80 Book(s) Related to cyberpunk only pain

“You want answers?” he said. “Then step closer.”
Against every instinct I trusted, I stepped.

Kai’s hand snapped around my wrist, pinning it against his chest. Not to restrain me, but to warn me.

“You don’t get to make that choice,” he said softly. “Not with me.”

“Then why tell me to step closer?”

“To see if you’d obey,” he said. “And you did.”

That’s how trouble starts…when the wrong man decides your choices belong to him.


When freshman Briselle accidentally crosses paths with Kai Thornefield, the untouchable senior with a violent reputation and a past no one dares mention…her quiet college life spirals out of control.
One lie turns into a deal. One deal turns into a fake relationship. But nothing about Kai feels fake. He’s dangerous, possessive, and unpredictably gentle.

In public, he’s the perfect boyfriend. In private, he’s chaos wrapped in control. What started as blackmail turns into something dangerously real, fading the line between pretense and desire.

But Kai’s secrets run deeper than family money. His past is a battlefield of betrayal, loss, and a father who’d trade love for obedience. When jealousy and revenge twist the game, Briselle becomes the weapon everyone wants, and the only person who might bring Kai to his knees.

Pawn of the Unwritten God
Ren Ashford was never meant to be chosen.
One moment, he was ordinary. The next, reality fractured, and a message rewrote his existence:
[YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED.]
Dragged into a deadly System governed by an unseen, god-like force, Ren is forced to survive brutal trials where failure means erasure, not just death, but complete removal from existence. In this Game, Players hunt, betray, and evolve… all for the promise of power.
But Ren is different.
The System glitches around him.
The rules don’t fully apply to him.
And the deeper he goes, the more the Game begins to break.
As he fights through nightmarish worlds, shifting realities, and enemies that should not exist, Ren uncovers a truth far more terrifying than death:
The Game was never designed to be won.
It was designed to observe.
And something beyond the System, the Unwritten God, is watching closely… waiting for him to become something more than a pawn.
Because if Ren keeps surviving, keeps evolving, keeps breaking the rules,
He may become the only thing the Game cannot control.
Or the very thing it was created to find.

I was supposed to die alone in an alley.

Instead, a god found me.

One moment, I was bleeding beneath the neon glow of the city, my life slipping through my fingers. The next, a glowing blue screen appeared before my eyes, offering me a choice that was never really a choice at all.

Accept the Summoner’s Mark. Or die.

Now I belong to the Death Game — a brutal cosmic system where ordinary people are turned into Players, thrown into impossible missions, and forced to survive horrors designed for the amusement of gods.

Every trial has rules.
Every monster has a weakness.
Every victory comes with a reward.

And every reward makes me less human.

My name is Nerissa Valehart, and I refuse to be anyone’s pawn.

But surviving the Game means trusting the one man everyone warns me to fear.

Veyren Ashford is ruthless, powerful, and dangerously beautiful — a veteran Player with blood on his hands and secrets in his soul. He says attachment will get me killed. He says love is a weakness the Game always punishes.

Yet when death comes for me, Veyren is the one standing between us.

In a world where gods gamble with mortal lives, monsters hunt from the shadows, and desire may be the deadliest weakness of all, I have only one goal:

Survive long enough to cross the board.

And make the Starless God regret choosing me..............

"I gave you a life… and you took mine with it."

She woke up in a sterile hospital room, her body aching, her womb empty.
The child she carried—gone.
No name. No face. No goodbye.

To him, it was just a transaction. A contract. A child born of benefit.
To her, it was the beginning of everything—and the end of herself.

Years passed. Her heart hardened. But fate, cruel and poetic, dragged him back into her orbit.
Only this time, there are secrets.
And bloodlines.
And a storm of revenge, waiting to unravel them both.

In a world where love is a luxury and hatred is inherited, how do you survive the one man who cost you everything… yet still makes your heart ache?

When my own father pinned me against the reef and ripped my scales off one by one, my sister buried herself in my fiancé's arms and cried. "Don't blame my sister. She was born worthless."
Right there in front of everyone, they decided to offer me to the Sea God as a sacrifice. They couldn't even be bothered to send anyone to see me off.
But when I was dragged, half-dead, into the black prison, what came for me wasn't death.
It was the Sea God himself.
He wiped the blood from my tail and said, "Good. Let them keep piling on their sins. I'll make them drop to their knees and beg for your forgiveness."

A wealthy socialite slapped me hard across the face in the emergency room.
What she didn't know was that I was actually a specially appointed expert ranked number one in the world in cardiac surgery. What
she didn't know even more was that three hours later, I would be holding the scalpel, deciding the life or death of the head of her entire family.
When the most authoritative hospital director in New York, accompanied by a group of experts, stumbled into the emergency room, sweating profusely and bowing to me, this socialite's dream of a life of luxury was shattered completely.

“Sophie Love's ability to impart magic to her readers is exquisitely wrought in powerfully evocative phrases and descriptions….This is the perfect romance or beach read, with a difference: its enthusiasm and beautiful descriptions offer an unexpected attention to the complexity of not just evolving love, but evolving psyches. It's a delightful recommendation for romance readers looking for a touch more complexity from their romance reads.”--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan re For Now and Forever) IF ONLY FOREVER is book #4 in the bestselling romance series The Inn at Sunset Harbor, which begins with book #1, For Now and Forever—a free download!35 year old Emily Mitchell has fled her job, apartment and ex-boyfriend in New York City for her father's historic, abandoned home on the coast of Maine, needing a change in her life and determined to make it a B&B. She had never expected, though, that her relationship with its caretaker, Daniel, would turn her life on its head.Emily is still reeling from Daniel’s proposal. As all seems to finally fall into place in her life, she looks forward to an exciting engagement year ahead, from shopping for a venue and a wedding dress, to creating her invite list, to setting a date.But all does not goes as planned. The endless events of the engagement year add more stress than joy, putting pressure on their relationship as they are forced to make hard choices. Adjusting to life as parents doesn’t make it any easier, as Chantelle runs into problems at school and as a custody battle looms over them. As Christmas and New Years approach, the stress is only compounded.Meanwhile, as the B&B adds new guests and staff and as they find more priceless antiques, Emily discovers a shocking secret that just may bring her one step closer to finding her father.Will she and Daniel get married? Or will the stress of the engagement break them apart forever?IF ONLY FOREVER is book #4 in a dazzling new romance series that will make you laugh, cry, keep you turning pages late into the night—and make you fall in love with romance all over again.Book #5 will be available soon.“A very well written novel, describing the struggle of a woman (Emily) to find her true identity. The author did an amazing job with the creation of the characters and her description of the environment. The romance is there, but not overdosed. Kudos to the author for this amazing start of a series that promises to be very entertaining.”--Books and Movies Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re For Now and Forever)

It had only been seventeen minutes since my wife passed away. My daughter was sobbing on the phone.

"Dad, they're trying to drive me out."

I stared at the medical report in the doctor's hand.

The first natural antibody carrier.Toxin levels in the blood: zero.

The same poison that killed my wife, that killed my six-year-old son…had left me completely unharmed.

The doctor lowered his voice."Mr. Miller, you have to stay. They're sending people to pick you up."

I let out a cold laugh.

"My daughter is trapped in the basement storage room right now. Is anyone here going to help her?"

Silence fell over everyone.

I grabbed the glass water cup from the bedside table.

"Five years ago, they handed me a disciplinary penalty and fired me from the rescue team. Everyone said I was good for nothing."

The cup smashed against the floor.

I picked up the longest shard of broken glass.

"Today, I'll show you all how a useless man saves lives."

His mouth was on mine before I could breathe, his body pressing me into the glass window of his office. The city pulsed beneath us, but all I could feel was the brutal rhythm of his hips. My weak heart should have given out. The doctors said stress could kill me, that even climbing stairs was dangerous.

But with him? With Knight? I didn’t break.
I came alive.

“One night was supposed to be enough. I wore a mask, stepped into a stranger’s room to give a massage and earn the money to save my grandmother’s life. But his touch burned away every boundary, and suddenly I wasn’t just working—I was trembling and begging to be fucked by him.

I ran. Then swore I’d never see him again.

But as I walked into my new job, I found him sitting behind the CEO’s desk.
“Knight Magnus”
My boss. My secret one-night stand. My mate.

Now every glance across the boardroom carries the memory of his mouth on my skin. Every late-night meeting ends with me bent over his desk, papers digging into my palms as he fucks me like he owns me. He’s ruthless, dangerous, the Alpha heir of a family drenched in blood and betrayal. I should hate him. I should run.

But I can’t.

Because my fragile body that fails me everywhere else never fails me with him. With every thrust, every kiss, every whispered “mine,” I get stronger. He’s the only thing keeping me whole—my oxygen, my ruin, my survival.

I went to him out of desperation.
Now I can’t live without him.

"Draft notice, Player 7,445,212. Your urban entropy has been requisitioned. Debt: One Existential Constant. Interest accrues immediately.”

For twelve years, Leo has walked into forgotten places—abandoned churches, dead malls, sealed subway stations—looking for any sign of his father, a transit worker who vanished without a trace. All he found was a single work boot on the tracks of Grand Street Station.

Then a text message appears on his phone. A message he didn't send.

Come to the railyard. I need someone to see this.

His friend Jin shows it to him. Her face is pale. "You really didn't send this?"

"I really didn't."

"Then who did?"

Leo doesn't have an answer. But that night, he dreams again.

This time, it speaks.

You've been looking for me your whole life.

Leo wakes up gasping, the taste of burned paper on his tongue.

He goes back to the railyard.

The ground opens beneath him.

Bones at the bottom. His father's jacket among them. A pale hand reaching up from the pile.

And a voice inside his head.

Welcome, Player 7,445,212.

Leo falls into the dark. Hands grab at his clothes. His hair. His face. Something tears at his chest.

When he opens his eyes, he is not in the railyard anymore.

He is in a mall that should not exist.

Mannequins turn their heads to face him.

Behind the canned music, the dead air hums.

And a number hovers in his vision.

Sanity: 98%

The Game has begun.

He did not choose to play.

But the Interlocutor does not care what he wants.

“I'll enjoy it better, licking it off you, some places more than some.”
My body instantly started reacting to his words. My nipples hardened, my cunt grew slick and my breath shortened.
I had no idea the slutty spirit that came over me, but I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed it.
“And…” I slowly crawled to where he was, my voice breathy and even unrecognizable to me. “...where exactly do you think will taste better than others?”
“I think everywhere will taste really good.” He leaned in, his breath tickling my lips as he spoke. “But I can't imagine how heavenly it'll taste licking off your tits or that clitoris.” He said in a needy tone as his eyes lingered on intervals from my breasts to my cunt.
I leaned in just enough for our lips to touch slightly....


Avery has always been abused and molested, unloved by her own father for reasons beyond her control. Feeling like a stranger in her own home, she went to boarding schools in search of an escape. She couldn't even run away, because everyone that knew the mafia was afraid of her father, but that all changes when she is taken away by Dario Moretti, a powerful and enigmatic mafia leader with a vendetta against her father. Slowly, they find themselves falling in love with each other, but as the layers of their past unravel, shocking revelations come to light—Avery is not who she thought she was, and her connection to Dario runs deeper than either of them imagined. As danger closes in, will their bond survive the secrets threatening to tear them apart? Or will the past destroy their chance at a future together?

When I took my last breath, my boyfriend of five years was busy pulling strings to get his new model fling a runway spot.
Nobody knew he used to be a desperate stray I bought out of a dark alley. It started as a three-year contract. I burned millions to pave his way into the fashion elite, handing him top-tier campaigns until he became a global supermodel.
I stayed his dirty little secret so nothing would ruin his shot at "Model of the Year." He swore going public would kill his career, yet he had no problem parading around with young starlets—and letting them humiliate me behind closed doors.
His newest fling even smugly played a recording of him mocking me: "She’s just an ATM for brand deals. How could an uptight, older control freak ever compete with you?"
That was when I finally accepted it: love bought with money is just a transaction.
So, holding my terminal diagnosis, I signed over the last of my assets and quietly bowed out of his glamorous life forever.
I just don't understand one thing: if he was so sick of me, why did he completely lose his mind when he saw my death certificate? Why did he throw away everything he'd built, tearing the world apart to find me like a feral, abandoned dog?

Every night, he slips through my window. He never tells me his name.
He also never lets me touch him.
He owns me in the dark, then disappears before dawn.
For two years, he’s ruled my nights, taking me in every possible way.
Controlled me in ways I can't tell you.
Made me crave things I don’t understand. But when morning comes,
he returns to me as someone else. Natte Johnson.
The global hotel tycoon and rock star.
The man I grew up loving, my first love and losing.
Now I’m assigned to interview him.
The moment our eyes meet, something inside me pulls.
My body reacts to his voice alone and his gaze.

And I can’t stop wondering,
what if the man who commands me in the dark, makes me lose my sanity,
is the same man pretending not to know me in the light?
And if he is,
how long before he stops pretending
and claims me completely?

I was carrying Don Elijah’s child. But on the exact day I went into labor, the man I loved dragged me to an underground freezer—standing at a deadly minus ten degrees Celsius—and locked the heavy metal door.

The reason? The Varro Mafia family’s ironclad rule: the firstborn son inherits the entire empire. His brother’s wife, Elena, was also pregnant, our due dates separated by a single day.

To guarantee his brother’s child secured the throne, Elijah callously snuffed out my hope.

"Elena’s child must be born first," he demanded coldly. "This is what you owe them!"

He ignored the warm rush of my broken water. He ignored my agonizing, tearing contractions. He shoved me into the icy darkness, violently injecting me with a drug specifically designed to halt my labor.

Curled up on the frost-covered concrete, freezing and completely alone, I clutched my stomach in sheer agony. In the suffocating cold, I felt the terrifying stillness. I felt the tiny, fighting heartbeat inside me slowly, torturously fading away.

Hot tears streamed down my face, freezing before they hit the ground.

"My baby..." I whispered into the pitch-black void, my heart shattering into a million pieces. "Mommy is so sorry..."

Elijah sacrificed our child out of blind loyalty to his brother. But when he finally opens that frostbitten door, he won’t merely find a broken woman—he will face the terrifying, irreversible ruin of his own legacy.

At my bedside, for what felt like the hundredth time,my family asked me nervously,“Are you still planning to look for Elias?”
I blinked in confusion, asking, “Who is Elias? Why would I look for him?”
And at that moment, the doctors declared me “recovered.”
I was finally allowed to leave the psychiatric clinic that had tormented me for more than a year.
They told me—that Elias never existed, that I had fallen into delusion, loving a man created by my imagination.
I understand that only by obeying them can I regain my freedom.

“When you think that life cannot get better, Blake Pierce comes up with another masterpiece of thriller and mystery! This book is full of twists and the end brings a surprising revelation. I strongly recommend this book to the permanent library of any reader that enjoys a very well written thriller.”--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Almost Gone) ALMOST DEAD is book #3 in a new psychological thriller series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. After the disastrous fallout from her last placement in England, all 23-year-old Cassandra Vale wants is a chance to pick up the pieces. A high-society, divorced mother in sunny Italy seems to be the answer. But is she? With a new family come new children, new rules, and new expectations. Cassandra’s determined to make this one last - until a horrifying discovery pushes her to a breaking point. And when the unimaginable occurs, will it be too late to pull herself back from the brink? Who, she wonders, is she becoming?A riveting mystery replete with complex characters, layers of secrets, dramatic twists and turns and heart-pounding suspense, ALMOST DEAD is book #3 in a psychological suspense series that will have you turning pages late into the night. Book #4 in the series will be available soon.

“A MASTERPIECE OF THRILLER AND MYSTERY. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) ALMOST GONE is book #1 in a new psychological thriller series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. When 23 year old Cassandra Vale accepts her first job as an au pair, she finds herself placed with a wealthy family in a rural estate outside of Paris, and all seems too good to be true. But she soon discovers that behind the gilded gates lies a dysfunctional family, a twisted marriage, troubled children, and secrets too dark to air. Cassandra is convinced she’s finally found a fresh start when she takes a job as an au pair in the idyllic French countryside. Just beyond the Paris city limits, the Dubois manor is a grand relic of the past, the family its picture-perfect occupants. It’s the escape Cassandra needs—until she uncovers dark secrets that prove things aren’t as glamorous as they seem.Beneath the opulence lies a dark web of malice, one Cassandra finds all too familiar, triggering dreams from her own violent and tortured past, one from which she desperately runs. And when a grisly murder tears the house apart, it threatens to take down her own fragile psyche with it. A riveting mystery replete with complex characters, layers of secrets, dramatic twists and turns and heart-pounding suspense, ALMOST GONE is book #1 in a psychological suspense series that will have you turning pages late into the night. Book #2 and #3--ALMOST LOST and ALMOST DEAD—are also available!

“A MASTERPIECE OF THRILLER AND MYSTERY. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.” --Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone) ALMOST LOST is book #2 in a new psychological thriller series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. When a divorcee vacationing in the British countryside puts out an ad for an au pair, Cassandra Vale, 23, broke, still reeling from the ruins of her last placement in France, takes the job without hesitation. Wealthy, handsome and generous, with two sweet children, she feels nothing can go wrong.But can it?Treated to the best England has to offer, and with France out of sight, Cassandra dares to believe she finally has a moment to catch her breath—until a startling revelation forces her to question the truths of her tumultuous past, her employer, and her very own sanity.A riveting mystery replete with complex characters, layers of secrets, dramatic twists and turns and heart-pounding suspense, ALMOST LOST is book #2 in a psychological suspense series that will have you turning pages late into the night. Book #3 in the series--ALMOST DEAD—is available for pre-order!

Everyone on campus has a theory about Lila Monroe. The whispers started freshman year and they never stopped. They call her cheap. Desperate. Available for the right price.

They are not entirely wrong.

What no one knows is why.

Lila Monroe does not arrive at Westfield Elite on a scholarship or a trust fund. She arrives on survival instinct and a secret she cannot afford to let anyone discover: she earns her tuition by selling her time to wealthy students who want company, a date to an event, or someone to pretend they matter to. It is not what anyone would choose. But it is keeping her enrolled. And staying is the only plan she has left.

Ryder Kane has never needed a plan. Everything at Westfield bends around him. The son of the man who controls the school board, he is untouchable by design. Until one night he overhears something he was never supposed to hear.

Now he has a proposal. She has a price. And neither of them has any idea what they are actually getting themselves into.

BLURB
"You're the only one who can wake me. Now you'll carry my curse, and my crown."
When Aria Silverthorn's fiancé and stepsister publicly accused her of being Omega-born fraud, stripping her rank and dignity, she lost everything. Cast into the Forsaken Lands to die, she survived three months of hell—and desperation drove her to the forbidden Moonfall Crypt, where Alpha King Kael Nightfang has been entombed for five years.
The Council claims he died heroically. The truth? They poisoned him with wolfsbane silver, trapping him in death-sleep when he discovered their corruption.
When Aria touches his tomb seeking shelter, the impossible happens. He wakes—but only she can anchor him to life. Only her touch keeps him from slipping back into the void. Their bond is immediate, undeniable, and dangerous.
Kael should be dead. The Council made sure of it. For five years, his consciousness has been trapped between life and death, aware of every agonizing moment.
Until Aria.
She's his anchor. His prison. His salvation. And he's not letting her go, not when she's the key to his revenge and reclaiming his throne.
But their bond goes deeper than magic. They're true mates,a connection so rare it hasn't occurred in centuries. A bond the Council will kill to prevent, because true mates can challenge their entire corrupt system.

I got paid to test-sleep an heiress's fiancé.
One problem: he's my boss.
Bigger problem: I've been catfishing him online for six months—as his fiancée.
Now I'm pregnant. And he just called my real name.

I came home early from a business trip and overheard the woman Joseph always called his “poor stepmother” clinging to him in his office, begging for a kiss. Her swollen belly carried his child.
“When do I get to stop pretending to be your stepmother?” Susan whined.
Joseph’s cold laugh stripped away the last of my dignity. “Soon. Once I drain Emma’s company dry, she’ll be useless.”
I used to think Joseph was my salvation.
After his father died and his pregnant stepmother had nowhere to go, I ignored my family’s objections and brought them both into my home. I poured every resource I had into helping him rise.
I even became pregnant with his child.
Only then did I realize I had never really been his wife.
I was only the stepping stone they used to climb into wealth.
That night, Susan staged a miscarriage.
And Joseph, his face twisted with rage, locked me—pregnant and bleeding—inside a freezing basement.
“A vicious woman like you doesn’t deserve a child.”

Sofia is an eighteen-year-old who has been bullied and tortured her whole life. When she realized that her only hope of going through school was to attend a school only for boys, she took a bold step and cut her hair to look like a boy and got into Blairwood Academy.

She has to try her best to make sure nobody finds out her real identity, or she would be kicked out. But it's difficult to hide it, especially from her roommate, Scott Blackwood, an icy nineteen-year-old who she always managed to get on his bad side.

Sophia Johnson, a dedicated reporter, finds herself entangled in a passionate and complex love triangle. It all begins at an ex-CEO's retirement party, where she encounters Harry Stone, the irresistible billionaire heir and CEO of the company. What starts as a magnetic attraction soon evolves into a risky proposal.

Desperate to hold onto his CEO position, Harry suggests an audacious plan to Sophia: she should pretend to be his fiancée for five months, and in return, he offers her a substantial financial reward. Sophia, burdened by crushing student loan debts and the financial struggles of her family, reluctantly agrees. What she doesn't anticipate is the emotional rollercoaster this contract engagement will become.

As the charade unfolds, Sophia falls deeply in love with Harry, only to have her heart shattered when he ends their arrangement to pursue what he believes is his ideal partner. Despite being compensated for her role, Sophia carries a heart-wrenching secret—one she only discovers months after leaving the company: she is carrying Harry's child. The tumultuous nature of their contract engagement makes her hesitant to return to him.

Amid a whirlwind of love, desire, secrets, and betrayal, Sophia grapples with her feelings and the life-changing consequences of her decisions. Will Harry ever come to realize he has a child with Sophia, and will Sophia emerge from this web of deceit and passion with her heart and future intact?

After she watched her mom die due to negligence from the very people she had worked tirelessly for, her only goal became to watch Vincent Crost crumble.

She did not care who she had to destroy to make that happen.

In my last life, a friend I’d trusted for ten years drove a knife into my heart over a single biscuit. When I opened my eyes again, we had both been reborn—right before the extreme freeze arrived.

He was convinced the apocalypse had come. He borrowed from loan sharks, rented a massive warehouse to hoard supplies, and even crowned himself king during the icebound period, killing without mercy.

But he didn’t know the truth:

This disaster would end completely after only thirty days.

While he taunted me like a madman, I didn’t expose him. I calmly requested thirty days of paid leave from my company.

This time, I’ll sit in a warm, climate-controlled room and watch—when the state machine restarts on day thirty—how he drops to his knees and sobs in despair.

After I retired, I was willing to do the dirtiest work at a small auto repair shop—just to give my sick daughter an ordinary childhood.
I endured my mother’s insults, my eldest brother’s wage cuts, my younger brother’s extortion.
But they actually joined forces to steal my daughter’s life-saving money for gambling, then sold me into an illegal mine to pay off their debts.
When the iron chain locked around my wrist, when my daughter cried in despair, the killing intent that had slept in my blood for three years finally woke up completely.
They had no idea I was once the iron-blooded God of War—commander of a million troops, the name that made enemy nations tremble.

"I am so honored that my mistress is back in her bedroom."

His voice was very deep, and he pressed me on the bed. I secretly felt bad in my heart. If I had known better, I wouldn't have tested my reaction. This time, I played too seriously!

I tried to break away, but it was too late. He pulled off his tie and tied my wrists to the head of the bed.


Everyone used to say Myluna was the family's abandoned child, unworthy of being the dream lover of thousands of girls. When the audience witnessed the CEO's deep affection for her, they were left speechless. Well, she's cherished, he's in love—no doubts!

After the truth came to light, the CEO pinched her waist, forcing her to meet his gaze, "Still want to run? Running into my arms?"