
Introduction
When Iris wins the prestigious Metropolitan Design Challenge, she catches the attention of Tony, a mysterious business student who offers to help with her startup plans. Their coffee shop meetings crackle with unspoken tension and possibility, but Tony harbours secrets of his own. As the heir to the Kennedy fortune, he's trapped between family expectations and his growing feelings for the brilliant designer who refuses to rely on anyone but herself.
Everything changes when Iris enters the Lawson competition, a design contest worth fifty thousand dollars, hosted in memory of Roxanne Lawson, an heiress who vanished twenty years ago. The missing girl shares Iris's birthday, and Tony's strange reaction to this detail hints at connections neither of them fully understands.
As Iris races to complete her collection, she must navigate the cutthroat world of high fashion, the complexities of falling for someone from a different world, and the unsettling possibility that the iris pin she was found with might be the key to a past she never knew existed. Some coincidences are too perfect to be accidents, and some secrets are too dangerous to stay buried.
A contemporary romance about ambition, identity, and the courage to claim your destiny, no matter who you were born to be.
Chapter 1
Iris was sitting on the benches and table of the college grounds, working on her pieces for her design course. She had been working on them for months, and they were getting closer by the day. She wanted to help her adoptive family after they took her in as a newborn and helped raise her four younger adoptive twin brothers.
Alongside her college work, she was working on some competition pieces that she hoped would help not only her family, if she won to set up the groundwork for her own design house that not only was clothing but the accessories as well.
Iris kept to herself at 19; she knew no one, as she was on scholarship, and most of the kids in this college were here thanks to their daddies' money.
“Oh, sorry, Miss, would you mind if I sit at this table with you?” A male voice came from behind her.
Iris glanced up from her sketches, her pencil hesitating mid-stroke. She hadn't expected anyone to approach her table—most students avoided her focused intensity like she carried some contagious disease. She scanned the stranger quickly: average height, casually dressed in jeans and a plain t-shirt that had seen better days. Nothing about him screamed "trust fund baby."
"Sure," she said, her tone cooler than she intended. She shifted her papers to make room, careful to cover her most promising designs with her arm. "Just don't bump the table. These sketches took hours."
"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied, setting down a worn backpack and taking the seat across from her. "I'm Tony, by the way."
Iris nodded but didn't offer her name in return. She bent her head back to her work, hoping he would take the hint that she wasn't interested in conversation. She needed to finish this sketch before her evening shift at the café.
"Those look incredible," Tony said after a minute of silence.
Iris's head snapped up. He was looking at her jewellery pieces with genuine curiosity, not the dismissive glance most people gave her work.
"Thanks," she said, surprised enough to forget her usual guardedness. "It's for my final portfolio."
“And those ones?” Tony asked, “Those designs are high-end.”
“Ah, they’re for an upcoming design competition I was hoping to enter, but these sorts of industries are more about who you know than how good the designs are. I’ve been saving to start my own design house, and if I can make enough waves, maybe even buy my parents a house of their own. They’ve done a lot for me and my four younger brothers.”
Tony's eyebrows rose slightly. "Four younger brothers? That's quite a household."
Iris felt the familiar tightening in her chest whenever someone commented on her family situation. She never knew whether people were genuinely interested or just making polite conversation before moving on. She studied Tony's face for signs of insincerity but found none.
"Twin sets. They're a handful, but worth it," she said, allowing a small smile to soften her features. "My parents took me in when I was just days old. They didn't have to, but they did."
She immediately regretted sharing that detail. Why was she telling this stranger about her adoption? She never discussed personal matters with classmates. Iris turned her attention back to her sketches, adding a delicate filigree pattern to a pendant design.
"That's really admirable, what you're trying to do for them," Tony said after a moment. He didn't push for more details, which Iris appreciated.
She shrugged, keeping her eyes on her work. "They'd do the same for me. They already have."
Tony pulled out a battered laptop and opened it, seemingly content to work in silence. The lack of forced small talk was refreshing. Most people who approached her either wanted something or couldn't handle the quiet.
After twenty minutes of companionable silence, Iris's phone alarm buzzed. She needed to pack up for her shift at Café Meridian.
"I've got to go," she said, carefully sliding her designs into a reinforced portfolio case.
"Sure," Tony nodded, glancing up from his screen. "Good luck with the competition. Your work is really something."
There was something in his tone, a genuine appreciation without the condescension she often detected from others at the college. For a second, Iris hesitated, wondering if she should say more.
"Thanks. I'm Iris, by the way." She offered her name like a small gift.
"Nice to meet you, Iris." He smiled, and for some reason, it didn't trigger her usual defences.
Three weeks later, Iris's hands trembled as she opened the email from the Metropolitan Design Challenge. She'd submitted her collection on a whim, never truly expecting to place among graduates from prestigious design schools across the country.
"We are pleased to inform you..."
She read the words three times before their meaning sank in. First place. She'd won first place and the $5,000 prize.
Iris pressed her hand against her mouth, suppressing a scream of joy that would have disturbed the entire dormitory floor. This was it, the beginning of everything she'd worked for. With this recognition and the prize money, she could launch her online boutique months earlier than scheduled.
She reached for her phone to call her parents, then hesitated. It was past midnight, and they'd be asleep with early shifts tomorrow. This news could wait until morning.
Instead, she opened her laptop and began drafting plans for her website. Sleep could wait. Her future and that of her family were just about to start.
‘Ok Iris we need to be careful with this money some of it needs to go into the bank for a real store may a couple of hundred, maybe a thousand to start off her online store but some of her clothing designs to not just jewelry there was another competition she was already work on designs towards so she would need to get more art supplies for that so maybe three hundred maybe four, a thousand aside to get her own place and a thousand to start the deposit for a home for her family. The rest could go to bills if anything were left.’ She thought to herself.
Last Chapters
#70 Chapter 70 Chapter 70
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#69 Chapter 69 Chapter 69
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#68 Chapter 68 Chapter 68
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#67 Chapter 67 Chapter 67
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#66 Chapter 66 Chapter 66
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#65 Chapter 65 Chapter 65
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#64 Chapter 64 Chapter 64
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#63 Chapter 63 Chapter 63
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#62 Chapter 62 Chapter 62
Last Updated: 2/16/2026#61 Chapter 61 Chapter 61
Last Updated: 2/16/2026
You Might Like 😍
The New Girl and the Broken Basketball Star
After years of feeling unwanted by the father who should have protected her, Clara is finally forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Her stepmother’s pregnancy only makes it easier for her family to let her go.
With nothing but her mother’s old violin, she arrives in a small Pennsylvania town carrying the fear that she will never truly belong anywhere.
The last thing she expects is Adrian Cole.
Once the town’s basketball star, Adrian gave up his dreams after his father disappeared and left him with debts he never should have carried. Now he spends his days repairing cars, avoiding the court, and pretending he doesn’t want anything more from life.
Clara thinks she is too broken to be loved.
Adrian thinks his future is already over.
But somewhere between physics lessons, late nights at the repair shop, and a forgotten small-town high school, two lonely people begin to find something they both thought they had lost forever:
A reason to stay.
✦ ✦ ✦
A tough exterior with a soft heart x A soft exterior with a strong heart
✦ ✦ ✦
The first half is set in high school, and the second half is set during their college years. Hope you enjoy the journey!
This is a slow-paced story, focused more on emotions, healing, and the small moments in life rather than intense action or dramatic twists.
If you find any mistakes while reading, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to correct them.
I hope ordinary Clara, ordinary Adrian, and all of us ordinary people can find the happiness we deserve.
From Substitute To Queen
Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.
Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.
In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?
From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Bella and Her Beast
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?
.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
The Blackthorn Saga: The Heir (Book 1 & 2)
Pulled into a hidden world he never knew existed, Kruz is forced to face the truth—he isn’t just different.
He’s a vampire.
The transformation is only the beginning. Thrust from a life of survival into one of power, wealth, and expectation, Kruz is given a position no one his age should hold: District Elder.
With it comes authority. Responsibility. And enemies he doesn’t yet understand.
And then there’s the bond.
Forced into a connection he didn’t choose, Kruz is tied to a girl—whether he wants it or not. She’s a complication. A problem. A constant reminder that his life is no longer his own.
Because the one person he wants… is the one he can’t have.
As pressure builds and danger closes in, Kruz is forced to walk a line few survive—between duty and desire, control and instinct, the life he had and the one being forced upon him.
Because in this world, power isn’t earned slowly.
It’s given.
And if you’re not ready for it—
It will destroy you.
Iron And Glamour Just Don't Mix
Well… Sometimes you just might turn out to be right.
It turns out, the fae stole my little brother. In his place? A pixie with boundary issues and a talent for home repairs.
I’ve spent my life taking care of everyone else. So when my baby brother is taken, I don’t hesitate. I walk straight into a faerie mansion and make a bargain with its infuriatingly charming master.
Kie is everything you’d expect from a dangerous fae, beautiful, political, and entirely too amused by me. Power wrapped in a smirk. Sensual, mischievous, and far too aware of the effect he has on people. He agrees to help me find my brother.
For a price.
Now I’m bound by a faerie bargain and navigating a world of glamour, manipulation, and ancient rules I definitely should have learned sooner, enchanted forests, political games, magical contracts, and a fae lord who treats seduction like a perfectly reasonable negotiation tactic.
Iron is how I keep people out.
Glamour is how he draws them in.
And apparently, they just don’t mix.
Tempted By The Enemy
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.
Cursed To Be His
At thirteen, everything changed.
After her parents were murdered, she was cursed by a powerful witch and used as a vessel for Elder magic. Saving her life came at an impossible cost; the curse was broken, but so was the wolf inside her, leaving her human.
Ten years later, Talia hides her grief behind sharp sarcasm and a smile she no longer believes. When a rogue attack proves she can no longer protect herself, or the people she loves, she leaves the only home she's ever known for the quiet human town of Ashbourne Hollow, determined to disappear.
Instead, she catches the attention of the town's most dangerous owner.
Alaric Lazarus is a vampire who rules from the black castle overlooking Ashbourne Hollow. He is cold, enigmatic, and impossible to read, but he awakens something in Talia she can't explain. She doesn't trust him. He trusts her even less.
Then vampires begin turning up dead.
Forced into an uneasy alliance, Talia and Alaric uncover a trail that leads back to the family she lost... and the curse she thought she'd escaped. As old enemies emerge from the shadows and buried secrets come to light, Talia discovers that everything she believed about her past was a lie.
Because the curse that stole her wolf was never meant to save her.
It was meant to lead her to him.
This is book 3 in the series, but it can be read as a standalone.
Book 1 - The Matchmaker
Book 2 - The Heir of Flame and Fang
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)
For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.
Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.
A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)
Accidentally Crossing the Tycoon
Four years ago, the Bailey family faced a devastating financial crisis.
Just when bankruptcy seemed inevitable, a mysterious benefactor emerged, offering salvation with one condition: a contract marriage.
Rumors swirled about this enigmatic man—whispers claimed he was hideously ugly and too ashamed to show his face, possibly harboring dark, twisted obsessions.
Without hesitation, the Baileys sacrificed me to protect their precious biological daughter, forcing me to take her place as a pawn in this cold, calculated arrangement.
Luckily, in those four years, the mysterious husband never asked to meet in person.
Now, in the final year of our arrangement, the husband I've never met is demanding we meet face to face.
But disaster struck the night before my return—drunk and disoriented, I stumbled into the wrong hotel room and ended up sleeping with the legendary financial mogul, Caspar Thornton.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
Reborn: My Biased Brothers Beg Me To Come Back
She genuinely took in Regina, the butler's daughter, only to be constantly manipulated by this cunning and manipulative woman.
Regina gradually stole the love from her three brothers.
Arabella was forced to give Regina blood transfusions time and again, her weight plummeting to a mere eighty-eight pounds.
Ultimately, under the relentless pressure from her brothers, she jumped out of a window in despair and died. Her last words were,
"What about Regina's blood transfusions?"
When she opened her eyes again, Arabella found herself reborn three years earlier—the very day Regina appeared at her doorstep crying, begging for help.
Looking at the pitiful, tearful girl before her, Arabella smiled.
No more soft-heartedness.
No more groveling.
Instead, she "kindly" arranged for Regina to move into the servants' quarters, to earn her own living through honest labor.
Faced with her brothers who sided with her, she no longer bothered to please them.
And towards her former fiancé, Theodore, whom she had once fawned over, she remained cold, distant, and indifferent.
Moreover, in this life, they would discover that her identity was far more than just the eldest daughter of the Oberon family.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.












