Russel Adler has one job while Elijah Barrett is away. Keep Holly Barrett and her best friend Gemma Livingston safe from those out to collapse Club Solitaire. There’s just one problem, Gemma is pain in the ass. A gorgeous, irresistible, pain in the ass determined to make his job impossible. She makes the Dom in him twitch but he knows he can’t lose focus or people might die.
Forever is the long-awaited conclusion to the Diamond Doms series.
Gemma’s heart raced as she followed Russell up the stairs. She’d almost lost her sister. That thought wouldn’t stop repeating in her mind. The amount of danger that seemed to follow her these days made her nauseous.
None of it made sense to Gemma, but Kendall was genuinely shaken by the things she saw, and it had set everyone on high alert. Elijah was now on his way to London for a business deal that had been in the works for a long time and couldn’t be put on hold, so Russell was stepping up security and running the entire operation in person. Now he wanted to ask her some questions. After weeks of avoiding her, they were going to be alone in a room together and she didn’t know how to handle it other than to be a smart ass.
“What did you want to ask me?” She dropped into the chair in front of the desk and waited for Russell to speak.
“I need to hear everything you can tell me about Jonathan Niel and his family.”
Gemma whistled. “Everything? That could take a while. How about you narrow it down for me a bit?”
He scowled, bringing his eyebrows together. “Did Niel know you were about to divorce Matthew?”
Gemma wrinkled her nose. “God, I hope not. But I suppose it’s possible that something leaked. He has an excellent PR team that monitors several issues that are important to him.”
“And what is important to him?”
She laughed. “Money. Power. The ability to snap his fingers and have a woman launch herself at his feet. He’s a total prick. Are you ever going to give in and flirt with me?”
He frowned. “You’re still married and now I’m in charge of your protection detail.”
She shook her head. “You’ve been in charge of it since I arrived in town, and we both know it. That didn’t stop you from kissing me the other night when my safe house was compromised.”
“I’ve already apologized for that. Now focus on my questions, please.”
“I’m so tired of being interrogated by people towering over me assuming I’m some weak little rich girl.”
He rolled his eyes but slid off the desk and sat in the chair beside her. “I’m not interrogating you. I’m asking questions that will aid in getting everyone back to a normal life.”
She folded her arms across her chest to hide the fact that her nipples had hardened under his dominant stare.
“I really don’t know how I can help. I haven’t actually spoken to Jonathan in over a year when he came to my office to talk about a business deal he wanted to push through.”
“Do you have access to a copy of that information?”
“Why is this important? He’s probably part of a murderous cult. Shouldn’t that be what we’re focused on.”
“I told you. Every detail, Gemma. This is an organization that does a lot of expensive work. We have to scrutinize any business deal made or attempted so that we can understand how they tick and see if we can find patterns that lead us to how they’re funding the organization.”
Gemma nodded. “Fair enough. I don’t know if I can access the information. I suppose since we’ve decided I’m not dead or missing anymore, it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to my assistant and get her to send me everything she can.”
Russell nodded. “Please do. And when you get done with that, you me and Holly are going to sit down and discuss safety protocols.”
“Oh, that ought to be fun.”
“Rule number one is no sass from either of you.”
She huffed. “You think because we both identify as submissive you get to pull out the Dom card?”
He chuckled. “No lip, no sass, no bratty behavior. Are we clear, Gemma? Lives are at stake here.”
She waved him away. “Quit with the raised eyebrows and stern tone. I’m going to be good, but I’m a smart ass, and I won’t stop being a smart ass because you say so.”
“Then your smart ass may become a sore ass.”
“You say that like it’s a threat.”
He laughed and leaned closer to her. “Believe me, sweetheart. It is. Now go make your phone calls. We’ll talk again later.” She gave him a salute followed by a middle-fingered wave as she backed out of the room. He tapped the buckle on his belt. Was he threatening to use it on her? The man didn’t have a clue.
Ivy Nelson is an emerging contemporary romance author, hopeful romantic, and passionate advocate who is versed in all things steamy, sultry, and sensual. It all started back when she read her first steamy romance novel at the age of fourteen. From that point forward, it became her favorite genre–one she wanted to write in herself someday. Sylvia Day’s writing style cemented that passion, and gave her just the inspiration she needed to be an author herself. In December of 2018, Ivy published her debut novel, Power Desired at the age of 32.
Most recently, Ivy completed the “D.C. Power Games” series and the prequel to her forthcoming “Diamond Doms series” titled “Hard” (currently available for pre-order). In a not-so-distant past, she was a student affairs professional at a university and earned her political science degree, which explains her politically-driven romance debut.
When she isn’t penning steamy scenes or attending writing conferences, you can find this contest-winning karaoke singer and bookworm passionately supporting human rights or growing her Sims 4 empire. She is also a wine aficionado and certified whiskey taster (no really, she has the certificate to prove it). All that aside, Ivy loves spending quality time with her amazing son and husband of three years at their home in Houston, TX.
Twenty-eight-year-old Holly Snow is the only mother her five-year-old niece remembers. Three years earlier, when her sister and brother-in-law were killed, Holly’s dream of becoming an international flight attendant was put on hold so she could be home for baby Faith.
Holly is doing everything she can to keep the rent paid, including working as an online travel agent, filing medical claims, and cleaning apartments in her building. When her friend Toni tells her that her boss needs someone to buy his Christmas gifts, she leaps at the opportunity.
Tall, dark and Scroogy, investment banker, Archibald Harrington is too busy to do his own Christmas shopping. When his assistant tells him she knows of a professional shopper, he happily checks another dreaded task off his holiday list. The last thing Archie is expecting is for his hired elf to text him insistently to find out more about the people on list.
The last thing Holly expects is to develop feelings for grumpy man who’s stealing her Christmas spirit.
Will there be a Holiday miracle, or will Holly and Archie miss their chance at love? Find out in the fifth installment of the Accidentally in Love Series.
“My boss needs a personal shopper for Christmas, and I’ve already told him I know the very best one in Manhattan.” Toni gives me an open-mouthed smile, clearly expecting me to jump up and down.
“Your boss. As in Archibald Snooty Pants the Forty-Second?” I ask, pursing my lips.
She opens her mouth, but I cut her off with one finger in the air. “You complain about the man all the time.”
“It’s not like he’s a horrible person, he’s just a one trick pony—all work and no play. Plus, it’s not like you’ll have to work side-by-side with him or anything. You probably won’t even have to see him.”
“I’m not a personal shopper,” I tell her. “Unless his family and friends want ramen noodles or discount t-shirts from the guy who sells them out of his trunk in front of my apartment building, I would have no idea what to buy.”
“Yeah, well, Archie doesn’t know that.” She pumps her eyebrows up and down like a comedian.
“Toni, you told me the guy was a rich stuck-up preppy from the Hamptons. While I would love nothing more than to make some extra money, I don’t have the foggiest notion how to shop for rich people.”
“So watch some holiday episodes of Real Housewives and see what they buy each other. He’ll tell you how much to spend on each person. Come on, Holl, it’s not brain surgery. It’s shopping. You know how to shop. And you need the money.”
“What if he hates me?” I despise feeling so pathetic, but I’m totally out of my league here.
“Then he hates you. So what? Believe me when I tell you, Archibald Harrington only thinks about work. You can’t take anything he says personally.”
Dread slams into me like a wrecking ball. “How much do you think I can make?”
“Enough to pay for Christmas and at least the next three months of Faith’s preschool tuition. How can you pass that up?”
The answer is, I can’t. And if it means working for a cranky billionaire, then Toni is right. I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to take care of Faith. I just can’t guarantee I’ll like it.
“Fine,” I tell her. “How many gifts am I supposed to buy?”
“He’ll need all of his family gifts, which include his godfather’s family. He’s spending Christmas with them in Newport. He wants you to cover his business gifts, as well. The VIPs are starred, meaning those particular gifts need to be extra-amazing. I’ve also made you a list of everything that I want, so I don’t wind up with another Monte Blanc pen. I’ve already sold three of those suckers on eBay and I only get a fraction of what they’re worth.”
“I don’t even know what a Monte Blanc pen is.” My chest tightens like I’m not getting enough oxygen.
She hands me a piece of paper. “This is a list of websites to check out. You can order everything and have it delivered here.”
“Why can’t I just have everything sent to his office? What am I going to do with it?”
After taking a healthy swig of white zinfandel, Toni says, “You’re going to wrap everything up and make it look like Santa himself cracked the whip on the gift-wrapping elves. Once you have everything purchased and ready, I’ll send a car to pick the gifts up.”
“You’ll send a car, will you?” I tease.
“Yeah, well, I can do those fancy things in the name of my boss.”
“How am I going to pay for everything?” I ask. “I have about two hundred dollars of credit left on my card. I don’t think that’s going to cut it.”
Toni opens her purse and hands me a shiny black credit card. “There’s no limit, so if you don’t mind doing a little jail time, you could have a lot of fun.”
“No limit? I can’t imagine such a thing.” I fantasize about what damage I could do with plastic like this. Not only could I pay for Faith’s school for the rest of the year, but I could also get my mom into one of those nursing homes that has a hair salon and restaurant. I could upgrade to a two-bedroom apartment so Faith doesn’t have to sleep in the closet anymore, and I could even splurge and buy myself some real leather gloves.
“You’re imagining, aren’t you?” Toni jolts me out of my daydream.
“I most certainly am. The first thing I’d do is buy Faith whatever winter coat she wanted and then I’d take her out to a nice restaurant.”
Toni rolls her eyes. “If you’re going down for a crime, you’ve got to think bigger.”
I stare at the card for a second, then look back up at Toni. “How can you stand working for someone who has so much? Don’t you just want to steal cash out of his wallet once in a while?” I don’t really have the heart of a felon, I’m just tired of always being broke.
“The nice thing about Archie is that even though he has the personality of a killer shark, he’s generous. He has a Friday lunch catered for his staff every week, and he makes sure to float us enough extras that none of us are tempted to steal from him. He’s a good businessman.”
“Even though he’s a stuck-up preppy?” I ask for clarification.
“Exactly.”
I look at the list of stores she thinks I should shop at—Tiffany’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrods, The House of Bijan … “What’s my budget?”
She hands me another piece of paper. The handwriting isn’t hers, so I’m guessing it’s Archie’s. “He wants me to spend four thousand dollars on his mother?!”
“Yup. He wants her to have two gifts. One of them needs to be the main. The other can be fancy ass chocolates or something.”
“Right, but probably not gas station chocolates.”
“Quit stressing, Holls, you’ve got this.”
I don’t know why, but for the life of me I can’t see this ending well…
Whitney loves to laugh, play with her kids, bake, and eat french fries — not always in that order.
Whitney is a multi-award-winning author of romcoms, non-fiction humor, and middle reader fiction. Basically, she writes whatever the voices in her head tell her to.
She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, Jimmy, where they raise children, chickens, and organic vegetables.
Gold Medal winner at the International Readers’ Favorite Awards, 2017.
Silver medal winner at the International Readers’ Favorite Awards, 2015, 2016.
Melanie Summers also writes steamy romance as MJ Summers.
Melanie made a name for herself with her debut novel, Break in Two, a contemporary romance that cracked the Top 10 Paid on Amazon in both the UK and Canada, and the top 50 Paid in the USA. Her highly acclaimed Full Hearts Series was picked up by both Piatkus Entice (a division of Hachette UK) and HarperCollins Canada. Her first three books have been translated into Czech and Slovak by EuroMedia. Since 2013, she has written and published three novellas, and eight novels (of which seven have been published). She has sold over a quarter of a million books around the globe.
In her previous life (i.e. before having children), Melanie got her Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta, then went on to work in the soul-sucking customer service industry for a large cellular network provider that shall remain nameless (unless you write her personally – then she’ll dish). On her days off, she took courses and studied to become a Chartered Mediator. That designation landed her a job at the R.C.M.P. as the Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinator for ‘K’ Division. Having had enough of mediating arguments between gun-toting police officers, she decided it was much safer to have children so she could continue her study of conflict in a weapon-free environment (and one which doesn’t require makeup and/or nylons).
Melanie resides in Edmonton with her husband, three young children, and their adorable but neurotic one-eyed dog. When she’s not writing novels, Melanie loves reading (obviously), snuggling up on the couch with her family for movie night (which would not be complete without lots of popcorn and milkshakes), and long walks in the woods near her house. She also spends a lot more time thinking about doing yoga than actually doing yoga, which is why most of her photos are taken ‘from above’. She also loves shutting down restaurants with her girlfriends. Well, not literally shutting them down, like calling the health inspector or something–more like just staying until they turn the lights off.
She is represented by Suzanne Brandreth of The Cooke Agency International.
“What?” I chuckled as I slipped on my socks and shoes.
“Nothing.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just impressed, is all.”
I chuckled and Beck shoved his sister’s chair, almost making her fall. “That’s my friend, asshole. You don’t get to be impressed.”
“No. She’s right.” Josie was still staring at me too. “I really expected you to have the smallest dick.”
“I feel like I should be offended.” I leaned back in my chair.
“It’s your personality.” Allie shrugged. “You know, cocky guy, small dick. Showy car, small dick.”
“Okay, Allie.” I pressed my elbows into my knees and looked across the fire at her. “Truth or dare?”
She stared at me, and I had a feeling that no matter what she picked she wouldn’t do it. “Truth.”
I let my gaze slide to Eli before it went back to her. I shouldn’t have even called her name. I should just ask her something stupid and move on, but my heart raced in my chest, and I didn’t hesitate with what I asked her next. “When was the last time that you were truly turned on? I mean really and truly, couldn’t-think-about-anything-else turned on?”
A few people snickered, but I didn’t look away from her. She didn’t pull her gaze away from me either as she answered, but I knew her answer was a lie the moment it left her mouth.
“When Eli kissed me.”
“Carson, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“When was the last time you were really and truly turned on? And I mean to the point that you actually considered kissing the girl?”
“Oh shit.” That came from Olly, but no one said anything to stop us.
“Just about any time I’m with you, but if you’re looking for a specific moment, the night the cops walked in while I was going down on you.”
Laughter rang out around us, but neither of us was deterred.
“Allie, truth or dare?”
“Truth.” There was no hesitation in her eyes. She wasn’t scared of what I had to say.
“Do you actually like Eli, or are you just pissed off at me?”
“This is the exact reason people think you have a small dick.” She crossed her arms. “You assume that everything anyone does it about you when it isn’t. I actually like Eli, for your information.” She tucked a blonde curl behind her ear. “Carson, truth or dare?”
“This is about to get messy,” Josie whispered to Beck, but I heard her. She was right. It probably was.
“Dare.” I cocked my head to the side and looked at her.
“I dare you to stop being such an asshole and just tell us what the hell your problem is.”
“My problem?” I rubbed at my jaw. “Currently my problem is you. You haven’t barely spoken to me in days, you’ve been avoiding me like the plague at community service, and now…”
“Now what?” She was angry.
“Now I have to sit here and watch you with him.” I pointed at Eli, and he had the nerve to fucking smirk at me.
“I haven’t spoken to you because the last time we spoke, you made it very clear where we stood. I’ve been avoiding you because I don’t want to deal with you, and you’re going to have to continue to watch me with him because I like him. And it’s the oddest thing, but he likes me too.”
“Truth or dare?”
“I’m done playing this stupid game.” She pushed out of her seat, and I knew that Eli was about to follow her.
“Truth or dare, Allie? It’s not that hard.”
She spun back around to face me, and I could see the anger in her eyes. “Fine. Dare.” She held out her arms because she thought by ending the truths, she was going to end this argument between us.
“I dare you to kiss me.”
“That’s not happening.” Eli had the balls to say that out loud to me, and it took everything inside me not to close the space between us and finish what we had started last weekend.
“The last time I checked, you weren’t Allie’s boyfriend, and you don’t speak for her.” I looked back to Allie, and she was staring at me. “Allie can either kiss me or she can drink.” I lifted the bottle of liquor and shook it between us.
“You kissing me changes nothing.” She shook her head. “Then it won’t hurt.” I shrugged my shoulders and tried to act like I didn’t care one way or another, even though I didn’t know what would happen if she walked away from me now. “If you’re so into Eli and kissing me won’t change anything, then what are you so scared of?”
I’m Holly Renee, a small-town east Tennessee girl who is obsessed with all things romance. I love bringing flawed, sassy, and real characters to life in a way that makes you feel like you’ve been best friends with them for years. No two Holly Renee books are the same, but if you love real, relatable, fun female characters and swoon-worthy heroes, I’m your girl.
When I’m not writing or reading, you can find me momming so hard, being disgustingly in love with my husband, or chilling in the middle of a lake with my sunglasses and a float. #lakelife
I have a 2-year-old adorable little man who is as wild and sweet as they come and a baby girl on the way.
