Marilyn Hayes has spent twenty-five years building a life that looks perfect on paper.She learned it in the way she color-codes her calendar down to the minute, in the careful curation of her apartment and her wardrobe and her Instagram feed, in the polite smiles she offers clients and strangers and the men her friends set her up with. She learned it in the morning runs through Central Park that never vary in route or pace, in the charity galas she attends alone, in the quiet certainty that if she just keeps moving forward, she will never have to stop and ask herself what she's running from.She learned it the night she realized she couldn't remember the last time she felt anything at all.Marilyn is successful, beautiful, and financially stable. She has a career as one of Manhattan's top realtors, a stunning apartment in the West Village, and a tight-knit circle of friends who love her. To the outside world, she is the woman who has everything figured out. Inside, she is numb, going through the motions of a life she built for reasons she can no longer remember. Her friends worry. They push her toward Jeremy, a charming lawyer who checks every box on her "ideal partner" list. They want her to be happy. They want her to feel something.Then she hits a man with her car.Aaron "Ronnie" Mitchell is rough, honest, and entirely wrong for her. He's a mechanic with grease under his fingernails and a chip on his shoulder. He doesn't fit into her world of expensive restaurants and charity galas. He doesn't say the right things or wear the right clothes or come from the right background. But when he looks at her, he sees her, not the polished exterior, not the successful realtor, not the woman who has everything under control. He sees the person underneath, the one who is tired of pretending, the one who wants to feel alive.Over the course of a season, Marilyn finds herself caught between two very different futures. Jeremy represents everything she thought she wanted: stability, sophistication, the approval of her social circle. Ronnie represents everything she didn't know she needed: spontaneity, passion, the terrifying possibility of being truly known. But Ronnie carries his own wounds, a childhood spent in foster care, a father who left, a deep-seated belief that he will never be enough for someone like Marilyn. His pride is a fortress, and his insecurity is a weapon he turns on himself.When Ronnie breaks her heart at her own birthday dinner, convinced he doesn't deserve her, Marilyn must decide what she's willing to fight for. And Ronnie must confront the truth he's been running from his entire life: that love isn't about being worthy. It's about being brave.Set against the glittering backdrop of New York City during the holiday season, All I Want for Christmas is a story of two people from different worlds who must learn that the best love isn't the one that fits perfectly into your life, it's the one that makes you want to build a new one. Told with sharp banter, aching vulnerability, and the magic of twinkling lights and New Year's Eve kisses, it asks the question that haunts every carefully constructed life: what happens when the person who sees you most clearly is the one you're most afraid to let in?

FALLING FOR THE QUARTERBACKTyler Bennett, star quarterback, hides deep insecurities behind his golden-boy image. Ruby Sinclair, fierce art major, guards her broken heart after her parents' divorce. When they get stuck in an elevator, hostility slowly turns to vulnerability. Through late-night texts, shared pain, and one passionate confession, they fall, messily, beautifully, inevitably. But family wounds, jealous rivals, and their own fears threaten everything. Falling for the Quarterback is a steamy, emotional slow-burn about two broken people learning that love isn't a trap it's a choice.

CRUEL DEVOTIONSome people fall in love slowly.Others are dragged into it like a storm.Luna Vasquez has never been good at following rules.At twenty-six, she has built a life out of whatever she could find, cheap apartments, secondhand clothes, long shifts at a coffee shop, and a battered camera that she treasures more than almost anything she owns. She photographs the parts of New York most people overlook: rain-slicked streets, lonely strangers, abandoned buildings, forgotten corners of the city where beauty exists alongside decay.Photography is the one thing Luna refuses to give up.Not when she already gave up enough.Her mother died when Luna was sixteen, leaving behind memories Luna doesn't know how to carry and a lesson she has never been able to forget: tomorrow is never guaranteed. Her father disappeared from her life when she was five, and the abandonment left a wound she refuses to acknowledge. Luna learned early that depending on people is dangerous. People leave. People disappoint you. People promise forever and eventually prove that forever was only something they said when they wanted you to stay.So she doesn't ask for much.She works.She takes photographs.She loves fiercely when she chooses to love, but she keeps most of herself locked behind sarcasm, stubbornness, and a carefree attitude that convinces everyone she's harder to hurt than she really is.Her best friend, Mira Chen, is the one exception.Mira has known Luna long enough to recognize the difference between her real smile and the one she gives people when she doesn't want them to ask questions. She has stood beside Luna through grief, poverty, failed relationships, and every reckless decision in between.But even Mira doesn't know everything about Luna.And Luna intends to keep it that way.Then one rainy night in Manhattan changes everything.Luna is running late for the most important night of her life, her first photography exhibition, when she steps into the street without looking.A black Mercedes screeches to a stop inches from her.And the man who steps out is the last person she expects to meet.Kyle Maddox.Six foot four, devastatingly attractive, brutally controlled, and wealthy enough to make most people nervous simply by entering a room.He is the kind of man who doesn't ask twice.The kind of man who walks into a boardroom and makes experienced businessmen reconsider their decisions.The kind of man whose name opens doors, and closes mouths.Kyle Maddox is a billionaire businessman.He is also the heir to the Maddox empire, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the city.His father, Vincent Maddox, built the family's fortune through fear, violence, manipulation, and blood. Kyle inherited the empire after his father's death, but unlike his father, he has spent years trying to keep the darkness contained behind legitimate businesses and a polished public image.The world sees a ruthless billionaire.Those closest to him know better.Kyle is colder than he appears.More damaged than he admits.And far more dangerous than anyone realizes.His childhood taught him that vulnerability is weakness. His father taught him that love is something powerful men use to control people. His mother's disappearance from his life left him with a wound he buried so deeply that he eventually convinced himself it no longer existed.He doesn't trust easily.He doesn't forgive easily.And he certainly doesn't fall in love.Until Luna.Their first meeting should have ended with an apology and a forgotten name.Instead, Luna insults him.She argues with him.She looks directly into the eyes of a man feared by half the city and calls him an asshole.Then she walks away.Kyle is stunned.Women usually know who he is.They know his wealth.They know his reputation.They know what being wanted by Kyle Maddox could mean.They usually don't walk away.Luna does.And Kyle cannot understand why.At first, he tells himself it's curiosity.Then fascination.Then obsession.But the truth is far more dangerous.Kyle has seen Luna before.Three years earlier, he noticed her at a gallery in Chelsea. She had submitted one of her photographs to an exhibition and been rejected. She thought no one noticed when she stood alone in front of the artwork that replaced hers, fighting tears.Kyle noticed.He remembered her.He never forgot her.For three years, he watched from a distance, convincing himself that he was simply waiting for the right moment.He told himself he wasn't obsessed.He told himself he wasn't in love.He told himself that one day he would approach her.Then she stepped into traffic.And suddenly, the distance between them disappeared.Kyle enters Luna's world with the force of a wrecking ball.First comes the apology.Then the gifts.A new camera.Professional lenses.Lighting equipment.Everything she has wanted but could never afford.Luna is horrified.She doesn't want his money.She doesn't want his charity.