Penelope Douglas – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Penelope Douglas – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:33:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Penelope Douglas – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Quiet Ones (Hellbent #3) Read Online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/quiet-ones-hellbent-3-read-online-penelope-douglas Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:33:29 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/quiet-ones-hellbent-3-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, New Adult Authors: Penelope Douglas Series: Hellbent Series by Penelope Douglas
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >180

The third installment in the Hellbent series is coming Feb. 24, 2026!

Quinn
I’ve always had too many men in my life. My overbearing father. My domineering older brothers. My invasive nephews. The Trents and Caruthers run this town, and although I’ve never given them a reason to worry, they treat me like I’m made of glass.

They’re wrong, though. At twenty-one, I finished college in record time, I own my own business, I pay taxes, I don’t party, and I’ve never broken a law.

But I have one secret: I raced to grow up in case he ever came back home.

Lucas Morrow grew up with my brothers and my family, but he left when I was thirteen. I’ve waited to see him again, making sure everything is perfect.

But I’ve realized I’m waiting my life away. It’s time to move on. Maybe get my own place.

And I think I’m going to make some new friends, too.

It’s summer. Cookouts, Fourth of July, the Night Ride… I want freedom.

I mean, I am my brothers’ sister. Did they really think the apple fell that far?

Lucas
She thinks her family are the only men watching her. So innocent.

And I want to keep her that way. Even though I’m twelve years older, we were always the odd ones out around her family. She gravitated to me, and I always made sure she wasn’t alone. When I left, I told myself she’d be fine without me. They all would.

But really, it was just an excuse to escape the guilt.

I only meant to come back for a few days, but I never entertained the thought that she’d grown up. Her brothers are distracted, and one bad decision after another is circling her.

A motocross racer who can’t stop whispering in her ear.

A criminal from across the tracks who can’t stop looking.

Old ghosts.

And old enemies.

She doesn't want a babysitter anymore, and if she ever finds out why I left town, she'll know why I'm not the best role model.

But I'm still the older one.

And she still needs supervision.

*Quiet Ones is suitable for readers 18+ and should be read after Falls Boys and Pirate Girls

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

“Was it a threat, or a well-meant warning?”

― Carolyn Keene, The Secret of Shadow Ranch

Quinn

Nine Years Ago

“We don’t have to find you, you know?” he calls out.

I step from one rafter to the other, and then kneel down and peek through the slits in the ceiling beneath me. My niece and nephews are below, searching the great room of the main lodge of our family’s summer camp. At only ten—a couple of years younger than me—I don’t think they know that the ceiling above them is false, the rafters I stand on hidden away up here by the previous owners decades ago to conserve heat.

I’m so close to them and they can’t even see me.

“If we turn off the lights,” Kade goes on. “You’ll come to us!”

I drew the short straw, so I have to hide. If they find me, then I’m the one who has to steal the keys to the ATVs for a no-parents’ midnight ride this weekend.

I really don’t want to steal anything. I’m not good at breaking rules.

“Quinnnn…” Hawke sings in a calm tone, and I watch him look from left to right like a cyborg scanning for heat signatures. “I know you can hear me, and I don’t have to shout. Where are you?

I smile. Hawke is actually only a year younger than me, and I don’t usually stump him.

I never really felt like the oldest out of the kids. I’m still wondering where I fit. My older brothers are their parents, and since the age gap between my brothers and me is more than twenty years, they act more like my parents too. Their kids grew up more like my cousins, but not in the same way that they’re cousins with each other. I never understood why it felt different, but I just knew that someday it would be.

Maybe I liked that I’d be treated more like an aunt to them when we grew up. Or maybe I didn’t. All I knew was that something separated them and me, and it was more pronounced when we were all together like this, because that’s when I noticed the couples. How everyone broke into a natural pair. Dylan and Hunter. Kade and Hawke.

The babies, A.J. and James, would also grow up together.

They didn’t exclude me. But none of them gravitated to me like they did to each other.

Even the adults were all in pairs.

“Quinn!” Dylan yells, searching underneath lunch tables, dressed in her Chucks and hoodie.

Kade’s twin, Hunter, follows her. Always within reach of each other. “Quinnie!” he calls.

“Quinnie-bean!” I hear Kade tease from farther away.

I hate those names. I should tell them, but everyone teases each other in this family, and I don’t want to make it awkward.

Hawke stalks slowly, out of view, and I plant my hands on the rafter under me, pushing myself up. I leap from one beam to another, following their voices in the faint light streaming up from below.

It’s a little dark up here, but it was the only hiding place I suspected they didn’t know about.

They trail through the lodge, and I don’t peer down to see which rooms they search. The kitchen, the pantry, the offices…

Taking out my compass, I flip the lid, finding north. I turn to where the needle points, knowing the lake is ahead of me—out of the lodge, across the lawn, and to the beach. Then I pivot to the left, knowing the way out is that way.

“We’re coming for you, Quinn!” Hunter threatens.

Followed by Kade, “I just hope we find you before sheee does.”

She…

I glance over one shoulder, then the other, looking above me and all around.

Undergrove.

That’s what they call her. The spirit who lives on the tiny island in the middle of the lake. A summer camp urban legend. I scan the far recesses of the dark corners, the walls of the attic disappearing into a black void. She could be there.

But I shake it off and kneel back down. He’s just trying to scare me out of hiding. I don’t believe in ghosts.

And I don’t know why I’m even playing hide-and-seek. I don’t want to steal the ATVs for a secret ride in the woods, either. One of the many other things about me that made it feel like I never really fit in with my family. They all love to drive things. Especially the adults. Cars, motorcycles, drones, boats, side-by-sides…

Lowering myself, I peer through a small hole in the ceiling.

They all love speed, and they’re all in pairs.

My brothers and their wives…

My parents…

“Can I help you?” I hear my mom through the peephole.

I watch her pick up the other end of a table, helping my brother’s mom—my dad’s first wife—clear the room. The whole family is gathered this weekend to help my brother Jax and his wife, Juliet, clear and clean the lodge and cabins for renovations that’ll happen over the fall and winter, before next summer’s campers arrive.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >180

Advertisement Five Brothers Read Online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/five-brothers-read-online-penelope-douglas Sat, 31 Aug 2024 08:14:10 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/five-brothers-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, New Adult Authors: Penelope Douglas Advertisement

Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 173392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 867(@200wpm)___ 694(@250wpm)___ 578(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >177

One woman learns the secrets of the five Jaeger brothers in the new romance from New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas.

On the other side of town, in the dark glades, under the rain…
Macon is the oldest. Thirty-one. Ex-Marine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile.
Army is twenty-eight. A single dad with the most beautiful green eyes. He has no idea who he is, if not a Jaeger brother.
Iron will be in prison soon. You’d never think it to meet him. He’s a nice guy, actually. But he can’t stop reacting to everything.
Dallas is the one I hate. Twenty-one, cruel, and selfish. He takes and then throws away whatever’s left.
And Trace is mine. Or he was for about two seconds. No one can tame him for long.

Not that I ever wanted to. It was fun, but now I need to go home. Back to my side of the tracks. Away from the swamps and these men. To my parents’ big house. On my clean street. Where I’m never dirty or messy or hot. And I will. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning. I just want to crash on the couch tonight.
Their house is dark and quiet, everyone else is asleep. Except for one. He sees me crying and comes at me from behind. I let him wrap his arms around my body and hold me tightly. His breath is on my neck, his fingers are in my hair, and he doesn’t stop there.

I don’t think it was Trace.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Playlist

“Afterlife” by Avenged Sevenfold

“Blood in the Water” by Ayron Jones

“Careless Whisper” by Seether

“Coming Down” by Five Finger Death Punch

“Happy Together” by Filter

“Heron Blue” by Sun Kil Moon

“High Enough” by Damn Yankees

“In the Woods Somewhere” by Hozier

“Raise Hell” by Brandi Carlile

“Shout” by Tears for Fears

“Shout 2000” by Disturbed

“Something in the Way” by MXMS

“Take the World” by She Wants Revenge

“Twist of Fate” by Olivia Newton-John

“Waking Up Beside You” by Stabbing Westward

“Where the River Flows” by Collective Soul

“Whispers in the Hall” by Chromatics

“Your Woman” by GYM

1

Krisjen

Don’t walk alone at night.

I grip the hem of my plaid skirt and glance behind me. The dark empty road disappears into the black void, like a tunnel under the canopy of trees. The midnight moon reflects only enough light to make the leaves look blue, while the mid-October breeze blows my hair across my cheek.

I face forward, continuing to walk. My heart pumps hard in my chest.

Don’t walk alone at night.

I don’t think my parents ever told me that, but I learned it well enough. The world is full of things that want to hurt us because they can. Because we make it easy.

Women shouldn’t have too much muscle on our bodies. We shouldn’t be too smart or learn how to manage money. We don’t need to know how to navigate a crowd, lead the way through a city or an airport, or choose the car we want to buy. Let the man drive if there’s one in the vehicle with you, and the dinner reservation should always be in his name.

Those are things my parents did tell me.

Everything in life is about power, and it wasn’t that I was taught that I didn’t have any. I learned that men would like me better if I didn’t show it.

The forest closes in on both sides of the road, and I feel figures that aren’t there. Hidden in the trees. Watching me. As if danger can tell when we’re unprotected and show up at that exact time and place. Summer camp serial killers always know when a girl has traipsed off away from her group, don’t they? No matter where the summer camp is. Even if he’s in a different one.

But instead of being afraid, I look up, the semi-clear night offering a spray of stars so bright that I’m glad I’m out alone, after all. Deep on this dark road, away from the lights of town.

I clench my school skirt in my fists as the soft fabric of my shirt sticks to my damp skin. My breasts chafe against the cloth.

Jupiter will be visible in a few months. I forget what’s visible this time of year, but it’s nice to see anything. Coastal Florida towns in hurricane season aren’t a joke. The clouds always roll in.

I don’t hear the engine behind me.

“Need a ride?” someone calls out.

I jerk my head, my heart skipping a beat. I look over, meeting green eyes that peer at me from the driver’s side of his truck. I move off the road, to the gravel, as his vehicle crawls up next to me.

His arm drapes over the door, and he’s not wearing a shirt, every inch of skin that’s bared on his chest, neck, and muscles tan.

He works outside. And often shirtless from the looks of it, because there are no lines.

A boy from across the tracks.

His black hair is pushed back under a backward baseball cap, and his eyes gleam in that way that I know by now. Men have been looking at me like that since long before they should have.

I swallow. “No, thank you.”

I continue walking, waiting for him to press the gas and keep going, but he doesn’t. The muscles in my thighs tense, ready to run. I move farther and farther away, feeling his eyes on my back.

“You know what you need?” he says, and I see his truck come up again out of the corner of my eye. “A girl like you should have a boyfriend.”

A lock of my chestnut hair floats on the wind and then falls back against my face. I squeeze my skirt again, the tails of my white shirt hanging almost as low as my hem.

“Someone to take care of you and drive you,” he says. “Would you like a man?”

His words climb my skin. I look ahead of me, down the road. More dark. More empty. No one knows I’m out here.

“Come here,” he says, almost a whisper.

My mouth goes dry.

He’s not asking.

I hear his door creak open, and I stop, slowly turning and watching him jump out of the cab.

Run.

Leaving his door open, he drops his chin, slowly approaching me as if I were a dog he needs to leash before I get away.

Run, I tell myself.

I take a step back, but he reaches out and catches the lock of hair hanging down my cheek.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >177

Advertisement Pirate Girls (Hellbent #2) Read Online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/pirate-girls-hellbent-2-read-online-penelope-douglas Sat, 27 Apr 2024 17:49:06 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/pirate-girls-hellbent-2-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Dark, New Adult Authors: Penelope Douglas Series: Hellbent Series by Penelope Douglas
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >155

Kade and Hunter Caruthers.

Brothers. Twins.

My cousins.

In a way, they’re my family. Protective. Indulgent. My best friends. But there was something else there, too. That ever-present whisper that reminded me more as I got older that we didn’t actually share any blood.

They used to be inseparable. We all were, but not anymore. I don’t know why Hunter left or why he joined a rival team in Weston—that Rebel town across the river—to stand on the opposite side of the field from his brother, but Kade is out for blood now and Hunter has finally decided to engage.

Rivalry Week.

Parades. Parties. Pranks.

And the Prisoner Exchange.

Weston will send a hostage to our school, and they’re taking me. I’m Hunter’s for two weeks. In a dilapidated brownstone on a nearly abandoned street with almost no supervision.

Ten days in an enemy school. Fourteen nights in a town full of bullies with no curfews and no rules.

And Hunter has no intention of protecting his little cousin anymore.

The Pirates will come for me. How can they not? A Pirate never sits out on the fun.

But I never needed protection or rescue, because a Pirate never runs, either.

*Pirate Girls is a new adult romance suitable for ages 18+.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

“You have to fight twice—once against your fear and once against your enemy.”

― Carolyn Keene,

Captive Witness (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #64)

To Aunt Carol, who read Bully

and asked, “Where the hell are their parents?”

They’re now the parents!

Dylan

I lock eyes on Aro, willing her not to say it.

“You’re half an hour late,” she tells me.

Yeah, duh.

I cross the parking lot, speed-walking up to her as she waits near one of our school’s rear entrances. The lights from the football stadium brighten the night sky off to my right, and an announcer’s voice booms so loudly I can’t make out what he’s saying. But the crowd cheers anyway. I swipe my hand under my chin, wiping off the mud, and tuck my keys in the pocket of my filthy motorcycle jacket.

My cousin’s girlfriend lowers her voice as I approach the door. “Your dad thinks I went to get you,” she says.

I pull out a metal nail file, Aro moving to the side as I grab the door handle and start working the lock. I need to clean up before my parents come out of the stadium. I have a change of clothes in my gym locker. If my dad sees the dirt all over me…

I glance at her. “You didn’t tell him where I was, did you?”

She hoods her brown eyes and locks her jaw, and I realize I’ve insulted her. She wouldn’t rat me out. It’s code.

“Good.” I nod and continue working. “Just don’t say anything if he asks.”

“He’s going to know,” she fires back. “If I don’t respond, it’s because I don’t want to lie, and he knows that.”

I jiggle the nail file and then twist. “Well, you can lie...”

It’s always an option, of course. He can’t ground her.

I guess he can try to force my uncle Jax—his brother—to ground her, since she and her two siblings live with him and his wife next door to us. But Jax won’t do that. Aro stopped being a child long before she should have, and Jax understands that better than most.

I grip the tool, twisting and jiggling some more, but then I feel the heat of her stare.

I look over, meeting very different eyes this time. Darker.

I shake my head, completely fed up with myself. She loves her life here. My dad is her boss. She lives in his brother’s house. She dates my cousin, Hawke. She goes to school with me. Her brother and sister are thriving in our community...

I’m asking her to disrespect all of that.

“That wasn’t okay.” I pause. “I’m sorry.”

Her left eyebrow arches, and she holds out for a moment more before finally giving in. “It’s fine.” She sighs. “Last year I was kicking your ass. This year, I’m the only one you tell all of your secrets.”

Kicking my ass…what?

She smiles smugly. “You’re so lucky to have me, aren’t you?”

I am. I adore her.

But she did not kick my ass…

I jam and jiggle the tool in my hand, trying to muscle it.

If we hadn’t been pulled off each other during that fight…

The thin edge of the nail file cuts into my hand as I try to pry the lock.

Nearly all of my cousins are guys. I know how to wrestle, thank you.

But then…the file snaps in two, half of it still lodged in the lock.

I dart my eyes over to Aro, a groan expelling from my lungs as my shoulders slump.

She rolls her eyes and moves in. “Seriously, get out of the way.”

I step off to the side and watch her pull out her key ring full of carefully hidden little tools from her misspent youth. Digging my broken nail file out of the lock, she inserts a small tension wrench. Holding it with one hand, she finds another little thingy and slides that into the doorknob.

I’m glad I asked her to meet me here. She’s taught me how to do this three times, but I still struggle. I should’ve just gone home to clean up, but Rivalry Week starts tonight. I need to be here.

Her eyes flash to my hand. “You’re bleeding.”

I look down, seeing blood spread over the long bone of my index finger.

I graze my chin again and hold my hand up, seeing a few thin crimson lines. Yeah, that wasn’t mud I felt before. It’s going to be hard to hide that.

She works the lock, and I can tell she’s biting her tongue. She knows I fell off my bike, while I was training illegally and without permission tonight, and that my face is bleeding, because I took off my helmet while I was racing.

“What happens if you get injured and you’re all alone out there?” she asks.

I check my phone, seeing two missed calls from my dad. I tuck it back into my pocket. “You’ve faced people with guns. Alone,” I point out. “This is nothing.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >155

Advertisement Falls Boys (Hellbent #1) Read Online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/falls-boys-hellbent-1-read-online-penelope-douglas Fri, 25 Mar 2022 19:04:42 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/falls-boys-hellbent-1-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: Contemporary, Dark, New Adult, Romance, Young Adult Authors: Penelope Douglas Series: Hellbent Series by Penelope Douglas
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 130221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >133

Read Online Books/Novels:	(Hellbent #1) Falls Boys
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Penelope Douglas
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B09JPY7YJL
Book Information:
The HELLBENT Series—a spin-off to the Fall Away series—is coming! “The kids are growing up—different from their parents but the same in so many ways…” ARO Hawken Trent. So polite. So sweet. Such an upstanding young man. A virgin, too, I hear. He never gets naughty with a girl. Probably because Jesus told him not to. And now here he is, trying to be the hero by protecting another girl from me. He calls me a bully. Irrational. Unreasonable. A criminal. He can call me anything he wants, I’ve heard worse. And he can try to stand between me and my money, but he’s never had to fight for food. That rich, clean, school boy doesn’t have what it takes. HAWKE I surprised her. You should’ve seen her face. Just because I don’t have a record, honey, doesn’t mean I’m clean. It just means I’m better at not getting caught. That is until I realize I might’ve actually gone too far this time. She’s there. I’m there. The scene of the crime. It’s dark. The police show up. We have no choice. We run. Down High Street, into Quinn’s bake shop, and I pull her through the entrance to the old speakeasy that everyone forgot was here decades ago. The door locks, the cops circle the building, never knowing we’re right here, and I’m hidden in plain sight, indefinitely, with someone’s who’s awful. Mean. Rough. Dirty. A thief. A delinquent. *FALLS BOYS is a standalone New Adult romance suitable for readers 18+. Reading the Falls Away series first is helpful but not necessary.
Books in Series:	Hellbent Series by Penelope Douglas
Books by Author:	Penelope Douglas

Aro

I don’t know how I’ll die, but God, I hope it’s with a view.

The rafters above cross over my head, ascending higher and higher and only visible by the faint light of the moon streaming through the windows.

But as I stretch my eyes, trying to see deeper into the darkness up there, it just becomes a void. Invisible. Empty space. I can’t make out what’s beyond, and I almost like that better.

Mystery. Discovery.

Hope.

I spend too much time looking up. More so than ever now.

“I sent him!” Hugo yells into his phone. “You got a problem with that?”

I wince, dropping my eyes.

“Flaco got arrested,” he explains to a customer as I look over at him at his desk. “You got a new guy now.”

Nicholas and Axel sit off to the side, cutting lines on a small round table with a girl in the middle. Her hands clasp a beer can in her lap.

Not a girl.

A kid.

She tries to look older with the blue streaks in her white hair, but she can’t be more than thirteen.

A Metallica song covered in Spanish blasts over the speakers, but I still hear Hugo as he continues to gripe into the phone. “You know what the transiency rate is on runners? You think I got a damn secretary who can call and alert you every time one is replaced? You want the shit or not?”

I’m almost amused, but only because I like to see him stressed. It’s a pain in the ass for the delivery service as well as the customer. You text, and the last thing you want is someone you don’t know showing up at your house with the drugs you ordered. Hugo’s right, though. Runners come and go. They get arrested, deported, they O.D.…

Three guys line up behind me, waiting their turn as we stand in the repurposed fire house. The bay door behind me still works too, letting cars enter from time to time. It’s like a massive garage, but despite what goes on in this building, I like it. It’s old and still smells like the tires of the old fire engines they used to keep here.

I glance up once more, my body—for just a moment—way up there and looking down at all of this. From high above. Away. Safe. In the quiet.

I murmur to myself, “Tranquila.”

Peace.

But then someone speaks. “Come on, kid,” they say.

I look over, watching Axel hand the girl a severed straw and direct her to the coke on the table.

Every muscle in my body hardens, my legs immediately moving without thinking. I close the distance in two steps, grab the straw out of her hand, and shove her in the chest, pushing her dumbass back into her seat.

Axel and Nicholas rear back, looking up at me, but I’m talking before they have a chance. “What are you wasting blow on her for?” I snap.

Axel rolls his eyes, picking up another straw. “White kids got problems too, Aro.”

He plugs one side of his nose, sticking the straw into the other, and leans down. I turn away, but I hear his snort behind me.

Hugo tosses his phone onto his desk, turns down the music, and I step back up, my hands in the pockets of my black bomber jacket.

“How are you?” he asks, picking up his half-eaten hamburger and taking a bite. He washes it down with a swig of beer and rises, digging in the file cabinet behind him.

When I don’t answer, he turns to meet my eyes, my keys for the night jingling in his hand.

I stare at him.

He laughs under his breath, shaking his shaved head and I eye the scar on his eyebrow that he got from a fight when he was eighteen. He’d stitched himself up after downing half a bottle of tequila that night, and I looked up to him as a role model.

I don’t anymore.

“So rude to me,” he teases. “You used to love me.”

I was fifteen. It’s amazing how quickly someone can wise up.

He takes a seat and writes down my schedule on a slip of paper. “How are the kids doing?” he asks.

I remain silent, watching the table to my left out of the corner of my eye and making sure they don’t task me with driving the Falls girl to the hospital tonight. She needs to stay on her side of the river.

“Your foster mom staying out of your way?” he continues, folding the paper.

I hold out my hand for it, still not answering.

He pauses, staring up at me like he’s waiting for something. Like for me to smile and hang on his every word like I did when I was younger and stuck in the same foster home with him.

I shift my gaze over to Axel and Nicholas, brothers we met back in the day when were all placed together. They’re both lanky and tall, but Axel’s black hair is styled with a pompadour and shaved on the sides, helping to amplify his neck tattoos. Nicholas’s is trimmed but messy, still looking like the same kid I grew up with in a lot of ways.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >133

Advertisement Tryst Six Venom Read Online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/tryst-six-venom-read-online-penelope-douglas Tue, 08 Jun 2021 20:43:34 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/tryst-six-venom-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: GLBT, New Adult, Romance Authors: Penelope Douglas Advertisement

Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >165

Read Online Books/Novels:	Tryst Six Venom
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Penelope Douglas
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B09418JQMK
Book Information:
𝑨𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔... 𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚! 𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙔 Marymount girls are good girls. We’re chaste, we’re untouched, and even if we weren’t, no one would know, because we keep our mouths shut. Not that I have anything to share anyway. I never let guys go too far. I’m behaved. Beautiful, smart, talented, popular, my skirt’s always pressed, and I never have a hair out of place. I own the hallways, walking tall on Monday and dropping to my knees like the good Catholic girl I am on Sunday. That’s me. Always in control. Or so they think. The truth is that it’s easy for me to resist them, because what I truly want, they can never be. Something soft and smooth. Someone dangerous and wild. Unfortunately, what I want I have to hide. In the locker room after hours. In the bathroom stall between classes. In the showers after practice. 𝑀𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑀𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑝 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑟𝑡. For me, life is a web of secrets. No one can find out mine. 𝙊𝙇𝙄𝙑𝙄𝘼 I cross the tracks every day for one reason—to graduate from this school and get into the Ivy League. I’m not ashamed of where I come from, my family, or how everyone at Marymount thinks my skirts are too short and my lipstick is too red. Clay Collins and her friends have always turned up their noses at me. The witch with her beautiful skin, clean shoes, and rich parents who torments me daily and thinks I won’t fight back. At least not until I get her alone and find out she’s hiding so much more than just what’s underneath those pretty clothes. The princess thinks I’ll scratch her itch. She thinks she’s still pure as long as it’s not a guy touching her. I told her to stay on her side of town. I told her not to cross the tracks. But one night, she did. And when I’m done with her, she’ll never be pure again. ****TRYST SIX VENOM is a standalone, new adult, bully romance suitable for readers 18+. It will release directly into Kindle Unlimited!
Books by Author:	Penelope Douglas

“Unless I’m reading an assignment or doing a paper or taking a test,

I’m thinking about you.”

― V.C. Andrews, Secret Whispers

To Abigail

WANT TO BET my mother is about to have a meltdown?

I’m sure it’s after nine. She should be home, flushing out any calories she consumed today, and finishing up step five of her skincare regimen instead of waiting for me at the dress shop right now.

I’m so late.

Confetti flies in the air, and I reach down, grabbing three more rolled-up T-shirts out of the bucket as the parade float bounces and sways under us.

“More shirts!” I yell over to Krisjen to restock.

The crowd cheers on both sides of the street, and I jump down off the step, stopping at the edge as I hold my hand to my ear.

Come on. Let me hear it!

“Ah!” little girls scream.

“Hi, Clay!” tiny, six-year-old Manda Cabot squeals at me like I’m a Disney princess. “Hi!”

She waves at me as her twin sister, Stella, holds up her hands, ready to catch.

A comfortable breeze blows through the palms lining Augustine Avenue, grazing my bare legs in my jean shorts as the potted pink lantanas hang on the street lamps lining the road and fill the air with their scent.

Just your typical balmy, Florida winter evening.

“We want a shirt!” Stella cries.

I shoot my arm up in the air, my white T-shirt with the word BIG shining in bold silver letters.

I smile, shouting, “You wanna be a Little?”

“Yeah!” they cry out.

“Then I need to hear it!” I move my feet, doing a little dance move. “Omega Chi Kappa! Come on!”

“Omega Chi Kappa!” they shout. “Omega Chi Kappa!”

“I can’t hear you!”

“Omega Chi Kappa!” they scream so loud their baby teeth damn-near shake.

Oh my God. So adorbs. I hope I have daughters.

I throw them both an underhand toss and resume dancing to the music as the truck pulls us at a crawl, our float in the middle of a long line of floats, all celebrating the annual Founder’s Day.

“See you in a few years!” I tell them. “Be good and study!”

“Yeah, we only take the best!” Amy Chandler shouts next me.

Followed by Krisjen’s chirp at my other side, “Be best!”

I snort, turning around to grab some more shirts. Balloons dance in the air along the sidewalks, and I toss some more bundles, the tingles in my head helping me play my part as I dance our choreographed little number in sync with Krisjen to “Swish, Swish”.

The rest of our girls walk in front of or alongside the float, dancing along with us in the street, and every eye on us makes the hair on my arms rise. The attention always feels good. Rolling my hips, arching my back, and shaking my body, I know one thing for sure. I’m good at this.

Our sorority is the biggest in any high school in the state, and while it’s service and academic-based, because that’s what gets us into college, we’re popular for other reasons. We look good doing what we do.

Whether it’s washing cars to raise money for cat saliva research, hosting the football team’s annual pancake breakfast, or helping clean Angelica Hearst’s house and do her laundry, because she just had baby number four from daddy number four and she’s overwhelmed—bless her heart—we get it done Instagram-style.

Krisjen and I falter in our steps, laughing as we grab some more shirts and toss them to our future little sisters out there in the crowd.

“You see how drunk they are?” Krisjen says under her breath.

I follow her gaze, seeing her boyfriend, Milo Price, smiley and sweaty in his backwards baseball cap and flushed cheeks, which is his tell that he’d had beer tonight.

Callum Ames stands next to him, grinning with his arms folded over his chest, watching me like something that’s already his.

Maybe. I’ll look good on his arm at the debutante ball, nevertheless.

I swipe my water bottle out from underneath the papier-mâché clown fish and take a swig, the burn already intoxicating as it courses down my throat. Just the taste eases my nerves.

“I’m going to kill him,” Krisjen gripes.

“Wait until after the ball,” I tell her. “You need a date.”

Taking the bottle out of my hands, she throws back a swallow as I grab her shirts and toss them to waiting hands.

Music and laughter surround us, the confetti gun shoots another bomb into the air—blue, pink, silver, and gold—fluttering like snow.

“God, that stuff is good.” She hands me the bottle back. “Goes down like water.”

“As long as you don’t drink sixty-four ounces of this a day, got it?” I down another swallow and cap my new favorite brand of vodka, disguised in my Evian bottle.

She scrunches up her face in a smile, her apple cheeks perfect and her long, chestnut hair in a messy bun on the top of her head. “What would I do without you?”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >165

Advertisement Fire Night – Devil’s Night Read Online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/fire-night-devils-night-read-online-penelope-douglas Sat, 12 Dec 2020 14:03:20 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/fire-night-devils-night-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: Dark, New Adult, Romance, Suspense Authors: Penelope Douglas Advertisement

Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 27485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >28

Read Online Books/Novels:	Fire Night - Devil's Night
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Penelope Douglas
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	9781952646119
Book Information:
"Nothing, not even Devil's Night, was more magical, because tonight was the longest night of the year. It was special." The clock at St. Killian’s chimes as whispers float in the dark staircase above. Snow falls from the black sky beyond the windows, and candles glow, the flames lighting up the longest night of the year.⁣⁣ Devil’s Night isn’t the only holiday we celebrate. Tonight, we’re pulling on a different mask.⁣ ⁣Some call it Midwinter.⁣⁣ Others call it Yule.⁣ ⁣ We call it Fire Night.⁣ ⁣*** ⁣FIRE NIGHT is a 28K word holiday novella.
Books by Author:	Penelope Douglas

“There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.”

-Edgar Allan Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”

For Z. King

I always loved my parents’ house. I was the only one out of my friends who didn’t mind being home.

Michael’s home life had bored and aggravated him, and Damon wanted to be wherever we were. Will had it pretty good growing up, but he’d needed action. If trouble didn’t find him, he’d go looking for it.

I’d wanted to be home, though, and years later, there was still a comfort in walking through the front door of the house I grew up in.

“Ah!” A distant roar boomed as I stepped inside.

I smiled as I closed the door behind me, recognizing Banks’s growl. She was in my father’s dojo, either winning or really losing.

Inhaling, I drew in the clean scent of fresh air and leaves, the whole house permeated by the smell of the herbs and plants my mother grew in the solarium off the kitchen.

I reached out, brushing the philodendron tree and bamboo palm as I walked down the hallway.

While the exterior of the house blended with the English country estate-style of the other homes in the neighborhood, the inside was very different. The uncluttered, clean, minimalist design suited my father’s taste. Natural elements like plants, stones, and sunlight brought the outside in, which helped during the long winter months indoors.

But whereas the Japanese-style favored white and bright, my mother’s influence was evident, as well. Dark teak floors, rugs, and color splashed about here and there. It always felt like you were walking into a cozy cave. My parents were good at compromise, and I always felt safe here.

Candles glowed inside their sconces on the wall, ready for Fire Night. Christmas wasn’t for a few days, and while my parents didn’t really rush to indulge the new yule tradition in Thunder Bay, they knew Jett and Mads loved it, so they obliged.

I brought my hands up, blowing warm air against my chilled fingers, feeling my icy wedding band.

“Grandma…” I heard Jett giggle.

Peering around the corner, I leaned against the door frame and watched my mom turn away and laugh as my daughter threw a pinch of flour at her, her own nose and cheeks dusted with powder, too.

I dropped my eyes, seeing my daughter’s bare feet sticking out behind her as she knelt on a stool and continued kneading the dough. Eight years ago, I could fit those things in my mouth. She was growing too fast, and I kind of wanted time to stop.

Or I wanted more kids.

That was until I went over to Damon’s house and then I’d be running out the front door ten minutes later with a migraine. Their nanny day drank, and I wasn’t even going to pretend that I didn’t understand why.

I watched my mom and my daughter working side by side, just happy they were happy. Mads had come along with his mom and sister, but he was nowhere to be seen at the moment. Probably tucked away in the wine cellar, reading. He had a nook to hide in at every house. A corner deep in the garden maze at home. A closet at Damon’s. The gallery at St. Killian’s. A window seat behind the drapes at Will’s.

While I worried about him in ways I didn’t worry about Jett, I always knew where to find him. He never scared me.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Jett announced, hopping off the stool.

“Wash your hands,” my mom told her.

Jett scampered to the mud room, wiping her flour-coated hands on her little apron, and closed the door.

I stepped into the kitchen. “You’re a good mom, you know?”

My mom glanced at me, pausing with her hands in the bowl.

“You should have had a house full of kids,” I told her.

She smiled to herself, working the dough as I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. I tucked my chin into her neck playfully.

“You were enough,” she said.

“Maybe too much?”

“Oh, yeah.” She scoffed. “Way too much.”

I chuckled, appreciating the jest even though she wasn’t really lying. Getting arrested and imprisoned was hell for them, and I was ashamed enough for the disappointment and heartache I’d caused, but even more so since I was their only child. I hated myself for not doing better.

I glanced down at the small silver pendant hiding behind my mother’s apron. St. Felicitas of Rome. I squeezed her tighter, and she paused, letting me.

She loved being a grandmother.

“They still in the dojo?” I asked, pulling back and plucking one of the slices of a mandarin orange from the little bowl that was probably Jett’s snack.

I stuck it into my mouth.

“For two hours now,” my mother replied. “Go see if she’s still alive.”

“My wife can take that old man.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >28

Advertisement Nightfall – Devil’s Night Read online Penelope Douglas http://www.books2020.com/nightfall-devils-night-read-online-penelope-douglas Tue, 07 Apr 2020 13:57:33 +0000 http://www.test123.demo2.xyz/nightfall-devils-night-read-online-penelope-douglas Genre: Dark, Erotic, New Adult, Romance, Suspense Authors: Penelope Douglas Advertisement

Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >238

Read Online Books/Novels:	Nightfall - Devil's Night
Author/Writer of Book/Novel:	Penelope Douglas
Language:	English
ISBN/ ASIN:	B089H1D5V6
Book Information:
From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Douglas comes the thrilling, final installment in the Devil’s Night series… What happens when it's five against one and nowhere to run? EMORY They call it Blackchurch. A secluded mansion in a remote, undisclosed location where the wealthy and powerful send their misbehaving sons to cool off away from prying eyes. Will Grayson has always been an animal, though. Reckless, wild, and someone who was never bound by a single rule other than to do exactly what he wanted. There was no way his grandfather was going risk him humiliating the family again. Not that the last time was entirely his fault. He might’ve enjoyed backing me into corners in high school when no one was looking, so they wouldn’t catch on that Mr. Popular actually wanted a piece of that quiet, little nerd he loved to torture so much, but… He could also be warm. And fierce in keeping me safe. The truth is… He has a right to hate me. It’s all my fault. Everything. Devils Night. The videos. The arrests. I’m to blame for all of it. And I regret nothing. WILL I never minded being locked up. I learned a long time ago that being treated like an animal gives you permission to act like one. No one has ever looked at me any other way. Their only mistake is believing anything I do is an accident. I can sit in this house with no Internet, television, liquor, or girls, but I’ll come out of here with something far more frightening to my enemies. A plan. And a new pack of wolves. I just didn’t expect one of my enemies to come to me. I don’t know who smuggled her in or if they meant to leave her here, but I can smell her hiding in the house. She’s here. And as the security detail leaves the supplies, the gates close, and the door to my gilded cage opens, giving me free reign of the house and grounds for another unsupervised month, I remember with a smile… Blackchurch houses five prisoners. I’m only one of her problems.
Books by Author:	Penelope Douglas

“You need not be sorry for her. She was one of the kind that likes to grow up. In the end, she grew up of her own free will a day quicker than the other girls.”

-J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

For Z. King

Emory

Present

It was faint, but I heard it.

Water. Like I was behind a waterfall, deep inside a cave.

What the hell was that?

I blinked my eyes, stirring from the heaviest sleep I think I’ve ever had. Jesus, I was tired.

My head rested on the softest pillow, and I moved my arm, brushing my hand over a cool, splendidly plush white comforter.

I patted my face, feeling my glasses missing. I rolled my eyes around me, confusion sinking in as I took in myself burrowed comfortably in the middle of a huge bed, my body taking up about as much room as a single M&M inside its package.

This wasn’t my bed.

I looked around the lavish bedroom—white, gold, crystal, and mirrors everywhere, palatial in its opulence like I’d never seen in person—and my breathing turned shallow as instant fear took over.

This wasn’t my room. Was I dreaming?

I pushed myself up, my head aching and every muscle tight like I’d been sleeping for a damn week.

I dropped my eyes, spotting my glasses folded and sitting on the bedside table. I grabbed them and slipped them on, taking inventory of my body first. I laid on top of the bed, still fully clothed in my black, skinny pants and a pullover white blouse that I’d dressed in this morning.

If it was still today, anyway.

My shoes were gone, but on instinct I peered over the side of the bed and saw my sneakers sitting there, perfectly positioned on a fancy white rug with gold filigree.

My pores cooled with sweat as I looked around the unfamiliar bedroom, and my brain wracked with what the hell was going on. Where was I?

I slid off the bed, my legs shaky as I stood up.

I’d been at the firm. Working on the blueprints for the DeWitt Museum. Byron and Elise had ordered take-out for lunch for themselves, I went out instead, and—I pinched the bridge of my nose, my head pounding—and then…

Ugh, I don’t know. What happened?

Spotting a door ahead of me, I didn’t even bother to look around the rest of the room or see where the two other doors led. I grabbed my shoes and stumbled for what I guessed was the way out, and stepped into a hallway, the cool marble floor soothing on my bare feet.

I still went down the list in my head, though.

I didn’t drink.

I didn’t see anyone unusual.

I didn’t get any weird phone calls or packages. I didn’t...

I tried to swallow a few times, finally generating enough saliva. God, I was thirsty. And—a pang hit my stomach—hungry too. How long had I been out?

“Hello?” I called quietly but immediately regretted it.

Unless I’d had an aneurysm or developed selective amnesia, then I wasn’t here willingly.

But if I’d been taken or imprisoned, wouldn’t my door have been locked?

Bile stung my throat, every horror movie I’d ever seen playing various scenarios in my head.

Please, no cannibals. Please, no cannibals.

“Hi,” a small, hesitant voice said.

I followed the sound, peering across the hallway, over the banister, to the other side of the upstairs where another hall of rooms sat. A figure lurked in a dark corridor, slowly stepping onto the landing.

“Who is that?” I inched forward just a hair, blinking against the sleep still weighing on my eyes.

It was a man, I thought. Button-down shirt, short hair.

“Taylor,” he finally said. “Taylor Dinescu.”

Dinescu? As in, Dinescu Petroleum Corporation? It couldn’t be the same family.

I licked my lips, swallowing again. I really needed to find some water.

“Why am I not locked in my room?” he asked me, coming out of the darkness and stepping into the faint moonlight streaming through the windows.

He cocked his head, his hair disheveled and the tail of his wrinkled Oxford hanging out. “We’re not allowed around the women,” he said, sounding just as confused as me. “Are you with the doctor? Is he here?”

What the hell was he talking about? ‘We’re not allowed around the women.’ Did I hear that right? He sounded out of it, like he was on drugs or had been locked in a cell for the past fifteen years.

“Where am I?” I demanded.

He took a step in my direction, and I took one backward, scrambling to get my shoes on as I hopped on one foot.

He closed his eyes, inhaling as he inched closer. “Jesus,” he panted. “It’s been a while since I smelled that.”

Smelled what?

His eyes opened, and I noticed they were a piercing blue, even more striking under his mahogany hair.

“Who are you? Where am I?” I barked.

I didn’t recognize this guy.

He slithered closer, almost animalistic in his movements with a predatory look on his face now that made the hairs on my arms stand up.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >238

Read Online Books/Novels:

(Hellbent #1) Falls Boys

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B09JPY7YJL

Read Online Books/Novels:

Tryst Six Venom

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B09418JQMK

Read Online Books/Novels:

Fire Night - Devil's Night

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

9781952646119

Read Online Books/Novels:

Nightfall - Devil's Night

Author/Writer of Book/Novel:

English

B089H1D5V6