Bound To The Monster Who Ruined Me
Ayleen Avery was just a struggling hotel worker trying to survive her shift. But during a sudden blackout, she accidentally stumbled into the pitch-black VIP suite of a ruthless billionaire driven mad by chronic insomnia.
Calmed only by her unique natural scent of roses and rain, the terrifying man attacked her from the shadows and forced himself on her. Terrified and broken, Ayleen fled at dawn, unknowingly leaving behind her late mother's antique rose necklace in his bed.
Her greedy coworker found the necklace, claimed to be the woman from that night, and was instantly swept into a life of luxury. Meanwhile, Ayleen was blackmailed into a forced marriage with her attacker—Cassius Doyle—to save her adoptive father from prison. Deceived by the stolen necklace, Cassius believed Ayleen was a manipulative spy. He brought the coworker into their home and paraded her around the master bedroom.
"In this house, you are lower than the dirt on my shoes."
He choked Ayleen, forced her to sleep in a damp storage room, and treated her with violent disgust while pampering the thief.
Ayleen was suffocating in absolute despair. She had lost her innocence, her freedom, and her mother's only relic to a vicious liar. She couldn't understand how this all-powerful man could be so completely blind. Why couldn't he recognize the very scent that had cured his agonizing madness?
Staring at the dark bruises he had just left on her neck, Ayleen wiped the blood from her lip. She would endure this three-month marriage to secure her family's safety, but once the contract ended, she would expose the truth and tear down the fake savior he cherished so much.
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Chapter 4
Ayleen pushed open the heavy iron doors of the Doyle estate. She walked out like a corpse whose soul had been ripped away.
She stepped onto the Manhattan pavement just as the sky ripped open. Freezing rain battered her pale face. She didn't have an umbrella. She didn't care. Muddy water soaked the hem of her skirt as she dragged her feet forward.
A black, armored SUV tore around the street corner. Its massive tires hit a deep puddle, sending a violent wave of dirty water straight at Ayleen.
She tried to jump back, but her wet shoes slipped on the asphalt. She crashed hard onto the rough street. The skin on her palms tore open, bleeding into the rain.
The SUV's brakes shrieked. The tires skidded on the wet road, stopping mere inches from Ayleen's legs.
The driver, Arthur, threw his door open. He popped a black umbrella and rushed over to her.
Ayleen gritted her teeth and tried to stand. Pain shot up her right leg. Her ankle was swollen to the size of a baseball. She collapsed back into the freezing puddle.
Arthur hesitated. He walked to the rear window of the SUV and tapped respectfully on the tinted glass.
The window glided down an inch.
Cassius Doyle leaned his head against the leather headrest. His eyes were closed. His fingers rubbed his temples violently, trying to fight off a blinding migraine.
He didn't even open his eyes. "Put her in the car. Take her to a hospital. Don't leave a mess," he ordered, his voice laced with pure irritation.
Arthur nodded. He walked back, hauled Ayleen's shivering body up, and shoved her into the back seat.
The heavy door slammed shut. The cabin fell dead silent.
Ayleen pressed herself into the furthest corner of the leather seat. She kept her head down. The car was pitch black inside, illuminated only by the brief flashes of streetlights. All she could see were the razor-sharp creases of the man's suit pants next to her.
The AC blasted cold air. Ayleen's wet clothes clung to her skin. A violent shiver racked her body, and she let out a sharp, ragged gasp.
The sound echoed in the quiet car. Cassius's jaw ticked. He hated noise. He opened his mouth to tell her to shut up.
But then, the AC vents circulated the air.
A faint, delicate scent of roses mixed with rain drifted directly into Cassius's nose.
His entire body went rigid.
It was the scent. The exact same scent that had put him to sleep in the club.
His eyes snapped open. He whipped his head toward the corner, his gaze trying to pierce through the darkness.
Ayleen flinched at his sudden, aggressive movement. She shrank back, her wet hair falling forward to cover her face.
Cassius narrowed his eyes, trying to see her features. Just then, a massive bolt of lightning flashed outside. The blinding white light hit Cassius's eyes, causing a temporary blind spot.
When his vision cleared, Ayleen had buried her face deep into her arms. All he saw was her thin, trembling back.
The rage in Cassius's chest vanished. The scent wrapped around his brain, instantly killing his headache.
He didn't ask questions. He picked up a dry towel from the center console and held it out to her.
Ayleen saw the towel. She hesitated, then reached out.
Her freezing fingertips brushed against his knuckles.
An electric shock ripped through both of them. Cassius yanked his hand back as if he had been burned. His chest tightened.
"Thank you," Ayleen whispered.
Because of the fever and the crying, her voice was a harsh, broken rasp. It sounded absolutely nothing like the soft whimpers from that night.
Cassius heard the ugly voice. His brows furrowed deeply in the darkness. The scent was absolutely perfect, but the voice was entirely wrong. He didn't press her further, but a sharp seed of doubt had been planted firmly in his mind. He silently decided he would have Adrian run a full background check on this woman.
He leaned back, closed his eyes, and simply breathed in the scent.
The SUV pulled up to a subway station. Arthur opened the door. Ayleen clutched the towel and scrambled out of the car, limping heavily on her bad foot.
She stood under the station awning, her heart hammering against her ribs. The man in that car had terrified her.
Inside the SUV, Cassius watched her disappear. The scent in the cabin faded quickly. The sharp pain in his temples immediately flared up again.
He ripped his tie loose. "Drive to the office," he snapped at Arthur. A sudden, intense wave of disgust for Haleigh Delaney washed over him.
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8.6
My boyfriend Grant and I built our tech startup from the ground up. I wrote the code, he handled the money. I trusted him with my life.
Then, the FBI raided our office. I was arrested for embezzling three million dollars. The proof was a wire transfer with my perfect, forged signature.
Grant, the man I loved, stood by and watched me get hauled away. He whispered the real price of my freedom: take the fall, or he’d cancel my grandmother's life-saving heart surgery by noon.
My accounts were frozen. With the hospital's deadline looming, I had no choice. I signed the confession, selling myself into slavery just to keep my grandmother alive.
My first task as his "assistant" was to serve drinks at an exclusive club, forced into a cheap corset and a skirt that was barely there.
That’s when I saw him. The ruthless billionaire from the other night—the man Grant's setup had thrown me to.
When I stumbled and fell at his feet, he caught my wrist. The look in his eyes wasn't pity. It was possession.
7.1
Princess Aurelia Blackwood has spent her entire life learning how to obey.
As the sole heir to a modern royal dynasty, her future has already been written, strategic alliances, a public marriage, and a crown that allows no room for personal desire. Love is a luxury she was never meant to claim.
Everything changes the day she meets Dr. Elara Voss, the academy's newest senior lecturer.
Calm, brilliant, and devastatingly attractive, Elara represents everything Aurelia should avoid. Their connection is immediate, unsettling, and impossible to ignore. What begins as restrained conversation and stolen glances soon deepens into something far more dangerous, an emotional bond that threatens duty, reputation, and the crown itself.
The age gap, the hierarchy, and the rules of the monarchy stand firmly between them. When their forbidden relationship is exposed, Aurelia is forced to choose between the life she was born to live and the woman she was never meant to love.
Because some hearts are not meant to be ruled.
Some crowns are meant to be rewritten.
And some love stories are worth breaking tradition for.
9.5
I spent two years navigating the stratified air of Spencer Kensington’s world, thinking I was the woman he loved. I even ate instant ramen for months to afford a vintage camera lens for our anniversary. When I got a mysterious text about "Operation Blue Moon," I thought it was our private signal for a proposal.
Instead, I walked into a limestone fortress to find the Kensington and Van Der Woodsen Engagement Party in full swing. Spencer wasn't there for a romantic dinner; he was standing under a crystal chandelier, announcing his "business merger" with a blonde heiress.
When I confronted him in a service hallway, he didn't apologize. He offered to buy me a brownstone and keep me as his "side project" while his mother, Victoria, watched from the balcony like a queen.
"Vanessa is just furniture," he said, his voice full of a terrifying sincerity. "But you're the one I love. I can give you a life of ease."
When I refused to be his dirty little secret, the retaliation was instant and brutal. By the next morning, I was fired from my reporting job, my father’s nursing home funding was pulled, and I returned home to find my apartment condemned by the city. My entire life was piled in wet boxes on a rain-soaked sidewalk.
I couldn't understand how one family could have the power to erase a person’s existence in a single night. How could the man who kissed me yesterday watch his mother leave me homeless and penniless today?
Standing in the rain next to my ruined belongings, a black SUV pulled up and Mayor Julian Sterling stepped out. He didn't offer me pity; he offered me a deal.
"The Kensingtons are panicked," he said, his eyes cold and calculating. "And panicked people make mistakes. You have a reason to watch them burn. I want to see what you know."
I took his hand, knowing he was just as dangerous as the people I was fighting, but I was done being the victim. This wasn't just a breakup anymore; it was a war.
7.7
CONTENT WARNING ⚠️🔞
This book is strictly for a mature audience only. Reader's discretion is advised.
On her eighteenth birthday, Sabrina's life is stolen from her. She was sold into marriage to Scott Wendell, a ruthless and powerful billionaire more than twice her age. A man she's never met. A man who claimed her as payment for a debt she never owed
But the real problem wasn't the vows she took or the marriage document she signed.
It's his son. The revelation that Ace Wendell, the one boy in school that she's always fantasized about, the boy she's secretly loved from afar, is now her stepson.
Now living under the same roof, Sabrina finds herself torn between duty to her marriage and the dangerous pull toward the stepson who has wanted her just as desperately.
8.2
Karmen lived suffocating under a tight chest binder and a grotesque silicone scar, forced to disguise herself as her degenerate twin brother, Kem. Her only job was to maintain a fake corporate engagement with the ruthless billionaire Earl Calderon.
But her abusive father suddenly escalated his demands. He ordered her to steal Earl's revolutionary AI patents, threatening to cut off her mother's life-saving medical trust and abandon the real Kem in a locked Swiss psych ward if she failed.
The task was a death sentence. Earl absolutely despised "Kem." He treated her like a repulsive parasite, constantly threatening to break her neck. When he accidentally caught her without her wig, he mistook her for a deranged cross-dresser, forcing her to glue the dirty fake scar back onto her raw, inflamed face in sheer disgust. At home, her father hurled glass ashtrays at her, violently yanking her collar.
"Do whatever you have to do in that bedroom, Kem. I don't care how disgusting it is. Just get the signature."
Trapped between a fiancé who loathed her very existence and a father ready to sacrifice their family for greed, Karmen endured the agonizing physical pain of her disguise. She was exhausted, terrified, and running out of time as her brother's life hung by a thread.
But they all underestimated her. When the Calderon matriarch forced Earl to link his ultra-secure private phone with "Kem" to fake their romance, she unwittingly handed over the master key. Karmen wasn't just a helpless victim; she was the elite hacker Nyx, and she was going to tear their empire apart from the inside.
7.4
After years abroad building a business empire in Europe, Edward returns home for a long-awaited family reunion-his brother's wedding. But the celebration shatters his world when he discovers the bride-to-be is none other than Lily-his first love, his greatest heartbreak, and the only woman he's ever truly wanted.
His family knows the truth. They've always known. Yet no one speaks of the past, leaving Edward to suffer in silence. Torn between loyalty to his brother and the ache that's never left his heart, he refuses to let go.
Because for Edward, Lily has never been just a memory, she is, and always will be, the love of his life.