My back hits the wall hard, enough to make my ears ring. His body pushes into mine, trapping me between his hands and the bricks. His breathing is uneven, his light breath stirring my hair. I wait for the eventual kiss, the moment where his lips meet mine hard and rough but he doesn’t do anything. A lump is in my throat. “Either kiss me or let me go,” I choke out. The same old tug of war is still raging and there’s nothing but a storm between us.Ever since her mother’s death, Avena’s heart has become steel—tough, hardened…unbreakable. She refuses to let anything faze her; least of all, the school’s most notorious player, Adrian Huntington, with his jade eyes and aloof, sardonic charm that has all the girls swooning in his wake. When she becomes his next target, everything goes up in flames as they find themselves getting caught up in the game they created.

    The worst part, her parents are following through on threats after this latest plea for attention. Banished from her L.A. paradise and plunged into the Appalachian Mountains with her industrious aunt and uncle, Cami is about to find out how precious life really is. Stockton Wright has been thrust into a hard life. He sacrifices everything to give his family and community what they need. He’s exhausted from life and work—and he’s only twenty four. What he needs is some change, and some sunshine. Even he will agree to that. He just doesn’t expect to find it in a stuck up, pompous, entitled Californian. Cami bursts into Stockton’s life like wildfire, consuming all his thoughts and tangling him in her web. What starts out as a contentious rivalry evolves into a desire neither of them expected. When hammer meets metal, will they crack under pressure or be forged as one?Cami and Stockton might just end up being exactly what the other one needs, but first their love will have to be drawn out in fire.

    Unable to cope with her loss, she's forced to move thousands of miles away. The last thing she expects to find when arriving in her new home is her neighbor, naked and in a very compromising situation. Keegan Montgomery never had to answer to anyone for anything. His life consisted of partying and frequenting as many beds as he could throw himself into. But under his bad boy facade, he is facing his own internal demons. Daisy will never love another. Keegan knows he'll never love anyone - ever. But their attraction is undeniable. Can the tragic ending of a first love end up being the beginning of another?

    Each task others complete without thinking is a challenge for him. Recently orphaned, he has to finish the last few months of high school and take care of his disabled sister on his own.When Mayra comes into his life, his comfortable routines implode. Matthew can’t handle change, but Mayra is unrelenting in her quest to understand him, to show him acceptance and maybe even love. When she breaks through his shell, Matthew’s world will never be the same again.An awkward boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, a persistent girl who pulls him out of his isolated existence, and a lottery ticket that will change their lives forever.

    When a health scare forces his best friend, Kyle Roberts, off the team, no one can stomach the thought of replacing him, especially so close to the playoffs.Until Kyle's sister, Sasha, steps in, convincing management to let her take his place. The idea of signing the first female player in Major League history proves too tempting for the Kings to resist.Nevertheless, Brooks doesn't want any part of it. Sasha is Kyle's little sister, not some sideshow.Yet when Kyle takes a turn for the worse, Brooks promises to do everything in his power to help Sasha win a championship for him. Because there's no way he's letting either of them down. Not now, not ever.

    But that might change when she accepts a cup of coffee from a sexy mysterious stranger.Wyatt Hunter has experienced a loss that has him living each day just going through the motions. His world is in dull shades of gray - until the day he meets Taryn. She brings vibrant brilliant color back into his life, and he can’t stand the thought of going on without her.But Wyatt is holding a secret that could send Taryn running when she finds out.**This book contains adult situations and explicit content. Recommended for readers ages 18 and older.**

    He wants an assistant and a distraction from the mess his life had become.They didn't know they needed each other.Avery Emili needs two grand. Two grand and a plane ticket--her sister is counting on her to get to Jamaica for her wedding. But the semester is over, and tutoring college freshman and high school students has dried up until the fall.Atticus Grimes needs help--the messy split with his wife left the twenty-eight year old professor scrambling to keep things together as the semester winds down. Now he's got a research grant he has to actually do research for and all he wants to do is drown himself in a tall bottle of bourbon.When Avery sees his ad for an assistant, all she's thinking is a summer job. But as they spend time together, in the office and out, both of them begin to realize something is there. Something that can't happen--he's a professor and she's a student. And both of them have histories, pasts that won’t let go. Can two broken people pulled apart by expectations find a way to be whole?

    Four years ago, while driving girlfriend Ally and best friend Callum home from a concert, they were involved in a horrific car crash. Ally’s life would never be the same and, consumed by guilt, Jack ran. He’s been running ever since.Moving from town to town, job to job, he found himself doing things he never thought himself capable of. Living in the shadows, he’d rather spend the rest of his life alone than go home and face everyone he left behind. Until the night he receives a phone call that forces his hand. With a recent history he’s anxious to keep hidden and a desperate need to somehow make amends, his homecoming will be anything but easy. Does he even deserve a second chance?Absolution is the first in a series of stand-alone novels in the Absolution series by Amanda Dick. It is contemporary romance at its most confronting - raw, honest and compelling.

    Tormenter and tormented. Villain and hero. Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable. Particularly Freaky Flynn. Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.But then Flynn and Ellie grew up. And moved on.Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other. And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.

    The city of young lovers, dark secrets, and intoxicating new desire… I thought I knew what I wanted in life. I thought my destiny was set. Then I met him, and everything changed. Raphael is bold, passionate, and seductive. He sees something in me I never dreamed possible, and now he's determined to show me a world beyond rules -- a dance without limits. I want to trust him, but I'm scared. Because I know once I fall, there'll be no going back. An innocent dancer. A mysterious stranger. As Annalise is drawn deeper into the sensual delights of Rome, she'll question everything she believed about her future. But with opening night looming, can she find the strength to risk it all? And will she be forced to choose between her one true love, ballet, and the new passion in her heart?** This book contains adult content. 17+ **

    He's flush with cash from playing bass in a band by night and restoring classic cars by day. And there are plenty of women willing to share his bed for a night, complication-free. Perfect, because if there's anything he learned from his past, it was to never get attached—to anything. So when bartender Carly Sullivan flashes her innocent smile, Graham isn't prepared for what happens next.Never fall in loveTwo rules, that's all Graham has—never apologize and never fall in love. He knows Carly is everything he should avoid. Cheerful and sweet, she has "relationship" written all over her. But Graham can't stay away from her probing questions and concerned blue eyes.When Graham discovers Carly is hiding a crushing secret, he's prepared to risk it all. Until in one single moment, everything changes and Graham's past threatens to collide with his future. His life is crumbling down around him, and soon no apology in the world can save him.He should've known to walk away.91,000 words

    For ages 18+)The entire fourth floor of Donovan Kemp's apartment complex houses only MMA fighters, dubbing it "The Fighter's Block." Growing up in an abusive home put Van on the fast track to nowhere, but a caring fight club owner took him under his wing as a teen and shaped him into a fighter with integrity. Now in his mid-twenties, his life changes dramatically when he steps in to help a beautiful girl in a scary situation with her boyfriend. Surprising to Van, she ends up going home with him. He's now on the fast track to something else: falling in love. He feels that Danielle is the type of girl men only dream about, but the two quickly fall hard for each other in equal measure.When the ex boyfriend proves to be nothing but trouble, Van has a tough time deciding between protecting Dani with legal measures or just bashing the guy's face in himself. The harassment escalates, eventually pulling Dani and Van apart, and Van finds himself feeling desperate enough to do something drastic.If being thrown in jail isn't bad enough for Van, an undercover investigator seems to be getting a little too close to Dani, the fight club he grew up in could be turned upside down with scandal, and the friends that he trusts with his life might not be who they say they are.So much for finally discovering the little morsel of happiness he'd been deprived of his entire life...

    Taking a leap of faith she finds herself enrolling at a campus hundreds of miles away from home. She leaves any thoughts of dating again in Jersey, that is until fate crosses her path with a blue-eyed stud named Kyler King. He is notoriously known for being emotionally unattainable, but his façade is only to hide the burdens he bares every day. As Kyler and Haley’s physical attraction becomes deeper, the secrets of the past threaten to surface. When Haley’s past collides with the present, will her secrets prove too big of an obstacle hindering their happily ever after, or will letting go be the key that locks their bond forever?Warning: This book is intended for readers 17+ due to explicit language and sexual encounters.

    She’s made a promise to herself: don’t let anyone in, and don’t let anyone love her. She’s learned the hard way what happens if she breaks her rules. So she’s focused on being invisible and waiting until she can set out on the road—her dream of freedom, at least for a little while.Blake Hunter is a basketball star who has it all—everything about him looks perfect to those on the other side of his protective walls. He can’t let anyone see the shattered pieces behind the flawless facade or else all his hopes and dreams will disappear.One dark night throws Chloe and Blake together, changing everything for Blake. For Chloe, nothing changes: she has the road, and she’s focused on it. But when the so-called perfect boy starts to notice the invisible girl, they discover that sometimes with love, no one knows where the road may lead.

    She can’t go a day without fighting with her mother. And no matter how hard she tries, she can’t make her best friend, Matt, fall in love with her. But Ashley also has something no one else does: a literal glimpse into the future. When Ashley looks into the mirror, she can see her twenty-three-year-old self.Her older self has been through it all already—she endured the bullying, survived the heartbreak, and heard every ugly word her classmates threw at her. But her older self is also keeping a dark secret: Something terrible is about to happen to Ashley. Something that will change her life forever. Something even her older self is powerless to stop.