PrologueDetective Hayley Stone loved weddings as much as the next person. Or she had right up until the moment she’d arrested her date.In less than twenty-four hours she’d managed to infuriate half the East Coast tou...
CHAPTER ONEA FINE SWEAT broke out between Hutch Carmody’s shoulders and his gut warned that he was fixing to stumble straight into the teeth of a screeching buzz saw. The rented tux itched against his hide and his collar seemed to be getting tighter with every flower-scented breath he drew.The air was dense, weighted, cloying. The sm...
Chapter OneAs the realtor’s car pulled up to one of the most stunning houses Molly Harper had ever seen, she knew: this was it. This gorgeous home was going to be hers. Sometimes you just knew things right away. It was love at first sight—the believable kind.Molly climbed out of the midsize sedan and gazed up at the beautiful two...
Chapter OneThe night was on fire. Lex could smell it, wood smoke and plastic burning in barrels and trash heaps. Gas, coal--anything that would take flame and light up the darkness.A shatter of glass accompanied by victorious shouts echoed close by, maybe only three or four narrow streets over, and Lex lifted a hand instinctively to the p...
Chapter OneScotland, June 1557Water swirled around in a torrent, sucking him under the vast currents. His arms flailed helplessly, attempting to grasp a rock, a limb, or anything available, only to have it ripped away. The nois...
Chapter OneThe rocking chair creaked as Sofia Good pushed off the ground with the balls of her bare feet. The chair rolled back a heart-stopping distance and fell forward again. Back and forward again. Even after spending twenty-four years on this earth, she still loved the slight thrill a simple wooden rocking chair could give her.Back an...
Chapter 1Rafael shuffled in his seat, tried to keep calm, but couldn’t. The restaurant was cool and secluded. It boasted a small fountain that tinkled quietly, a few potted palms, and huge expanses of glass. Outside the weather was scorching, the sort of day to be lounging around a pool, not sitting indoors, hoping to strike a deal....
Chapter One‘Well, well, Lord Markham, have you ever seen such a bonny child?’Jasper Coale, Viscount Markham, looked down at the baby lying in its crib and was at a loss for words. Thankfully, his sister-in-law came to his aid.‘Fie now, Lady Andrews, when was a man ever interested in babies? I suspect the viscount is merely...
Chapter OneWhat men and women of the ton neglect to consider is that behind every courtesan is a woman, who, given another opportunity, would have been a duchess. Or perhaps a queen...Somewhere on the road to hellEngland, 1805Lions have lionesses, Maharajahs have their many wives and sheikhs, their harems. It seems no matter what manner of...
PrologueMemphis, TennesseeChristmas 1857You must try, dearest. Rebecca wiped her sister’s brow with a damp cloth and held her hand as another contraction came.Mariah’s face contorted. I—I can’t.Just one more push, Doctor Baldwin ordered from the foot of the bed.It’s too hard, she screamed and squeezed her sister’s han...
Chapter 1The fear made changing into her animal form easy. Transformed into a grizzly bear, Samantha Proud charged across the frozen lake as if the devil himself was on her tail—for soon he would be. The March wind blew at her back as she hurdled across the Great Slave Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories.What have I done? What ...
Chapter OneBeatrice halted her horse beneath the spreading canopy of a great beech tree. The scene was like a little tableau to be viewed by any who passed by. The summertime smells of Larkhill wafted around her. She knew every tree, every meadow and bridal way and rutted track, and every stream where trout could be found. Everything aro...
Chapter OneMidnight Liaisons, I said as I cradled the office phone to my ear. This is Bathsheba. How can I help you?Hi, the man breathed nervously into the other end of the phone. I’m looking for … company. Tonight. Maybe a redhead.I winced. There was no way to misunderstand what he was looking for, as he’d clearly stated re...
Chapter 1The lights of Raljahar twinkled with life. They were the pulse of a desert city whose future had been on the brink of collapse a decade ago, until he’d inherited his father’s reign and breathed life back into it.Sheikh Rafiq al Hakimi stepped back from the palace window, pride sweeping through him as he turned his att...
CHAPTER 1Goodness. Just look at it. Thick as my ankle.Diana Highwood took her glove and worked it like a fan, chasing the flush from her throat. She was a gentlewoman, born and raised in genteel comfort, if not opulent luxury. From an early age, she’d been marked as the hope of the family. Destined, her mother vowed, to catch a n...
chapter OneA small ray of sunlight peeked through the window shade and woke me up. I panicked slightly when I realized I wasn’t on the side of the bed I normally slept on. Weird.It took me another moment to realize I wasn’t in my bed at all. Another round of panic overtook me until I remembered the wedding. Hannah and Brand...
PrologueZoe reached into the backseat and pulled a faded black bandanna from her purse, snapping it like a lion tamer’s whip inches from Oliver’s face.Blindfold time, she announced, her eyes glistening like dew on fresh-cut grass.He choked softly. I won’t be able to see.Ya think? She gave his arm a playful punch, lingering o...
Chapter OneIt’s a monstrosity.Valerie Craig agreed with her companion’s sentiment wholeheartedly, not exactly thrilled about entering the remote mansion in front of them. She spared Graham a quick smile despite the falling sensation in her stomach.You say that every time we come here, she said.She felt clammy and wilted like a cold,...
CHAPTER ONETARA WHARTON LIFTED her sister’s hand from the hospital-bed mattress and rested it on her own palm. Faye’s hand was pale and limp, the nails bluish, lined with dried blood and, worst of all, cool to the touch.That alarmed Tara more than the tangle of IV tubes, the click and whir of the machines, or even Faye’s...
chapter OneWhat are you saying, Dad? Nick Valente asked his father, Cesare, as they sat on one of the terraced courtyards on the Valente estate.I’m saying I’ve been retired over six months now and while I’ve loved it here, this place is getting too big for us. Isabel and I have decided to move into an apartment in town....
chapter 1Mein Leben war ein Phänomen, denn ich hatte einfach alles. Einfach alles, was eine Frau nicht brauchen konnte.Ich hatte eine Schwester mit Doktortitel und Miss-Universum-Körper, eine Mutter mit Verfolgungswahn und sadistischer Ader, einen mies bezahlten Job in einem verschwindend kleinen Schuhladen, und jede kulinarische Sünde...
chapter ONEEagle’s Way EstateOutside of Eternity Springs, ColoradoHolding a 9 mm Glock in one hand and a tumbler of single-malt scotch in the other, John Gabriel Callahan stared out the mountain home’s wall of windows and knew it was time to take a hike. An hour ago he’d watched a gray cloud bank roll in and swallow the...
chapter 1Thursday, April 11, 1912. Queensland, Ireland Bree stared across choppy water at the mammoth ship.Did she dare? She glanced over her shoulder, searching for signs of pursuit. It was only a matter of time before they realized she was gone. If she didn't make up her mind quickly she wouldn't have any say in the matter. She...
CHAPTER ONETwelve weeks, 3 days agoDEATH SUCKED. Ben Tyler leaned his head against his office chair and closed his eyes while he considered his fate. The leukemia was winning and it pissed him the hell off. As a man who had control over his thoughts and emotions—typically two difficult things to rein in—losing control over his body wasn...
PROLOGUEFLYNN RANDALL SWALLOWED a mouthful of champagne as he stepped through the French doors onto the terrace.It was February and even though it was nearly ten o’clock at night, it was still warm. Sweat prickled beneath his arms and he tugged at the collar of his shirt as he surveyed the sea of people. Like him, the men were all...
Chapter 1What was so important as to require the privacy of the study? Stifling her impatience, Caroline Broadhurst folded her hands in her lap and waited for her husband’s pronouncement. They’d spent a great deal of time together at the mill and then shared dinner, but after telling her he wished to speak to her about a certa...
chapter ONESO WHO ARE YOU planning to kill?Trace Westfalen didn’t glance over at the sound of his friend’s voice. Instead, he shoved his phone into an inner pocket of his suit, strode to the wet bar in the corner of the conference room and poured himself a straight shot of Jack. Without waiting for his fangs to fully retract,...
Chapter OneThe car gave one last shudder as Emily Murphy came to a stop in a parking space just beneath the blinking sign of Tony’s Tavern. She turned off the ignition and leaned back against the headrest as the rain drummed on the roof, and the evening’s darkness settled around her. The car will be all right, she told herse...
Chapter 1London, 1856As Thomas, Viscount Armstrong, digested Harold Bertram’s words, he came up straight in his seat, his hands finding the curved arms of the chair. Although the marquess delivered the request with all the gravity of a clergyman officiating a funeral, Thomas prayed he hadn’t heard him correctly.You would like me to...
Chapter OneLondonMarch 1854Every square matrix is a root of its own characteristic polynomial.Lydia Kellaway clutched the notebook to her chest as the cab rattled away, the clatter of horses’ hooves echoing against the fortress of impressive town houses lining Mount Street. Gaslights burned through the midnight dark, casting puddles of lig...
Chapter OneSpain, 1814It was her wedding day. And it was utterly unlike she had ever imagined it.Catalina Perez Moreno studied her reflection in the small, cracked looking glass as she tried to pin her long, thick dark hair into an elegant twist. The canvas tent was cramped and warm with the dusty evening air outside, filled with a small...
PROLOGUE‘TONIGHT they have their own rooms,’ Alexandros said. ‘Separate rooms.’‘What harm …?’ Roula started and then stopped—she had learnt not to question Alexandros’s decisions, but on this one she had to stand up to him. It would be cruel to separate the babies, so she tried another route. ‘They...
chapter OneI don’t want to see another woman. Ever again.A long moment of silence greeted the fed-up finali...
CHAPTER ONESHE was coming. From his office overlooking the sea, Count Alessandro Alonso Leopold Volta watched the launch approach the island that was home to Castello di Volta and the seat of the Volta family for more than five hundred years.The boat hadn’t even docked and already the bitter taste of bile hovered menacingly at the ba...
Chapter OneThe minute Sam Robertson saw his mother’s frozen expression, he knew something terrible had happened. He hadn’t seen that look on Sharleen’s face since the night his daddy died.He tossed his Stetson onto the hook by the kitchen door and crossed the room to where she sat at the table. The mouthwatering smell of b...
Chapter OneAs part of her long overdue efforts to become a better person, Pamela Jo Wilson tried to find something positive about every situation. Right now the closest thing to a silver lining she could muster was: The car will probably break down before I get there. She could hope, anyway.Or maybe the balding tires would simply melt in...
CHAPTER 1A letter dated two weeks ago from Mary Hurst to her brother Michael.The Hurst men are scattered to the winds. You’re being held by a horrid sulfi who won’t release you until we deliver the mysterious onyx box you purchased, which he fancies; William is braving the seas on his way to attempt to free you; and Robert i...
CHAPTER ONEIT WAS her shoes that gave her away.Her business suit was fine. Professional. Like her pristine leather briefcase, barely there make-up and the way she wore her long hair in a simple yet elegant twist. But the heels of her shoes were much too high and much too delicate. They weren’t office shoes: they were do-me heels. A...
Chapter 1Caitlyn Young lovingly caressed the crimson brick that made up the foundation of the academic building where she had spent so much of her college career. Her tired fingers rested on the rough edges one last time, a final farewell to an old friend.While most were thrilled with the idea of commencement, she still felt as if there...
PrologueDRINK UP BECAUSE class is over!I looked down at the perfectly made dirty martini before I glanced at Dre...
PrologueJake wouldn’t mind the nightmare so much if he only knew what it meant.He thrashed in the bed, knowing he could wake himself in an instant. Instead of saving himself, however, he wrestled with the demons that had haunted his dreams on and off, from nowhere, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri, for nearly two years now.The violenc...
CHAPTER 1"If you're determined to push down a tree, why don't you try that one over there? The scenery's better."Leaning against a big oak tree, Bailey Russell paused in her efforts to stretch her hamstring muscles and followed the direction of Paula's gaze to the tall man on the other side of the trail. He leaned forward,...
CHAPTER ONETOUCH DELICATE, Nolan Radek slid his hands over the broad slab of granite. He’d once been told he had the gift of stone hands, a description he’d liked. He closed his eyes, the better to feel instead of relying on sight. Silky smooth...no. The pads of his fingertips found a hint of roughness there.Opening his eyes, ...
chapter ONEThere’s nothing more cheering than a good friend when we’re in trouble—except a good friend...
Chapter OneApril 1837LondonIt was time to dress for what was sure to prove a trying evening. As she climbed the...
PrologueSensible gentleman of means seeks a sensible lady of good breeding for correspondence, and in due consider...
Chapter OneGet out of my yard! Ellen shouted.The weasel-faced photographer ignored her, too busy snapping photos of the house next door to pay her any mind.No surprise there. This was the fifth time in as many days that a man with a camera had violated her property lines. By now, she knew the drill.They trespassed. She yelled. They prete...
PART ONEChapter 1Autumn, A.D. 408, near Rome, ItalyThe sailboat rode the chop up and down, steady in the face of chaos.Salty mist bathed Gigi Perrin’s face as she kept watch over the bow. The skies overhead were clear and fiercely blue, reminding her of Magnus’s eyes. The wind and waves had just enough kick to make the afterno...
chapter OneFiglio di un allevatore di maiali.Liam Crowe didn’t speak Italian. The new owner of the American News Service network could barely order Italian food, and he was pretty sure his Executive Vice President of Community Outreach knew it.Francesca Orr had muttered the words under her breath during today’s emergency board meeti...
Chapter 1He’d gone rogue.At least that’s what his fellow FBI agents would think if they could see him now, entering one of the college theaters where a lecture was about to begin.It had been years since FBI agent Mark Flynn had been in such a setting. As he opened the door to the room, heard the chattering of students eager...
CHAPTER ONE‘PARDON, SEÑORITA?’Beth looked up to smile at the handsome young man who, until a few moments ago, had been sitting at a neighbouring table enjoying a cup of coffee at the same outside café in the San Telmo area of Buenos Aires, and shooting her the occasional admiring glance from beautiful chocolate-brown...
Chapter OneShe was carrying a head.Sebastian Hall squinted and rubbed his gritty eyes. He blinked and looked again. Definitely a head. Cradled in one arm like a babe. It was a woman’s head with neatly coiffed brown hair. Though at this distance he couldn’t see her expression, he imagined it to be rather distressed.He watched as...
chapter OneThe fiery smell of the alcohol burned his nose long before the glass reached his lips. Ky Robinson slammed the last of his drink in a long gulp. The whiskey crawled fire down his throat to heat his belly. He leaned his elbows on the weathered bar and toyed with the glass, hands cradling the smooth tumbler with practiced ease...
chapter OneThe prince is staring right at you.Maybe he needs a refill. Ariella Winthrop sent a text requesting another round of the salmon and caviar. The gala event that Ariella had planned was a fund-raiser for a local hospital and nearly six hundred guests were milling around the ballroom. I’ll send a server his way.You haven&rsquo...
chapter OneLondon, Spring 1810Ten minutes into her societal debut, Eugenia Talbot was ruined.A favorable presentation in court cannot ensure a young lady’s successful launch into society, but a poor presentation can certainly ruin it. Miss Eugenia Talbot pressed her lips together in an attempt to make the laughter gurgling up inside her ...
Chapter OneI don’t believe in love or happy endings but I do believe in lust.Call me cynical at the tender age of twenty-four but after having my heart broken by my first love and college boyfriend, Kevin, I no longer allowed myself to get involved in relationships.However I wasn’t dead and my libido was still quite active. Th...
chapter 1WITH THE TEMPERATURE hovering near a hundred, John Devlin climbed out of his new Corvette into the unrelenting Vegas heat, locked the car and pocketed his keys. The June sun was so brutal he considered parking closer to the market, but he dismissed the idea in a heartbeat. That was the trouble with owning an expensive sports car...
CHAPTER ONEWHAT THE HELL are you doing on my boat?Elena Calderon froze in the act of polishing the luxurious teak bar in the yacht’s upper lounge. The low growl of the male voice from across the room was laced with a stark and absolute authority that demanded instant obedience. And she knew exactly who he was without looking up. S...
CHAPTER ONETHE BOTTLE WAS cold, but not nearly as cold as the ice around her heart. Rosa lifted the champagne to her lips and drank another mouthful as she tried to dull the pain. She wanted to wake up and find that the past few days hadn’t happened. She wanted to be the person she thought she’d always been. And she wanted...
Chapter OneI heard the sign before I saw it, bent metal rattling in the breeze as my car rounded a curve.DO N...
chapter ONEHE SHOULD BE in that coffin, and not his irrepressible best friend.Giacomo Corretti stood in the shadow of the tall pine tree and watched as the coffin was lowered into the ground just a few feet away from where he was effectively hidden. The tight ball of ice firmly lodged in his gut was slowly spreading out to every extrem...
CHAPTER ONEIT WAS HIS. All his. Almost his, for tomorrow he had an appointment to sign the papers transferring the ownership of the Corretti Hotel Palermo from Corretti Enterprises to Corretti International. Angelo Corretti’s mouth twisted at the irony. From one Corretti to another. Or not.Slowly he strolled through the hotel lobby, watc...
CHAPTER ONEFELIPE WAS DYING. Six months to live. Maybe twelve at a stretch.Dying!Simone swiped away a tear from her cheek, stumbling a little as she ran between the rows of vines clinging to the mountainside. Her grandfather would hate it if he knew she was crying over him. ‘I am old,’ he’d said, when finally he’d l...
CHAPTER ONEMIKHAIL KUSNIROVICH, RUSSIAN oil oligarch and much feared business magnate, relaxed his big body back into his leather office chair and surveyed his best friend, Luka Volkov, with astonishment. ‘Hiking … seriously? That’s truly how you want to spend your stag weekend away?’‘Well, we’ve already had the part...
PrologueLONDON, OCTOBER 1875Clarissa Kincaid wanted to scream, wanted to the run through the house pulling at her hair. Instead, she settled for a calmer, though nonetheless equally unladylike, groan.Her aunt sat with a letter from her sister in Cornwall. She didn’t bother looking up. What is it this time? Aunt Maureen asked from the s...
PrologueThe last person to actually see Graciela Taylor on the day she left Idle Point, Maine forever was old Eb at the Stop & Pump. Maybe if she'd planned her getaway a little better—or had any idea at all that she was going to leave her fiance standing at the altar—she would have seen to it that her gas tank was full. As it...
PROLOGUEWHERE THERE’SSMOKE...Innocence has nothing to dread.— Jean RacineWhat are little girls made of?Sugar and spice, and everything nice:That’s what little girls are made of.— AnonymousCHERTSEY ABBEY1795Marguerite Balfour sat on the very edge of the unyielding wooden pew, her slippered feet swinging freely some six inches above the...
PrologueSeptember 29, 1809Solomon Hathaway was drunk. He was drunk, and he didn’t want to go to a brothel. On the other hand, Mme Deveraux’s front steps were cold and windy. ‘The mouth of strange women is a d...
---Prologue---Family. Everyone knows what is said about families. Blood is thicker than water, love makes a family, we start and end with family; you get my point. Not all families fit this bill, not all families are created equal, yet Chinese proverbs, celebrities, kings and queens, and literary heroes all feel the need to opine us with their wisdom that if you just try a bit harder, love a...
PROLOGUE‘PLEASE.’Ella wasn’t sure how many times that word had been said to her in the past, but she knew that she would forever recall this time.‘Please, Ella, don’t go.’She stood at the departu...
1In a clothes chest in her bedchamber Sylvanne found the stub end of an old candle. With a shock she remembered the luxury of fire—the smell of cooking, the sensation of heat in the mouth, warming the throat all the way down to the welcoming belly. Such thoughts had once sparked angry pangs of hunger, but now her belly felt as a voi...
Chapter OneScottish Highlands, 1338Lady Riana Ellis dribbled three drops of poison from the wooden phial into the goblet sitting on the nightstand beside the wine she would drink.Fill the goblet to the brim, and death would be quick.But the fires of Hell that followed would last forever.Even hellfire paled in comparison to the nightmare that...
The year is 1499. As Alexandra Dunn’s farmhouse is set ablaze, her grandfather places precious stones in her palm, telling her she has until the next full moon to return with a hero...a brave, chivalrous knight to help save...
CHAPTER ONEALESSIA BATTAGLIA ADJUSTED her veil, the whisper-thin fabric skimming over the delicate skin of her neck. Like a lover’s kiss. Soft. Gentle.She closed her eyes, and she could feel it.Hot, warm lips on her bare ...
Stubborn, headstrong, and determined to do things her own way, Alexandria married a man nineteen years her senior believing he loved her only to discover he married her to be a mother to his daughter. Intent on making the mo...
Jilted by her cheating boyfriend, her self-esteem in tatters, Kayla Young escapes to an isolated Greek Island. The last thing she wants is to share her precious paradise with a mysterious, arrogant Greek.Hounded from the city by the press and an entourage of gold diggers
chapter OneAll the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.—Shakespeare, Macbeth , (5.1)Whorls of li...
Chapter 1One thousand candles lit the great hall of Middleham Castle for the King was in residence and shadows ...
ABOUT THE AUTHORMarie Ferrarella, a USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award-winning author, has written more than...
ABOUT THE AUTHORIn 2000, Holly Jacobs sold her first book to Harlequin Enterprises. She’s since sold more t...
Chapter OneKelsey Rhodes scanned her friend’s living room, her focus drawn to the lovely Christmas tree, its...
About the AuthorLYNN RAYE HARRIS read her first Mills & Boon® romance when her grandmother carted home a box...
CHAPTER ONEDIANE MATTHEWS CAME out of sleep as one swimming upwards, a slow brightening, an awareness of sound. ...
About the AuthorAmelia Grey grew up in a small town in the Florida Panhandle. She has been happily married to ...
About the AuthorJANE PORTER grew up on a diet of Mills & Boon® romances, reading late at night under the c...
Chapter OneLondon, April 1822Charles Hunter always sat with his back to the wall to avoid unpleasant surprises—a...
Chapter OneHe was scared.He hated being scared.Jacoby pulled his ragged teddy bear tighter to his chest and wiped...
Chapter OneWould it be her?The closed red door taunted Luke Montgomery. Told him that after nearly ten years sea...
chaper OneAs the pickup truck rocked to a halt in front of her family’s Colorado cattle-ranch house, Katrin...
ABOUT THE AUTHORLynnette Kent lives on a farm in southeastern North Carolina with her five horses and five dogs....
chapter OneOh, this was not good.Ana Birch glanced casually over her shoulder to the upper level of the country...
CHAPTER ONEHOW could you have longed for something with all your heart, lived through endless minutes and hours ...
Sarah stared at the headstones, at the ageing monuments silhouetted by the rising moon. The clearing was strangely quiet and she wondered whether the spirits of Wangallon were welcoming her grandfather, Angus, at some other sacred place on the property. Lifting the latch on the peelin...
Dulcy Menendez has enough problems dealing with her stepmother and two stepsisters. She doesn’t need her sexy new boss, Ethan MacMillan, watching her every move. Especially since every time she catches his gray eyes studying her, her pulse races and her mind conjures up images o...
chapter 1What is that? Her brown eyes widened as her finger lifted off his skin.She’d discovered his tattoo...
PrologueElliotEncouraging the sweaty, grunting man in front of me to tuck his knees closer to his chest as he d...
chapter 1...We commend the soul of our brother departed, and we commit his body to the ground—earth to earth, ...
Synopsis:From the author of "All That Glitters", "Diamond Bay" and "White Lies" comes the story of a man obsesse...
Synopsis:After she double-crosses her lover, a ruthless crime lord, Drea must flee from a relentless assassin who...
Synopsis:Cate Nightingale owns and operates a struggling guest house in a small community; occasionally enlisting t...