He's rude, he's arrogant and downright insolent. She's a damaged good with walls built so high it's a surprise even she can see over them. It's almost been a year since Scarlett Valentina has been working as secretary to the suave, sexy billionaire - Jasper Queen - and as her first year draws to a close, sparks begin to fly. Suffering from a childhood of abuse, Scarlett refuses to let anyone get too close until even she herself cannot stop her boss from digging deep into her past. But, will she let Jasper break down the walls and unearth every part of herself for him? Will Jasper stay long enough to seek his secretary out? Through all the scars, tears, truths and tantrums, who will burn and who will make it out unscathed? • THIS BOOK HAS BEEN FULLY REVISED AND EDITED AS OF JULY 1ST 2017 • ● DEAR READERS, PLEASE BE COURTEOUS OF THE FACT THAT THE FIRST 16-18 CHAPTERS WERE WRITTEN WHEN I WAS 14 YEARS OF AGE HENCE WHY THEY ARE NOT VERY GOOD AND PROVE TO BE RATHER NONSENSICAL AT TIMES. THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING.●

❀ FEATURED ON WATTPAD'S EDITORS' PICKS LIST ❀ [The Closer is intended for readers with an appetite for the dark and sexy. Read at your own discretion.] "What about that no fucking colleagues policy, huh? The one you so haughtily rubbed in my face?" The way to wound my heart is through my pride. The bastard knew that. But the look in Hans' eyes told me this wasn't a game to get me all riled up. "If your office ethics involve you getting into Tim's pants, then why don't I get to play too?" His hands flew down to my legs, tickling the bare skin on my legs and shocking me into stillness when I felt him pull up the corners of my dress till they were bunched up at my waist. "You can't," I breathlessly whispered as he forced my legs apart. One hand sauntered up to my neck, resting at my collarbone while the other snaked between my legs, parting my thighs until he had all of me resting at the tip of his fingers. "Is this cause of him," he growled, his finger dipping into my heat just slightly, circling the entrance, "or me?" He sounded so needing, so deprived. It turned me on knowing that I was the one making him feel this way, that despite being the one thrown up against a wall, I had the ultimate power over this man. "It's...It's you." I gulped and met his eyes. "It's all you." ● What happens when an unstoppable, hard-hitting business woman meets an unmovable, chauvinist, and utterly exhausting heir to a multi-million empire? Disaster, of course. For Tris, Hans Castellan proves to be more than a challenge of the heart and of the body. For Hans, Tris Henderson turns out to be a woman worth fighting for, despite a rocky start and more than a few broken hearts. Then again, no one said closing this deal would be easy. ● © Beatrice Manuel, All Rights Reserved

When a local Italian antiques dealer is found dead in the Mediterranean Sea, thousands of famous paintings and relics from world Unesco heritage sites from Malta, Florence, Rome and all over Europe are smuggled into the black market to be sold to private collectors in order to finance terrorism. Lex Jackson and the Alpha group team up with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to find out what the antiques dealer was killed for and who is behind the black market as they race across Europe dodging assassins.

Apparently the more you hide your feelings for someone the more you fall for them.