contractmarriage

[18+ | Mature Content | Dark Romance] After slaving away for years as Ares King's sole overworked secretary, Catherine has finally had enough of his domineering and heartless attitude. She wants to quit and use the severance pay to settle her family's debts, and spend more time with her long-term boyfriend. But soon after she hands her resignation letter, she finds out that her boyfriend cheated on her. He claims she's a wreck with no future, and he's better off without her. Heartbroken and devastated, Catherine is grasping at the last straw when her boss, Ares King, proposes a contract out of the blue. "Become my wife for one year." "Why me, Mr. King?" "Because we work, Ms. Lane.” The last thing she wanted was to make a deal with the devil. But this offer is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Sell your soul to the devil for one year. How hard can that be? ********** Excerpt: "How many?" I froze. Did he expect me to count? "How. Many?" "I-I don't—Ah!" Ares spanked me again, continuously. My eyes stung, and sweet pain overtook me. I should feel sick from deriving pleasure from this, but strangely, I wasn't. "Two?" I teased, purposely getting the numbers wrong. "You shouldn't have done that." Just as I thought, he started again, but this time he drove each hit with more force until my ass was burning. "Fifteen!" I yelled, shaking. "Wrong." My heart momentarily stopped. "I got it right!" "You missed one." He pressed his hand on my searing bottom, and I moaned. I tried to squirm away, but he trapped my hands behind my back, his voice dark with warning. "Move again, and you'll regret it." ~ A/N: This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or real events is purely coincidental.

Eimi Takahashi was born into a world of silk and power, the proud heiress of a Japanese business dynasty. But overnight, her world shatters. Betrayed by rivals and facing total bankruptcy, her family’s only hope lies in the hands of the Morettis—the most powerful and ruthless family in Italy. ​Lorenzo Moretti is willing to sign the check that saves her father, but he has one cold-blooded condition: Eimi must marry his son, Marco. ​Marco Moretti is a man of ice and stone. Three years ago, a bitter encounter left Eimi and Marco as sworn enemies. He views her as a spoiled princess; she views him as a heartless machine. They loathe the very ground the other walks on. ​The Contract is simple: ​One year of marriage. ​No physical intimacy. ​A perfect public performance of a "loving couple." ​After 365 days, a quiet divorce and a massive settlement. ​But when they are forced into seclusion at a private villa in Lake Como to satisfy Marco’s traditional grandfather, the lines between acting and reality begin to blur. Behind closed doors, their biting insults turn into scorching tension, and old secrets begin to surface. ​In a game of power where hearts were never meant to be part of the deal, who will be the first to break the contract?

On the night of her fifth wedding anniversary, Seraphina Vale dies watching her husband smile over a glass of champagne he knows she will never finish. When she opens her eyes again, she is standing in her childhood bedroom, staring at her untouched wedding gown. It is the day before she marries Adrian Hawthorne, the charming billionaire who will one day steal her family’s company, ruin her father’s legacy, and leave her bleeding on a marble staircase while his mistress calls it an accident. This time, Seraphina does not walk down the aisle. Instead, she signs a contract marriage with Adrian’s greatest rival Lucien Ashford, the ruthless CEO who was destroyed and bankrupted by Adrian in her previous life. Lucien wants revenge, Seraphina wants justice, and their marriage is supposed to be a transaction but as she guides him through corporate traps she already remembers, and he shields her from dangers she once faced alone, cold calculation begins to feel dangerously close to devotion. Meanwhile, Adrian is unraveling. The woman who once loved him without question now looks at him like he is already a ghost, and he cannot understand why losing her feels like losing something he never knew was irreplaceable.

Rosalina Evans didn’t apply for the job. Her best friend did - without telling her. And somehow, against every odd, she got it. Personal Assistant to Enzo Salvatore. The most powerful, ruthless and breathtakingly handsome man in all of Milan. Enzo Salvatore doesn’t do warmth. He doesn’t do small talk. He has absolutely no patience for a talkative blonde assistant with golden eyes who looks at him like he’s a normal person. He is not a normal person. But when his board questions his authority and his allies tell him he needs a wife, Enzo makes Rosalina an offer she can’t refuse - a fake marriage and enough money to save everything she loves most. It should be simple. Temporary. Completely under control. Enzo Salvatore has never been more wrong about anything in his life.

She is a mess, burdened by a broken heart from an abusive relationship and haunted by nightmares stemming from her guilt over surviving an accident that took her mother’s life and left her sister in a coma. That is, until she meets him. Andriana finds comfort in his warmth, but Karlye is a mysterious man with secrets and enemies lurking in the shadows. Her feelings for him are complicated by her insecurities and their differences in social status. When he discovers her pregnancy, he vows never to let her go, revealing the darkness within him. Will she hold on for the sake of their baby, or will she choose to leave?

[This novel is a highly planned Dark Romance . It features trending tropes like "Secret Marriage," "Billionaire Obsession," and a unique "Split Personality" twist. I am committed to daily updates and long-term serialization.] I promise you will thoroughly enjoy this novel and become addicted to it. --------------------- Natalia said with disgust: "Never. I would prefer death over loving the idea of marrying you." Cedric said in a mysterious and terrifying tone: "Die then." Cedric said cruelly: "Then you won't be able to die; that is what you will get, Natalia..." Then he lowered his voice to a terrifying hiss and continued: "Pain." Cedric looking at her sharply: "But we will play the role of the couple." Natalia answered, her eyes shining with defiance: "Even if it's acting, Cedric, you will not touch me." Cedric said in a voice as low as a hiss: "I will touch you if the matter requires it, do you understand?" ------------------------ Natalia is thrown into the furnace of a war she did not choose. With a single decision from her father, the ambitions of the eighteen-year-old girl were shattered, transforming into an eternal shackle. It is not merely a marriage, but a deed of ownership to ensure the empire remains safe through a strategic alliance, under the protection of the man whose very existence she loathes: Cedric, the son of her father’s most powerful business partner. Because she has not reached the legal age for the elite, and because scandal might shake the family walls, Natalia was sentenced to be a "Secret Wife." Natalia finds herself forced to live in the Stuart family mansion, where she is compelled to share oxygen and space in one room with Cedric; the man who sees in this marriage an insult to his pride and an assassination of his freedom. Behind that closed door, the official masks fall, and the fires of hatred ignite. But the real hell for Natalia lies not only in Cedric’s cruelty, but in the presence of William; Cedric’s older brother and the person whose heart beat with love for him since her childhood. Now, Natalia finds herself trapped under one roof with the man she desired as a husband, while she is, in reality, the property of his brother whom she hates. Cedric... the cruel executioner. Cedric will not settle for silent rejection; instead, he will turn Natalia’s days into an organized "hell." Every look is a stab, every word is a spark, and every night they spend in that ill-fated room is a new round of psychological torture, where Natalia burns between the fire of her impossible love for William and the fire of her imposed hatred for Cedric.

She was drowning in poverty. He was paralyzed by grief. Emily Greene is barely surviving, working multiple jobs to care for her sick mother and seven-year-old daughter. When billionaire Victor Hawthorne offers her an impossible salary to be his caregiver, she can't refuse. Even if the wheelchair-bound recluse treats her like the enemy. Victor Hawthorne spent five years building walls no one could breach. The last thing he needs is a compassionate woman who sees past his cruelty to the broken man beneath. But when his company's board demands they need stability by him getting married or lose everything, he makes Emily an offer, become his wife in name only. Three years. No emotions. Just business. What begins as a cold transaction transforms into something neither expected. As Victor learns to walk again, both physically and emotionally. Emily discovers a strength she never knew she had. But when shadows from his past supposedly return and betrayal threatens to destroy them, Emily must build her own empire and Victor must prove he's worthy of a second chance. Because real love is never just business.

In a powerful and wealthy Chinese family, the youngest son has been sick since birth. After years of trying the best doctors in the world, nothing can save the weak five-year-old boy. One day, a mysterious shaman visits the mansion and reveals a shocking truth: the child has only one month left to live. The only way to save him is to tie his fate to another person through marriage. Unexpectedly, the shaman discovers that the 15-year-old son of the family’s driver is the perfect match. Now the family faces a difficult choice—will they force the driver’s son to marry their dying young master to change his fate?

Emily Carter never expected her life to change the night she signed a contract marriage with the ruthless billionaire Adrian Knight. To Adrian, the marriage is nothing more than a business deal. To Emily, it is a chance to survive in a world she barely understands. But as their fake marriage continues, strange secrets begin to surface. A mysterious child appears. A forgotten night from five years ago returns to haunt them. And Emily starts to realize that Adrian might not have chosen her by accident. Because the truth is far more dangerous than she imagined. Emily Carter is not just an ordinary woman. She may be the lost heir of a powerful family that someone tried very hard to erase from history. And the moment the truth comes out… everyone will become her enemy.

Niran Sukrit starts his new job at Love Food, but on his very first day, he falls for his boss, Chak Phanprasit. Chak is a cold, arrogant CEO who demands absolute control over everything. However, as Niran begins living with him, Chak’s icy mask slowly starts to melt. He becomes increasingly protective whenever Niran is in danger, yet both struggle to hide their true emotions. They eventually confess their feelings, but Chak is guarding secrets. Can Niran uncover the truths before it’s too late? And what mysterious bond is Chak's dad hiding? VOLUME2: chapter 107 Chak's mother has arranged a marriage with a mysterious woman, unaware of who her son truly loves. But can the forbidden, hidden love between Niran and Chak withstand the trials ahead? Secrets still linger in the shadows-secrets Chak has kept from Niran.

one decision changed everything Abby Brooks has everything under control her career, her reputation, her future. What she doesn’t have is a child. Tired of waiting for love that never lasts, Abby takes fate into her own hands. Through a fertility clinic, she chooses an anonymous donor Donor 476 determined to build her family alone. But destiny has other plans. Days after her procedure, her cold, brilliant CEO, Liam Sterling, pulls her into his inner circle, demanding late nights and close proximity. The tension between them is undeniable, dangerous… and deeply complicated. Because Liam Sterling is not just her boss. He is Donor 476. As Abby fights to hide her pregnancy, every meeting, every glance, every accidental touch threatens to expose the truth. And when Liam begins to suspect she is keeping a secret, the walls between them start to crumble. She wanted a baby without love. She never expected to fall for the father.

He needed a wife. She needed to save her father. Alessandro De Luca doesn’t believe in love. He believes in power. Control. Loyalty paid in blood. When a rival mafia family threatens his empire, he makes a ruthless move — a contract marriage to the one woman no one expected. Elena Romano. Brilliant. Defiant. Untouched by the darkness he rules. She signs the contract to save her father’s life. But she never expected the devil to watch her for two years before claiming her. Now she lives inside his mansion. Under his rules. Surrounded by enemies who think she’s his weakness. They are wrong. Because Alessandro doesn’t break what belongs to him. And when war begins and bullets fly, Elena discovers something far more terrifying than his enemies— The man who kidnapped her is willing to burn the world for her. But the deeper she falls into his empire of blood and secrets, the more she realizes: The devil didn’t marry her to protect his throne. He married her because he chose her. And Alessandro De Luca never lets go of what he chooses.

Liora Hale has spent a decade plotting revenge against the man who ruined her family. Adrian Everhart, the cold, arrogant billionaire CEO of Everhart Global, personally signed off on the hostile takeover that bankrupted her father’s company and shattered her world. She never forgot. She never forgave. Now she works under him recommended straight to his desk by the very team that praised her talent. From their first clash, sparks fly: sharp words, defiant stares, and a loathing so thick it’s almost electric. Adrian is intrigued by the one woman who refuses to bow. Liora is determined to destroy him. When a crucial merger with old-money traditionalists requires proof of “stability,” Adrian proposes the unthinkable: pose as his fiancée for one month. Promotion, power, and a front-row seat to his empire in exchange. She says yes, not for love, but for vengeance. Fake dates. Shared suites. “Practice” touches that linger too long. Every staged smile and charged glance brings her closer to the proof she needs to expose him. But the closer she gets, the more she sees: the fatigue behind his steel-gray eyes, the quiet protectiveness in his commands, the way he says her name like it’s a secret he’s keeping from himself. As evidence piles up and the lines between hate and desire blur, Liora faces the ultimate test: finish the revenge she’s lived for… or risk falling for the billionaire she swore to loathe forever. Enemies by blood. Fiancés by contract. What happens when revenge starts feeling like surrender?

"I have a movie to catch, Magnus. Send the draft to my assistant if I’m not too bored to read it." Nadia Pavern is a "Ghost"—the spare daughter of a family of sociopaths. When she’s sold to Magnus Rawlins, the notorious "Butcher," the world expects her to break. They couldn't be more wrong. Nadia doesn't want a husband; she wants a loophole. She doesn't want his heart; she wants his Black Card and a shield against her toxic family. Magnus is used to being the hunter, but he’s never met a bride who treats his billion-dollar merger like a slow grocery line and walks out on him to catch a movie trailer. In this house, there are no vows—only clauses. The Butcher has finally met a predator he can’t tame.

Six years ago, Princess Lyanna Graves publicly rejected the vampire king at their wedding altar calling him a soulless monster unworthy of love, and walked away, leaving Azrael Thornfield humiliated in front of his entire court. Now, six years later, her kingdom has fallen. Her family is dead and the only person who is offering her shelter is the vampire king she once refused. But Azrael is not doing this out for mercy. “I’ll grant you safety, and in return I want everything that belongs to you, including your body, and your pride. I’ll break you into pieces until you forget what it was like to reject a king.” Lyanna is left with only two choices: accept his cruel proposal or die. She chooses survival. Their revenge marriage is filled with games of dominance and possession which slowly transforms into something far more dangerous. Azrael who married her for revenge is suddenly terrified of losing her, and Lyanna who married him to survive realizes she’s falling for the monster she once created. for updates, you can join my discord server: https://discord.gg/yjX92fDdw

Emily Carter never imagined that one accident would change her life forever. Forced into a contract marriage with the cold billionaire Alexander Knight, she finds herself trapped in a world full of secrets, jealousy, and danger. As their fake marriage slowly turns complicated, Emily discovers that Alexander’s past may destroy everything between them

The jeers followed her like a persistent shadow. "Murderer!" the crowd screamed, their faces contorted in a grotesque parody of the adoration she once commanded. Just months ago, they had screamed her name, their voices a deafening roar as she shimmied across the stage, a beacon of light and pop perfection. Now, their cheers had morphed into venomous hisses, their eyes burning with a hatred that chilled her to the bone. Noelle clutched her lawyer's arm, his face a mask of grim determination. The cameras flashed, capturing her every move, every tremor of fear. The headlines screamed: "Pop Princess Plummets: Noelle Accused of Murder." The irony wasn't lost on her. Her life, once a carefully constructed fairytale of fame and fortune, had become a grotesque tragedy. The trial was a circus. The whispers, the sneers, the relentless scrutiny – it was a constant assault on her senses. Her once loyal fans, the ones who'd plastered her face on their bedroom walls, now reveled in her downfall. They devoured every salacious detail, every whispered accusation, every tear she dared to shed. The verdict was a foregone conclusion. Guilty. Noelle watched the judge pronounce the sentence, her mind a whirlwind of disbelief and despair. Death by lethal injection. ‘At least they did not give me the electric chair’ she thought to herself in a poor attempt at humor. * Months later, a solitary figure knelt at her grave, the wind whipping at his hair. Rain lashed down, mirroring the tears that streamed down his face. "I'm sorry, Areum," he sobbed, his voice hoarse with grief. "I'm so sorry I was too late." He clutched a single, wilted rose, its petals stained crimson, a poignant reminder of the life that had been brutally extinguished. * Noelle is a bright star who has the world at her feet, she feels no guilt about being the other woman coming between a husband and his wife. After all, Evan had been in love with her since they were teenagers. The only reason he married Ma-Ri was because his family demanded it, if he had a choice he would surely have picked her… When she gets wrongfully accused of murdering Ma-Ri, she loses everything and is sentenced to death, everyone including Evan turn against her and she is left to die a miserable death. She is reborn and this time she faces the humiliation of being the woman who is being cheated on. She is determined to end the cycle and not let the future she had seen come to pass, she decides to step out of the picture and focus on her career. In doing so, everything changes, Evan clings to her and refuses to let her go, a mysterious stranger who has been studying her also steps in and decides to fight for a chance to be with her.

She didn't plan to summon a demon. She planned to survive the night. When Lyra Voss watches her own fiancé marry her sister at an altar she was supposed to stand at — then gets arrested for a crime her uncle spent months building against her — survival stops being a figure of speech. Framed, abandoned, and locked out of everything she ever called home, she finds the only thing left in her possession: her grandmother's journal, a summoning ritual, and the desperate kind of courage that doesn't feel like courage at all. What answers her blood isn't what she expected. Kael is ancient, impossibly still, and bound to her side for one year by a contract written in her own blood. He speaks like a lawyer and moves like something that has never needed to hurry because it has always been the most dangerous thing in the room. He promises her two things: her name cleared, and everyone who touched her life made to regret it. In exchange, he wants only one thing from her. The truth. Always. What neither of them anticipates is what a year under the same roof does to indifference. How pretending becomes practicing. How practicing becomes real. How a woman who stopped trusting her own heart learns to read his — and discovers that a creature who has lived three thousand years in perfect, ruthless control has never once in all that time felt anything like this. The contract has an expiration date. Their feelings don't. The Devil I Called Husband is a slow-burn paranormal romance about the bargains we make when we're broken, the people who stay even when nothing requires them to, and what happens when the fine print of a blood contract turns out to be the least binding thing between two people who were never supposed to fall in love. Some deals change everything. This one changes both of them.

Elisabeth Aurelie never expected her life to fall apart. Betrayed by her husband while she was pregnant, she then lost the child she had been longing for. Her baby was gone, yet her milk continued to flow. A gynecologist, recently widowed, appeared with an unusual proposal a contract marriage. Elisabeth agreed, willing to breastfeed his young daughter.

What's the price of one year of your life? For Lara Whitfield, the math is simple. A hospital bill she can't pay. Twin sisters whose tuition gap financial aid won't touch. A mother fighting her way back from illness. And a dream — a catering business called Whitfield's, mapped out in a green notebook she keeps under her mattress — that waitressing wages will never reach. She's been holding her family together since she was nineteen. She knows how to survive. What she doesn't know is how to say yes to something this reckless. Then Callum Mercer walks into her diner. He's thirty-three, the CEO of Mercer Holdings, and the kind of man who has never once been late to anything — including, apparently, the moment he decides to propose a business arrangement to a woman he's never met. His father's will carries a condition: marry before his thirty-fourth birthday, or lose the inheritance. The woman named in that will — recommended, not required — is Lara. The offer is five million dollars. One year. A contract that protects them both. She has twenty-four hours to decide. She says yes. But here's what neither of them planned for. They planned for logistics. For public events and shared spaces and the careful choreography of two private people learning not to collide. They planned for performance — the practiced ease of a couple that has something to prove. They didn't plan for 6 AM coffee already made when she gets to the kitchen. They didn't plan for sticky notes multiplying on a refrigerator that's never had anything on it before. They didn't plan for the way she'd talk about her dream and he'd listen — really listen — and quietly dog-ear the page. They didn't plan for the farmer's market at dawn, or cardamom cake that tastes like a memory he'd buried, or the specific way she laughs in the kitchen — unguarded, real — that he's started protecting without meaning to. And Lara didn't plan to understand him. To see, underneath the precision and the walls, a man who learned to provide for people because he never learned to be present for them. A man who was built by a father who loved a company more than a son, and who has spent thirty years quietly, methodically, making sure he never needed anyone enough to be abandoned. She didn't plan to become the exception. The contract has one rule she can't break. Don't fall in love. He said it on day one, flat and informational, the way you'd put a warning label on something dangerous. She laughed. She meant it, at the time. There was a reason she took this deal, and the reason was practical, and she was not the kind of woman who lost herself in circumstances she walked into with open eyes. But seven months in, she writes in the back of her green notebook — the one she only ever uses for business plans — I didn't plan to love him. It happened in the Tuesday mornings. And somewhere across the penthouse, Callum is on the phone with his oldest friend, saying the only honest thing he has left: "I don't want the contract to end." One Year, Five Million, and You is a slow-burn contemporary romance about two people who chose each other for the wrong reasons and stayed for the right ones. It's about what happens when survival and love arrive at the same door. When the most controlled man in the room meets the one woman who sees him without needing anything back. When a deal meant to stay clean becomes the most real thing either of them has ever been part of. It's about holding things together and learning — finally, reluctantly, beautifully — to be held. The contract was for one year. What they built was permanent. Perfect for readers who love: Slow-burn billionaire romance · Enemies-to-lovers tension · Emotionally complex leads who earn every inch of their happy ending · Stories where love isn't a lightning bolt but a slow, quiet fire that takes everything you have to walk toward