The Playboy Bodyguard of the Beautiful CEO - Chapter 9 - 008: The Four Great Beauty CEOs Are All Here

“I was scared!” she cried, interrupting him. “You're a married man, you have a wife now, and I didn't want to ruin that. I didn't know how you'd react. And I didn't want my children… our children… to be caught in the middle of more pain.”He looked at her in shock, breath caught in his throat. “You just said… our daughter earlier,” he said slowly.Yes,“ she answered. Jasmine and Hanith. They're yours.”Aaron's breath hitched, stumbled back a step, staring at her like he was seeing her for the first time again.“You told me they weren't mine,” he whispered.“I lied,” she admitted. “Because I was scared. I wanted to protect them. I thought if you knew, you'd take them away. And I also thought you wouldn't want them because you are married now.”“Five years,” he murmured, his voice barely audible. “I had children... and never knew.” He clenched his jaw, struggling to process everything.“They are your children,” she said softly. “And now your daughter needs you.”~**~A single mother, Katherine Prescott was the perfect definition of a B3 classy lady—beautiful, brainy, and brave. She worked her ass off to ensure her children never lacked, building a name for herself while running from the unwanted attachment of the past.But when the past she thought she'd left behind the day she fled with her babies came crashing against the walls she'd built—six years later—everything she buried resurfaced.What if the forgotten spark and desires kept pulling her back into the very past she wanted to forget? What if her babies wouldn't stop asking about their father? Can she really give him a second chance at love… and risk losing herself to passion again?Aaron Knight was a celebrity. He never believed he'd see her again. But there she was—still breathtaking, still beautiful as ever. He wasn't letting her go this time. He would get her back, by hook or by crook.Two problems: he was married… and she was already a mother.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”“Tell you what, Richard? What would you have done?”“I don’t know. Apologized sooner? Bought you a burger to make up for it?”Her eyes lit up with fire, “You think what you did to me… you think a burger can make up for it?” her eyes twinkled like she was fighting tears. Did I hurt her that badly? I was just a foolish teenager.“Nita, I am sorry. I was young, I was stupid. I wish I could take it all back and tell you how I feel instead of being a constant jerk to gain your attention.”“How did you feel that would justify what you did to me?”I paused for a minute, finding the words. “I had a huge crush on you at the time. And I didn’t know how to express myself. I was full of myself, I was the school’s ladies' man and the one girl I had eyes for didn’t even care if I existed,” “And that justified what you did to me? Richard, you broke me. I can forgive you for ‘accidentally’ spilling your ice cream on me, or throwing my due assignment in the toilet, or the gum in my hair, or the glue in my chair but tell me how can I forgive you for what you did that night? Tell me!”“What night? Nita, what are you talking about?”“Remember when you asked me if I knew who sexually assaulted me?”I nodded, but what does that have to do with anything? The more we spoke, the more confused I became.“You did and I cannot believe that you would stand there and pretend like it didn’t happen!”Nita has spent years trying to forget the torment she endured at the hands of Richard. When her family’s financial ruin forces her into an arranged marriage, she is horrified to find out the groom himself was her bully.Richard, a charming and successful businessman meets the first woman to be repulsed by him. Intrigued, he proposes a deal of a one year marriage of convenience.Navigating life as a couple, old wounds reopen, buried memories surface. As Richard learns more about his wife, he finds that he has enemies that followed him from his past to continuously cloud his wife’s judgement.Will Nita believe the truth and bury old wounds or will the pain of the past prove too strong to heal?

Welcome! If you want to jump in without any spoilers, feel free. Otherwise, here's a story primer, with a list of more specifics on what to expect from my work further below.Our story follows a fallen knight haunted by his past, in a world afflicted by war and supernatural wounds. Alken is the Headsman of Seydis, an executioner tasked by the divine powers of his homeland to hunt dark sorcerers, warlords, and traitors of all varieties, lest they drag the world into calamity.Once a paladin, this role ill suits him. Forced to cross lines that shake his beliefs, tempted by dark forces, and seen as an ill omen wherever he wanders, his path is often a bloody one. The longer he spends in the shadows of his world, the more he comes to realize just how many have been disenfranchised by the existent order. During his lonely battles through a land haunted by the restless dead and ancient magics, his journey becomes increasingly strange and personal.Enter a realm where the dead stir in every shadow and brooding demigods wage a millennia long war for a ruined heaven, where blessed knights wield gilded flames and sorcerers battle with weapons forged of their own souls. Enter a world of faustian alchemists, of saintly demons, and of time-weary elves.From Oathbreaker you can expect— A setting heavily inspired by Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Fromsoft games, and authors such as Michael Moorcock and Kentauro Miura. — A first person POV from an older protagonist who already knows a lot about his world’s history and cultures, who shares this information with the reader as it becomes relevant.— A mix of action adventure and quieter moments where the focus is on character development. Lore is shared piecemeal, usually only as it relates to a particular arc or character beat.— A heavy focus on mystery, both with the setting and the protagonist. The main character’s backstory isn’t shared up front, and a lot of the narrative involves learning about him a bit at a time, either from his own narration or other characters interacting with him.— A semi-soft magic system where many mages manifest unique powers tied to their own soul, or gain unique powers through eldritch pacts.— Romantic elements. These don’t crop up much until later in the story.— A variety of supernatural beings, such as elves, vampires, gargoyles, chimera, and trolls. Many are familiar, some are not, and most of the familiar ones have my own twists put on them.—Nobledark fantasy. This means that the world is often themed around tragedy and horror, but it’s not dedicated to being gritty. There are elements of high fantasy intermixed with the scarier stuff.—Episodic arcs. Each story arc usually has a specific locale and antagonist or set of antagonists, but certain overarching plots tie them together.— A long running narrative. I don’t have a specific projection of how long or how many arcs or books, but you should expect this to be equivalent to a long running serialized work.This is my first web serial! I hope everyone enjoys it. For trigger warnings, readers should beware that there are some heavy topics in here. When I think something might upset certain readers, I’ll put a warning in the author notes above a chapter. If I miss or overlook anything, feel free to let me know in the comments! I am currently publishing the same story on my wordpress, which is linked below and in my profile. I release three chapters a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Thanks for reading!(I originally had a link to a wordpress, but I'm in the process of overhauling that space. It's not a priority since my readership is all here, but just in case anyone noticed and was wondering)

Everything was over. Everything had stopped.The clanking, the rattling.Even if I seemed lifeless, I still had a life.Crackle! Snap! Crack!I failed to protect Lady Succubus. I failed to defend the dungeon. I was shattered into pieces, completely destroyed.[Succession Complete!]“Succession…? Assimilation…?”Broken and broken again. With each downfall, the world’s true nature begins to reveal itself.