But it didn’t matter what it said. I didn’t have the heart to open it. We couldn’t be together. Not after everything ... Leaving Rose Crossing, Maine was one of the most painful moments of my life—or at least it was until the day I came face-to-face with Thayer Ainsworth again. After a decade of searching, he’s found me, and he wants to know why I quit my housemaid job and left his family’s island estate without so much as a goodbye. But I’m bound by a devastating secret much bigger than the two of us, and telling him the truth has consequences. Looking into the eyes of the only man I’ve ever loved, I tell him the only thing I’m allowed to: never contact me again. And when he’s gone, I sit down and finally open his letter. Only it isn’t a letter at all. And it changes everything.

    Ground Zero: The center or origin of rapid, intense, or violent activityJoshI carried her lifeless body out of a burning building.One that collapsed on top of us, forcing us to fight for survival.Where she gave her life so that I could live.That nightmare wasn’t the happy ending I thought I’d find in the flames.Turns out, it wasn’t our ending at all.It was the beginning of our story.The one where I fell in love without knowing what was happening.Or the destruction she would thrust into my path.NiaMy entire life has been bringing me to the brink of…Well, I don’t know, but it’s something big.What I do know is that I won’t settle.Not in my career, and not in my love life.I wasn’t even looking for a relationship.Until he walks through the flames and ash, right into my bed.Ours might not be the perfect story.But that’s half the fun.And if I survive the carnage he drags me into…I might just fall in love after all.

    HEA guaranteed!

    He’s lived them. Four years prior, he lost his wife in a tragic accident. Since then, he's been left to raise his daughters alone.His world is everything mine can never be.It doesn’t matter that our chemistry is off the charts. It doesn’t matter that Jaxson’s arms are the only ones I feel safe in.He and I are like oil and water – and while opposites clearly attract, I can’t believe there’d ever be a place for a girl like me in Jaxson’s world of foam dart battles and bedtime stories.Or, at least, that’s what I thought until we both dared open our hearts – and began wondering if, just maybe, we deserved a shot at love the second time around.Second Time Around is the first in Alandra Knight's Finding Our Forever series - emotionally intense tales of true love, featuring beautifully crafted characters overcoming the darkest odds to earn their happily-ever-after.

    But does time truly heal all wounds?Levi Fawkes knows hockey, and not much else. As the captain of the Astoria Bay Thunder, his eyes are always locked on the goal. He’s perpetually unlucky in love and he’s been burned more times than he cares to count, but he’s determined to find his successes on the ice… not off it.Recently divorced and looking for a new kind of freedom, Brynn Mackintosh is ready for a fresh start in a new city. For too many years, her dreams have been sidelined to suit someone else’s goals. But not anymore! Making a life for herself as a photographer is a chance to carve out her own path, and she won’t let anything stand in her way.On a whim, Brynn calls into a local radio show and wins a ticket to a home game for the Astoria Bay Thunder. She’s not a big hockey fan, but a new life means taking chances. What she doesn’t know is that she’s about to hit her past…. square in the balls.With chemistry that melts the ice and a second-chance to do things right, will Levi and Brynn find the happiness they crave in each other or will the wounds of the past be too much to overcome?Power Play is a full-length, contemporary hockey romance novel and book one in the Astoria Bay Thunder series by CJ Cartwright. Scorching chemistry, exquisite care, and all the feels will make you fall in love with Levi and Brynn and the boys of the Astoria Bay Thunder.

    They’re a family that grows every time a wayward soul crosses their path, and now I’m an honorary member. A former spy, I was married at twenty-two—a father at twenty-six and a widow by thirty. To say my life is in transition would be an understatement. Winding up in small-town Vermont was a curveball I didn’t see coming, but I’m learning that the Westbrooks take their motto of Welcome to the Chaos seriously, and I’m in over my head. Having taken down one of the most notorious crime families of our generation, I thought it prepared me for anything. Then I met Ari, and Ari met the Westbrooks, and their chaos consumed us. My daughter will always come first, but when Ari gets under my skin, will I find the courage to love again? Or will the lure and danger of my old profession prove to be the only commitment I’m able to make?

    Power, prestige, and plenty of women, the dapper politician’s life is pretty phenomenal. But in the midst of the biggest campaign of his life, he needs to focus. The last thing he can afford is a distraction.ALISON BAKER is a work-in-progress.As a single mother to HUXLEY, she’s rebuilding life on her terms. She’s focused on family, faith, and a future for her son that can’t be taken away. Putting her child first means not being careless, no matter what. A chance encounter forces Barrett and Alison to redefine what they really want out of life. But everything comes at a cost ... and sometimes, even for love, it’s a price too steep to pay.

    

    However, all that everyone is talking about and wants to know is if this will be the year he retires and says goodbye to the game he loves.But as he contemplates his future, he’s dealt with another upset involving his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend who will no longer compete with football. When he receives a letter alerting him of her imminent departure, he is forced to reexamine his life and the choices he has made.He’s about to play in the biggest and possibly last game of his life, but first, he has two weeks to try and stop his one true love from leaving him forever and prove to her that she is the one that has his true heart.

    No little sisters, no job, just me, visiting an old friend, celebrating Valentine’s day, and pretending I’m a carefree college student. Hungry for adventure, I’m spending my last night of freedom attending Lust and Found: A Blind Date Scavenger Hunt. I was hoping to get paired with a carefree hottie. But, instead I’m stuck with an uptight, straight-laced, stick in the mud. At least the hottie part is still in place. ♥ Eric ♥I’m a music major, a future recording engineer, and I should be in the studio working. Instead I’m participating in this silly game because my friends think it’s time for me to hook up with a girl, any girl. They can’t understand the pressure and responsibility I feel to succeed. My parents think that compared to science or math, music is a joke, so I have to prove myself a talent beyond measure. But you can’t turn down your friends every time they ask, so now, I’m burdened with this sparkling sprite of a woman. She's got lavender hair and an irritatingly joyful personality. There’s just something about her, I can’t seem to look away. The Sweet Hearts series is a collection of 14 swoon-worthy Valentine’s Day love stories from some of your favorite romance authors! Treat yourself to all the books in the series:PUPPY LOVE by Kali HartBE MINE by Jagger ColeYOU ROCK by Lola WestHEY QT by Jade BayDREAM TEAM by Anita KnightMY HERO by Mazzy KingHEART OF GOLD by Fern Fraser1-800 CUPID by C.L. CruzTOO SWEET by Lana DashCUTIE PIE by Nichole RoseKISS ME by Kat BaxterLET'S KISS by Barbra CampbellHONEY BUN by Eve LondonYES DEAR by Vanessa Booke

    She wants to keep her secrets. Will true love take them both off track?Aspiring country music star, Shay Summerville, only wants to be writing and singing his music, so when his boss at the auto body shop—aka—his father, tells him it’s his turn to pick up the snobby, Harvard stranded princess who needs a tow, he does everything he can to get out of it.Spending her summer at her family’s lake house wasn’t on Jaycee McCade’s happy list. Frankly, not much had been on that happy list since her mother passed away three months before. When a tow truck spirals out of control and nearly hits her, she never imagined she’d be kissing the guy driving the truck. And she really never imagined liking it.When summer love captures both of their hearts, they have to make a choice—give up on their dreams or create a new one together.

    I left for the military that day, vowing never to return to Pennsylvania.When my father dies, I’m forced to go home to bury him. At least I'll finally be rid of his farm, which is grown over and tangled with memories I've fought to forget.And that’s when I find her. She’s even more beautiful than I remember and has the most adorable kid I’ve ever seen.Years have passed, but my feelings are the same, and this time I refuse to let her go. They say you can't bury the past, and they're right. Because when long-ago secrets are exposed, rocking us both to the core, I have no choice but to watch her walk away again....

    Right?How many sparkling ciders would it take to drown my misery? I might have found out if a handsome stranger hadn’t taken the barstool next to me.He didn’t flinch at my choice of drink. Said all the right things. And when I confessed why I was sitting alone at the bar, he pulled out an engagement ring. Too soon? No worries.It wasn’t actually an engagement ring.It was adjustable, and it’s fake diamond made Cubic Zirconia seem like an extravagant option.It was a piece of costume jewelry from a machine at the front of a grocery store. He’d gotten the trinket for his daughter.But the way he looked into my eyes when he slid it onto my finger hit me deeper than anything my ex had ever done.According to nearly everyone, by the time the clock struck midnight and ushered out the horrendous year, the engagement ring they expected to see on my finger would be from my former boyfriend. He was back in town and everyone seemed to know he was going to make amends and pop the question.But he was a former boyfriend for a reason.And the ring sliding on my finger wasn’t from him.Was it wrong to undermine his proposal in such a silly way?Was it wrong to dream of my fake fiancé being something more?And was I foolish to believe my knight in shining armor had shown up that fateful night purely by chance?Is there anything better than falling in love? Finding another HEA? I'll always give you a dirty-sweet story to keep your heart full and your windows steamed!Her Midnight Mistake is part of the Hot for Curves series of New Year's Eve romances. We're ready to move on from 2020 and wanted to bring you some sexy stories to help pass the time while we wait for the stroke of midnight!

    But I didn’t just leave my past behind—I left Callie McIntyre, the good girl I was never good enough for.Now Callie’s mayor of our town, and I’m back too, a European-trained chocolatier with a proposal for a new facility I need her approval on. One that will redeem my family name, and hopefully me, in her eyes.But Callie still hasn’t forgiven me for breaking her heart. And if she vetoes this project, she’ll never know it was all for her.Valentine Veto is a standalone steamy second chance novella, part of the Man of the Month Club multi-author series.

    Yes, I climbed into Jake Jensen’s lap and kissed the crap out of him in a crowded bar to make my ex jealous.Yes, I lied to my family and told them I’m in a relationship with the guy, even though he doesn’t know my name or my family’s connection to one of the hottest software companies in the US.Yes, I’m now on my way to convince him to be my fake boyfriend for my father’s company retreat in exchange for...whatever the heck he wants if it’ll get me out of this mess.And no, I’m most definitely not interested in his smoldering eyes or the way his hands feel against my body.Because whatever’s burning between us?It isn’t real.We’re both a means to an end.And there’s no convincing me otherwise.