Smokescreens and Spatulas
By @john1208
The night I fled my family’s enforcers through a crowded neon-bazaar to avoid marrying an oligarch old enough to be a fossil, I didn't plan on swapping clothes with a frantic girl mid-chase. I definitely didn't plan on using her ID to bluff my way past the lethal security droids of La Fortaleza - the cliffside estate belonging to Vancor Morado, my family's greatest corporate rival. Vancor is a grumpy, reclusive shell of a man, paralyzed by the guilt of the hover-car crash that killed his family. He’s supposed to be my sworn enemy. But when you’re a shamelessly cheeky fugitive pretending to be a maid, you improvise. Soon, my spicy street-food recipes and blatant disregard for his brooding become his only source of dopamine. We fall into a bizarre, action-packed routine: me dodging assassins with a mop, and him fiercely defending his 'favorite maid' from high-society snobs while secretly helping me study for the university exams that will buy my freedom. But with his snobby childhood friend Drucia trying to evict me and my family's enforcers closing in, how long until my rival realizes his sunshine maid is actually the heiress he swore to destroy?
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The Saboteur's Sunlit Facade
By @john1208
Zelyma Rask is the city’s most feared anonymous investigative journalist, and Davorin Brostev - a notoriously cold, reclusive tycoon - is her greatest intellectual rival. To expose his empire's darkest secrets, Zelyma infiltrates his fog-shrouded cliffside estate, Griefmire Manse, disguised as a blindingly cheerful maid. But an ordinary morning brewing his chicory coffee goes terribly wrong when she unearths a cryptic cipher hidden in the sugar tin - written in her own handwriting. As she navigates the eerie, echoing halls, Zelyma realizes Davorin is no villain. Severely traumatized by a childhood kidnapping, his icy exterior masks crippling PTSD. Her quiet, ruthless efficiency masked by sunshine smiles, her warm meals, and their shared efforts to breathe life into a forgotten, overgrown glasshouse become his only solace. Soon, the ruthless tycoon is fiercely dependent on his maid, brutally dismantling any elite - like the manipulative socialite Luzia, who fakes a sprained ankle just to invade his space - who dares mistreat her. But as Zelyma's investigation deepens, she unearths a terrifying truth: the entire infiltration was orchestrated by her own past self to trap them both together. Who was her past self trying to protect him from, and what happens when he discovers his greatest rival is the maid he cannot live without?
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