Forbidden Stranger
She only wanted a chance at love. She never expected that the one man who truly saw her, challenged her and lifted her higher would be the person she was never meant to meet.
Twenty-four-year-old Janyia Hefling enters Peryn City's most competitive career program hoping to escape the weight of being the eldest of six, the expectations of her quietly struggling family, and the constant pressure to prove she's more than her circumstances.
She wasn't expecting him.
Eric Dusine-calm, brilliant, effortlessly playful, a tech CEO who neither looks nor acts the part. A man who notices things he shouldn't: her humor, her fire, her ambition... her.
Their connection is instant. Their chemistry is sharp enough to cut.
But neither of them knows the secret powerful enough to unravel everything they're building-before it even begins.
When a long-buried truth surfaces, it doesn't just endanger their growing bond, it shakes the foundation of who they believe they are.
Heartbreaking yet meaningful. Emotional with threads of humor. Intense enough to ache.
This is the story of two souls drawn together by fate only to discover that fate came with a warning label.
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Chapter 6
I don't even make it to the curb before it hits me.
My brother.
The thought lands sharp and unforgiving, like my body waited until the danger passed to remind me what I left behind.
"Shit," I mutter.
Bella looked up instantly. "What?"
"My brother," I say, already pulling my phone out. "He's still in the car."
Her eyes widen. "You left him?"
"I told him to lock the doors," I say. "He's fine. Probably bored. Possibly traumatized."
Bella snorts despite herself. "You're unbelievable."
"I know."
I texted him quickly.
Me: You alive?
Three dots appear immediately.
Brother: I'm hungry, and this car smells like stress.
Relief loosens something tight in my chest.
Me: I'm coming. Don't move.
I slid the phone back into my pocket and exhaled. "I can't go to Eric's office yet."
Bella blinks. "Excuse me?"
"I have to drop him off first."
She stares at me. Then laughs. "Of course you do. Of course, that's who you are."
We started walking fast toward the parking structure. The city hum blurs as my mind recalibrates-logistics, timing, consequences.
Bella glances at me sideways. "You realize this makes you ten times more dangerous, right."
"How."
"Because you don't chase power," she says. "You juggle it."
I don't respond. I don't need to.
We reach the car. My brother is slouched in the passenger seat, headphones on, chewing gum aggressively. He lights up when he sees me.
"Finally," he says as I unlock the door. "I thought you joined a cult."
"Get out," I tell him.
Bella waves. "Hi, I'm the reason your sister is stressed."
He squints at her. "That tracks."
I shove him gently toward the sidewalk. "Go home. Eat something. Don't tell Mom yet."
He pauses. "Did you win?"
I look at him. Really look.
"I didn't lose," I say.
He grins. "Knew it."
When he's gone, I lean back against the car for half a second longer than necessary.
Bella watches me quietly. "Are you okay?"
"I will be," I say again.
My phone buzzes.
Eric.
Eric: Running late?
I stare at the screen.
I don't know why my chest tightens the way it does. I don't know why it matters that he noticed the delay. I don't know why I don't lie.
Me: Had to handle something. I'll still be there.
The reply comes almost immediately.
Eric: Family?
I hesitate.
Then-
Me: Yes.
Three dots appear. Stop. Appear again.
Eric: Take your time. We'll adjust.
That shouldn't affect me.
It does.
Because no one in power ever says we when they mean you.
Bella watched my face change. "He said something."
"He adjusted," I say.
Her expression sharpens. "That's not nothing."
"No," I agree quietly. "It's not."
I slide into the driver's seat, hands steady on the wheel, heart doing something unfamiliar.
This isn't an attraction yet.
It's recognition.
And that might be worse.
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7.8
Helen was finally brought back to the luxurious Gallagher estate as their long-lost blood relative.
But her new family didn't welcome her; they looked at her with undisguised disgust.
The matriarch mocked her stench of poverty, while her step-sister Candice treated her like a feral animal. The patriarch, Fredy—who had built his empire by betraying Helen's mother—tried to break her spirit. He blackmailed Helen into attending a high-society gala by threatening to cut off her grandmother's medical funds.
At the gala, Candice squeezed into a diamond-encrusted gown, desperate to seduce the guest of honor, Damian Montgomery. Damian was the most powerful man in New York, and he was currently tearing the city apart looking for a mysterious woman named Jane.
Overhearing this, a sick, greedy smile spread across Candice's face. She planned to impersonate Jane to claim Damian's wealth and completely crush Helen under her heel.
"Hide in the corner tonight. Don't you dare try to speak to anyone important!"
They all thought Helen was just a helpless, uncultured country girl they could easily manipulate and step on to secure their stolen legacy.
What they didn't know was that Helen was the real Jane. She was the lethal shadow who had saved Damian in the woods, shattered his grip, and robbed his highly guarded vault just the night before.
Helen calmly adjusted her simple black dress and stepped into the ballroom, ready to tear their stolen world apart.
8.0
"Please, let me taste you," Ava begged, broken and desperate-after he tortured her by forcing her to watch as he claimed that blonde. "Now, spread those thighs, sweetheart. Show me how wet you already are for me."
Ava Sinclair Vance was once a stripper. Now she's the wife of billionaire Leon Vance, bound by vows of forever-until his endless "business trips" left her aching and burning with unmet desire. One reckless night, she returned to Club Orion for a single pole dance. Just to feel alive again. A stranger in the shadows had other plans. What began as one lap dance exploded into a night of ruthless, relentless passion that left her utterly ruined for anyone else. She woke up wrecked, convinced it was a nameless one-night mistake she could bury and forget. Until the next morning's business lunch with Leon's best friend. She discovered she couldn't escape him-not when the stranger and Leon's best friend were the same man. And certainly not when he was the one demanding more nights... to cover up her "one little mistake." How long can Ava stay trapped between two ruthless billionaires before one claims her completely? And what if those nights were never about silence... but about breaking her so thoroughly she begs to stay?
9.4
**Fortune between Us** is a fast-paced, dramatic tale of ambition, love, and power in the glamorous world of billionaires. Isabella Carter, a brilliant and determined strategist, navigates high-stakes corporate intrigue, rivalries, and sabotage while forging a complex, slowly unfolding romance with the enigmatic Alexander Blackwood. As secrets, betrayals, and crises threaten to unravel everything, Isabella must rely on intelligence, courage, and intuition to survive-and thrive-in a world where wealth, influence, and desire collide.
9.0
Flora Sawyer was backed into a corner by a wealthy, married doctor who relentlessly harassed her at the hospital.
Desperate for a way out, she signed a prenuptial agreement in a rundown diner to marry a complete stranger.
Josiah Vance claimed to be a bankrupt, failed IT programmer. He offered to be her legal shield, and in return, she let him sleep on her cramped apartment couch.
But the nightmare only escalated. Grant, her wealthy tormentor, cornered them at a dinner party.
He poured red wine all over Josiah's cheap thrift-store shirt, mocking him as a pathetic parasite living off a public nurse's meager salary.
The entire room laughed, watching Flora's new husband endure the ultimate public humiliation.
They didn't know that to help Josiah start over, Flora had just emptied her entire life savings of fifty thousand dollars, leaving herself with exactly eighty-four dollars.
Watching the man who had offered her a lifeline be treated like garbage, something inside Flora completely snapped.
She couldn't understand why money gave these arrogant people the right to crush others. Her chest burned with a fierce, undeniable rage.
She stepped directly in front of Josiah, shielding him with her own body, and slammed a stack of papers onto the table.
"My husband might be broke, but you are the real parasite."
What Flora didn't know was that the silent, bankrupt man standing behind her was actually a trillionaire, and his game to destroy her enemies had already begun.
8.8
Clara supported her boyfriend Leo for four years, paying his rent and buying his headshots while working dead-end extra gigs.
On his twenty-sixth birthday, she caught him in their bed with Veronica, a wealthy producer's daughter who constantly stole Clara's roles.
Leo mocked Clara as a "pathetic, poor stepping stone" who was just there until he got his foot in the door.
Veronica threatened to ruin Clara's career forever.
Clara dumped him, packed her bags, and impulsively entered a contract marriage with a cold stranger she met at City Hall.
But her nightmare wasn't over.
When her mother suddenly needed a $200,000 emergency brain surgery, Clara was forced to take a demeaning extra gig to survive.
There, Veronica and her starlet friend cornered Clara.
They mocked her cheap clothes, ridiculed her new wedding ring as fake glass, and intentionally poured scalding coffee on her feet.
"Well, maid, you better clean that up."
Veronica laughed, forcing Clara to her knees to wipe up the burning liquid while snapping photos.
Clara swallowed her burning humiliation, secretly recording their abuse on her phone.
She endured the pain, desperate for the $300 day rate to save her mother's life, feeling entirely crushed by their overwhelming wealth and power.
What she didn't know was that outside the soundstage, her new contract husband—the man she thought was just a struggling, broke tech worker—was sitting in a sleek black Maybach.
He watched his wife kneeling on the floor, and his dark eyes filled with a lethal, terrifying rage.
7.7
Silas Vane, a billionaire on the edge of ruin, needs his ex-wife's signature to save his tech empire-and June Ashby, his scorned orchard-owning ex, wants only one thing: to make him suffer.
The deal is brutal, simple, and non-negotiable: Silas must move back to their small hometown, trade his silk suits for calloused hands, and work the orchard harvest for six months. Worse? He has to play her doting husband for the press-fake marriage, real contract, no room for error.
What starts as a revenge-fueled game quickly spirals. As the sun dips below the orchard trees, old sparks reignite, and the line between fake and real blurs into something dangerous.
Silas came to town for a patent to save his empire. But he might just walk away with a broken contract-and a heart completely owned by the woman who set out to destroy him.