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 6
Penelope's POV:
The moment my mother hangs up, my phone rings again. I pick it without glancing at the screen.
"Miss Verdant," a husky feminine voice says.
A sigh of relief escapes my lips and I close my eyes. "Athena, thank goodness."
Athena Blaine. My bodyguard of ten years. She's the only one that calls me Miss Verdant even though I've been Mrs Halstead for four years. For the past week she's been out of the country. I forgot she was returning today.
I hear wheels rolling on pavement, probably her suitcase. "You don't sound good, Miss Verdant. Where are you? Is everything okay?"
I force myself to stand. My head swirls and I feel sick. I swallow it down and nod, even though she can't see it. "I'll send you an address. Meet me there, please. I'm sorry I couldn't pick you up from the airport."
"Don't apologize, that's my job. I'll meet you soon," she says and hangs up.
My mother's frantic scream rings on repeat in my head. I'm able to take a quick shower. Watching the water turn red and wash down the drain fills me with dread.
Charles hurt me. The man who had never raised his voice on me in six years hurt me.
It hurt. And it wasn't just the wound.
I get dressed hastily and try not to think of it too much. My limbs weigh a ton, and a sob is caught permanently in my throat.
Charles did this. He hurt Calypso. I just know he did.
I never thought he would go to these lengths just to stop her wedding. But then again I never thought he would cheat on with my sister.
"Oh god..."
I hate Calypso for what she did to me, I really do. But she's my sister. I don't want her to die. I don't want anything to happen to her.
Dragging myself out of the house, I'm able to get a taxi.
"A thousand dollars for the night, drive me where I want and don't ask any questions."
"Yes ma'am."
Arriving at the hospital, Athena is the first person I meet. She's waiting for me at the entrance, her suitcase leaning against her leg, her stance tense and her eyes focused right ahead.
When I first met her eleven years ago, I was scared shitless. She was the tallest woman I'd ever seen. She was 6"3, lean and toned, and carried herself with the grace of a ballet dancer. She had dark hair done in a bob, cold green eyes and an androgynous beauty that I found both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Her strength was no joke, one time she beat up a dozen men twice her size and didn't sustain even a scratch.
I call her my goddess. Even her name reflects that.
Now, she's basically the same. Tall, cold and terrifyingly beautiful. But her eyes soften when she sees me, and the corners of her lips tip up into what might be a smile. I've never seen her smile.
I'm happy to see her. I'm always happy to see her.
She meets me halfway, her eyes scanning over my face. There's a wrinkle in her blazer, and her eyes are a bit dull. A small detail, but one that reminds me this goddess is human after all.
"Miss Verdant, you look tired."
"You look more tired." I say, trying to joke.
It flies right over her head. "I'm fine. Is your health okay?"
"Calypso had an accident," I say, inhaling as I spoke.
Her eyes harden. Without any more words, she takes my hand, suitcase in the other and leads me into the hospital. I want to tell her that I can walk fine, but I can't speak. I just want to make sure Calypso is okay and can attend her wedding tomorrow.
I find Calypso's room. My heart threatening to burst out of my mouth, I rush to it. Athena yells at me to slow down, but I'm too worried to be calm right now.
"Cal!" I scream as I slam the door open and rush into the room.
The sight before me makes my blood turn to powder.
Calypso is in a hospital gown alright. Sitting beside her is Charles. They turn and stare at me. Their lips are glossy and red, and it doesn't take much to guess what just happened. Calypso wipes her lips and smiles at me, while Charles doesn't even try to look embarrassed.
"How..."
"Can't you at least knock?" Charles asks, annoyance lacing his words.
Calypso giggles, covering her mouth. "Oops. I guess you've found out my big secret, Penny."
"Miss Verdant!" Athena catches up with me. "What-" her words are abruptly cut off when she sees them.
I stand in the doorway, a dozen different emotions stirring in my heart. The most prominent of them being anger.
How dare they?! I ran all the way here, thinking my sister was seriously hurt. And I meet this?!
"Do you still want that ice cream?" Charles asks her. He walks over to the fridge and gets a tub of ice cream. Then he turns to me and flashes a smile. "Want some? It's tiramisu, I know you like it."
"You piece of shit!" I scream and throw myself at him.
"Penelope!" A loud shout stops me before I can take a step further. I freeze, turning around to see my parents standing behind me.
"Mom, dad,"
"Watch your voice child. This is a hospital." My mother hisses. Her blue eyes glare at me with visible disgust. Her thin gray hair is messy, it looks like she didn't even makeup before she came here.
She clicks her tongue and walks in, intentionally brushing her shoulder with mine. Her tone turns sickly sweet the moment she sees Calypso. "My darling! How are you doing? Does it still hurt?"
"No mommy I'm alright now. You didn't have to come,"
"Nonsense! How could I not? I brought pears. They're your favorite, remember?"
Calypso takes the basket of fruit, her eyes shiny. "Awww you didn't have to! Penny, want some pears?!"
I can't believe this is real.
When Charles slammed my head into the floor, did I die and wake up in hell?
My father walks past me, his dark eyes raking over me from top to bottom. The wrinkles around his mouth deepen as he frowns. Without a word, he walks over to Calypso's bedside. My heart feels paper thin. For five years, he hasn't spoken a single word to me. He smiles at Calypso and asks how she's doing. She smiles back.
My knees wobble and I fall back. Athena catches me, her arms holding me up, and her chest pressed into my back.
"Miss Verdant, you're still weak,"
I push at her arms and force myself to stand. Tears brim in my eyes and my throat feels very painfully narrow. "I-I'm fine..."
I'm not fine. Oh gods I'm light years from fine.
What's happening? Why aren't my parents saying anything?! Why are they all gathered around Calypso like her brains were blown out or something?!
Charles turns to me and sighs. "Oh for heavens sake, come inside and don't stand there like a reject."
"A reject?" I gasp, disbelief in my voice. "That's....how..." Athena squeezes my shoulder. I pause and inhale deeply.
Both my parents glare at me.
"Your sister's fiancé pushed her down the stairs. Mr Halstead was the one who found her. Where on earth were you?! Your sister could have died! And what would you have said?!" my mother barks at 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.