A Calamity's Lure

(The new novel, Spring Tide Stirs the Orioles, is now out!)

Blurb:

[Down-on-her-luck noblewoman x cold-faced swordsman]

The State of Yan revered martial arts. The Prince of the Great General's Manor posted a notice, intending to recruit an unparalleled swordsman from among the common people to serve as his right-hand man.

The chance to rise to the top in a single leap had everyone itching to try.

Bai Hua never imagined that court affairs would implicate her. In order to learn another person's sword techniques, her childhood friend and cousin tricked her into using her beauty to seduce someone.

Rumor had it he was savage by nature, his sword unpredictable, unaffiliated with any sect, and stained with the blood of countless killings.

The orthodox sword sects despised him, yet feared him deeply.

To repay a debt of gratitude, Bai Hua braved her fear and went up the mountain to find his home.

At first, he was wary of her and thought nothing of her. "Has the Sword Sect run out of people? They send a weak woman to provoke me. What a nuisance."

Bai Hua met his gaze timidly. Though blessed with a stunning, alluring figure, she had no idea how to go about seducing him.

After a long silence, she finally spoke in a trembling voice. "Young master, could you... let me stay?"

"Why?"

"I have nowhere else to go..."

Ning Jue was perceptive. Before long, he realized that her reasons for approaching him were impure. He didn't fly into a rage, but quietly kept his thoughts to himself.

"You keep saying you want to watch me practice my sword. Ordinary moves are one thing, but the Lone Goose sword forms are a secret passed down in my sect. Only my future wife may see them, and you can't marry me..."

Bai Hua hesitated. "I can only see them if we marry?"

He nodded. "We'd also have to share a bed and blankets. I'd be completely intimate with you."

Later, after demonstrating all seventy-nine Lone Goose sword forms, Ning Jue held nothing back from Bai Hua.

And Bai Hua repaid him in a different way, fairly: beneath warm red silk curtains, they gave themselves over to pleasure without restraint. For every sword form he taught her, she paid him back with a bout of strenuous physical intimacy. Give and take.

She wanted his sword forms, and he wanted her.

After completing her undercover mission, she returned to her cousin's side.

She thought life would be calm from then on, with no more nights of rain and peril in the martial world, and no more trembling with fear.

But unexpectedly, Ning Jue intercepted the wedding sedan, kidnapped her, and swept her into the bed curtains...

*A little liar who can't lie x the world's greatest swordsman, happy to be deceived

*Clear-eyed surrender

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(Stepsiblings)

Blurb:

With the year drawing to a close, the Northern Marquis's manor sent out wedding invitations far and wide. But the man getting married wasn't the young heir, who was at the proper age for marriage. It was the old marquis, nearly fifty years old.

Everyone in the capital was astonished, wondering which noblewoman the old marquis was taking as his second wife. Only after making inquiries did they learn that she was no more than a lowborn courtesan from the pleasure quarter...

"How strange. A woman who sings for a living can actually become the marquis's wife."

"Right? And she brought a burden with her when she entered the manor. Mother and daughter are both foxlike temptresses. I hear the younger one is even more wanton-looking, and she used to work in a brothel. She must be good in bed."

"What a disgrace. Doesn't the old marquis care about his heir's reputation at all...?"

Red silk fluttered in the front hall, and drums and gongs rang out.

Qing Yuan, the heroine of those cruel remarks, was trapped in a dark corner by a pair of large hands, unable even to watch her mother fulfill her dearest wish and marry in a bridal gown.

In the hidden room of a study like a prison cell, she was forced to sit on the sandalwood desk of the marquis's heir, her eyes full of timid fear.

"I did what you asked. What about what you promised me?"

Qu Ya's eyes were deep and dark, his gaze fixed on her like a bottomless abyss.

She knew that from now on, she would be a bird he kept captive in the palm of his hand.

Later, the old marquis intended to find Qing Yuan a good match.

The young man he chose was kind, gentle, and virtuous. One look at Qing Yuan was enough to make him lose his heart, and after a single meeting he was ready to ask for her hand.

Qu Ya rushed back to the capital and found Qing Yuan at a residence in the outskirts. He pinned her against the bed, his gaze so dark it was terrifying.

With a sickly edge to his voice, he asked, "Does he know you and I have shared a bed?"

(If you like it, add it to your reading list!)

Theme: True love requires sincerity