What happens when a broken Marine collides with a girl running from a haunting past? Will the two be each other's saviors or will the havoc, chaos and insanity from their lives consume them?

    But by whom? Plus too, finds himself growing tired of the back and forth with him and Perri. He simply wants nothing more than to love her as he moves on to the next phase in his life. But he quickly learns that things aren’t quite so simple when you play for the NBA. While Tez fully commits himself to Myesha and their son, Jorell does the complete opposite with Nika. Consistently, he plays on her heart and gets her hopes up high only to let her down in the end. After entering the league he finds himself spiraling out of control, with only Nika there to pick up the pieces. However, after keeping secrets of her own, she doesn’t know if they’ll ever be more than just friends. Find out how all it all ends with the suspenseful finale of Love and the Game.

    As an added bonus, Throttle Me - Men of Inked #1 - is also included. Sinful Intent - Book #1 - Someone was after her and it was my duty to stop them. Never cross the line. That had always been my rule. But that was before Race True. The moment I saw her, I wanted her. But there was a problem. She wasn't just another pretty face--no, she was my first client at ALFA PI. My take-what-I-want attitude shouldn't include her, but how the hell can I be expected to keep my hands off? The danger that followed her had my protective instincts in overdrive. And as the clock ticked down, the choice was laid out before me: save her career or risk everything and have her in my bed. Could I put aside my wants for her needs? Or would my selfishness destroy everything in the process? Unlawful Desire - Book #2 - No matter how hard I tried to push her away, fate thrust us together again. Screw relationships. Simple worked. Feelings weren't on the line, hearts weren't able to be broken, and I could keep my life simple. My friends told me to move on and find the "one," but I wasn't ready to love again. Until I met her. A dirty-mouthed temptress with a killer body that had me questioning everything. I knew I could ruin her forever, but not without losing myself. I wouldn't do it. But Georgia Phillips was innocent, pure, and total perfection. I wouldn't be the one to strip her bare and break her heart. I swore I'd never call another woman mine, but that was before I almost lost her.

     Jake has had it bad for Kimi since he first laid eyes on her face. So broken and vulnerable all he has wanted to do was make her his and keep her safe. She was just a teenager then. Now she is all grown up. A shoot out caused Jake to nearly lose complete control of his speech, it is hard for him to vocalize how he feels. How much he loves Kimi. So he shows her by helping her experience things she should have during her stolen childhood. After years of silence, Jake has shown up in Kimi's life. She wants nothing more than to welcome him back with open arms but he has left her before with tears running down her face as he drove away. She won't let it happen again. But fate has other plans... Gin's Longing Gin has been through hell and back and even though he still is breathing doesn't mean he is ALIVE. Until he meets Grace. Being the daughter of his long departed brother in the Hell's Riders MC he knows having feelings for her isn't right. He does what he promised his brother so long ago, watch over her. When Grace is assaulted by her high school boyfriend, the last thing she expects to happen is for a larger than life biker to come to her aid. Even with him being something that has walked right out of a nightmare she can't help it when all she wants to do is be around him, but when he crosses a line, he backs away. Years away. She knows that she can go to Gin for anything and he will help but will he be able to help this time around? Help her out of the mess she now finds herself in? Rico's Way Ari She can’t stand him, yet she can’t help but want him. Rico He’s wanted her from day one but hasn’t given her any reason to trust in those feelings. They are two different sides of a coin with one very big thing in common. Sparks. The barbs they throw cause deep wounds that may not be easily mended. He is a bossy man who wants it his way and she is a stubborn independent woman who won’t bend for him. But one night of passion leaves them with a tiny, yet very big, situation. Only this situation comes with a third party. Sage's Surrender Sage She is my best friend’s daughter. I have no right to be looking at her the way I do, but with her snotty attitude I find myself wanting to put her bratty ass into its place. Under me. Brook I have had a stupid school girl crush on him since I was fifteen years old. Now he is dragging me back to the one person I am not ready to face. My father. All characters are of consensual age. HEA guaranteed! And as always with the Riders expect violence and big bad alphas swearing!

     The stories in this collection, because they all happen in Upper Nettlefold, have things which happen, that influence the other stories. So the order in which they are presented here aligns with the timeline in which events in the stories happen. Read through this collection in order, and you will find that each story builds on the ones before, weaving the magic of community and interconnection between characters. There is also a map of Upper Nettlefold to help you visualise everything as you read. Although each story can stand alone, we’re sure that you’ll love finding the linkages as you go. This is our first visit to Upper Nettlefold, but it won’t be our last. You may see other collections based here, or you may see individual books from the various authors, but we will keep expanding the stories about the people you’ll first meet in this collection. The Viscount’s Summer Love A new Viscount with old secrets, a baker’s daughter, love thwarted, the threat of murder, a dramatic revelation, a long-held love finally returned. The Duke and the Spinster A Duke who needs to marry, a Lady who expects to never marry, a summer house party, a nefarious plot, gossip designed to harm, a desperate adventure, a love that redeems. Stitched in Love A seamstress who struggles to sew, a blacksmith beset by admirers, an accident with a dress, a runaway horse, a situation saved – barely, an unexpected love. Love Finds the Earl An unmarried Earl, a reserved widow, a clever sister, a social occasion, an accidental meeting, shady business dealings thwarted, a second chance for love. Doubting the Marquess An unrepentant rake, a woman more interested in business than men, a meeting, jealousy, an accident, a revelation that leads to love. The Degenerate Baron A fearless schoolteacher, a Baron lost in grief and despair, a collection of degenerate friends, a near accident that leads to a meeting, a reminder of past pain, a love beyond fear. Escaping the Scurrilous Earl A merchant’s daughter, a lonely physician, a thoroughly unscrupulous Earl, a debt called in, an impossible choice, an escape, a threat, a rescue, and a new love found. Esther, the Earl’s Hellion An orphaned young woman, a gentleman working undercover, a boarding school with a new owner, a despicable scheme, a rescue, a trap set to save, a dramatic conclusion, a fated love found. A Gentle Heart A spinster employed as a companion, a gentleman of means, a social opportunity, an act of kindness, a misunderstanding, a long hoped for love.

    An award-winning novel!The Falls of Erith - A mercenary and a destitute lady find love - but it doesn't come easily.The Whispering Night - A spy for William Marshal falls in love with the lady he's spying on.The Fallen One - A fallen knight and a prestigious lady are embroiled in a love affair (and don't forget the otter!)Netherworld - A seasoned knight assumes command of a castle with dark, desperate secrets.

    Covered in tattoos and leather, he’s a smoking hot biker and nothing but trouble.As the president of the Dirty Aces MC, Malcolm is known for being cold and calculating. One bad decision – getting into business with the wrong person – is all it takes to bring down the entire MC. It’s happened before to his predecessor, which is why Malcolm refuses to let it happen again on his watch. He doesn’t trust anyone except for the few men who wear the same ace of spades patch on their back.And that’s exactly why he doesn’t ever take his eyes off of me – the new girl. I never intended to make an enemy out of Malcolm or the MC when I was sent to steal everything I could from them.~ DEVLIN ~As one of the enforcers for the Dirty Aces, sometimes I have to hurt people. Using my fists to get results is not something I enjoy – it’s just part of the job. My loyalty will always be to the MC and no one else.So just because Jetta James is a hot as hell girl I once hooked up with at a rock concert, it doesn’t mean I can give her brother a break on the gambling debt he owes to the Aces.When Jetta finds out I’m a member of the MC, she thinks I’m bad news; but her brother Sean is the one drowning in his bad decisions.~ NASH ~Whenever Nash Kincaid looks in the mirror, he only sees a monster who ruins lives. Thanks to his involvement with the Dirty Aces MC, there’s so much blood on his hands he’ll never wash them clean again. Violence is just part of the outlaw lifestyle. That’s why he’s not all that surprised when he’s hit with divorce papers three years after his wife walked out on him.The last thing Nash needs right now is a nosy new neighbor who refuses to leave him alone. If Lucy knew Nash’s dark secrets, he’s certain that she would run the other way rather than try her best to get into his bed. Thanks to a failed marriage, he knows he can never be the man Lucy needs him to be, not while he’s a member of the MC with a life sentence hanging over his head.~ SILAS ~A late-night attack at her home convinces Cora that leaving Carolina Beach behind to start over in witness protection is her only choice.What Cora doesn’t know is that the tough, no-nonsense FBI agent who swoops in to protect her is not who he says he is.In fact, he’s the last man she should ever trust.~ WIRTH ~After a patch-over party turns into a near-fatal shootout that injures several members, the Dirty Aces MC is left reeling.Wirth feels especially guilty since he wasn’t at the bar when his brothers needed him the most. Instead, he had left with a beautiful, mysterious woman, making some of the new members question his loyalty to the club.Needing to clear his own name, Wirth intends to find out who the rat is within the MC. Suspicious of the new girl, Maeve, he decides to try and get closer to her to determine where her true loyalties lie.~ FIASCO ~When he takes two bullets during a shooting, Fiasco nearly loses his life. And in a way, dying may have been the easy way out.But once he saw Joanna’s face, the angelic nurse doing everything she could to save his life, he wanted nothing more than to live.Overcoming his injuries is just the first obstacle Fiasco will have to face. If he can’t get back to his construction job soon, he’ll lose everything he’s worked so hard to have, along with all the people who depend on him.WARNING: THIS BOX SET CONTAINS SEXUALLY AND PHYSICALLY VIOLENT SCENES THAT MAY BE A TRIGGER FOR SOME INDIVIDUALS.

    

    King, Lawless & Preppy Part One King: Homeless. Hungry. Desperate. Doe has no memories of who she is or where she comes from. A notorious career criminal just released from prison, King is someone you don’t want to cross unless you’re prepared to pay him back in blood, sweat, sex or a combination of all three. King’s future hangs in the balance. Doe’s is written in her past. When they come crashing together, they will have to learn that in order to hold on, sometimes you have to first let go. LAWLESS: Ruined. BROKEN. LOST. Thia’s lost it all. With no options left she turns to the biker she met as a kid to cash in the favor he swore to return all those years ago. Bear’s best friend is dead. His old man wants to put him to ground. He has bigger things on his mind than the pink-haired girl from the gas station he never thought he’d see again. Until her battered body is tossed onto his doorstep. Keeping his promise to Thia means Bear has to be willing to risk everything, including his life...and what’s left of his heart. Thia’s bruised and battered. Bear’s leather and lawless. It will never work between them. It’s a lie they ALMOST believe Preppy, Part One: 2016 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS NOMINEE FOR BEST ROMANCE Samuel Clearwater, A.K.A Preppy, likes bowties, pancakes, suspenders, good friends, good times, good drugs, and a good f*ck. He’s worked his way out from beneath a hellish childhood and is living the life he’s always imagined for himself. When he meets a girl, a junkie on the verge of ending it all, he’s torn between his feelings for her and the crippling fear that she could be the one to end the life he loves. Andrea ‘Dre’ Capulet is strung out and tired. Tired of living for her next fix. Tired of doing things that make her stomach turn. Tired of looking in the mirror at the reflection of the person she’s become. Just when she decides to end it all, she meets a man who will change the course of both their lives forever. And their deaths. For most people, death is the end of their story. For Preppy and Dre, death was only the beginning.

    One forbidden love. Lady Cecily Balfour was always taught that the Hartley men are mad, bad and dangerous to know. When she meets Robert Hartley, Earl of Scarcliffe, she makes a few additions to that list: Stubborn. Infuriating. Handsome. Charming. Tempting. Society expects Cecily to make an advantageous match of her father’s choosing. What can she do now that her own choice is a man she is expressly forbidden to see? The Earl of Scarcliffe enjoys hunting, drinking, billiards, and bachelordom. Love does not feature on his list of requirements. Especially for a woman with a stubborn streak a mile wide and a penchant for riding off on his favourite stallion. And if that same woman is a Balfour? Not a chance! But Cecily just happens to have a pair of striking blue eyes, a taste for adventure and a rapier-sharp sense of humour… Robert’s heart is in as much danger as his head will be in if they are caught together. The Duke's Hidden Desire A reckless duke meets his match in a determined young woman – and throws her future into jeopardy with one stolen kiss. Miss Anna Hawkins, the daughter of a poor country doctor, knows the mysterious stranger who kissed her at the ball cannot really be the Duke of Beaumont. Dukes are virtuous and noble, and this man is arrogant, impudent… and dangerously seductive. Beaumont cannot forget Anna Hawkins. It’s not only her sharp mind and delicate features. It’s not only the flame-red hair he longs to caress. It’s not even that she is the only woman in England to say no to a duke. Anna is not afraid to chastise Beaumont for his lack of virtue, and he has never wanted anyone more. But it takes more than a dukedom to win a woman’s heart. The Lady He Longed For A brooding lord encounters his widowed childhood sweetheart – and they uncover a secret that could change everything… Lord Jonathan Hartley’s first love left him a broken man. Now that Isabella is back, widowed, wounded and more lovely than ever, the last thing he wants to do is revisit the past. But Isabella has a way of digging up all the secrets he thought he had buried. His undimmed love for the tragic heiress is only one of them. Isabella, the widowed Countess of Streatham, knows she belongs in Jonathan’s arms. But she is no longer the naïve debutante who believed in true love, and marriage brought her pain she vowed never to endure again. Jonathan abandoned her once, and if he wants her forgiveness, she will make him fight for it. Whether she falls in love again is quite a different question. The Baron's Inconvenient Bride In his haste to find a marriage of convenience, an arrogant baron proposes to his sworn enemy… Lady Jemima Stanhope has a secret she cannot share, even with her husband. Especially with her husband. Because that husband is the incorrigible rake, Lord Northmere.

    I was never bringing back the men I'd lost over there, and if I had a hope in hell of redeeming myself after that horrible disaster, it would be here, in the town I'd chosen to set up my brand spanking new civilian life. Or at least, that was the plan... I knew I had promises to keep and plans to follow, but then, life plopped a mission in my lap that all my years of training couldn't have prepared me for. ... An overdressed, heavily made up, five-foot package of pure pain in the ass. KATE: I could say that I didn't trust men, but that's not entirely true. I didn't trust myself not to get involved with exactly the wrong kind of men. I moved to this town to get away from all that, and the last thing I needed right now was an ex-Navy SEAL jock like Max, getting in the way of my new life. Tall, muscly, and with a jumbo sized ego? No thank you. I made a promise to myself that I'd do better than that, and I didn't care how damn attractive or mysterious he was. I needed to get back on my feet, find a new job and lick my wounds. Then why was he all I could think about? And why did he have to move in right next door? ... What a pain in the ass. - - - - - - From USA Today Bestselling author Gabi Moore, "SEAL'd Trust" is the first book in her brand new STANDALONE series, "Brotherhood of SEAL'd Hearts". Here's what you can expect from this book: - Heat level: kindle-melting. - No cheating. - No cliffhangers. - Guaranteed HEA. + BONUS 1: A naughty confession (I’ll probably regret including this one. Oh well..) + BONUS 2: To celebrate this new release, I have included 6 additional panty-melting bad boy novels and a bunch of steamy short stories for your extended enjoyment! Be sure to grab your copy today so you don't miss out!

     Blake hated the thought of coming back home, a home that was broken and unfamiliar. Her parents were gone, and her brother, when she needed him the most, was in the NAVY SEALS, far away, and unconcerned with how she was dealing with their parent’s death. Now, because he’s a father, and she’s an aunt. Is she supposed to just forgive and forget, live life like they were a happy little family? No thanks. Aiden, Blake’s older brother’s best friend, and buddy from the SEALS was one bonus for returning home. He was tall, dark, beautiful, and she’d had a crush on him since she was just a little girl. Now, he offered her something that she never thought she’d have again, a family, even if it were pretend. A perfect set up. He gets his mother and Abeula off his back, she gets to marry the man she’d always wanted... And who knows, maybe if she can get his attention while living in his house and pretending to be his wife, she may actually get a family, true love, and everything she’s always wanted.

    Hot alpha protectors willing do anything to protect the woman they love.Men that live in the shadows they fight for the innocent, for the lost but when they meet the women who bring them to their knees, they realise that fighting isn't always enough--sometimes you have to trust too. As these sexy heroes fall one by one, they realise dying to protect the woman you love isn't always enough sometimes you have to rise from the shadows.

    His brothers, and by extension, their wives are a huge part of his life. They love him - even if he can't stand to physically touch any of them. It isn't his fault...it was something he was working on every day. When he listened to his friends discussing the erotic romance novels of CC Robat he knew exactly what he needed to give them for Christmas. But when CC turned out to be Charlotte...Charlie...his world turns upside down in one night. Now he has to figure out a way to keep her safe, get used to touching her body, and living out the words she put to paper. Every mans' dream.Charlotte Tabor was a writer of erotic romance novels, but of course no one knew that. She insisted on writing under the pen name CC Robat. When she received the sweet email on her fan page about a man wanting to give his friends' the gift of CC Robat for Christmas, she was flattered and to be honest...it was perfect timing. Fights with her publisher, the pain of a failed relationship and Charlie was ready for something new. Now if she could just control her panic attacks around crowds and people touching her, she'd be perfect. Merry freaking Christmas!

    Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book contains chapters focused on Vorkosigan Saga, and Vorkosigan saga planets. More info: The Vorkosigan Saga is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of them concern Miles Vorkosigan, a physically disabled aristocrat from the planet Barrayar whose life (from before birth), military career, and post-military career is a challenge to his native planet's prejudices against "mutants."