When I got home, a team of stylists and makeup artists was waiting for me. Emilio had arranged everything. They fussed over me, transforming my grief-stricken face into a mask of polished elegance, dressing me in a gown of midnight blue silk.
At dusk, Emilio arrived, his own tuxedo perfectly tailored. His eyes lit up when he saw me, a look of genuine awe on his face.
"You look breathtaking, Elana."
I just gave him a cool, detached glance and let him lead me to the car.
The gala was at the museum, in the very wing I had spent two years of my life designing. We walked in to a ripple of applause, our entrance met with smiles and envious glances.
"You're so lucky," a woman I knew whispered as we passed. "To have a man who adores you so much."
I used to revel in that envy. I used to feel a thrill of pride, knowing I had what every woman wanted. Tonight, I knew the beautiful surface was just a cover for the dark, rotting abyss beneath.
Emilio played his part perfectly, his hand possessively on the small of my back, his eyes full of a love that was a lie. He presented his gift, a heavy box from a famous jeweler. Inside was a diamond watch from a brand I had once told him I disliked.
He had forgotten. Or perhaps, he was remembering someone else's favorite.
"I don't..." I started to say, but I was cut off as a small body collided with my legs.
I stumbled back, catching myself on a table.
"Daddy!" a child's voice cried out.
My heart seized. It was Leo. He was clinging to Emilio' s leg, his face buried in the expensive fabric of his trousers, sobbing.
"You're too close to my daddy!" he wailed, pointing an accusing finger at me. "Are you going to make him leave me and Mommy?"
The entire hall fell silent. Every eye was on us.
I wanted the ground to swallow me whole. The child looked so much like Emilio, the resemblance was undeniable.
Whispers erupted around the room. "Is that... his son?" "Who is she, then?"
My carefully constructed world, the one I had fought so hard to maintain, was shattering in public, under the bright lights of my own celebration.
Emilio' s face was a mask of controlled panic. He knelt, his voice patient. "Whose little boy are you? Where are your parents?"
This only made the child cry harder.
Then, Hayden Cleveland pushed through the crowd, her face a picture of maternal distress. "Oh, I am so, so sorry! Leo, honey, come to Mommy."
She tried to pull the boy away, but he clung to Emilio, his little face a mess of tears and accusations.
I recognized her from the church, from the photos online. She was even more beautiful in person, her performance of the flustered, apologetic mother flawless. But I could see the calculation in her eyes.
"Daddy, don't let her take me away!" Leo screamed, his voice echoing in the silent room. He glared at me, his eyes filled with a pure, childish hatred. "It's her! She's the one trying to steal you from us!"
I was frozen, stunned into silence.
My eyes fell to the child's wrist. He was wearing a small string of sandalwood beads, a miniature version of the one I had spent a week on a pilgrimage to a remote temple to get for Emilio, for his protection, for his peace of mind.
He had given my gift to his son.
A surge of rage, hot and powerful, broke through my shock. I took a step forward, my hand outstretched, needing to see, to confirm. "That bracelet..."
"Elana, don't!"
A powerful force slammed into my chest. It was Emilio. He had shoved me, hard. His face was twisted in a panic I had never seen before, his eyes wild as he shielded his son.
My high heels caught on the plush carpet. I fell backwards, my body clumsy and out of control.
My head hit the sharp corner of a glass table with a sickening crack.
The world exploded in a shower of splintering glass and searing pain. Shards from a broken wine glass sliced into my arm. I gasped, the air knocked from my lungs.
I looked up, my vision blurring. Emilio wasn't looking at me. He was fussing over Leo, who had a tiny scratch on his knee.
"Are you okay, son? Did the bad woman hurt you?" he murmured, his voice thick with concern. He scooped the boy into his arms and pushed through the crowd toward the exit, Hayden following closely behind.
She glanced back at me, a flicker of pure, triumphant malice in her eyes. It was a look that confirmed everything. This was all her plan.
Emilio left without a single look back. He left me bleeding on the floor of the room built to honor me.
The pain in my head and my arm was sharp, but a new, deeper, more terrifying cramp was seizing my abdomen.
The whispers around me grew louder, turning into a tide of judgment.
"Did you see that? She tried to grab the little boy."
"She must be the other woman. How shameless, to cause a scene like this."
"Emilio Thomas is such a good man, protecting his son like that."
The words were a physical assault, each one a new wound.
The pain in my stomach intensified, a brutal, tearing sensation. I looked down. The midnight blue of my dress was stained with a spreading patch of dark, wet crimson.
My baby.
The last thread of my strength snapped. The room tilted, the lights blurring into streaks as the world faded to black.
Dangerous Pleasures
🔞🔞.**NOVEL ONLY FOR 18+🔞 AGE** This book contains thigh tingling erotic and steamy stories you have ever read in one book. It's a compilation of every steamy genre, mouth watering, lustful and intense spicy stories for your pleasure. If you are not into adult and mature romance/hot erotica, then please don't open this book. Here you will get to read amazing short stories and new series every day, week and month. These stories will surely make your heartthrob and curl your toes in pleasure and excitement. Let's dive in into these amazing adventures....
Impermissible Desires!
This is a compilation of several spicy, steamy tales of outlawed feelings and seggs. Kitten has always loved her stepbrother, but helplessly had to hide it for fear of the consequences. She didn't want him to see her as some freak. However, an accident led to the blossoming of their intense and passionate love tale. Andrienne always liked her stepdad, but did her best to hide it. However, being caught trying to retrieve the phone her mom had seized led to a series of passionate moments. Of course, it was best to make the bed creak at night helplessly, especially since Mommy wasn't around! Isabelle was heartbroken after her mother fell in love with her new stepfather. No, she didn't have a crush on him. She had long crushed on his son, who was now her stepbrother. What would she do now that they were family? Would she be able to bottle up her feelings forever? Be sure to dive in and quench that thirst! A rollercoaster ride awaits you.
Unspoken Pleasures (Compilation Of Steamy Short Stories)
This book is a collection of short tantalizing stories which spins the art of sweet erotic romance, forbidden romance, dark romance, taboo, including domineering and submissive romance. As you slide through the pages, you will begin to imagine a world of fantasies and explore all dimensions of the art of lovemaking. Note that this book is intended for matured readers only as it contains graphic content, that leaves you breathless and crave more. This book is entirely fictional as any resemblance to any person or incident is highly coincidental.
Erased By His Lies And Love
For ten years, I gave my husband, Desmond, everything. I worked three jobs so he could get his MBA and sold my grandmother' s locket to fund his startup. Now, on the verge of his company's IPO, he was forcing me to sign divorce papers for the seventeenth time, calling it a "temporary business move." Then I saw him on TV, his arm wrapped around another woman-his lead investor, Aurora Quinn. He called her the love of his life, thanking her for "believing in him when no one else did," erasing my entire existence with a single sentence. His cruelty didn't stop there. He denied knowing me after his bodyguards beat me unconscious at a mall. He locked me in a dark basement, fully aware of my crippling claustrophobia, leaving me to have a panic attack alone. But the final blow came during a kidnapping. When the attacker told him he could only save one of us-me or Aurora-Desmond didn't hesitate. He chose her. He left me tied to a chair to be tortured while he saved his precious deal. Lying in a hospital bed for the second time, broken and abandoned, I finally made a call I hadn't made in five years. "Aunt Evelena," I choked out, "can I come stay with you?" The reply from the most feared lawyer in New York was instant. "Of course, darling. My private jet is on standby. And Ariel? Whatever it is, we'll handle it."
His Substitute's Billion-Dollar Secret Empire
For five years, I secretly built my boyfriend, Connor Tate, from a broke musician into a celebrated tech CEO. I was the silent angel investor who funded his entire empire, all while pretending to be the simple girlfriend who could barely pay her own rent. Then he brought home Katerina, a woman from his past who looked eerily like me. She began a slow, deliberate invasion of my life-wearing my clothes, using my things, stealing his affection. When I finally fought back, he decided to teach me a lesson. He had me kidnapped, bound, and thrown onto the stage of a grimy underground auction. He watched from the shadows as leering men bid on my body, only stepping in at the last second to play the hero and put me back in my place. He thought he had broken me. But then he delivered the final, soul-crushing blow, admitting the truth I never saw coming. "Harley was a substitute," he whispered to Katerina, not knowing I could hear. "Because she looked like you." He believed I was a helpless dependent he had created. He had no idea that as he spoke, our divorce was already being finalized. I picked up my phone and dialed a number he never knew existed. "Killian," I said, my voice calm and steady. "I'm ready. Let's get married."
His Heart, My Ultimate Betrayal
Everyone in Seattle said my five-year marriage to tech mogul Elias Odonnell was a placeholder. I never believed them. He was the man who would delay a billion-dollar meeting for my food cravings and donate his own rare blood to save my father' s life. The day I discovered I was pregnant, I overheard him on a call with his childhood sweetheart, Juli. "Marrying Gemma was just the only way to get close enough to her father to cure you." My world shattered. He brought Juli into our home, pretending she was my doctor. They tormented me, locking me in a panic room to trigger my deepest fears. Then, during a forced mountain hike, a sudden shove sent me falling from a cliff. I lost our baby. In the hospital, I overheard the real reason he saved my life. It wasn't for me, but to keep my father emotionally stable so his "liver tissue quality" wouldn't be compromised before the harvest. He called our dead child "a complication I've now been spared from dealing with." With nothing left to lose, I found an unlikely ally in my father's surgeon, a man who owed my dad his career. He came to my room and whispered, "We'll stage a fake surgery. While everyone is distracted, I'll get you and your father out of here."