Letting Go of Old Love

"Don't tease me again or else you really want it. There are no safe words in my bed." He is rumored to know a thousand ways to disarm and pleasure a woman, and I am Olivia, the nymphomaniac. In a quest for revenge against my childhood bullies, I got locked into an unhappy marriage, with an untamed brother-in-law. Colt Fletcher, the morally-grey, rebel biker is ever excited by danger and prefers life on the edge. And from the moment he laid eyes on me, I became his forbidden want. I should know better, to steer clear of deadly desires like these but when fate forces us to live under the same roof, share the same boardroom, and every accidental touch burns, my resolve begins to collapse. But scandals don't stay buried, and my husband is the devil. The price of this betrayal is death. I must choose between my husband who owns my name, and his brother who owns my body.

I thought I was just marrying a middle-class commercial pilot who proposed to me in a Brooklyn cemetery to fulfill his grandmother's bizarre dying wish. But when an arrogant pilot tried to harass me at the airport, my "ordinary" husband suddenly appeared, his eyes like chips of ice. "Take your hand off my wife." With that single cold command, he had the airline's top executives groveling and the man practically fired on the spot. Everyone called him "Mr. Chandler." He handed me an exclusive black Centurion card, claiming it was just a standard "manager's perk." His retired parents, who supposedly ran a small business, visited me wearing Patek Philippe watches. I ignored all the glaring red flags, foolishly believing I had just lucked into a stable, caring marriage after a lifetime of disappointments. Yet, despite his constant, suffocating generosity, he kept a physical wall between us. After a kiss so desperate and hungry it felt like he had been starving for it his entire life, he violently pushed me away. "We should take this slow." I couldn't understand why a man who looked at me with such intense, possessive devotion would treat our marriage like a sterile business deal. Why was he orchestrating every perfect detail of my life while refusing to even share a bed with me? I had no idea that the man sleeping in the guest room wasn't a pilot at all. He was Harmon Chandler, the ruthless billionaire emperor of the Chandler Group. And he had been secretly monitoring my every move for ten years.

My son made his birthday wish in front of twenty people. "I wish the pretty lady was my real mommy instead." He was looking right at me when he said it. Five years old. My own flesh and blood. And the "pretty lady" he's talking about? My husband's dying ex-girlfriend — the one currently wearing my mother's necklace and living in the guest suite of my house. I didn't cry. I stopped crying the night Kade gave away our wedding — the one I'd spent six months planning, down to the custom Vera Wang — to let her experience walking down the aisle. Because she's terminally ill. Because she "only has months left." Because I'm supposed to be the bigger person. I've been the bigger person for five years. Bigger than the woman sleeping in my home. Bigger than the whispered phone calls at 2 AM. Bigger than watching my husband look at someone else the way he's never once looked at me. But here's what Kade Ashford doesn't know. I'm not breaking down tonight. I'm breaking free. The divorce papers are already signed — my side, anyway. And the offshore accounts his family thinks are hidden? I've had the routing numbers for three months. I slide the papers across the table. His face doesn't even change. He's already checking his phone — she's been rushed to the ER again. He leaves without signing. What he doesn't expect is who's waiting for me outside. Ryker Callahan. Six-three. Jaw like it was carved from Carrara marble. The kind of man who walks into a room and every woman forgets her own name. The founder of the venture fund that just acquired a controlling stake in the Ashford family's empire. And apparently, he's been watching me for a while. "You look like a woman who's about to do something magnificent." His voice is low and unhurried — the voice of a man who's never had to rush for anything because everything eventually comes to him. And the way his eyes drag down my face, slow and deliberate, makes my pulse do something it hasn't done in five years. I'm still legally married to a man who doesn't want me. And the most dangerous man in Austin is looking at me like I'm the only interesting thing in this city. This is either my revenge — or my ruin.

My new boss is gorgeous, arrogant, and filthy rich. The only problem? He doesn't know he's also the father of my baby. Six years ago, I was supposed to get married. But the night before the wedding, my groom-to-be showed me sides of himself I'd never seen before. I might've died in that hotel room... If Mikhail Novikov hadn't burst in to save me. Handsome, strong, capable knight in shining armor-sign me up, right? WRONG. Because Mikhail wasn't just the hero I never knew I needed... He was also way more dangerous than I ever could've known. But for one night, I let myself do something I never should've done. It was worth it-several times over, if you catch my drift. In the morning, though, I did the reasonable I RAN. For six years, I keep running. Until I walk into work one day, and find my new boss waiting in my office. Guess who? And guess what he does when finds out about our baby?

The windshield wipers fought a losing battle against the torrential rain as I navigated the FDR Drive. October storms in New York were never gentle, but tonight's felt particularly vicious. My knuckles whitened against the steering wheel as another gust of wind shook my car. "Come on, just a few more blocks," I whispered to myself, squinting through the blur of rain. That's when it happened. My tires lost traction on the slick asphalt. The car hydroplaned, spinning wildly before slamming into the concrete barrier with a sickening crunch. The impact threw me forward then back, the seatbelt cutting into my chest and shoulder. Pain exploded through my body. Something warm trickled down my forehead.

Life wasn't that good to Moriah as her groom decided against the marriage and left two hours before the wedding began. As if life hadn't been satisfied being cruel to her as it yet gave her another huge blow as she ended up marrying her sworn enemy. For her to salvage her reputation and that of her family, she has to walk down the aisle and marry the substitute groom. Walking down the aisle, she saw the man waiting for her. He was her archenemy, the billionaire business mogul, her fiancé's best friend, Ethan Miller. The blissful marriage she had been dreaming of with the love of her life turned into a nightmare.