HIS DARK HORSE
/1/124235/coverbig.jpg?v=f3ebc666ede0f2ce73fe362a2a25fc71)
While My Husband Cheated, I Married His Powerful Brother
To help her husband build his business empire, Veyra worked two jobs, skipped meals, and sacrificed everything she had. When her mother desperately needed life-saving treatment, she couldn't even scrape together the money. Then, on a New Year's Eve flight, fate seated her beside her husband's mistress. That's when she discovered the cruel truth. Her husband had secretly amassed millions long ago. The wedding ring that belonged to Veyra now glittered on another woman's finger. The $500,000 that could have saved her mother's life had been spent instead on luxury gifts and pocket money for his lover. She lost her baby. She lost her mother. And finally, she lost every illusion about the man she'd loved for years. After leaving the airport, Veyra walked into a bar, kissed the most dangerous-looking stranger she could find, and spent one reckless night in his arms. By sunrise, she disappeared without leaving so much as her name. She thought it was nothing more than a farewell to her broken past. She was wrong. The stranger was Dorian-the most powerful, mysterious billionaire in the business world. Meanwhile, her cheating husband finally realized what he had thrown away. He begged on his knees, signed a postnuptial agreement worth billions, and swore he would give up everything if she would come back. But just as Veyra began plotting to reclaim everything that had been stolen from her, a mysterious car accident brought Dorian back into her life. Only then did she learn the truth. He wasn't a stranger at all. He was her ex-husband's older stepbrother. Now two powerful men are fighting for the same woman-one consumed by regret, the other determined to make her his. Sorry, cheating ex... I choose your brother.
Chapter 1 First Class Betrayal
Caspian had been working overtime through the entire New Year holiday. Veyra Solenne decided she would surprise him. She'd fly out, knock on his hotel door, watch his tired face crack into a smile.
Only business class seats were left. Although she felt bad about the ticket price, she thought it was worth it.
She sat there for a full minute, unable to figure out how to lower the tray table.
The woman beside her - polished, bored, gorgeous in the particular way that costs money - let out a short laugh.
"Never flown business before?"
Veyra managed an awkward smile. "Sorry. You must run a company or something. You've got that air about you."
"Me? No." The woman waved a manicured hand. "But my benefactor does. If I'm not in business class, he sends a private jet."
"A benefactor," Veyra said. "Those must be hard to come by."
"Not really." The woman's mouth curved. "I'm his subordinate. I keep making expensive mistakes at work. He scolds me until I cry, and then-" she smiled, letting the sentence finish itself.
A small chill moved down Veyra's spine, though she couldn't have said why. "Funny," she said slowly. "My husband has a colleague like that too. Always making mistakes."
"You're married?" The woman's eyes swept over her, cataloguing. "His wife's about your age, actually."
She examined her nails.
"He says he got tired of her ages ago. Says touching her feels stale. Less interesting than watching me flip my hair."
Veyra's stomach turned, quietly, the way it does before you know why.
"I told him I wanted to see him over the holiday," the woman went on, pleased with herself. "So he told his wife he had to work."
That was when Veyra saw it. The ring on the woman's finger. A diamond, cut exactly like the wedding band she had lost two years ago.
She went still.
Caspian is an ordinary employee, she thought. So, calm down. Similar rings don't mean anything.
Her eyes fixed on the ring.
"That's a wedding band," Veyra said, her voice coming out strange to her own ears. "Did you marry him?"
"This?" The woman - Xiomara, she introduced herself, admiring the stone as it caught the cabin light - "I made him take it from his wife."
The air went out of Veyra's lungs.
"I wasn't trying to make trouble for her, honestly," Xiomara said. "But on my birthday she had a miscarriage and dragged him to the hospital. I spent it alone."
Veyra's hand drifted, without her permission, to her stomach.
The memory came back whole and freezing: black ice on the walk home from the market, a fall she hadn't seen coming, three months along, and then nothing but blood on frozen concrete. Caspian at her bedside for three days straight, not sleeping. Waking to find her ring gone along with the child.
It's okay, he'd said, voice breaking. We'll have another baby. I'll make you a new ring.
Don't, she'd told him. They're doing layoffs. Save the money. When you make it, get me one then.
She had believed, at the time, that this was a small and noble sacrifice. She had not known she was negotiating away her own ring to a woman she hadn't met yet.
"So he gave you his wife's ring," Veyra said carefully.
"He didn't want to, at first. Said he'd buy me something better." Xiomara tilted her hand, watching the light slide across the diamond. "But that old thing acts so superior just for being his wife. If I don't put her in her place, she'll think she owns the world."
"When a woman lets herself get that pathetic," Xiomara added, almost kindly, "there's really no saving her."
Veyra's fingers found the hem of her sleeve and held on. "If he spends this much on you, he must be paying her a fortune to keep quiet."
Xiomara laughed, bright and careless, and leaned in close enough that her perfume became a wall.
"Here's the funny part," she whispered. "That pathetic woman doesn't even know he runs a company."
---
"Why keep it from her?" Veyra asked. Something in her was still hoping - stupidly, stubbornly - that there was an explanation that didn't end where she thought it did.
"Because what's the point?" Xiomara turned her nails toward the window light. "She already spent her best years slaving beside him while he built everything. If you were a man and you finally made it, would you keep spending on a wife who's already worn out? Money doesn't buy back anyone's youth."
Veyra caught her own reflection in the cabin glass - hollow-cheeked, shadowed under the eyes, ten years of scraping by written into her skin. She used to look better than this. She used to look like Xiomara.
"You know, sis, you've still got some looks left," Xiomara said, studying her with the clinical warmth of someone appraising livestock. "A little cosmetic work wouldn't hurt. Your husband hasn't been that interested lately, has he?"
Veyra said nothing.
"My benefactor gives me half a million a month just for living expenses," Xiomara added, unprompted, unbothered. "Procedures are separate."
"How long," Veyra made herself ask, "has this been going on?"
"Since June twelfth, last year." Xiomara checked her nails again, already bored of the question.
Veyra's grip on her own sleeve went white-knuckled.
June twelfth. The day her mother had needed five hundred thousand dollars for surgery she never got. Caspian had begged everyone he knew and come back with three hundred fifty thousand - everything I have, he'd told her, weeping, and she had believed him, had scraped together eighty thousand more herself and still watched her mother die eighty thousand short of enough.
I'm sorry, he'd said into her hair. I'm worthless. I couldn't even save your mother.
She had wiped his tears instead of her own. You gave everything you had. That's enough. Just wait a little longer, she'd told him, and he'd gripped her hand like a man drowning and sworn they wouldn't suffer forever.
He'd had the other hundred and fifty thousand the whole time.
"Funny thing," Xiomara said, watching her now with real interest. "That woman's mother needed exactly five hundred thousand that same month."
Veyra looked at her and said nothing at all.
Xiomara winked. "He was going to pay it. Originally."
"You took it," Veyra said. "For an allowance."
"Please, he's got plenty more where that came from. I just told him - once her mother's dead, that woman has no family left. Nowhere to go. If he ever gets caught keeping me, she won't dare make a scene." Xiomara smiled, cat-content. "I wanted a Chanel piece that month. Five hundred thousand, as it happens."
"Aren't you afraid she'll find out?"
"I'm smarter than that." Xiomara stretched, satisfied. "It was my idea - tell his wife he'd scraped together everything, let her think he gave his all. She'd be too grateful, too guilty over the shortfall, to ever look for someone else in the picture."
Then, almost as an afterthought, she added the last piece.
"The annoying part is, the only reason he finally agreed to do it was so that if I ever got found out, his precious wife wouldn't leave him." She snorted. "Tch. Some women have all the luck."
The slap landed before Veyra had decided to throw it.
"What is wrong with you?" Xiomara shrieked, hand flying to her cheek.
/0/65148/coverbig.jpg?v=b6e2b8f79a5ccfacf9236c172319908c)
His Dark Obsession
Imagine coming home to celebrate your 18th birthday with your family only to find out it was your wedding. This is exactly what happened to Amira Banks, a young, loving girl who was raised in an abusive household and had aspirations to further her education. When she discovered that her parents had
/0/50595/coverbig.jpg?v=c94aa4ce99f4ea8cadb1e324f59db3f7)
His dark obsession
Did you think you could run away from me? is that it, Cat?" Ace asked, his hand tightening around her neck at every seconds. Catherine gasped her hand resting on Ace's as she fought to tear his hand off her. "I asked you a question, kitten. Did you think you could run away from me?" he questi
/0/12571/coverbig.jpg?v=629871b9872f7fcbe69118dcf5074ae8)
Chasing an Iron Horse
<DIV><I>Changing China: A Geographic Appraisal<\/I> provides an up-to-date and detailed account of the giant country that is undergoing an unparalleled and historic transition from a centralized command economy to a market-based economy, and from a rural, agricultural society to an urban, industrial
/0/8592/coverbig.jpg?v=3ffc21477835a14c06e3ee91ecb63373)
/1/121934/coverbig.jpg?v=4b2e5ec638d73a5dbe94d41e071b1800)
HIS DARK OBSESSION
Returning home from abroad two years after graduating from MIT with two PHDs. Samantha Logan was excited to share the good news with her father only to be welcomed with a big shot which potentially changed her life. Coincidentally, the mafia boss her father owed was at her father's residence that da
/1/126476/coverbig.jpg?v=3f344775861b7f0bcb1db6af735b52d4)
His Dark Devotion
"๐จ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐" In the kingdom of evils, he was a god feared as a monster. Xavier Stone, a gangster. A name that made even devils bow. He built his empire from blood, sin, and the screams of men who thought they could defy him. A man with no mercy, only hunger for p
/0/98500/coverbig.jpg?v=4ce87fdc30d3811361485cdec871d517)
CAPTIVATED BY HIS DARK DESIRES
"You don't know what you're playing with." He murmured, His hand traced a slow path down my arm, fingers firm but deliberate, sending a shiver straight to my core. "You are scared" "I'm not." I whispered. He smiled. "You should be." Before I could think, he closed the distance, his lips crashing
/0/19802/coverbig.jpg?v=d98d5e796c9af0225bfe2b4dec136ede)
The Dark Secret Of His Mermaid
They were so much in love but everything changed drastically when the girl died in an accident. He couldn't do nothing to save her instead of crying while staying by her side as she breathed her very last breath on his arms. 5 years later, a mysterious girl suddenly came into his life, reminding of
/1/114469/coverbig.jpg?v=c9753e545e358dbbff5d1652e26cdbd2)
His Dark Embrace, Her Redeeming Love
My chest tightened with anticipation, five years of shared struggle culminating in this moment at the Manhattan penthouse banquet. But Chace, my partner, didn't look at me; he turned to Karyn, sliding his family's heirloom emerald ring onto her finger. Then, his voice echoed through the hall, dismis
/1/125668/coverbig.jpg?v=2f4b07f21526a860e99718756bb61f0d)
Trapped In His Dark Possessive Embrace
Brandy Clarke's life looks perfect from the outside. But behind closed doors, her marriage is a hollow shell, held together by obligation and indifference. Her husband barely pretends to care, and his mistresses have started sending her photos just to prove it. Then a single phone call changes ever
/1/111182/coverbig.jpg?v=73d89e221a21d4259940fe3d30b29dcc)
Her Vicious Art, His Dark Obsession
For ten years, my family kept me locked away, forcing me to play the part of a broken, mentally unstable girl. They controlled me with sedatives and treated me like a ghost in my own home, a prisoner in a gilded cage. But I had a secret. I was a world-famous anonymous artist with a hidden fortune,
/1/119585/coverbig.jpg?v=904f27186b9860f372f377d630b4046c)
Flesh And Blood: His Dark Obsession
I was just a lower-tier nobody when the Matriarch of the New York Famiglia offered me a dangerous deal: cure the ruthless Don Enzo's psychological trauma, and rise from the gutter. But Enzo's trauma was deadly. His two previous wives were rival assassins who hid micro-explosives in their breast imp
/0/44135/coverbig.jpg?v=c78834030fe8bcb75968f0d735fe0d89)
King And His Dark Obsessive Desires
"You don't spare me even when I'm in my menstrual period", Taapur said and covered her small body with the blanket. "Blood is Red and Red is my favourite colour. The enchanting scent of your period makes me insane enough to take you again and again", Abhimanyu said as he wore his clothes without ev
/0/1655/coverbig.jpg?v=20171121151522)
The Scouring of the White Horse
OLD AND NEW. See how the Autumn leaves float by, decaying, Down the red whirls of yon rain-swollen stream; So fleet the works of men, back to their earth again; Ancient and holy things fade like a dream. Nay! see the Spring blossoms steal forth a-maying, Clothing with tender buds orchard and g
/0/888/coverbig.jpg?v=20171121201143)
The Horse-Stealers and other stories
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian short story writer and a playwright. His playwriting career produced four classics, while his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practiced as a doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is m
/0/73685/coverbig.jpg?v=27f2a74181df514f2a55f57f4ba4d982)
Dark Chemistry
"Everything of you is a non-existing dangerous drug, Natalia. And I'm addicted to it." He rasped beside my ear then slowly but seductively brushed his nose on my neck and then my hair like he was smelling my body and my hair. I stopped breathing as I started feeling like I was going to pass out.
/0/31201/coverbig.jpg?v=1255536fd43b2cb11e44995799e0b444)
Dark Goddess
( 18โ ) Hadria Blake went from living in a group home to being whisked across the country to the most prestigious school of the USA, Deitus Academy, school for deities. Until her seventeenth birthday she had believed herself to be a normal human girl. Her biggest worry being what she would do in a
/0/42747/coverbig.jpg?v=c9ed3231749133673b0d8958678d7cfe)
DARK OBSESSION
Obsessed with awaking his wife, Augustine vowed to sacrifice anyone in order to bring her back to life, be it his daughter. Is it because of his immense love for his wife or is there a hidden motive behind it? Celine, a young 18 year old maiden vows to protect 'the vessel' from her father. Will she
/0/65204/coverbig.jpg?v=20241127113905)
DARK PARADISE
What happens if the King of all Demon Kings falls in love with a human? That's what Alarik Bruce Skyler, the devil Lucifer who has the strongest and greatest throne among demons, feels. The immortal creature accidentally falls in love with a pure human who is the eldest daughter of one of his foll
/0/66478/coverbig.jpg?v=16c16c83d0347a9d0064cae9340d81de)
Dark Hearts.
Melia Rixe's life is seriously flatlining. Between being abused by her addict mother, working multiple jobs and paying off her debts, she's more than fed up with her life. A night of drunken confessions and passionate kisses brings Bastian Monroe into her world. The hot Manhattan elite billionaire C
