliant, and born into a family that planned her entire life before she ever got a say. From her education to her engagement, everything has been carefully curated to fit her parents' idea of success. She's engaged to Darrell Harris, a fellow lawyer who looks perfect on paper but hides who he really is beneath a well-crafted persona. Celeste knows something is wrong, but years of obligation and expectation have taught her how to swallow her instincts. That is, until a call pulls her back into a past she was never allowed to choose. At one point in her life, Zahir Creed was all she knew. Their bond was intense, consuming, and dangerous-so dangerous that her parents made sure to tear them apart before it could ruin everything they'd built for her. Now Zah is back, darker, more powerful, and no longer willing to stay in the shadows of her life. The man she once loved is now the man her world should fear, and he's making it clear he isn't leaving this time. As old feelings collide with present danger, Celeste is forced to choose between the life that was designed for her and the man who has always owned the parts of her she's never been able to control.

Rumi "Rue" Monroe was a girl who grew up too quick and too soon. When her parents died, all she had left was herself, her overworked aunt, and bills they could never quite outrun. Fresh out of a relationship after catching her man in bed with another woman, Rue is exhausted working herself to the bone, drowning in responsibilities, and done with men altogether. She keeps her head down, minding her business, praying life gives her something better than struggle and disappointment. She isn't looking for love, danger, or anything that can break her again. Until she meets him. Nazir "Naz" Creed is the coldest man in the city a quiet storm with a reputation that speaks louder than he ever needs to. Running the streets with his brothers built him an empire people fear and respect in equal measure. Naz moves with precision, loyalty, and violence when necessary, and he's never cared about much outside money, power, and keeping his circle alive. But then he sees Rue. What starts as a chance encounter turns into a collision neither of them can walk away from. Rue's sweetness clashes with Naz's darkness, her broken hope meets his guarded heart, and suddenly the city's coldest man finds himself warming to the one girl who wasn't looking for him in the first place. And the streets? The streets don't like when the wrong people start caring about each other.

Fazion Creed was the wildfire of the Creed brothers-the youngest, the most reckless, the one who swore up and down that love would never catch him. He thrived on chaos, fast nights, faster women, and the freedom of never answering to anybody's soft feelings. In his own words, he was born a bachelor and planned to die one, no matter who crossed his path. But fate has a wicked sense of humor. One impulsive night with his brother's wife's best friend flips his entire world upside down. What was supposed to be nothing more than heat and adrenaline becomes the moment that stalks him, haunts him, rewires him. Suddenly the man who lived for the streets and the spotlight finds himself thinking about things he's never let himself want-forever, loyalty, a woman he can't shake even when he tries. Fazion was never looking for love... But love found him anyway, and it refuses to let go. Armani Rose is a full-time respiratory nurse with a soft heart, sharp instincts, and a ride-or-die loyalty that makes her the perfect best friend to Rumi and an even better godmother to their little one. She works hard, loves harder, and keeps her world clean and steady... until one reckless birthday night knocks her balance clean out of her hands. What should've been a harmless "one time and never again" slip-up turns into Fazion Creed tattooing himself onto her reality. She swore she'd forget him by sunrise, but he keeps showing up-leaning in her doorway like he owns the place, sliding into her days, popping up in her space with that wild grin like she already belongs to him. He's claiming her without permission, pushing past every boundary she tries to rebuild, refusing to give her the distance she swears she needs. Armani doesn't know whether to cuss him out, run away, or let him keep pulling her into the fire he carries in his chest. Because Fazion isn't budging. And deep down, she's not sure she wants him to.

Adonis Celts, the notorious monster who'd been rotting in prison for the past decade. Getting an interview with him just weeks before his release would be the story of a lifetime, and well worth the risk. With his hands cuffed and guards right outside the door, nothing could go wrong. Right? • • • "I've already explained I'm not afraid of you Mr. Celts. But it seems like you want me to be?" I retort. He leans forward in the chair, his face just a foot or two away from mine. The light flickers above us and it seems like a sign for me to shut the hell up. "Mmhm right. Well, maybe you have more nerve than sense then hm? Or you just don't scare as easily as the others." His jaw ticks slightly "But I can think of far better ways to get your heart racing. So no honey, fear is the last thing I want from a woman like you."

When cold-hearted, dominant and controlling, Darius Kane sets his sights on something he wants he doesn't stop until he gets it. *first draft*