Emilia is excited to start a house-sitting job, even if the house is creepy and more than a little on the odd side — as odd as the owner’s requests. When she finds an unusual gaming console, she is drawn into a lusty video game in which she crosses paths with five inhuman creatures. She is drawn to them all, but when the five men keep telling her that the game is very much not what it seems, Emilia realizes she can no longer play along.
As the path she follows offers not just desire and intense experiences but also sadness, cruelty, and hurt around every bend, Emilia’s resolve firms: she will free the five men, who tell her they are already a family, already lovers. Whatever she has grown to feel for them, she cannot let them suffer if saving them is within her power.
With the rules of a game she doesn’t understand forcing her to play along, Emilia must find a way to get to the end of the game and get everyone out — whatever the cost. The freedom of her five monsters depends on her.
Emilia, as if enthralled, took another step toward him. The gravel shifted under her silly boots, and the man looked at her. His eyes were vibrant copper, and they widened as he saw her. The melody stopped, and his mouth fell away from the mouthpiece of his flute.
“Traveler?” he said, the word somewhere between surprise and disbelief.
Emilia licked her lips. “You play beautifully.”
After a moment of silence, he closed his mouth and smiled a contagious smile at her. “Thank you. It’s nice to have someone listen to it. It feels like no one has, other than those glowworms, for the past century or so.”
“Right. Because this is Rook’s prison, and you are a prisoner.”
He tilted his head. “You met Arden, clearly.”
She cleared her throat. “He stole my underpants.”
It took several long heartbeats before the flute player broke out in giggles. “He’s been known to do that, but as far as I have experienced, only after he has seen to your needs.”
As far as he has experienced? “That’s one way of putting it.” A noise caught Emilia’s attention, and she turned. The greenery that made the bower was shifting behind her back, closing off the entrance to the flower-hung space. “Uhm.” She looked back to the flute player. “Let me guess. I’m stuck here. And the only way to get out is… playing your flute?”
“Mmh. That’s not the first time someone suggested that exact thing, you see. But yes, metaphorically speaking.” He put the actual instrument into a case that he kept behind the cushion. “My name is Pheus, in case you need to scream something, later on.”
Emilia snorted, but the noise died on her lips when Pheus stood. Oh, he was pretty, but also tall, lean, his hair reaching easily to the middle of his thighs. He wore something like a Japanese style bathrobe, though this was no cheap fabric. It made him look as if he were a Faerie prince, and Emilia found herself drawn to him, just as much as the hunter and his hounds at her back had made her want to run.
Alexa Piper writes steamy romance that ranges from light to dark, from straight to queer. She’s also a coffee addict. Alexa loves writing stories that make her readers laugh and fall in love with the characters in them.
Title: Audrey Author: Sean-Paul Thomas Genre: Contemporary Romance
From the author of My Sister and I and The Old Man and The Princess (recently optioned to be a motion picture) – comes a new, suspenseful romantic tale that will knock you off your feet. A story that has a reminiscence of ‘500 days of Summer’ and ‘Midnight in Paris’ with a fair dollop of ‘The Graduate’ thrown in. And of course Audrey, a delightful, older female protagonist who takes the young and wayward ex-con Joe under her wing.
Just out of prison Joe, a young builder from Edinburgh who writes movie scripts in his spare time, randomly meets Audrey, a washed-up, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, middle-aged French film actress at his local film festival. After hitting it off and spending one crazy, magical night together, Audrey sees some potential in Joe and his writing and tries to help him win back his estranged daughter by getting his first screenplay made into a movie in Paris. And so, the adventure of a lifetime begins…
“Don’t say that. Jesus. You were brilliant up there. And you barely look a day over twenty-nine.” Joe said with a reassuring grin. Audrey’s eyes widened and she smiled with delight at the compliment.
“Well the dim lighting out here in this dark alleyway is fantastic, yes?” she teased. “It hides all of my lovely wrinkles and skin imperfections.”
“Okay,” Joe said rolling his eyes. “Maybe thirty-five then when you were outside earlier in the natural light,” Joe said, teasing her back, trying his best to flirt with her now, but it had been such a long time since he’d played the flirting game with anyone, that he didn’t even know if he was doing it right anymore. They both chuckled at his words and Audrey even slapped him lightly on the arm. Joe took it as a pretty good sign that she enjoyed his rusty flirting banter, even if she was only humouring him. He was just about to ask her something else. Something a little bit deeper and meaningful. That was when the festival host suddenly appeared through the fire escape, desperately searching for Audrey. Joe realised instantly that he was coming to steal her away even before he gave Joe a quick dismissive look.
“Miss Beart? We need to take some more pictures now. Can you please come back inside?”
Joe had never felt so gutted before in his life. It was like the brick alley walls around him were all crumbling in and there was nothing he could do to stop the imminent disaster. They both hesitated and looked deeply into each other’s eyes like they knew they had so much more to say and ask of the other. At first, the festival host just assumed that Joe was only a starstruck fan and would be dropped by Audrey like a hot piece of coal effective immediately at the host’s mere white-knight presence in front of them. But after a long but comfortable silence, even Joe felt surprised that Audrey was still standing there and hadn’t made her excuses to leave already.
“So…” She finally uttered with that cute and delightful smile of hers, which was directed straight at him once again. “It would appear as if they remembered who I am after all…”
Audrey threw her almost finished cigarette down onto the ground and stamped it out with her shoe.
“I guess it was nice meeting you then… Joseph…”
“Please, just call me Joe”
“Hey, Joe, what do you know?” Audrey replied right back at him with a playful smile and a casual wink.
“You too, Audrey. It was an absolute pleasure,” was all Joe could fire back even though he wanted to say a million and one other things.
There was another fleeting second of hesitation. Joe didn’t want her to go anywhere and he knew she could feel it too, but in the end, he felt utterly powerless to make her stay. Who the hell was he to demand such a thing? In a normal world of boy-meets-girl, this would have been the ideal time to ask for her number or e-mail address or at least add her on bloody Facebook. But Joe did nothing. Not only was he well out of practice on the boy-meets-girl market front, but who the hell was he to ask anything of her? Joe knew he didn’t belong there. He knew he didn’t belong in Audrey’s world at that particular moment in time. He hadn’t yet earned that kind of accolade or respect as an artist. He was a nobody, and she was a somebody. Joe lived in Edinburgh as an ex-con, part-time plumber, and a starving writer and she lived in the vibrant, stunning, and equally chaotic city of Paris, or so he’d read on her IMDB page, deep within the magical film world that Joe hadn’t even begun earning the right of entry into. Plus, it felt even more awkward to him with the festival host still impatiently leering over them, still wondering why on earth Audrey hadn’t made her excuses and left with him yet, but at the same time not wishing to appear verbally rude by enforcing her to come back into the cinema.
“Good luck with the movie, too, and your writing.” Joe finally added, still not taking his eyes away from the middle-aged beauty.
“Merci Beaucoup,” Audrey replied, still gazing right at him before finally turning away and beginning to make her idle move back through the fire exit doors and into the cinema. “See you then,” she continued in a tone that suggested if Joe would only man the hell up and ask her to meet him later that evening for a drink or a late-night coffee so they could chat some more about movies, writing, or whatever the hell other life subjects that came up, then she would absolutely and positively accept his invitation. But Joe didn’t say another damn word, because Joe wasn’t that bold, or charming, or confident. Had he ever been? Yes, perhaps, once upon a time, before five long years of living in a lonely cell had robbed him of some crucial part of his personality and socialising skills to the extent where two minutes conversing with a French film actress convinced him that was two minutes more than what he actually deserved. Then, to the cinema host’s deep frustrations, Audrey suddenly paused at the fire exit door for much longer than he would have liked.
“What are you doing later, Joe?” Audrey asked out of the blue. Joe found himself utterly taken aback by her question, but quickly composed himself with a sharp, cool, and confident response that he would thank himself for in the not too distant future.
“Nothing I can’t get out of. Why, what do you have in mind?”
“Can you show me where to buy some cigarettes around here?”
“Aye. I can do that.” Joe replied, utterly delighted but trying his best to hold it in.
“Good. Why don’t you meet me out front in say… thirty minutes, and I’ll maybe even let you show me around your wonderful city, too, if you’re lucky?” Audrey said, finishing with a wink.
Joe smiled with utter pleasure. He couldn’t quite believe what Audrey had just said, but he went with it all the same.
Sean is an author from Edinburgh in Scotland. He is the best selling Kindle Author of ‘The Old Man and The Princess’ which was recently optioned to be a major motion picture.
Sean spent most of his childhood and teenage years on the move with his Scottish and Irish army Parents growing up in the likes of Cyprus, Germany, Wales, and England, as an army brat.
With a keen interest in both reading and writing, he was diagnosed with travel and writing bugs very early in life. Now, writing, travelling, reading, cinema, and Scottish football (Supporting the mighty Edinburgh City for his sins) are his main passions in life.
His main inspiration for writing today comes from living in such a beautiful, charming and hauntingly, Gothic city, such as Edinburgh. An awe-inspiring wee city that has given him so much amazing inspiration to write the more time he spends there.
Recently, Sean has been working on a couple of screenplay adaptations of his books. One of which ‘The Old Man and The Princess’ made the final of the Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition 2018 and has since been optioned by an award-winning Director /Producer team. Scheduled to go into production in Ireland in the summer of 2021 filming has been postponed until 2022 due to the recent covid pandemic.
It’s all sunshine and butterflies until your brother’s best friend dropkicks your heart. I knew I had it coming with Weston McKnight. The Adonis next door. The fever crush. The always protector. The man who walked away after pulverizing my soul.
Seven years ago, he left our little town with a promise he couldn’t keep. I waited. I worried. I suffered. I stopped chasing dreams built on that boy’s mile-wide shoulders. Then I found the pig—and sweet chaos found me.
I had to rescue that poor squealing baby before he was roadkill. I didn’t know he belonged to Captain McGrumpy. I never guessed I’d collide with a scowling, moody, scary-hot West again. Same man. New secrets. Oh, but that all too familiar tension…
We’re stuck as frenemy neighbors for the next two months. Facing a dilemma with bittersweet memories and flaming glances. What’s the harm in seeking a little closure? Massive. Can we even use words without risking an all out kissing war? Well… Am I in trouble with my worst best friend again? Definitely.
Full-length romance thriller with a sticky sweet Happily Ever After forged from friends-to-lovers madness. Witness one broken man’s redemption quest to claim the girl he shouldn’t with so many small-town hijinks, countless dad jokes, and a little help from a bad-tempered pig.
The moment our lips meet, it’s like a generator blown to pieces. A hundred thousand watts of raw electricity, hot and fast and furious, so wild with sparks it welds our lips together.
Fuck.
No.
Fuck!
She gasps into my mouth and I groan back a curse. Her lips firm with surprise, then soften, giving way to the sudden attack of my tongue.
I’m no longer in control of my own body.
This kiss has its own rules, its own gravity, its own soul.
I’d be a complete fool to try to stop its energy.
Her lips are too soft. Too warm. Too perfect in every way, shape, form, and whimper.
When my tongue claims hers, soft and wet as a summer strawberry, she molds to my chest, dragging her body against mine.
I can’t separate my hot mouth from hers, even though I know full well I should.
Stumbling back a step is the only thing that saves us.
That’s what she does to me, her and her thieving, glorious lips. She knocks me upside the head and renders me fucking boneless.
I tear myself away violently, just a few inches, both of us staring in wild-eyed shock at each other, fighting to remember how to breathe.
Goddamn. My eyes slide to those ruby-red lips again with a need to bite her.
I can’t. I won’t.
But hell…one more time, maybe.
Just one more taste and then I’ll stop. I’ll pull back from the brink before we face annihilation.
It takes nearly all my willpower to crush my lips against hers, to roam her mouth every way I’ve wanted for years—fucking years—only to shove myself away.
Dammit all. My bright ideas especially.
I’m panting like a wild animal—breathing like I’m in disbelief—and for her, I want to be.
Nicole Snow is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author. She found her love of writing by hashing out love scenes on lunch breaks and plotting her great escape from boardrooms. Her work roared onto the indie romance scene in 2014 with her Grizzlies MC series.
Since then Snow aims for the very best in growly, heart-of-gold alpha heroes, unbelievable suspense, and swoon storms aplenty. With over a million books sold, she lives for the joy of making two people fight with every bit of their soul for a Happily Ever After.
Current fan favorites include her Enguard Protectors series, accidental love novels, plus long beloved MC romance thrillers like the Grizzlies and Deadly Pistols.
Title: Night Prince Author: Felice Stevens Genre: LGBTQ+ Paranormal Romance
A vampire who’s lost everything meets a man who has nothing to lose.
For centuries, Massimo D’Alba, banished prince of the Fold, has wandered through life frozen in darkness and pain. Betrayed by his younger, power-hungry brother, he’s existed for centuries but not lived. A rain-soaked night brings smart-mouthed New Yorker, Damion Avery, to his doorstep and suddenly he’s riding spin bikes, shopping for yoga pants, eating ice cream…and falling in love.
Damion Avery can’t figure out why Prince Tall, Dark, and Incredibly Sexy wants him as his personal assistant, but he’s not going to second-guess his good luck. Even though he has to work all night and sleep during the day, the job is too good to be true. But where does Massimo sneak off to in the dead of night? Is he a spy, an assassin, or something else? And what’s with those glowing purple eyes? Damion knows he shouldn’t fall for his boss. But Damion was never one to follow the rules.
When duty calls him home, Massimo must return to save his kingdom, forcing a life-changing decision: leave Damion behind forever, or reveal his deepest, darkest secret to the man who has become his everything, who owns a part of Massimo he’d thought gone forever…his heart.
Massimo glanced up from reading the newspaper as Damion bounded down the stairs.
“Where are you off to? You look like you’re on a mission.”
“I’m going across town to Macy’s. They’re open late tonight—until nine-thirty, and I need some new clothes.” He pointed at his ripped jeans. “I only have one other pair, and I need some shirts and stuff, especially now that you want me to sit in on your video conferences with you and not remain in the background. It’s my dinner hour, so I won’t be taking time from work.”
Massimo set the paper down, frowning. “First of all, you should not worry about doing personal things during your free time. I do not own you, Damion. You work for me. Second of all, I think that is a good idea. Are you sure they will have what you need?”
Damion snorted. “They’re only the biggest store in the world. I think I’ll find something.” His blue eyes twinkled, and Massimo fought that internal war that made him want to grab Damion and kiss him, while knowing it was wrong. It was exhausting to fight this attraction, and instead of it waning as he’d hoped, it was gaining strength.
Damion snapped his fingers. “Hey. I have an idea. Why don’t you come with me? You can help me pick out stuff and tell me what looks good. I’m hopeless like that, and you have a great sense of style.”
Massimo was hesitant. “You want me to go clothes shopping? I’ve never done that before. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Damion’s eyes bugged out, and he stood mute for a moment. “You’re kidding. You’ve never been in a department store?”
Massimo shrugged. “Why would I? I have a tailor come and make my suits and shirts. Anything else I need, Claudio orders for me. Stores are crowded with people.” He made a face. “Why would I want to go?”
“Because you can try stuff on you might not know you even want. I love impulse-buying. Please? Come with me?”
It was pointless to try and resist those big blue eyes. And that was how Massimo D’Alba, prince of the Fold and one of the most powerful vampires in the world, found himself in a dressing room in Macy’s, wearing a hot-pink T-shirt that said: Yoga is my superpower,and an indecently tight pair of gray sweat pants.
“I think not.” He exited the dressing room to show Damion, who stood in front of the three-way mirror in a tank top the color of his eyes and biker shorts.
When their eyes met, Damion’s jaw dropped, and he spun around.
Massimo shifted under his heated stare, and his cock hardened. Mortified, he took a step away, praying Damion hadn’t noticed. “I can’t believe you made me try this on.”
“Oh, loosen up. Lots of guys wear this when they exercise.” Damion cocked his head. “You look good. Really good.”
“I look as ridiculous as I feel. I’ll stick to what I have, thank you. And we came here for you, not me.”
Damion turned to his own mirror, and Massimo’s gaze fixed on his perfect ass, hugged by the second-skin material of the biker shorts. Massimo had enough trouble with the damn spin bike; did he need to be tortured by Damion wearing next to nothing while they exercised? Having a hard-on while spinning was a singularly painful experience he tried to avoid.
Felice Stevens has always been a romantic at heart. She believes that while life is tough, there is always a happy ending around the corner. Her characters have to work for it, because just like life in NYC, nothing comes easy and that includes love.
Felice is the 2020 Lambda Literary Award winning author in best Gay Romance. She lives in New York City and has way too much black in her wardrobe. If she’s not writing, you’ll probably find her watching reality TV or procrastinating on FB in her reader group, Felice’s Breakfast Club.
Title: Dark Reign Author: Amelia Wilde Genre: Contemporary Romance
Wealthy. Reclusive. Dangerous. Emerson LeBlanc doesn’t enter society much. He only ventures out in pursuit of new art for his collection. It starts with a haunting painting. Then he meets the artist…
Innocent Daphne Morelli is more exquisite than anything he’s ever seen. He becomes obsessed with her. It doesn’t matter that she’s a living, breathing person with her own hopes and dreams.
I’d like to watch you paint while you’re naked. While you’re crying. While I’m inside you. It would be the purest form of poetry. It would be like nothing you’ve ever done, nothing I’ve ever done, and I want it more than I have ever wanted anything.
“No.”
“At least you’re honest.”
Perhaps. I haven’t told Daphne anything, really. She knows nothing about me except what I want her to know. Real honesty might be admitting that I can hardly fucking breathe when she’s standing this close. That goose bumps run up and down my arms when I think of her alone. The dream I had last night. That would be honesty. What I said was a plain truth. I want more than to watch her paint. I want so much more.
It’s painful to ask, when I could take her now. Daphne’s petite. Small enough that if I opened the door, I could have her in my arms and in the back of the SUV with minimal effort. She could not outrun me. If I did, if I gave in to the electricity wiring my nerves, everything would come apart. It would take forever for her to trust me again. It would take so long to make her see.
“Come with me,” I say. Her shoulders shake now with the cold. Daphne looks behind me, into the SUV, and glances up at Logan. This is a different calculation entirely than staying with me in the gallery. I know she made that call minute by minute. She was alive with her fear every second, and part of her loved it. I tasted it on her. Fear. Desire. Relief.
“I—” A door bursts open on the other side of my SUV, wood banging on brick, and Daphne jumps back from the SUV window. “What’s going on?”
I search for an answer, but she’s not asking me. Two men in suits come into the street. “Ms. Morelli,” one of them says.
Daphne’s hand goes to the pocket of her hoodie. She pulls out her phone and frowns at the screen, then shoves it away again. “Is something happening?”
“We need you to come this way.”
“Guys.” Daphne sighs, but she puts on a smile anyway. “This is maybe not the way to do this. I’m in the middle of a conversation.”
“We have orders,” says the second one. “What, is it because I’m outside?” Daphne’s voice rises, but she doesn’t lose control. “No, Ms. Morelli. There’s no problem with you being outside.” The first one glances in my direction. “It’s time to get ready to go. This way, please.”
Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.
Amelia is a USA Today best selling author from northern Michigan. Be her friend!
Title: The Lies Between Us Author: Yolanda Olson Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance
Running away has always been something I’m good at.
I’ve run far away from home and back again thinking that each time would be the last.
But things are a lot different lately. I’ve learned that tides turn, seasons change, and sometimes, people do too.
I haven’t seen Hoyt Blackburn in a decade because I was so convinced he wasn’t worth my time anymore. I guess this is where I’ve changed since I found out that his execution is one of those inevitable things that life handed him. I can’t ever remember him being a bad man, yet I can’t shake that something isn’t right about what’s happening to him.
Maybe it’s because I miss him.
Maybe it’s because I wanna lay eyes on the man one last time.
Will he remember me? Will he even care? I don’t know; the only thing I can honestly say for sure is that there are still some secrets we have left between us that have to be spoken before he draws his last breath. Otherwise, when that day comes, they may have just killed me too.
Jori laughs, this time a good-natured laugh, and I turn back around and smile at him. When he’s genuinely happy, his smile can light up the fucking world. You can see eternity in his eyes, and everything seems like it’ll be okay, even if just for the moment we’re in.
Yolanda Olson is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.
Reluctant socialite Coraline Baxter longs to live a life of significance and leave her mark on the world. When her local suffragette group asks her to climb Mount Rainier to raise awareness of their cause, she jumps at the chance, even though she has absolutely no climbing experience. If she can do it, any woman can do it. And after her mother issues an ultimatum–that Cora marry the man of her mother’s choosing if she is not successful–Cora must do it. But she can’t do it alone.
Noted mountain guide Nathan Hardee initially refuses to help Cora, but has a change of heart when he sees what is at stake. He knows enough about the man Cora’s mother has chosen to know that the headstrong young woman should have nothing to do with him, much less marry him.
Climbing Rainier will require all of Cora’s fortitude and will lead her and Nathan to rediscover their faith in God and humanity. These two loners make unlikely partners in righting a wrong and may just discover that only together is the view most glorious.
I answer with a kiss. A kiss I initiate. My glasses lift up as our faces meet and I reach up to pull them off, holding the stems in my hand as it lingers at his neck.
If a kiss can be perfect, this one is, crossing time and space to pull emotional tendrils together. I’m kissing him for seventeen years of confusion and craziness, for seventeen years of rejecting a piece of me that was just fine to begin with, for seventeen years of being defined by a fellow tween’s impulsive move.
He’s kissing me back for his own reasons, and whatever they are, they’re mighty fine, as his mouth takes mine and tells it stories that make my heart smile. Hands around my waist, he pulls me close, belly to belly, my coat still on but unzipped, the press of his flat torso and muscled terrain achingly tactile. My hands go up behind his neck, fingers brushing the ends of his short hair as his tongue uses a kind of energy I have never encountered before.
Breathless, we break apart, then come together again, the world spinning slowly without us, our bodies here but the rest of us, on every plane, lost in each other.
The cool air against my lips is the first sign that he’s pulled back. I open my eyes to find him so close, staring deeply, chest rising and falling as the scent of him mingles with the frankincense and rose oil I put on earlier today.
“So?” he asks.
“So… what?”
“Is that a yes?”
“You think that was a no?” One arm still around him, unable to let go, I cover my mouth with my hand, laughing.
“I think I need a clear yes, Fiona.”
On tiptoes, I kiss him lightly, then drop back, body pulsing.
Regina Scott started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t sell her first novel until she learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages, including Dutch, German, Italian, and Portuguese. She now has had published more than fifty works of warm, witty historical romance. Regina Scott and her husband of more than 30 years reside in the Puget Sound area of Washington State on the way to Mt. Rainier. She has dressed as a Regency dandy, learned to fence, driven four-in-hand, and sailed on a tall ship, all in the name of research, of course. Learn more about her at her website.
Enter to win print copies of all three books in the American Wonders Collection, a collection of nine vintage-style postcards from the parks featured (the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Mt. Rainier), and a poster that speaks to the heart of the story: The best view comes after the hardest climb.!
Prillon warrior Thomar Arcas is the royal heir to his ancestor’s legacy of dishonor, betrayal and death. When he was captured by the Hive, some on his home world cheered. Some sighed with relief. None shed a tear.
Thomar, along with his second, Varin, break free and destroy an enemy base, barely escaping with their lives. They transport to The Colony, the last refuge for contaminated males. Upon arrival they suffer in agony, their cyborg implants fighting for control of the powerful warriors.
Defeat is not in their blood. Not in their history. Not in their souls. Unable to sever their ties to the Hive implants, and suffering unrelenting pain, the warriors are about to choose an honorable death over further disgrace; until they are matched to a human female from Earth who very much needs their broken pieces to make herself whole. A female whom they crave with an intensity that just might pull them back from the brink of death.
Danika Gray left Earth to start a new life. With every touch, every kiss, every moment in their arms she finds herself closer to the paradise she seeks. But how can she free her new mates from endless torment? Fight an enemy she cannot see?
Love and passion are her only weapons. Lust. Desire. She must surrender everything she is —give in to their insatiable hunger—in order to save them.
“Do you accept my claim, mate? Do you give yourself freely, to me and my second, or do you wish to choose another primary male?”
Ummm, no? I wanted to tell this man, whoever he was, that I had no intention of accepting his claim on anything, but the body I seemed to be occupying shivered with need at the deep timbre of his voice, my—her—core throbbed, wet with welcome.
“Yes. Yes, I accept your claim, warriors.” The voice wasn’t mine, but I felt what she was feeling. Achy. Empty, Desperate.
Loved. Adored.
Safe.
That was not me. I had felt nothing similar in more years than I cared to count.
“Hurry,” I—she whispered.
From behind me, a second male voice murmured into my ear. “So greedy, little mate.”
I had no idea what was happening, but I knew the sound of promise in the male’s voice. So did this body. A soft moan escaped from my-her throat as his hands moved from my hips to cup my breasts.
I sat on his lap. Content to be there.
Was that another man behind me?
Oh, god. Yes. It was.
I should have been shocked. Instead, raw lust flooded me and I somehow knew there were two lovers. Two males. Both mine.
“Close your eyes. Lift your arms above your head. Lean back. Wrap them around me and don’t let go.” That voice whispered in my ear again, the command one I was eager to follow.
I did as instructed, my chest thrust forward, my back arched.
“Do not move without permission, mate.”
I tried to open my eyes, but the thought carried no weight as my body was not obeying my commands, but hers. Whoever she was. She kept her eyes closed and I knew it was because her second—whatever that meant—had ordered her not to open them and she wanted to please him. Wanted the pleasure she knew cooperation would award her. Desperately.
Grace Goodwin is a USA Today and international bestselling author of Sci-Fi and Paranormal romance with nearly one million books sold. Grace’s titles are available worldwide in multiple languages in ebook, print and audio formats. Two best friends, one left-brained, the other right-brained, make up the award-winning writing duo that is Grace Goodwin. They are both mothers, escape room enthusiasts, avid readers and intrepid defenders of their preferred beverages. (There may or may not be an ongoing tea vs. coffee war occurring during their daily communications.) Grace loves to hear from readers.
Title: The Lies Between Us Author: Yolanda Olson Genre: New Adult, Dark Contemporary Romance
Running away has always been something I’m good at.
I’ve run far away from home and back again thinking that each time would be the last.
But things are a lot different lately. I’ve learned that tides turn, seasons change, and sometimes, people do too.
I haven’t seen Hoyt Blackburn in a decade because I was so convinced he wasn’t worth my time anymore. I guess this is where I’ve changed since I found out that his execution is one of those inevitable things that life handed him. I can’t ever remember him being a bad man, yet I can’t shake that something isn’t right about what’s happening to him.
Maybe it’s because I miss him.
Maybe it’s because I wanna lay eyes on the man one last time. Will he remember me? Will he even care? I don’t know; the only thing I can honestly say for sure is that there are still some secrets we have left between us that have to be spoken before he draws his last breath. Otherwise, when that day comes, they may have just killed me too.
Yolanda Olson is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.
You can keep in touch with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Title: Feisty Author: Lynn Stevens Series: Ridder U Hockey #1 Genre: New Adult Contemporary Sports Romance
She’s too trusting…
Elora has never been so cold. Growing up in the tropics did not prepare her for a new life in Minnesota. For the first time, she’s living in a place that doesn’t float and her best friend isn’t also her family. Everything is a new experience, a new adventure. Including hockey. The arena is freezing, but the game is fierce, fast, and fascinating. She can’t take her eyes off the action… or off a certain player.
He’s wary of everyone…
Wyatt is done with puck bunnies. He just wants to play, go to class, and be left alone. The opposite sex dishes out nothing but misery. School and hockey must come first. Then he meets Elora, and she’s totally clueless about hockey, about school, about a little bit of everything. And she’s the opposite of the ice queen who crushed his heart. But he’s not ready to light that lamp.
When Elora suffers a crisis of confidence, Wyatt’s willing to help her regain her faith in people, especially him. Even if it takes confronting his past to have a future.
Can Wyatt show Elora that he’s the man she thinks he is or will they end up being two ships passing in the night?
Lynn Stevens flunked out of college writing her first novel. Yes, she still has it and no, you can’t read it. Surprisingly, she graduated with honors at her third school. A former farm girl turned city slicker, Lynn lives in the Midwest where she drinks coffee she can’t pronounce and sips tea when she’s out of coffee. When she’s out of both, just stay away.
