CRASHING INTO YOU
Audra Torres · Ongoing · 59.6k Words
Introduction
Marshall North has spent his entire life being the boy no one chose.
His father sends money instead of showing up. His mother is gone. And the only place that ever felt like home was never really his—it belonged to someone else’s family, someone else’s name.
Iris Reed was part of that life.
Off-limits. Untouchable. A line he never crossed.
Until the day her brother leaves and puts her in his care.
Now she’s his responsibility.
And Marshall doesn’t do anything halfway.
The city is full of people who take advantage of girls like her—too curious, too fearless, too unaware of how quickly things can go wrong. He knows exactly how dangerous it can get, and he refuses to let her become another mistake he couldn’t prevent.
So he watches her.
Controls everything she does, everywhere she goes, everyone who gets too close.
Not because he wants to.
Because losing her isn’t an option.
But Iris doesn’t make it easy. She pushes, fights, and refuses to be handled, no matter how tightly he tries to keep her in place. She challenges him in ways no one else ever has, forcing cracks into the control he’s built his entire life on.
And the more she resists— the more he spirals.
Because Marshall has never been taught how to love without holding on too tight.
Never learned how to care without turning it into something consuming.
He doesn’t do soft.
And he doesn’t let go of the only thing that’s ever felt like it might stay.
So when the line between protection and possession finally shatters, there’s no going back.
Because Marshall doesn’t fall.
He crashes.
And this time, he’s taking her down with him.
Chapter 1
IRIS
“Keep an eye on her, Marsh. I mean it.”
My brother, Soren, didn’t look like he was going to New York for his dream internship. He looked like he was going to a funeral. He stood by his overstuffed suitcase, his hand gripping the handle so hard his knuckles were white.
He looked at Marshall, then at me, and then back to Marshall.
“She’s a magnet for trouble,” Soren added, shaking his head. “You know how she is. She’ll stay up until four in the morning writing those ridiculous stories of hers, forget to eat, and then wander off to some sketchy cafe in the middle of the night just because she ‘likes the vibe.’
I rolled my eyes so hard it actually hurt. “I’m standing right here, Soren. I’m twenty years old. I don’t need a babysitter, especially not him.”
I pointed a finger at the man leaning against the hood of the black SUV.
On campus, they called him the Legend, his name was whispered like a prayer. He was the star quarterback, the guy who could win a game without breaking a sweat and break a heart without saying a word.
To me, he was just the guy who had spent the last decade making me feel like an annoying fly he wanted to swat.
Marshall didn’t say anything. He just stood there in his varsity jacket, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses even though the sun was starting to dip behind the hills.
He looked bored like being here was the greatest chore of his life.
“Iris, shut up,” Soren said, though there was no heat in it. He turned back to his best friend. “Seriously, man. I’m only a phone call away, but New York is a world apart. If she gets into trouble, if some guy gets too close, or if she just stops answering her phone... you handle it.”
Marshall finally moved pushing himself off the car, his movements slow and deliberate, like a predator waking up from a nap. He walked over to Soren and stuck out his hand.
“You have my word,” Marshall said. His voice was like low-thunder—deep, quiet, and vibrating in my chest in a way I absolutely hated.
“She won’t go anywhere I don’t know about. She won’t talk to anyone I don’t approve of. I’ll keep her on a short leash.”
My jaw dropped. “A leash? Are you serious right now?”
Marshall finally looked at me. He tilted his head, and for a second, the sun caught his eyes. They were cold and empty. “It’s for your own good, Iris. You’re impulsive. Soren is worried, so I’m going to make sure he has nothing to worry about.”
“I hate you,” I whispered, the words hot and sharp.
“I know,” he replied simply. “The feeling is mutual.”
Soren, oblivious to the fact that we were practically vibrating with shared loathing, pulled Marshall into a bro-hug. “Thanks, man. I owe you one.”
Then he turned to me, pulling me into a suffocating embrace. “Stay safe, okay? Listen to Marshall. Don't give him a hard time.”
“He’s a jerk, Soren,” I muttered into his chest.
“He’s the most loyal guy I know,” Soren countered, pulling back to kiss my forehead. “I’ll call you when I land.”
We watched as Soren loaded his bags and got into the taxi that would take him toward the airport. As the car pulled away, I felt a sudden, cold sense of dread.
For my entire life, Soren had been my anchor. He was the one who stood between me and Marshall’s arrogance.
Now, the shield was gone.
The silence that followed was heavy. I didn't want to look at Marshall. I wanted to turn around, walk into my house, lock the door, and stay there for the next six months.
But I could feel him even without looking, I knew exactly where he was standing. I could smell his cologne—something that smelled like citrus and expensive leather.
“Well,” I said, looking at my shoes. “Soren’s gone. You did your duty. You can go back to your fans now.”
I started to walk toward the gate of our compound, but a hand shot out, grabbing my upper arm. It wasn't rough, but it was firm.
I froze, my breath catching in my throat. I looked down at his large, tanned hand laced with scars from years of football and God knows what else.
Then I looked up at him.
He had taken his sunglasses off. His eyes weren't bored anymore. They were intense almost focused.
They were the eyes of a man who had just been given a prize he had been waiting years to claim.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
“Inside? To sleep?”
“No,” Marshall said, his voice dropping an octave. “Vanessa is at that party downtown. The one at the old warehouse. She called me ten minutes ago saying you were supposed to meet her there.”
I felt a flush of anger. Vanessa was my best friend, but she had a big mouth. “I changed my mind. I’m tired.”
“You’re lying,” Marshall said stepping closer, invading my personal space until I had to tilt my head back just to keep looking at him.
“You were planning on waiting for me to leave, then sneaking out the back gate to meet her so I wouldn't know.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but the words died. He was right. That was exactly my plan.
“I’m not Soren,” Marshall whispered, leaning down until his lips were inches from my ear. The heat radiating off him was making my head spin. “He believes your excuses. He thinks you’re a sweet, innocent little sister who just gets ‘lost’ sometimes. But I’ve been watching you for a long time, Iris Reed. I know exactly what you are.”
“And what’s that?” I challenged, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.
“You’re a brat who likes to play with fire,” he said, pulling back to look me in the eye. “And since I’m in charge now, I’m the only one allowed to burn you.”
He let go of my arm, but the spot where he touched me felt like it was on fire. He walked over to the passenger side of his SUV, opened the door and waited.
“Get in,” he commanded.
“I’m not going to a party with you,” I snapped.
“You aren't going to the party at all,” Marshall said, a ghost of a smirk touching his lips—a cold, dark expression that didn't reach his eyes. “You’re coming with me. We’re going to set some ground rules. And if you think the next six months are going to be easy, you’re even more naive than your brother thinks you are.”
I looked at the open car door, then at the man standing behind it.He looked like my jailer.
I didn't want to get in that car. But as Marshall’s gaze swept over me, stripping away my defenses until I felt completely exposed, I realized I didn't really have a choice.
The Captain had spoken and unfortunately, he takes everything as a game.I walked toward the car, my heart heavy with a feeling I couldn't name.
It wasn't just fear. It was a terrifying, electric spark of anticipation.
I got in, and as Marshall clicked the door shut, the sound echoed like a key turning in a lock.
"Here we go"
Last Chapters
#48 Chapter 48 The job
Last Updated: 10/5/2026#47 Chapter 47 Not alone
Last Updated: 10/2/2026#46 Chapter 46 Stay away?
Last Updated: 10/1/2026#45 Chapter 45 What about Marshall
Last Updated: 8/21/2026#44 Chapter 44 Not himself
Last Updated: 8/14/2026#43 Chapter 43 Moving on
Last Updated: 8/7/2026#42 Chapter 42 Who has you scared
Last Updated: 7/31/2026#41 Chapter 41 Say the words
Last Updated: 7/30/2026#40 Chapter 40 What I don't have
Last Updated: 7/25/2026#39 Chapter 39 Different tomorrow
Last Updated: 7/25/2026
You Might Like 😍
Bloodright
Ashveil University is not what it looks like in the photographs. The students here carry something that shifts their eyes at the edges of anger. The northwest trees hold an attention that trees should not be able to hold. And the empty chair at the council table, the one nobody sits in, the one nobody explains, has been waiting three hundred years for one specific person to arrive.
Nobody told Adaline she was that person. They classified her as Dormant. A blank space in a file. Nothing.
She is the opposite of nothing.
Beneath the campus, three ancient entities are waking up. Every house in the pack world wants to control what runs in her blood. The boy sent to assess her has stopped being able to do his job. And the woman who has been three steps ahead of everyone since before Adaline was born is not a villain. She is a warning. She is what Adaline would have become if nobody had found her.
The suppression field holding everything together is failing. The clock is running. And the only way to stop what is coming requires Adaline to give up the thing she can least afford to lose.
She already knows her answer. She decided before anyone told her the full price.
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
Bonds at War: The Virgin is Mine
Perhaps then they would stop controlling my every move. Maybe my brothers would stop resenting me. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so invisible anymore.
No one believed I could do it—not even my mate, Alpha Jaxon Trevane.
The night I planned to tell him... I found him tangled in bed with my best friend.
Heartbroken and humiliated, I left everything behind and went to Elite alone.
But the academy isn’t the fairytale I dreamed about.
Beneath the grand halls and traditions, a brutal game is being played.
The four ruling Alphas of the North, South, East, and West fight for power, dominance... and now, for me.
A virgin. Untouched. Unclaimed. The prize they all want.
There’s the mate who shattered my heart and swears he’ll win me back.
The brilliant strategist who wants me as his Luna.
The dangerous playboy who promises no one will ever touch me but him.
And the cold, possessive Alpha who watches from the shadows—and would destroy anyone who dares to take me from him.
But in a place where love is a battlefield and lust is a weapon... falling in love might be the most dangerous thing I ever do.
Welcome to Elite Order Academy—where every desire has a price, and my body is the ultimate trophy.
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Ex-Wife, Current Wife
For three years, she lived in the shadow of a loveless marriage. She was the woman everyone loved to hate, the one who supposedly "stole" him from his first love. She endured his cold indifference, raised their son—who struggles with a speech impediment—in silence, and traded her own brilliant career for the thankless role of a trophy wife.
But when his long-lost love returns, she is unceremoniously pushed aside to make room for the "real" family.
Enough was enough.
After he publicly humiliates her and chooses the mistress’s daughter over his own son during a birthday party, something inside her finally snaps. She doesn't just want out of the marriage; she wants her life back. With a secret talent for design and a newfound resolve, she walks away from the gilded cage of his estate.
But as she rises from the ashes of her failed marriage to reclaim her status as a top-tier designer, he realizes the woman he treated as a disposable pawn was the only one who truly held his world together.
Now, the woman who once begged for his attention is no longer looking back. Will he be able to earn her forgiveness, or is he finally too late?
Faking It With My Worst Enemy On Ice
But on his birthday, everything falls apart when his girlfriend exposes Clare's most humiliating secret in front of the entire team.
Just when Clare is ready to disappear, Rhys Calloway, her worst enemy and the team's arrogant captain, pulls her into his arms and tells everyone she is his girlfriend.
She should have pushed him away, but she kissed him back instead.
Now Clare is locked into a two-month fake relationship with the most infuriating man she has ever met, trying to get over a stepbrother who never cared and survive a captain who makes her forget why she was supposed to hate him.
The problem is that Rhys kisses like he means every single second of it, and just when Clare starts to move on, Zane decides he wants her back.
One girl, two hockey players, and a heart that was never supposed to feel this much. Will she choose the stepbrother who broke her or the enemy who caught her when she fell?
Everybody is Guilty Here
Middlesbrough's underworld is a dangerous game, and Matthew Smith finds himself right in the middle of it. A once-feared gang leader, he is now forced to be a pawn in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Matthew's only shot at freedom is helping the police bring down Mr. K, the elusive mafia boss of the city. The only problem is that the detective he is forced to work with is the same man who arrested him years ago.
Masahiro Payne is everything Matthew hates: cold, calculating, and relentless. But their only hope for survival is by pretending to be a happy couple, blending in amidst dangerous crime, deceit, and power struggles. The closer they find themselves to taking down Mr. K's empire, the more they are attracted to one another, an affair too potent to turn from.
As their undercover mission spirals into a web of lies and hidden desires, they face a growing threat from all sides. But the greatest risk is the one they can't control-their own feelings. With every touch, every stolen kiss, the line between their fake relationship and real emotions blurs.
In a world of betrayal, trust is a luxury, and falling for each other may be the deadliest mistake of all. Can they survive the deadly mafia games or will their passion be their demise?
The Billionaire's Surrogate's Secret
“Who said that’s still fucking true? We stopped being just man and surrogate the first time our eyes met.” He walked towards me, boring into my eyes with those eyes of his. “I fucking want you, Vanessa.”
My heart stuttered.
This could not be real.
“But the rules—“
“I made them. I can destroy them. I already destroyed them when I kissed you.” He was dangerously close now, but all I kept getting was danger signals combined with the panic, alarm, lust and above all, the guilt.
It was killing me.
Vanessa Sterling who never liked men because of what her father did to her mother ended up having a drunken one night stand with a stranger and that might end up changing her life forever.
Rodri Darnell who doesn’t want to get married or have kids but is forced to give his father a grand child, decided to use a surrogate.
Vanessa Sterling was supposed to be an ordinary surrogate to Rodri Darnell of the Dolphin Emirates, but he fell in love with her.
Their only problem will be Vanessa's secret.
The rejected white luna
Letters to a Dark Prince
Thrown into Isteros Academy—a world of old money, blood money, and cruel social games—she's an outsider by birth and an afterthought by design. Her sister Solyn is the school's untouchable queen and Mara is her favorite target.
Everyone expects Atreus to treat his fiancée’s scholarship sister like everyone else does—as if she doesn’t matter.
Instead, his dorm room sits directly across from hers, close enough that she can see his light go out at night. Some nights, he climbs the old maintenance trellis just to check on her. He teaches her chess. He shows up exactly when something's gone wrong—and never once asks to be thanked for it.
"Don't fall in love with one piece," he warns her, over a board neither of them treats like a game anymore. "It punishes the person who only sees half of it."
Mara doesn't understand why the boy who's supposed to make her life harder keeps quietly making it easier—not until she realizes the anonymous stranger she's been writing to every week already has a name.
His.
He doesn't know he's writing to her, either.
By the time they find out, it's too late to stop what's already happening. Far too dangerous for anyone to find out.
In an empty studio, in the middle of a rainstorm, she asks him: 'Am I the kind of girl who kisses a boy engaged to my sister?'
He doesn't answer.
So she asks: 'What are we?’
He told her not to fall in love with one piece.
She fell anyway.
And he was never far behind.
THE CHRONO WITCH: BENDING TIME TO SAVE HIM
What she wasn't ready for was finding out Zayn Ponteris had been dead the entire time.
The grief shatters something inside her. And before anyone can stop it, Kayla does something no sorceress should be able to do—she travels back in time.
Suddenly she's fifteen again, standing at their end of year formal, with Zayn alive and right in front of her, completely unaware that in another timeline she watched his parents mourn him.
This time, Kayla is determined to save him. Except nothing goes according to plan.
Zayn has a girlfriend. And the closer Kayla gets to changing his fate, the more she realizes her powers are bigger and more dangerous than she ever imagined.
The supernatural world is closing in. The clock is running out. And the one person standing between Kayla and everything hunting her is the same boy she keeps bending time to protect.
Kayla has no idea what's in store for her.
Because when you bend time, fate bends back.
My Alpha's Fake Luna
Those were the last words my Alpha whispered before he severed our bond.
I believed our marriage was over.
I was wrong.
For two years, I thought Alpha Michael never loved me.
Every misunderstanding pushed us farther apart.
Every silence broke another piece of my heart.
While another woman slowly took my place.
But everything changed after the death of the Grand Alpha.
My mate began watching me.
Protecting me.
Holding me whenever I fell.
Looking at me like he was terrified of losing me.
If he hated me...
Why did he keep risking everything for me?
And why did everyone panic the moment I finally chose another future?
