Love Beyond Control [Marriage Before Love]

Two Powerful Families / Spoiled Little Rose × Gentle, Unhinged Daddy-Type

Blurb:

Jiang Tangli, the Jiang family's eldest daughter, is infamous for being spoiled, willful, and impossible to please.

Lu Shiyu, head of the Lu family, is gentle and refined yet a forceful tactician, a man no one in business dares to cross.

A marriage alliance binds together two people who had nothing to do with each other.

Before this, Jiang Tangli had only met him once.

At a banquet, the moment he appeared, he became the center of attention. He spoke with gentle refinement, but his aura of icy aloofness was impossible to conceal.

Jiang Tangli agreed to the marriage because she liked his reputation as a "workaholic." After all, she didn't want marriage to tie her down.

But once they had their marriage certificates, she realized she'd been fooled.

The work machine from the rumors had turned into a nine-to-five office worker. He not only got involved in what she ate and wore, but even imposed a curfew. And the worst part was, if she came home late, she'd be punished.

On a deep, dew-soaked night, Jiang Tangli's whole body was weak and limp. With tears in her eyes, she protested, "You promised we'd sleep in separate rooms!"

The man shed his gentle facade, his damp, heated wildness like that of a steamy rainforest as he pinned her to the only dry patch of the bed. "Mrs. Lu, separate rooms don't mean no sex."

*

This was supposed to be nothing more than a purely commercial marriage alliance. Lu Shiyu had never expected to fall for her, much less that a woman who was so demanding and mischievous would make his body produce so much adrenaline and dopamine. A man who had always prized rational thought and the life of the mind was now happily letting his hormones take the reins.

He spoiled and indulged her, giving her everything she asked for.

Even when she spent the night at a bar, the worst he'd do was punish her by making her stand by the window. He never expected her to sneak off to a male model show while he was away on a business trip.

Lu Shiyu would never refuse her anything she liked. What were a few men, anyway?

In a private room, twelve men stood in a row against the black marble wall.

Lu Shiyu sat on the sofa in a dark suit, refined and composed like an orchid. Only his eyes were different: black and cold, like a beast lying in wait.

"Mrs. Lu, pick one."

Reader's notes:

They don't know each other before marriage, but fall in love afterward.

One-on-one romance / both virgins / six-year age gap / an old flame rekindled

The proposal, engagement, and wedding are all major storylines throughout. Read with caution if that's not your thing.

My next marriage-before-love novel will be "A Marriage in Jinggang"

Blurb:

An elite marriage alliance is nothing new, but the union of the Nan family of Jing City and the Shang family of Harbor City sent shockwaves through the upper circles on both sides of the strait.

A hotel magnate and a real estate tycoon.

They seemed like a match made in heaven, yet in the six months since their wedding, the two had only met once. Shang Junting had flown to the city where she was on a business trip to see her.

She just hadn't expected it to be at a bar.

Shang Junting didn't like bars or drinking. Alcohol made the brain excited, and he needed to stay clearheaded at all times. Unlike the woman in the middle of the dance floor:

Her red lips glistened, her eyes hazy and captivating.

Like a nine-tailed fox from an old folktale, she could bewitch anyone with that stunning face of hers. She might as well have been enchanting every man in the room.

When someone approached her, she ignored him. He didn't expect the man to press closer.

Under the lights, her charming, coquettish face changed in an instant. She had just spat out, "Get lost," when a rough, powerful hand seized her wrist.

Nan Zhi turned around and saw the husband whose face often appeared in the financial news, but whom she'd only met once before, at their wedding.

Her gaze, usually brimming with aggression, turned instantly innocent and alluring. "Honey, he's picking on me~"

*

Nan Zhi liked men who were tactful and considerate. Gentle and understanding was best, but Shang Junting was the complete opposite of her type.

It didn't matter. She could train him into the kind of man she liked.

When Shang Junting heard her say this over a phone call with her best friend, he gave a cold laugh.

Train him?

Over his dead body.

But later, in one seemingly assured battle of wills after another, he lost himself and fell deeper.

All it took was one text from her saying, "Honey, I kind of miss you," for this businessman, who valued profit above all else, to drop a hundred-billion-dollar deal and fly all the way to her city.

Reader's notes:

They don't know each other before marriage, but grow close, fall in love, and develop deep feelings afterward.

Six-year age gap, older man, an old flame rekindled

For the heroine, the male lead is wrapped around her finger.

My next second-chance romance will be "An Unspeakable Addiction"

Blurb:

During the years he was with Yu Sheng, Lu Xingzhou gave her the best opportunities and even paved the way for her future.

He wanted her to stand at the top of the pyramid, able to become a shining star even without him, Lu Xingzhou.

In the end, she really did it. She could shine on her own, even without him, Lu Xingzhou.

Five years later, Yu Sheng embarked on her worldwide violin tour, basking in glory.

On the poster, her profile looked like a silver coin tempered in fire beneath the fluorescent lights. The dates of the nine performances were laid out like taut violin strings.

With the hand that had traced the contours of her brows so tenderly countless times, Lu Xingzhou stroked the dazzling crimson at the corner of her eye on the poster.

The humiliation of being deceived, used, and discarded like garbage on the eve of their wedding churned in his chest like molten lava.

Five years had passed, but his hatred had not faded. Instead, it had become a vicious curse, forged into needles in the glow of her solitary brilliance, each one piercing his flesh, still ravaged and unhealed.

His gaze swept over the tour date for "Jing City," and a nearly cruel thrill seized him.

Lu Xingzhou crushed his cigarette butt and picked up the phone. "Find out the details of her schedule around the Jing City tour, including every private and small-scale gathering."

"Yes, Mr. Lu."

The dim, yellow light carved his angular profile at the boundary between light and shadow, revealing in the depths of his eyes a cold glint like a hunter waiting for prey to walk into a trap.

If she dared to return to this place, bringing all her glory with her, after once clawing her way to the top here and then trampling it beneath her feet, she couldn't blame him for taking charge of the script for their "reunion."

Theme: Love takes time