Airdyle sighed and ran a hand through his sparse, greying hair. “Glenn, honey, you don’t know who you’re messing with,” he said in a low, gruff voice. “They like the broken ones. It’s easier to put someone together how they want and make allowances for cracks, than it is to build something lethal from the ground up.” He sipped his glass of orange juice.
Glenn slouched in her seat and drummed her stubby nails on the table. “You saying I can’t cut it?”
Airdyle sighed, exasperated. “That’s what you took away?” He stood and pulled his shirttail from his jeans, revealing a jagged scar along his taut belly. “What’s this?”
Glenn shrugged. “Said it was an accident.”
Airdyle dropped his shirt and sat. “Brotherhood don’t have accidents, peach. This is early retirement, and they don’t give benefit packages no more. Stay out of it.”
Glenn nodded, but made no promises. She couldn’t lie to her uncle.
If Vera were born forty years earlier, her looks and figure could be the envy of all her friends. Instead, she lives hyper aware that contouring, styling and instagram fame are what’s important if she wants to have popularity and impact. She’s happy to go without those things – a shallow existence never appealed anyway – but she wouldn’t mind the attention if it got her causes notice. Soon, it won’t matter. She’s getting attention whether she wants it or not. The heir to a throne always does. Along with that attention she meets an intriguing man who is far more than his bland appearance suggests.
Yueliang was still musing on her “sad situation” when she arrived home. Several hours in the soulless Office of Strategic Services listening to the quiet whine of the heating system gave her a powerful craving for something stronger than her usual peppermint tea. Her typical twenty minute drive turned into twice that––not that she learned the reason why when the traffic picked up again. Sitting in the car, drumming her short nails against the steering wheel, she felt her upper lip twitching with the desire to argue why she was fine without a partner.
A vibrant businesswoman, unafraid to use every weapon in her arsenal to get the job done, Sorcha Dunaid is a force few reckon with and escape unscathed. Red-haired, brown eyed and possessing a honeyed, malt whiskey voice, first impressions imply she’s fun in the bedroom. The impression isn’t wrong, but she’s equally dominating in the boardroom. It’s a mistake to assume her good looks and charm are her only attributes. Her lightning quick wit and fierce intelligence are sharper than any blade, and she has no reservations cutting her enemies down to size. And she has plenty of them. They hide on the fringes, scavengers waiting for a bigger predator to arrive and take a chunk out of her. Leave her bleeding and weak, so they can devour what remains. Sorcha’s guard remains strong, she won’t fall so easily. Not in any business deal, and not to any pretty face offering to buy her a drink.
Ina Howell, dark-haired, blue-eyed, and a long way from the sleepy Welsh village of her childhood. She’s brought a piece with in the form of her younger brother, Lewys, and cousin Ghenha. Working at a research hospital in Seattle, her goal is simple: find a cure for her brother’s genetic illness before it kills him. He says they’ve got time. She knows better. She didn’t become a doctor by accident. All those books she read while studying informed her of the terrible things coming to her brother before he dies. She won’t let that happen, and why can’t her bosses understand her urgency? She told them what she needs to do, but they drag their heels. If she weren’t so level-headed she’d think there’s a conspiracy, and the annoying Japanese man harassing her isn’t helping matters. Although, his expression when he fails at lecturing her is kind of cute.
With the perfect poker face, Belias couldn’t tell if this was a set up or if she was serious. It could go either way. “Look into? Professionally or otherwise?”
Sorcha ducked her head and laughed. “Are you still mad about my little trick?” Warm brown eyes met steely onyx. She drew in a sharp breath. “You are!”
Dissolving into giggles, Belias had to wait for Sorcha to regain her composure before he replied. “You set me up.”
She flapped her hand. “Oh pish. It’s hardly my fault you won’t make the first move. He’s adorable and you look good together. I did you a favour.”
“Don’t tell me, you ‘ship it’,” he replied, making air quotes with his fingers.
She laughed, “Belias, you’re so pre-millennial.”
A dark brow shot up. “Did you just call me a baby boomer?”
More laughter. “Hardly! You’re far too booming to be a boomer, darling.” A notification on her phone had her rising from her chair. “Time to play with a real boomer and all his misogyny.”
Belias followed two paces behind, saying, “Try not to ruin his ego too much, you still need his vote when you go to the board.”
Ryang Ji-hoon has the unfortunate luck to look like a member of a boyband. You might think otherwise, but for Ji-hoon, who needs to be invisible when he works, being asked for his autograph and getting his picture taken all the time makes his work so much riskier. A late arrival to the Brotherhood, Ji-hoon’s training went to extremes to get him ready alongside his peer group. His gratitude to Hisakawa Kagegorou carried him through the worst of it; reinforcing the reminder it was this or prison. He mentally cut ties with parts of his personality to cope, but still couldn’t wrap his head around how the organisation made its members grateful and willing to carry out assassinations for them. The money’s alluring, along with other perks, but late at night when he can’t sleep, Ji-hoon wonders why one stupid mistake as a teenager cost him so much. Maybe that’s why when he sees the chance to break from the Brotherhood he doesn’t think too much about consequences before leaping.
If there’s one thing Ambrose hates, it’s not knowing the answer. A genuine moment of confusion where he’s left fumbling for a reply. It happens most in social situations, and who can blame him? What is the right thing to say to the right person at the right time? It’s no wonder he sticks to the fringes, staying out of sight. It’s got absolutely nothing to do with the fact he’s just dropped something lethal in a passing glass and doesn’t want anyone to remember his face or name – not that he gives his real one. Still, he hates not knowing. It sends his lip curling like it’s misidentified with the ones on his head. Ignorance. An unfavourable comparison and expectation to his Rom heritage that lacking an answer equals lacking intelligence. Ambrose hates not knowing. So, it’s natural that when a target takes an interest in him he has to know why. There’s nothing odd in that. He’s doing his job. Knowledge is power, so Hisakawa Kagegorou says.
Books I’ve Read In 2022 - The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
I haven’t been writing much otome content lately because I’ve been working on two original stories.
The first is a dark/supernatural romance where a girl in her twenties struggling with mental health issues has a near death experience and meets the grim reaper that came to collect her soul.
The other is a steampunk romance about a wild girl that comes home from college for the summer to find out her parents have arranged a marriage with a cold and arrogant young man from a wealthy family.
The love for fictional characters is real. I hope someday people will love the characters I’ve created as much as I love others.
You can follow my personal tumblr @aj-macarthurs or go to my website for updates and excerpts.
