After We Collided: Bound by a deal
Bella arrived New York City with ambitions, goals and desperate hunger to escape poverty. Raised by her single poor mother along side beloved sister Emily, Bella believed the only way to succeed and save her family from the ruthless hands of poverty was education.
After countless denial and rejection letters, she finally gained admission into one of the most prestigious universities in the country. What she doesn't realize is that stepping foot into that campus would pull her into a dangerous world of obsession, wealth, and power She never knew existed.
Benson Vale is everything Bella despised, Arrogant, untouchable and born into privilege.
As the heir to a billionaire empire, Benson is being forced to get married in order to acquire his inheritance something he dreaded with passion, but Bella crashed into his life and his tightly controlled world starts to unravel.
Lurking in the background is Angella Browns, Benson's childhood friend and the campus self proclaimed queen bee. Obsessed and possessive Angella would do whatever it takes to keep Benson all to herself even if it meant destroying Bella's life to pieces.
When tragedy strikes and secrets begins to unfold, Bella and Bensons relationship are bounded together by a dangerous DEAL - one that could either save or destroy them both.
As danger draws closer Bella must not only fight for justice but also uncover the truth behind her sisters death and choose Whether love was meant to survive in a world filled with Wealth, Power, and betrayal.
It was never meant to be love until fate made them collide.
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Chapter 9
Bella looked at the documents and then back at Benson. There were no emotions on his face; he stared back at her, straight–faced, with no feelings attached.
"Is he thinking that I would back down from a deal without signing this document? He doesn't trust me?" Bella questioned internally.
"We are signing this now? Like, here?" Bella whispered, trying to remind him that they were in a restaurant.
"Yeah." Benson raised his eyebrows.
Bella glared at the contract; she was totally speechless
He was mean– too mean. According to the contract, PARTY A was Benson, while PARTY B was Bella.
She kept reading line by line until her eyes got to the part he said PARTY A was allowed to sexually request to be with PARTY B, but PARTY B isn't allowed to make any.
If PARTY A request, PARTY B has every right to accept or decline, and PARTY A will cooperate without Violence attached.
Bella looked at him, anticipating an explanation.
"What? There's literally no way on earth l'm falling in love with a psychopath like you," Benson mocked.
"Hey! What makes you think I am one?"
"Well for starters who walk into an expensive bar they can't afford, order a drink, and wait for their saviour to come pay the bills?"
"Listen, I was upset and emotional. Do not judge me in that aspect."
"Oh really? So if I didn't come into the bar, Bella, please tell the audience how you were going to pay for that drink?" Benson was acting all dramatic, and Bella, realized that she had lost this round, eyed him and went back to reading the document.
"Wait, what?" Bella glared at the part he said PARTY B must agree to move into the same house with PARTY A.
"Why would I be moving in with you?" Bella asked, looking at this crazy man.
"Well it's simple. If you're going to be my girlfriend-wife we kinda have to make it look real in the society. I'm kind of a big deal here, you know–the media, the news." Benson sounded so arrogant and proud and this made Bella almost puke.
"You're impossible!" She screamed into his face.
"Are you having second thoughts about signing the papers? Fine, let me have it." Benson used his trick on her.
Bella, who almost attempted to hand the papers over to him, looked at the button and saw the amount she'd be paid. She wasn't a money monger but five hundred thousand dollars yes she was definitely doing this.
She looked at Benson for a minute wanting to hug the hell out of him
"Calm down. Don't let him think you're cheap." the inner voice inside of her cracked her head.
"Hmm... I will just sign it" she muttered to Benson as he handed her an office pen that looked really pretty, Bella scrawled her signature on the paper.
Bella resumed her eating, Benson sat watching her and pretending to scroll through his phone.
"Listen, if you admire me, go straight to the point. Stop acting like some kids." Bella broke the silence that had grew between them
"Wait what? You wish" Benson pride fell straight to the ground, she had a gift for making him feel less of himself
"Well, that's your business. I know l'm freaking worth it."
"Yen yen yen" Benson mocked
"What are these two cats and dogs doing here?" Leo screamed from the restaurant door.
His heart cringed on seeing Benson with Bella. He stared at them wondering what brought them here
"Did Benson finally tell her the deal? How's she taking it" he thought to himself, instead of letting curiosity get the best of him he had to notify them he was around .
"What got the enemies sitting on the same table must be crazily insane" Leo cracked
"Excuse you who said we were enemies?" Bella tried to bury her head inside her food
"Oh wait unless one of us got our head hit by a car, I clearly remembered "l'm not going to apologize he should do so first" two sick people" Leo had a satisfying laughter and it got Benson smirking
"Well bro I want you to meet my girlfriend Bella, sorry we introduced ourselves to you on a wrong path but yeah that's in the past now"
Benson for some reason found himself being over protective, he liked the word girlfriend and Bella he looked at her anticipating a rash moment but to his shocking surprise Bella smiled and looked at Leo as if she was accepting the fact.
"Did he just call me his girlfriend?" Bella's inner child giggled.
She tried to hide the excitement in her face and just constantly kept her eyes on Leo avoiding Benson's gaze.
"Well you seem so excited he called you my girlfriend?" The voice in Bella's head pricked her
"Well we are making an act in front of his friend remember the deal is a secret no one must know about it" Bella reassured herself but she hated the fact that deep down she knew she was being a pathetic liar
LEO's POV
He looked dumbfolded. For what felt like years no he wasn't hearing properly, did Benson just call Bella his girlfriend, he gave Bella a long stare she seemed so happy hearing it come out of Benson's mouth, something inside him broke
Does she even know he's doing this just to take over his father's company and be a good son? Does she know about the Deal?" He thought widely to himself
Leo didn't want them noticing the sudden change in his mood so he broke the silence
"Whatttt? When did this happen? Why wasn't I invited to the party" he cracked
"Don't mind Benson; he just has a way of captivating a woman's heart just speaking to them;" Bella spoke for some reasons her world felt real they looked real, Benson smiled genuinely he liked the way she said that.
"Damn you two love birds and making my eyes go all red" Leo joked trying to put himself together
"That reminds me Leo–you're Benson's longest friend. Can you tell me some embarrassing moments he had as a child while growing up I need all backups to his when am taunting him" Bella giggled her white dentition made her look really pretty
"Bro you wouldn't dare!?" Benson looked at Leo trying to plead with him not to spill
VALE MANSION
Angella walked in putting on a pink body hugging gown. Dressed in her most expensive fragrance she walked in her red lipstick making her extremely noticeable
"Oh wow if it isn't Angella my future daughter in law, how are you child?" Mrs Vale screamed from the staircase
"I will do everything possible to make Benson mine. He'll be mine and no one else would dare take him away from me. Even if it's the last thing I do on earth". Angella giggled to herself as she let drowning in her thoughts, making sure to put up fake smiles with Mrs Vale.
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7.1
His grin spread and he leaned closer to me, his scent overshadowing my senses. "I own you and this entire place, Scarlett. Whatever I decide to do to them is none of your business, is that clear?"
"I hate you, Asher. I hate you with every cell in my body!" I seethed through my teeth, but his grin only grew wider.
"We both know that you are lying..." His fingers moved to my chest, slowly making their way over my breasts, searching for my nipple. "Your whole body can't survive without me."
***
Scarlett's holy union to Asher, the feared king of the Forgotten Lands, was meant to unite kingdoms but behind closed doors, her marriage becomes a prison. Asher wants an heir, a throne, and revenge against the family that once ruled over him. Scarlett is only the means to an end.
Caught between a husband who breaks her body yet craves her soul, and a trusted friend whose loyalty hides a thirst for power, Scarlett learns that love in the Crystal Peaks is never gentle. It is claimed, twisted, and betrayed.
As war brews, dark magic awakens, and an enemy long thought dead returns, Scarlett must decide who she truly belongs to... and how much of herself she's willing to lose to survive.
Because in a world ruled by monsters, the most dangerous thing a woman can be is loved.
Book 3 of The Lycan King Series.
9.2
Druscilla Hayes thought heartbreak had a limit.
She was wrong.
On the night of her bachelorette party, she survives a shootout - and is rescued by a dangerously irresistible stranger with mismatched eyes and a criminal smile.
Ivanov Rodriguez is everything she shouldn't want.
Everything her perfect fiance is not.
But when Druscilla discovers her fiancé's betrayal, she runs straight into Ivanov's arms - only to learn too late that she was never more than a pawn in his revenge.
Years later, she's rebuilt her life, her heart, and her future.
Until fate drags her back into the orbit of the man who once ruined her.
This time, she has nothing left to lose.
Except the truth that could destroy them both
⚠️ WARNING:
This book contains immorality, forbidden desire, dangerous attraction, and morally questionable characters.
If you believe love should always be pure and choices should always be right...
This story is not for you.
Proceed only if you enjoy chaos, passion, and bad decisions.
8.1
My fiancé, Freddie, signed the papers to have me committed to a mental asylum. He told everyone my "episodes" were becoming a liability to his family's pristine reputation.
The truth was, he and his mistress, Jessie, wanted me out of the way. They painted me as a hysterical, unstable psycho so their affair could continue without a single complication.
I spent my last days in a chemical haze, trapped and forgotten. My final memory wasn't of love or compassion, but of orderlies forcing my head under the stagnant, drugged water of an asylum bathtub. Freddie just watched, his face cold and indifferent as I drowned.
He stole my life, my sanity, and my future. He got away with murder while playing the part of the devoted, heartbroken fiancé to a world that believed his every lie.
Until I opened my eyes again.
The blinding Hampton sun stabbed my retinas, and the smell of chlorine filled my lungs. I wasn't in the asylum. I was back at the Madden family's annual summer party, three years before my death.
Across the pool, I saw Freddie laughing with Jessie. They thought they had won.
They had no idea I was back from the dead to burn their entire world to the ground.
8.4
I stood in front of New York City Hall in my vintage lace wedding dress, my heart pounding with a nervous joy. I was minutes away from marrying Bradford Sterling, a move I thought would finally help me reclaim my mother’s legacy from my family’s crumbling empire.
But as I reached for his arm, he flinched. A black Lincoln Navigator screeched to the curb, and his mother, Victoria, stepped out, slamming a restructuring document against his chest. She didn't even look at me as she delivered the killing blow: my sister, Eden, had just seized every cent of my voting rights and family trust.
"Marrying her is a net negative yield," Victoria said coldly. Bradford didn't fight for me; he didn't even blink. He simply pushed my hand away and adjusted his tie as if I were a junk bond he was ready to offload. Seconds later, my sister Eden arrived in a red Ferrari, wearing her own bridal gown, and stepped into my place by his side.
I was standing on the pavement, humiliated in front of a crowd, while the man I loved for three years treated me like a failed transaction. My sister laughed in my face, calling me a "liability" while she stole my wedding and my life. The grief was instant, but the rage that followed was a white-hot rupture in my chest.
I didn't just walk away; I slapped the life out of Bradford and dove into the first black SUV I saw, desperate to escape. I didn't check the plates, and I didn't see the man in the wheelchair sitting in the shadows of the backseat.
I had just "carjacked" Jefferson Montgomery, the most dangerous billionaire in the city. To save him from a parole violation during a sudden police raid, I agreed to a fake marriage that very night. They wanted to treat me like a negative asset? Fine. They have no idea that they just handed a world-class hacker the keys to the Montgomery fortune, and I’m going to liquidate them all.
8.4
To save her legacy, she'll marry her greatest enemy. To save her life, she'll have to trust his lies.
Aria Hale has only one objective: to destroy the Veridian family. Twenty years ago, they ruined her mother's career and her family's reputation. Now, as Hale Enterprises is about to go out of business, she is forced into a marriage of convenience with the man she dislikes most: Luca Veridian.
Luca is a ruthless, calculating, and cold-hearted man. He doesn't just want the Hale company; he wants proof of their wrongdoings. He makes the deal for the marriage contract for one year for his own purposes: to get close enough to Aria to put her in jail.
The rules are simple: Live together. Act as if you're in love. Don't show your true intentions.
As they play a deadly game of cat and mouse in their shared penthouse apartment, the lines between protection and sabotage get blurred. Luca, the ruthless man, is hiding his own demons, and Aria, the ruthless woman, has a secret that might destroy both their empires.
Yet, when a shadow from their past, the mysterious "Architect," comes back to finish what was started all those years ago, Aria and Luca learn that they are not the players in this game, but the pawns instead.
Betrayed by blood, bound by contract, Aria and Luca must now choose whether to keep their secrets and die, or fall in love and burn the world down together.
7.8
Rosalind Rivers has only ever wanted one thing - revenge.
The Lycan Prince, Aklan Draven, murdered her brother in cold blood. Or so she's believed her whole life. Now, forced to serve under him at the Lycan Academy, she has no choice but to obey the man she swore to hate. But hating him becomes harder with every clash, every stolen glance, every heartbeat that refuses to stay loyal to her rage.
Because fate has a cruel sense of humor.
He's her fated mate.
Aklan doesn't understand why this stubborn, sharp-tongued wolf gets under his skin or why her scent feels like home. He only knows she's trouble. The kind that tests his control, drags buried memories to the surface, and makes him question everything he thought he knew about loyalty and guilt.
But when a hidden truth comes to light - that Rosalind's brother didn't die by Aklan's hand but by choice, their world begins to unravel. Old wounds reopen. Ancient forces stir. And Rosalind learns she is no ordinary wolf, but something far rarer, something worth killing for.
Between vengeance and love, duty and destiny, one wrong move could ignite a war between realms.
And the cruelest part?
She might just lose her heart to the man she was born to destroy.