Obviously any great fic will have elements of fluff, angst, and smut. I'm organizing these lists based on what is the MOST prevalent aspect of the fic.
Author: Royal_Darjeeling
Time Period: Regency
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 46,527
Chapters: 6
Summary: Every Monday (and on special occasions) Penelope took her husband to bed.
It was an agreement, after a year of marriage, that they would finally explore each other for the sake of having a child. It did not mean anything, not at all.
Author: usuallysunny
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 5,887
Chapters: 1
Summary: “I understand women have needs. I know all about women’s needs, actually.”
“I know,” Penelope says dryly, “we share a wall.”
“Well, if you just wanted to scratch an itch,” Colin's fingers dance along her skin, “maybe I could…”
Her stomach swoops.
“You could…?”
“Help you.”
Author: KatofKanals
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 91,763
Chapters: 12
Summary: Penelope Featherington has been trying to get over her crush on her best friend Colin Bridgerton for the last several years. It should be pretty easy to do considering he spends the vast majority of his time away from London and in far off corners of the world as part of his travel writing and social media enterprises. He’s never around and she only sees him a couple of times a year at most. However, it turns out her problem in being unable to get over him has nothing to do with how often she spends time with him in-person. Her problem is the telephone.
--
Or, the one where Penelope and Colin start having phone sex as “friends.”
Author: applepuffsilver
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 34,974
Chapters: 3
Summary:
Eloise snorts: “Pen hasn’t had a date in, like, a year.”
“Eloise!” she snaps.
She is going to die. She is going to die, and then she is going to come back as a ghost and haunt Eloise for the rest of her life.
OR
Penelope Featherington is going through a dry spell, and Colin Bridgerton offers to help her out. The same Colin Bridgerton who has secretly been in love with Pen for the past four years. What could go wrong?
educating professor bridgerton
Author: applepuffsilver
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 42,196
Chapters: 10
Summary: “What - what were they saying?”
Penelope glances at him sideways. His cheeks are a little flushed, that pretty mouth of his partly open. He is still staring at her.
“Um. Well. They said you were daddy material.”
The minute it comes out of her mouth she knows she should not have said it. It is so deeply, awfully inappropriate. Her cheeks burn. She is about to apologise when Colin straightens and twists his whole body towards her.
“What does that mean?” he asks. When she does not answer, he uses his stern teacher voice, the one he uses on the students. “Penelope. Tell me.”
Why does that make her melt?
Author: ktbeets
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 14,848
Chapters: 3
Summary: Penelope's office job is boring and unfulfilling. To pass the time, she spends her days writing explicit fanfiction and ogling her co-worker Colin. However, things are about to get a lot more interesting when a sensitive document makes its way into the wrong hands.
Author: KatofKanals
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 87,628
Chapters: 11
Summary: Colin Bridgerton objectively has a very cool job and a very cool life. He jets around the globe as a travel photographer, visiting the most beautiful and historic locales and literally get paid to do it. And yet, he couldn’t be more bored these days. That’s how he finds himself crashing in his sister’s spare room in an attempt to figure out what the hell he wants to do next. While he attempts to renew his enthusiasm for the career that once brought him so much joy or decide on making a change of some kind, he’s looking forward to a relaxing few weeks (maybe a few months even) spending time with his family and his best friend Penelope Featherington. Colin is anything but relaxed, however, when he finds out that shy, sweet, soft-spoken Pen has been hiding a career change of her own from him—a very lucrative and very surprising career at that.
--
Or, the one where Penelope is on OnlyFans.
Author: Penny_Feathers_Bright
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 17,800
Chapters: 2
Summary: Giggling, Pen relaxes against his body. Once again, he marvels at how well they fit together. “A movie sounds great, Colin. What are we watching?”
“You’ll see…” he says as he hits play.
The screen starts out black. Then, Colin’s voice from just over ten years ago. “Pen, if you’re nervous, we don’t have to do this. It’s okay.”
“It was my idea, wasn’t it?” Pen’s younger voice shakes a bit, but she sounds determined.
Current-day Penelope gasps and whirls around. “Colin, you didn’t! How did you find it?”
Colin smirks and pauses the video.
Shortly after they had gotten engaged, Pen had called him late one night, tipsy. She’d had a brilliant idea—to record their first time having sex.
OR
The one where Colin and Penelope make a sex tape of their first time, and watch it together on their tenth anniversary.
Author: KatofKanals
Time Period: Regency
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 17,124
Chapters: 3
Summary: This story picks up at the end of Season 3, Episode 7, just after the Queen interrupted Colin's and Penelope's wedding reception. The prospect of her continuing Lady Whistledown and continuing to put herself in danger loomed too large for Colin and he informed her that he would be spending their wedding night on the sofa (or settee) at their new marital home. See how Colin's resolve is weakened and the two of them come together instead of spending the night apart.
Author: bumbershootindeed
Time Period: Regency
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 6,668
Chapters: 1
Summary: There's something new to Penelope these days. Something in her eyes, maybe, or her skin. A clarity; clarity built by love and light and a life built with the man she has loved since childhood.
There is a visible clarity caused by endless pleasure, the pleasure of partnership and partnering... and frankly, yes, Penelope can see it reflected back at her when she takes herself in at the looking glass.
She can see it in the double takes as she and Colin enter balls now.
But she can see it most in the way Colin's eyes shine over every time she enters a room. The way he swallows, the way he grips his chest sometimes as if the feeling is attempting escape.
And when it is particularly shocking to him, when she has really pleased him, in the way her husband drops to his knees.
As he does in this moment.
"You... are..." he shakes his head in incredulity as she approaches.
Is it the red? They never get to wear red.
AKA: Colin and Pen get to wear red because they are hosting a Christmas party, which inexplicably turns them on.
Author: Lilyofthevolume
Time Period: Regency
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 4,272
Chapters: 1
Summary: Penelope is seething after Colin tries to charm her with comments on her dress and declarations of missing her. She goes to the garden to cool down, only to find that she isn't the only one left unsatisfied by their last encounter.
Author: applepuffsilver
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 17,729
Chapters: 3
Summary: “You’re so soft.” He rubs her belly, fingers grazing, and the fire in Penelope’s stomach roars. “I love how you feel here. Like satin.” His voice is hushed, almost awed.
“Are you this soft everywhere, Pen?”
Her breath hitches in her throat. She doesn’t dare exhale.
She waits in the dark silence, the only sound her heartbeat in her ears.
“C-can I feel?”
Penelope and Colin fool around whilst hungover at Aubrey Hall, and turn their relationship upside down
Sweeter Than The Best You've Ever Had
Author: writergirl8
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 45,144
Chapters: 5
Series: Part 2 of Shatter
Summary: The facts are simple: he, Colin Bridgerton, is finally with the great love of his life. He is dating his best friend since childhood, steamy romance writer Penelope Featherington. Penelope is known for her detailed love scenes and her sex positive characters. And every time they have had sex, New York Times best selling romance author Penelope Featherington has faked her orgasm.
Fuck.
Author: Stillpink
Time Period: Regency
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 89,735
Chapters: 17
Summary: Penelope is an innocent, but her experiences as Lady Whistledown teach her that she has much to learn about what happens between men and women behind closed doors. Fortunately, she has a friend willing to teach her all she wishes to know.
It all seems so simple...until Colin Bridgerton uncovers her plan.
Author: applepuffsilver
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 18,694
Chapters: 3
Summary: “Why don’t you let me help you?” he says. “I never have a clue what the fuck is going on in my life. Who better to help you lose control than your chaotic bestie?”
Penelope stares at him.
“What… what were you thinking?” she asks, her voice hoarser than it was a moment before.
“Telling you beforehand rather defeats the purpose of the exercise, doesn’t it?” Colin’s left hand leaves the steering wheel, and he squeezes her knee for a moment. Penelope’s breath catches in her throat. “Don’t worry, Pen. Leave it with me.”
OR
Penelope needs to learn to give up control. Colin thinks he has the perfect solution
Author: lixabiz
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 55, 166
Chapters: 11
Summary: He didn’t like to admit it, but the truth was he’d always had a thing for her boobs. It started a couple of years before the Yellow Bra Incident, back when Penelope had just turned thirteen and started growing them. Which, of course, coincided with Colin, at the time fifteen-going-on-sixteen, becoming obsessed with breasts. Not hers in particular, just breasts in general, but… well, Penelope was a little plump. Which meant her budding breasts were a little plump as well. She had developed earlier and faster than his sister, who remained a beanpole for many years yet.
He was very good at compartmentalising, it turned out.
Pen was his little sister’s bestie, yes; but Pen’s breasts were an entirely different thing altogether.
Author: a_novel_addiction
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 3,726
Chapters: 1
Summary: While enjoying a smoke under a starry sky, Colin and Penelope get closer.
Bonfires are the ultimate mood setter.
What happens at a wedding, stays at the wedding
Author: colinscourt
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 6,831
Chapters: 1
Summary: It was like a pavlovian response. As soon as Penelope entered the church, he got half hard when his eyes landed on her. She had on her bright yellow, poofy bridesmaid dress and he was certain she hated it. She kept trying to pull down the taffeta fabric when it would ride up her belly, as well as awkwardly adjust the fabric around her breasts, a motion that made Colin’s mouth go dry immediately.
Colin hadn’t seen or spoken to her in months and he suspected it was because she had been avoiding him. Things had seemed mostly normal between them after Anthony’s wedding. They did all the same things, hung out as regularly as his travel schedule would allow and just seemed normal. It seemed like they were following the same strategy they had after Daphne’s wedding. Don’t talk about it.
Author: applepuffsilver
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: Complete
Words: 11,001
Chapters: 2
Summary: “I fucking knew it.”
Colin’s soul actually leaves his body. “P-Pen,” he chokes, but she presents him with a wide smile, and she is so beautiful his heart swells and his words are snatched out of his mouth. What was he going to fucking say anyway? No, I’m not in love with you, I swear? This boner is platonic?
“You’re into Alfred, aren’t you?” she asks, her eyes flashing wickedly.
Penelope finds out Colin has a thing for Alfred, and suggests he joins them
Author: canarysingingsweetly
Time Period: Modern
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 6,016
Chapters: 1
Summary: "He was supposed to make life easier.
One thing to check off her weekly to-do list – because after a long day of working for one of the largest publishing companies in the world, why the hell would she want to spend what little energy she has left on cooking?
But it’s Sunday, and Penelope is once again neglecting her weekly chores because she is completely fucking distracted by the gorgeous home chef currently making all kinds of magic in her tiny, less-than-ideal kitchen."
Author: applepuffsilver
Time Period: Regency
Rating: Explicit
Status: One Shot
Words: 6,041
Chapters: 1
Summary: “Ah, the gentleman is of discerning taste, I see. She is a rare jewel indeed.” Madame Delacroix’s voice is a seductive purr in Colin’s ear.
“Why does she cover her face?”
“She is a lady of the Ton, in the possession of a most particular talent indeed. If her identity were to be discovered, she would be ruined.”
“And what is this particular gift of hers?”
Madame Delacroix lowers her voice conspiratorially. “She will bring delight to the gentleman who has a palette for the finer things. A man who appreciates the nectar a woman can produce when excited. But,” she adds, one eyebrow raised, “I must warn you, Lady Whistledown is most demanding."
OR
Colin visits a brothel to try to get over Penelope, and finds a sex worker who reminds him of his best friend... she just happens to have a very particular set of skills...