
Falling into the devil's bed
Penelope thought she was her husband's one and only love. Until she caught him in bed with her twin sister.
Penelope Verdant has lived her life as a pawn and slave to her family desiring freedom. The only happiness in her life was her marriage of four years. She believed her husband loved her, he treated her well and never gave her a reason to doubt his love. But when she finds out he's been sleeping with her sister longer than she's been married to him, she becomes disillusioned with her marriage.
She wants revenge for her wasted years. She files for divorce, only for her husband to reject it. Backed into a corner, she seeks help from a man she should never have sought out. The man known as The Devil of Deals, an elusive billionaire who wants nothing more than to possess her completely. His price is costly, one she isn't sure she can afford. But marriage is an even worse fate than selling her soul.
Will she get her revenge, shatter the chains of her old life, and rise as the queen? Or will she sink into the depths of hell? The path from pawn to queen isn't an easy one...and the Devil is not patient.
(Content Warning: this is a dark billionaire romance containing mature themes including but not limited to: explicit sexual content, unhealthy obsession, toxic love, forbidden love, pain and blood kink, physical and sexual abuse (not between main characters), taboo family dynamics, a lot of swearing, and violence. Morality is but a friendly suggestion to the characters of this story. Proceed with caution.)
THE THALORIAN PANTHEON SAGA LINEUP:
BOOK 1.0: FALLING INTO THE DEVIL'S BED.
BOOK 2.0: INFERNAL LILY (coming soon).
BOOK 0.5: HIS HEAVENLY CURSE (coming soon).
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Chapter 4
Penelope's POV
"She can't marry that Thalorian. How are you so calm about this?! She's your sister!"
"Why are you more worried than I am? She's my sister, not yours."
It's been thirty minutes since Calypso broke the news, drank some wine and left. Leila fell asleep and I made a makeshift bed out of my fluffiest blankets.
Right now, I stare at my frantic husband, and a part of me finds this all amusing. Deeply sad, but amusing. He's pacing our bedroom floor like a headless chicken, clearly losing his mind over Calypso's marriage. A part of me wonders how he'd react if I tell him I know he's fucking her.
My mind goes back to the divorce papers.
He rounds on me as if he's discovered the mysteries of the universe. "Thalorians are terrible people, Pen. Those people lack morality, basic decency. You don't understand what I'm saying. She can't marry one of them!"
Sure, I know of the Thalorians. Who doesn't?
For almost fifty years they've been at the number one spot in the business world. They run Olympus, the biggest company hive in the world with branches in every country. Billionaires doesn't even begin to cut. They're called "gods of the new century" because of their influence and power.
Calypso is about to become a literal goddess. Isn't that wonderful?
"I'd say it's a good thing. Calypso is marrying into wealth and power."
"As if she's marrying a legitimate Thalorian,"
I bite my lip at his cutting tone. "Doesn't matter,"
He brushes his hands over his face and groans in frustration. "They have ties in the mafia. The fucking mafia. Do you have any idea what that would mean for us?"
"That means she'll be protected."
"You're not listening to me!"
"No! You are not listening to me! She's getting married, so what?! She's an adult. She can choose who he wants to marry. And she said she loves him, what's wrong with that?!"
Except, I know what's wrong with that. It makes me shake with rage that he has the guts to be this fucking shameless in front of me.
He stares at me like I've grown an extra head. "I can't believe you. I thought you loved your sister."
"Which is exactly why I'm going to support her, wear a beautiful dress and stand by her side as her maid of fucking honour."
Silence stretches between us as we face each other off. He breaks eye contact, sighing to. himself.
"Since you don't care, I'm going to stop that wedding."
My anger chips away at the corners and in it's place comes despair. It's a different kind of pain seeing this right now. My husband about to sabotage my sister's wedding because he's in love with her.
"You wouldn't dare," my voice shakes with the weight of my emotions.
"Watch me." he says, finality in his tone.
He wasn't joking.
The next two weeks are nothing short of hectic.
The couple wanted a private wedding. It would appear that the Thalorians aren't aware of the wedding for whatever reasons. Not that I cared.
I was at Calypso's side most of the time. Cake tasting. Venue scouting. Picking dresses. All of that. It was exhausting, dragging myself along with her.
And Charles, he did exactly what he said he would.
He threatened Angelo, who by the way was very sweet and kind, and he tried on several occasions to talk Calypso out of it. For once, I was grateful for my sister's stubbornness.
Our parents flew in for the wedding. Everything was ready. Calypso was going along with it. At a point all I wanted was for it to be over so I could rest.
I decided. The moment it was done, I'm divorcing Charles. Consequences be damned.
A day to the wedding, I'm getting my things together when Seraphina calls.
"So! Here's what I found about your mystery man!" Seraphina's chirper voice makes me smile. "Technically, he's not a member of the Halstead family. He was disowned years ago."
"Why?"
"I don't know, honestly. There's not much known about this guy except his name. Vincent."
"Vincent," I say to myself, picturing the insanely attractive man that have me a kitten. Speaking of kitten, Leila is cuddled up in her cat bed, sleeping peacefully. "What does he do?" I ask Seraphina.
"Judging from the kitten incident, I thought he ran an animal shelter or something," sounds of typing from her side are all I hear for a while. "There's no information on his line of business. But you might wanna listen to this."
I press the phone closer to my ear. "What? Is he a gangster?"
"Not exactly. He's known as the Devil of Deals in some really elite circles. Basically, he grants wishes in the form of deals. He's very expensive from what I was able to find. But very sought after. No one knows what he looks like, no one's ever met him before."
Devil of Deals? Come to think of it, I think I've heard something like that before. I can't place where exactly.
Vincent Halstead, the Devil of Deals. Was that the same man I met? This elusive Devil just handed me a kitten?
"I don't know, what if it's not him?"
"There's only one way to find out," Seraphina sighs. "What do you think though? Did he have the devilish aura?"
"Oh he had more than the aura. He looked like he stepped out of hell or something-"
The door opens and Charles walks in. "Sera, I'll call you back."
I hang up and turn to Charles. He's spotting a three day old beard, his hair is messy and his eyes are dull.
He walks up to me and hands me an envelope. "Here," his voice is low.
I smirk to myself. Ah, so he finally wants this huh?
"I have something for you too," I ask as I take the envelope. I pick up my own envelope from the dresser and hand it to him.
"This better not be some work related shit," he grumbles as he tears into the envelope. Lately he's been in a foul mood. Of course, his girlfriend is getting married. How touching.
Leila paws at the hem of my gown and I pick her up. She's a bit bigger, and her purrs bring me comfort.
Charles read the papers. His brows scrunch together and he glances at me. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Shall I explain what a divorce agreement is, Mr Halstead?"
He scoffs in disbelief. "You're divorcing me?!"
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8.0
I sat on the edge of the examination table, the crinkle of the sanitary paper sounding like thunder in the sterile room. The doctor didn't even look at me as he confirmed the news: the pregnancy was over. My husband, Keyon, didn't answer my call. He just sent an automated text: "In a meeting."
When I returned to our cold mansion, I found his iPad glowing with a message from his "muse," Katina. He was throwing her a secret gala tonight-on our third wedding anniversary. He told her he couldn't wait to escape the "boring" and "draining" atmosphere I created at home.
Keyon didn't stumble in until 3 AM, smelling of Katina's perfume with a smear of red on his collar. When I handed him the divorce papers, he laughed in my face. He called me a "glorified housekeeper" with no skills and no future, promising I'd be back in three days begging for a subway ticket. He even bet his friends ten thousand dollars that I wouldn't survive a week without his name.
He had his assistant cancel my credit cards and block my gate access before I even reached the end of the driveway. He wanted me to starve. He wanted me to crawl. He sat in his office, mocking the "desperate" woman who pawned her three-million-dollar wedding ring for scrap metal just to pay for a meal.
I stood on the rainy curb, watching the man I had protected for three years treat my life like trash. He didn't know about the ultrasound I just threw in the bin. He didn't know that while he was calling me "dull," I was the one secretly writing the code that kept his billion-dollar empire from collapsing.
As I slid into a cheap Uber, I opened a hidden, encrypted app on my phone. The screen refreshed to a dashboard for an account Keyon didn't know existed. The balance was ten figures long-the accumulated wealth of "Solaris," the world's most elusive tech genius. Keyon thinks he just evicted a parasite, but he's about to find out he just declared war on the only person who can hit "delete" on his entire life.

9.1
Aurora Sinclair thought she had closed the chapter on Damian Blackwood, the man she once loved, married, and walked away from. But when he unexpectedly comes back into her life, she realizes their story is far from over.
Damian is the heir to Blackwood Enterprises, a corporate empire built on deceit, betrayal, and secrets darker than Aurora ever knew. For years, he obeyed his ruthless father's every demand, even marrying someone else to keep Aurora safe. But now, he's done playing by his father's rules. He's ready to reclaim the company his late mother built, expose the crimes that destroyed his family, and protect the woman he's never stopped loving.
As old wounds reopen and dangerous enemies close in, Damian and Aurora are drawn together once more and bound by passion, loyalty, and a shared determination to end the nightmare once and for all. But with betrayal around every corner, they must face a chilling question: can they survive the past... and have a future together?

7.2
"Be my contracted boyfriend for two years, and I'll grant you three wishes."
What happens when Aurora Everly the billionaire heiress and co-CEO of Everly Elite Enterprise, who is used to getting what she wants until her father demands she marry a man twice her age for the sake of their company's future, desperate for an escape, she finds herself in a roadside convenience store, drunk and reckless she makes an outrageous proposal to a total stranger.
Theo Winslow a struggling graduate looking for a means to pay off his family's debt but never expected a night shift at his parent's store to change his life. After three failed job interviews, he is out of options until Aurora stumbles in and offers him a deal that seems too good to be true.
But with Theo's heart set on another and Aurora's strict and scary father standing in their way, will the reckless contract still stand? And even worse...can the world accept her BOYFRIEND FROM THE STORE.

9.2
I was just a placeholder, a warm body in silk sheets to keep the bed from getting cold while my billionaire "owner," Garrick Head, dreamt of another man’s wife. To the world, I was Ever Wells, the lucky girl he’d plucked from obscurity, but in reality, I was a doll on a 145-day contract, counting every second until I could disappear.
Everything shattered when a burner phone buzzed in my hand with a message that turned my blood to ice: "I know your secret, Everly."
My real name was the one thing I had buried to protect my four-year-old son, Leo, who was hidden in a cramped apartment in Queens. Just as the blackmailer closed in, Leo’s asthma flared into a life-threatening fever, and the medication he needed cost thousands I didn't have. When I tried to siphon money to save him, Garrick sensed my desperation and froze my credit cards, mocking my "poverty" and demanding I crawl back to his bed to earn his favor.
The nightmare intensified at a high-society gala when Clarence Frazier, a dangerous ghost from my past, cornered me. He mouthed my real name in front of the cameras, his eyes promising to tear my fake life apart. Garrick’s possessiveness turned violent as he broke a man’s jaw for insulting me, yet in the same breath, he reminded me I was nothing but a "rented whore" he’d bought off a shelf.
I had to smile while he kissed me and detach my mind while he touched me, all while siphoning pennies into a hidden account. He thought he could finalize my imprisonment with a twenty-million-dollar apartment on Central Park West, calling it a gift when it was really just a heavier lock on my golden cage.
"I don't want to save the world," I whispered to the empty, marble penthouse after he fell asleep. "I just want to save my son."
With a predator from my past watching my every move and a master who treated me like a pet, I realized I couldn't wait for my contract to end. I had to run tonight, or Leo and I would both die in this cage.

7.4
My husband stood by the window of his Manhattan office, his silhouette cutting through the storm like a blade. He didn't even look at me as he tossed the divorce papers onto the desk, his voice a cold baritone. "Sign it," Isaiah commanded, "or your brother’s dialysis treatment ends today."
He believed the lie that I had pushed his pregnant mistress down a flight of stairs in a jealous rage. To save my dying brother, I signed the confession and accepted the role of a murderer, trading my freedom for a life of disgrace.
At the funeral, Isaiah forced me to crawl on my knees through the freezing mud to the grave while a mob of mourners spat on me and cursed my name. When I went to prison, his influence followed me into the showers, where inmates told me the King wanted me to "remember my crime" before they used rusty shears to hack off my finger.
Five years later, I was a ghost living in a damp basement with the son Isaiah never knew I had, hiding my mangled hand under a leather glove. When he eventually tracked us down, he didn't show mercy; he tore my son from my arms, calling me an unfit monster and swearing I would rot in a cage.
I couldn't understand how the man I once loved could look at my broken body and see only a criminal, never realizing that every scar I carried was a gift from his own hatred.
As he walked away with my child, I swallowed a bottle of pills to end the nightmare, leaving Isaiah to rip the glove from my hand and discover the mangled truth just as my eyes finally closed.

8.0
When her twin sister falls into coma a day before her wedding, Tiana Palmer is forced to do the unthinkable, pretend to be her twin and act like the perfect wife at a two-week honeymoon, to protect the billion-dollar inheritance of her boss and sister's fiancé, Seth Berkley.
It was supposed to be a business deal, a secret between the two. But secrets don't always stay simple, they turn into obsessions.
The honeymoon ended, the deal was over, but that was just the beginning. Seth Berkley isn't a man who lets go easily. But how can she stay away from a man like him? Cold, insanely attractive, a man whose touch makes her feel things she shouldn't.
Every kiss, every touch pulls them deeper into a love that was never supposed to happen.
And when her sister wakes up...
Their forbidden desire might ruin everything.