PrologueDenise Cunningham pulled back the curtains covering the window pane in her front door with shaky hands. The knock that had sounded moments before wasn’t the gentle knock of a friend over for a visit. Staring back...
CHAPTER ONEJanuaryMelbourne, AustraliaDARCY LEWIS STRAIGHTENED his cream linen jacket. The cruise ship’s crowded ballroom was decked out in a Brazilian Fiesta theme and the live band’s spicy Latin beat had him tapping h...
Chapter OneThere are some things you just don’t want to see while trolling for dinner. A three-hundred-pound dude in a yellow Speedo? Mark it number one on the list.A massive shudder coursing through his dorsal fins, Maxw...
OneThe Front NineI felt my stomach start to clench as my dad pulled into the entrance of my new home for the next four years. Let’s just call it Elite Private University (EPU, for short). There are a number of places...
Section OnePrequel to Adam’s Story, Nobody’s HeroNight before Thanksgiving 2002, Chicago, IllinoisJoni, you were my anchor. I’m lost without you.Adam Montague slumped into the seat at the terminal, hoping to catch ...
CHAPTER ONEAT LEAST SHE was going to die in spectacular fashion.Chloe Montgomery clenched her fingers around the tacky tar-smelling rope and tried to imagine that she wasn’t suspended who knew how high? above the pitch-blac...
CHAPTER ONE(Colleen)And you, Ms. Birthday Girl—quit sulking.I BLINK BACK the exhaustion that has been creeping up on me for hours now, ever since the gang arrived at my condo this morning. I can’t bring myself to look i...
CHAPTER ONESOME MEN IN Isandro’s position would have whined about press intrusion. He didn’t. He considered he had little to complain about in life, and he knew it was perfectly possible, even for someone whose finan...
PROLOGUEI wasn't expecting her, I guess that's why she blind sided me, totally unexpected at a time when I had all but thrown in my hat and said fuck it.I'd been playing the field for a while now, was tired of ...
Chapter OneA WISP OF smoke rose from the barrel of his gun. The smell of gunpowder filled the air. Face raised to the night sky, eyes closed, he sucked in a deep breath and let it out slow, enjoying the moment. Adrenaline...
CHAPTER ONEDR MIA MCKENZIE didn’t know it yet but her night was about to go from bad to worse.And that was no mean feat.A full moon didn’t usually bode well for emergency departments and this clear, cold Saturday ...
Chapter OneFinally. The last load out the door. Amanda St. Claire plopped herself on a footstool with a sigh. Most of the friends who’d been helping her pack for her move had just left, taking a truckload of boxes to ...
Chapter OneThere’s no way on God’s green earth I’m going to dance naked in front of a bunch of strangers.Kylie Roberts’s own words came back to haunt her as she stood in the darkened stage wing at Deuce...
PrologueEaster Sunday, A.D. 402, Pollentia, ItalyFor the first time in his life, he knew fear before battle.Quintus Pontius Flavus Magnus fought his demons and searched the distance. The Visigoths waited there, with their foul wi...
CHAPTER ONEWhen are you coming back? Mary-Knight Tyler whined.Laney Parks sighed heavily. She was seconds away from wringing her supervisor"s neck. I"ll be back on the twentieth. I put a reminder on your calendar last month.The...
What are you doing here? Avery gasped, glaring back at the man who stood across from her in Black Cat’s downstairs corridor. He looked so much older and thinner. The thick black hair she remembered had gone almost compl...
CHAPTER ONEGillian heard the words cannon ball screamed about two seconds before the giant splash of water hit her back, startling her and refreshing her all at the same time. You’re so lucky my hands are full, she yell...
OneYou’re the hired gun? Joe asked.Sarah made two pistols with her fingers and shot Joe Burke in the gut. It felt remarkably satisfying.She had been looking forward to the look of shock on his face when she showed up a...
Chapter OneThomas Jones parked in the last spot within spitting distance of the Ruby Tuesday’s, leaned back in the driver’s seat of his rental truck, and closed his eyes. It didn’t help his headache. His secret...
Chapter 1The Lanier gut was never wrong.Austin Lanier didn’t need a deck of Tarot cards or a psychic to tell her something was fixing to twist her world into knots. She looked behind her… nothing but willow trees with...
chapter OneChristianShe sat across from me, this beautiful girl who had to be both the cutest and sexiest thing I’d ever seen. A rich tenor rang in her words, this modest kind of confidence that sucked me in, while her...
CHAPTER 1RyanBeads of sweat drip down my face. My shirt is soaked and filthy, but I can’t stop to change or find something else to wipe away the grime. The lawn needs to be mowed and raked before my dad comes home f...
THERE ARE LOW points, and there are low points. This—rattling down an endless stretch of interstate in a Greyhound bus toward the middle of farm-country-nowhere a week after barely graduating high school—was my low point.I did...
Chapter OneHave you ever heard tell of the Hellequin? …—From The Legend of the HellequinLONDON, ENGLANDMARCH 1740The night Godric St. John saw his wife for the first time since their marriage two years previously, she was aim...
Chapter OneWhoa there, little lady.Maria stopped, scrabbling to hang on to the tray loaded with beer bottles and glasses, to find the asshat who’d been bugging her all night standing in front of her. He was human, annoyi...
Chapter OneThe tears started to fall even before I opened the stiff door to the nursing home. The only thing worse than saying goodbye was not saying goodbye. The wall's cream color blurred as I walked slowly down the ha...
PROLOGUEElite Operations BaseAlpine, TexasShe was a vision of beauty.Too fucking young, but her eyes weren’t those of a twenty-four-year-old. They were the eyes of a woman who had seen too much, who had known too much dan...
Chapter 1In the predawn hours when earth stood ready to relinquish its cloak of darkness, Bonnie Kahler reached to touch the opposite side of the bed. Empty. Just as it had been for the past two years, nine months, and nine...
PrologueBEFORE there were ever words, there was music. A language in and of itself, music is the background to life, where emotion dwells. Through time, words evolved, and music—while ingrained in the flesh of every living thi...
Chapter OneFor thirty blissful sleepy seconds after waking up to the familiar sound of Sydney’s early morning traffic, Georgia Murray believed she was in her own bed. She might have gone on believing it if something hadn&...
Chapter 1Zoe struggled to concentrate. But the harder she tried the more difficult it was to focus. She could almost feel his strong hands exploring her body. Her eyelids fluttered open as a soft, longing moan escaped her lip...
PrologueMOOT HILL, SCOTLAND1298Hurry. Mairi’s voice broke the hush of moonless darkness. We must be back at Traquair before morning.In silence the two men hoisted the large irregular stone into the cart and tied it down wi...
PrologueIt’s a perfect time to ride out of here. They won’t be back for hours, maybe not till tomorrow with this storm coming. A good rain will hide my tracks . . . make it harder to trail me.Casey O’Hare ...
Chapter OneA glistening black limousine drew up in front of the Ocean Passenger Terminal in New York, where the bright star of the Cunard Line, the Queen Elizabeth II, was waiting at Berth 4 to begin her five-and-a-half-day c...
OneWhat a scene! Lark sat in her Hummer. The move-in day of her rich neighbor certainly had a sitcom quality to it. She leaned in to watch him. Mr. New Guy gestured to the movers about his leather furniture, but they held...
Chapter 1Jenny Martin would face a gang of outlaws in the hope of finding her sister’s child. Over the past several days, she’d slept upright until her back throbbed, eaten beans as hard and dry as stone, and endu...
OneLady Vivian Worth folded the sheet of foolscap and sighed. Her older brother had always shown a flair for dramatics, often predicting disaster where no risk existed. He had no reason to fret over a nobleman’s visit to...
Chapter OneHampshire, Autumn 1311Somewhere in the Royal ForestLord William Gray struggled against his kidnappers, but the hands pressing him to his knees were like iron. Ropes squeezed his wrists behind his back and the cloud of...
OneAin’t a bleedin’ bedamned room t’be had in all a bleedin’ Lun’nun, guv!The innkeeper raised his voice to holler over the racket created by one screaming infant. Stables is full up too, and more bl...
Chapter OneThe weight of tedium hung heavy in the air. After only one hour at Lady Keswick’s Sussex mansion, Garth Evernden, eighth Baron Stanford, was bored. Summer house parties were all the same, deadly dull or wildly...
Chapter OneThey were expecting me, but I didn’t think they’d be expecting this. I arranged myself in the doorway and waited for them to notice me. I was just wondering if there was a sexy way to clear my throat ...
CHAPTER 1It wasn’t every day that your average girl got to watch her career crumble before her very eyes. For Regan Martin, that day had been on repeat for the past six years. To be reminded of it while she was weari...
Kiss me, he whispered.No, not here, she said, inching away.Ahanu grinned. Eager brown eyes taunting, he took Coreen’s delicate hand and whisked her back behind the old wooden cathouse anyway. He snuck a peck on her soft,...
Chapter OneEli London stared at the drop of sweat gathering on the shoulder of one of his mechanics, Alanso. He flexed his fingers around the torque wrench he’d retrieved for the man, refusing to let go and trace the p...
PrologueGabe hopped off the swing and faced me with a grin. Are you ready? he asked. My mom and dad are waiting in the car.I clambered over the fence, landing in the grass at the back end of the Parkers’ lawn. &rsquo...
Chapter 1There is nothing more beautiful than the city at night, thought Rosalind Barrymore Gryffald as she hit the freeway toward downtown.Being that the city was Los Angeles, it was easier to feel that way late at night, th...
Chapter 1Magic hour.It’s the first or last hour of sunlight, when the day is opening or closing up shop, an event so commonplace that only certain breeds of humans notice it—movie people, for instance, who treasure the ...
PrologueSix months earlier…What do you mean he’s not here? Chrissie asked. The calm inquiry belied how she really felt, but they were in a church, and it was her wedding day, and her mother would flip her shit if Chri...
Chapter OneI stare at the girl with the dark blue eyes in the mirror and frown. My eyes used to sparkle with vibrancy, but they now look dull - almost lifeless. It doesn’t matter what I’ve done physically over th...
Chapter OneThe road was dusty and potted and sure enough the bald tires on her Jeep Patriot weren’t up to the challenge. Ivy heard the pop before the steering wheel jerked in her hands and pulled the car left, into on...
Monday, September 1Los Angeles, CaliforniaIf he weren't my dad, I would fire him.That's it, I scream, putting my foot down. I am so irritated, I don't even care that I am acting like a spoiled three year old. I...
PROLOGUEEight years ago...‘So, in conclusion, I think the marketing strategy your people presented to you is hackneyed, stupid and asinine, and pays absolutely no attention to your demographics, to the market research or to...
part i: griefA man came to a river at the end of his life,and there he met the River Crosser, who helped others to the far shore. The man asked the River Crosser why he had to leave so soon. The River Crosser told him ...
Chapter 1: Unexpected AdviceIn the aftermath of the explosive New Year’s fight that had nearly destroyed their relationship, things between Ava and Cole had settled into a new balance. The altered equilibrium had its own c...
AcknowledgmentsI have to first thank my husband for supporting me through all of my creative endeavors. If it weren’t for him constantly cheering me on, then I would never go after my dreams. Thanks for taking care of t...
OneDo you, Victoria Anderson, take Eli Laughlin to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health?Reverend Watkins droned...
Chapter oneWhat do you think you’re doing? Can’t you read?Her car door was already open so Rachel Williams slid out and closed it. Slightly disoriented in the dim basement car park, she took a moment to get her be...
PROLOGUELAS VEGAS10:40pmThere was no better time to do this. He couldn’t have wished for anything more convenient, every single one of them in one place at one time. He couldn’t have planned it better if he’d ...
ONESeptemberThe echo of the gunshot jerked Sage Anderson out of her nightmare. Her eyes flew open. She lay in the darkness, panting, sweating, her heart pounding in fear, her hands clenched into fists. Oh, God.The images. The ...
DedicationMany thanks go to the wonderful people who encouraged me during the writing of this book over the many years it took me to write it.Roberta Brown, for believing in the storyLinda Ingmanson, for contracting it and lov...
Your honor’s players, hearing your amendment,Are come to play a pleasant comedy:For so your doctors hold it very meet,Seeing too much sadness hath congealed your blood,And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy:Therefore they tho...
Chapter OneAugustSeward, AlaskaStarlene White stared at the rundown double–wide trailer. Wide stripes of rust ran down the cheap aluminum siding. Dandelions and chickweed grew to the tops of the skirting—well, what was left...
CHAPTER ONEWHAT DID YOU do to my granddaughter? Mort Sanderson stormed into Nick Jordan’s office, indignation pouring from him like lava.Nick took his time placing his pen beside the documents he’d been perusing and s...
Chapter 1The alarm clock, now screaming at me. Opening my eyes and staring up at the white ceiling, I couldn’t for the life of me understand, the who, and why, someone would invent such an obnoxious sound.Throwing my ha...
OneI want your body.Callie Matthews jerked around to see her boss, her very sexy Hollywood-plastic-surgeon boss standing only a few feet away in the foyer of his office. When he reached behind his back, the lock to the front...
PrologueEvery morning you get up and put on a fake smile...But what if one morning you didn't? Would anyone notice?~ AnonymousI was drowning.No, not the kind with water. I wasn’t that lucky. At least with water, I&rsq...
PrologueDearly beloved, we are gathered here today to unite this man and this woman in holy matrimony.Oh, hell no.Every head swiveled toward him as Gavin Montgomery strode purposefully down the center aisle of St. Mark’s M...
PrologueHey, Sam! You want to stop gatherin’ daisies over there like some little girl and open that gate? someone called from the platform behind the chutes.Cursing himself for letting his mind wander, rodeo-stock contractor...
CHAPTER ONEMALIBU, California, was a long way from her family’s ranch in Larkville, Texas.Tension bunched Megan Calhoun’s shoulder muscles. She would be impressed with the exclusive gated beach community if she weren&rsq...
OneThe last thing John Coleman had planned to do when he woke up to the stench of petroleum and the roar of his oil rig was to go chasing after Maddie Gray.Jamming the phone against his ear, Cole—as everybody from Yella, ...
CHAPTER 1Do you ever wish but for a moment to go back in time? Genevieve McInnis whispered as she stood in the window of the tiny tower room that had been appointed to her more than a year past.The summer sun was high an...
ProloguePerth, Scotland, September 1396Abrupt silence filled the air when the young dark-haired warrior’s opponent fell. The lad looked swiftly for the next one but saw no one nearby still standing.Then, hearing moans and we...
Chapter OneScottish Highlands, 1817He had been too long in the city, Gordon McHeath thought as he rode along the crest of a hill toward the village of Dunbrachie. He drew in a great, deep breath of the fresh air. After so ...
Meant-To-Be MotherALLY BLAKEAbout the AuthorHaving once been a professional cheerleader, Ally Blake‘s motto is Smile and the world smiles with you. One way to make Ally smile is by sending her on holidays—especially to loc...
About the AuthorWhen I was told off as a child for making up stories, little did I know that one day I’d earn my living by writing them!To the horror of my parents, I left school at sixteen and did a bewildering var...
PrologueCalm and dusted with the sun’s last rosy rays, the sea spoke to her. Did it have any idea of what it witnessed? She wondered. Did she?Let’s go. No time!Mildred ignored the sharp bark from the man leading t...
CHAPTER ONELou, MontanaShe would not answer the phone.Not now, when she was coming awake to the slide of skin against skin, coming awake to the possibility of coming, sleepy and lazy, his cock prodding against her.Yes, like th...
Hidden Currents…Ada has her life planned out, and there’s no place in it for men or relationships. Even if she had the time, or the inclination, Eddie Bakare is the last man, she would ever consider. He seems to be e...
Chapter One869 Neshan CalendarThey won’t hurt you.Cami didn’t even glance over at Avan. She recognized the unspoken message, but was a little surprised he didn’t just come out and say it. They wouldn’t hurt...
Chapter OneNormally when Nicole, Marley, and Valentine went to Grounds for Thought, they sat at the round table in the window and drank coffee. But this wasn't a normal evening. Tonight, Nicole sat on the counter and swung...
About the AuthorJess Michaels is the award-winning author of more than ten erotic romances. She lives in Arizona with her fantastic husband and two adorable cats. While not writing about sexy gentlemen and wicked ladies, she ca...
ABOUT TRISH WYLIETrish Wylie worked on a long career of careers to get to the one she’d wanted from her late teens. She flicked her blond hair over her shoulder while playing the promotions game, patted her manicured ha...
PrologueDecember 31, 1875Dearest Tommy,I am somewhere in Nebraska. I am told by other travelers on the Overland E...
PrologueSan DiegoThe need to see her again had grown stronger with the passage of time.He hadn't expected that.When their marriage broke up and she'd left him for the pleasures her father's money could provide, he ha...
CHAPTER ONESAYID AL KADAR SCANNED the empty street and tugged the collar of his coat up, shielding the back of his neck from the raindrops that were threatening to infiltrate. The Portland drizzle was intolerable in his opinio...
About Hadley DanesHadley is a registered nurse working in Philadelphia. She loves to read and write in her free time and hopes to share her imagination with other readers. She lives in West Chester, PA with her husband and t...
About HeartstealerJacie Turner, a professional stuntwoman, is afraid she's lost her edge. Following an aerial stunt gone wrong and then her fiancé running out on her, she's determined to restore her pride and her l...
IN THE BEGINNING.Never, in all its history, was the proud and opulent city of New York more glad and gay than in the bright spring days of Eighteen-Seventy-One. It had put out of sight every trace of the old world, all its...
Chapter 1Whoa.I was standing there in the subway, absolutely transfixed by the individual cars flying by in front of me. They all looked identical, yet none of the people occupying them were the same. Everyone had a different...
Chapter OnePractically the whole damn town was asleep already.Here and there, tiny pockets of activity caught Jay Ancheta’s eye as he maneuvered his SUV through the darkened streets. A handful of high school kids drifted o...
Author NoteI have always loved the spooky Gothic novel and mysterious old houses. Clearly the secrets in Bane&rsq...
CHAPTER ONEAT 3:00 A.M., MOST of the guys at Fire Station 59 were either asleep or watching a cheesy action movie. But for a few of them around the scarred Formica table, fortunes were being won and lost.Remind me—does a s...
Chapter OneNatalieThe sun was just setting, yet the day still felt young. The breeze nipped at our skin that had grown completely thick with sweat from chasing one another back and forth along the shore of Miami Beach. It fe...
PrologueA plume of yellow dust rose along the horizon, carrying like spindrift over Mopani trees eaten squat by elephants. High above in a haze-white sky, vultures wheeled on thermals—drought had this southern region of Zambia ...
PrologueNo way. It can’t be her.That was Dr. Simon Parran’s first reaction as he moved uncomfortably in his seat in the medical center’s small, crowded auditorium.His second was to visualize Grace Andreas in his...
Chapter 1Michael Cunningham parked his car in the lot and scowled at the building. He didn’t have time for this shit and he didn’t want to meet up with the owner of this building to settle something that should h...
Chapter OneEmelia Hudson knew she shouldn’t be snooping through her boss’s wine cellar, but his secret stash was down here and damn it, he owed her a bottle. Or a case.Slipping off her heels, Emelia kicked them int...
Author NoteI’m so excited to bring you a story set during the Yukon gold rush. Some of you know that gold prospecting is a hobby of mine and I’ve hunted from North Carolina to Alaska. I’ve learned how alluri...
About the AuthorAinslie Paton is a corporate storyteller working in marketing, public relations and advertising. She’s written about everything from the African refugee crisis and Toxic Shock Syndrome, to high-speed data netwo...
CHAPTER ONEJOSH swung himself out of the ocean and onto the back of the pontoon. Slipping his dive fins from his feet and his mask from his face, he held them in one hand as he used his free hand to haul himself into a...