But some crabby bureaucrat is standing between him and the permits he needs. He's surprised to discover the culprit is actually beautiful, young Shannon Morgan, and even more shocked when fireworks ignite between them. Unmasking Love: Sparks fly when Julie Payne meets Trace Watkins at a costume party, and they end the night beneath the sheets while literally hiding behind their masks. When the holiday hook-up ends, their real identities present a serious snag: Trace manages the bank Julie happens to be suing. But will they turn this nasty trick of fate into a treat? Lights, Latkes, and Love: Non-profit CEO David Shay can't get enough of the December festivities. As manager of a large retail store, Hannah Jenkins, on the other hand, turns into a jaded Scrooge every year on Black Friday. Can a nice Jewish boy - with the help of some Christmas lights, a little girl, and a latke party - teach Hannah the true meaning of the season and guarantee them both a New Year's Eve kiss to remember? Ringing in Love: When entrepreneur and single mother Catherine Bennett leases office space in Dominic Russo's building, she can't keep her mind - or her eyes - off her new landlord. Only problem is, he happens to be a known womanizer . . . and her professional rival. Then he offers her an irresistible chance at winning a huge contract if she partners with his company. Catherine must decide whether mixing business with pleasure might not be such a bad idea this New Year's Eve. The Gift of Love: Isabella Rodriguez received the worst birthday gift ever - an eviction notice from her family home. Adrift, she accepts an unexpected promotion and transfers to Seattle where she meets Taylor Jordan at a business mixer. They're drawn to each other like candles to a cake. But when Taylor discovers Bella was behind one of the most humiliating experiences of his life, will they be able to find a future together? Thankful for Love: Rancher Jack Richardson needs someone to wrangle his two sons, and Quanna Morales needs a steady job to fund her education and help support her disabled brother. But despite a working relationship, the two can't fight their attraction, even though Quanna worries his family and friends won't accept her Indian heritage. When her worst fears come true and a feud erupts at the Thanksgiving table, will Jack be able to convince her that their love is strong enough to overcome any obstacle? Sensuality Level: Sensual

    But their attempts to ostracise him merely show up some very ugly shortcomings of their own . . .Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection Ford County.

    We are the Maidens of Mayhem. Bodies buried with twenty-four-hour notice and a picture ID. Padded rooms and straight-jackets kept in the closet on the right ~ arranged according to size. And alibis provided upon request.We're open 24/7/365. Call 1-888-MAIDENS for your free consultation today.

     Missy's Mooment Melissa is back in Fairplay, Texas for good. After taking over the small health clinic in town, she finally feels like she has everything she’s ever wanted. But when Reece West walks into the clinic, she finds something she didn't even know she wanted. Now she’ll do just about anything to get the man of her dreams. Reece is looking for trouble, and he’s found it at Saddleback Ranch. He can ride hard, rope some steer, and train the horses that he can finally afford. But when he bumps into little Missy Holton again, his world will turn upside down. Breaking Travis Travis Nolan is back in town and doing everything he can to get right back out of it again. Finding out that his father devised a way to keep him locked in the small town of Fairplay, even after death, has him working overtime to complete his new obligations. But now there’s a small pixy redhead that won’t get out of his way or out of his mind. Holly just wants to finish remodeling her business and apartment so she can get the annoying Travis off her back, but working closely with him has afforded her the opportunity to see what’s behind his raw and rough exterior. And she’s quickly losing her heart to the town’s notorious bad boy. Roping Ryan Ryan has been an undercover narcotics cop for so long, he can’t remember what it’s like not to jump at shadows. But when a dark-haired beauty shows up claiming that she was hired by his brother to track him down, she jeopardizes his cover and puts both their lives in danger. Now they need a quiet place to hide from a powerful Mexican drug lord, and his cousins’ farm just might be the safest place in Texas.

    Loretta Drennan learns about her stepfather’s plot to sicken her mother and take over the family business in Chicago. Letty flees to Montana in search of her brother, Johnny, to seek his help. Traveling alone, she meets Paul Slater who claims to own a ranch with Johnny as his partner. He offers to escort her on the two-day journey to their ranch in Morgan’s Crossing. Hoping to out-run a looming snowstorm, they instead get stranded in a cabin. Days later they finally reach their destination. Reunited with her brother she pleads her case for him to return home. Johnny wants to help but his share of stocks will not give him the needed votes to gain control of the family company. Letty can only get her shares when she turns twenty-five or by marrying. Paul steps in to help by offering to wed his friend’s sister. They plan a wedding, in name-only, but there are real underlying feelings. When left alone at the ranch house the truth begins to come out. But the honeymoon is interrupted when a stranger shows up and kidnaps the bride. Can Paul save the woman he’s fallen in love with before it’s too late?

    When empath Jade Calhoun moves into an apartment above a strip bar on Bourbon Street, she expects life to get interesting. What she doesn't count on is making friends with an exotic dancer, attracting a powerful spirit, and developing feelings for Kane, her sexy landlord. Being an empath has never been easy on Jade's relationships. It's no wonder she keeps her gift a secret. But when the ghost moves from spooking Jade to terrorizing Pyper, the dancer, it's up to Jade to use her unique ability to save her. Except she'll need Kane's help--and he's betrayed her with a secret of his own--to do it. Can she find a way to trust him and herself before Pyper is lost?Witches of Bourbon StreetJade Calhoun was never fond of her empath abilities. Now she's discovered she has another gift she'd rather not unwrap--magic. But when her mentor, Bea, becomes gravely ill and insists Jade's the only one who can help, she's forced to embrace her witchy side.It's too bad she spent a decade shunning the magical community and never learned to harness her powers. Because time's run out. A trapped spirit has revealed a clue to Jade's long-lost mother. The resident angel has gone rogue and disappeared with Jade's boyfriend, Kane. And if that wasn't enough, her ex appears to be possessed.To save any of them, Jade will need to find a way to control her inner white witch--without succumbing to black magic. Otherwise, she'll lose everything...including her soul.

    A haunted mansion. A haunted woman. Three unforgettable tales of terror. THE HARROWINGFive troubled college students left alone on their isolated campus over the long Thanksgiving break confront their own demons and a mysterious presence... that may or may not be real.Nominated for Bram Stoker and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel"Poltergeist meets The Breakfast Club as five college students tangle with an ancient evil presence." - Kirkus Reviews"Absolutely gripping... it is easy to imagine this as a film. Once started, you won't want to stop reading." - The London TimesTHE UNSEEN"A creepy haunted house, reports of a 40-year-old poltergeist investigation, and a young researcher trying to rebuild her life take the "publish or perish" initiative for college professors to a terrifying new level in this spine-tingling story that has every indication of becoming a horror classic. Based on the famous Rhine ESP experiments at the Duke University parapsychology department that collapsed in the 1960s, this is a chillingly dark look into the unknown." —Romantic Times Book ReviewBOOK OF SHADOWSA cynical Boston homicide detective and a mysterious witch from Salem must join forces in a race to solve a series of satanic killings."A wonderfully dark thriller with amazing 'Is-it-isn't-it?' suspense throughout." — Lee Child-----------------------------------------

    ‘Come on! Move it!’ Pilcher, though considerably older than the others, ran with surprising speed from the base of the Needle to the helicopter. Reynolds…brought up the rear, his M16 swinging left and right in case any targets popped up. ‘Evans,’ Reynolds said, “ETA on Pam.’ ‘She’s about a minute away.’ ‘And the abbies?’ ‘They’re right behind her.’” The genius architect of Wayward Pines, David Pilcher, decides to lead a scouting party out of his secluded mountain fortress to make sure the dying world he once knew has disappeared. It has…mostly. But the abbies are out there, too—millions of monstrous reminders of what humanity has involved into. And every one of them wants to tear Pilcher and his crew apart.Brett Battles’s Alone is another wildly inventive, hair-raising chapter in the Wayward Pines series.

    A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.But one night she catches two assignments she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the investigations entwine, they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won't give up her job, no matter what the department throws at her.

    Dating him was a mistake. Watching him become a drug addict put me through hell. Running was my only option. *** I'm running from my demons and when I find out she's trying to escape her past, I know what I have to do. One broken cop. One woman fighting for her life. A fragile love. Sinister secrets that threaten to tear them apart. They've been to hell. The hard part will be finding their way back together. Pieces Of Heaven Marissa I didn’t want this life. But sometimes you’re forced to make the best of the crappy hand you’ve been dealt. I wanted to teach my daughter that. No matter what happens you face your problems head-on.  Never cower. Never give up.  Then someone took her and I had to put my faith in a system that had failed me, and my hope in a man I didn’t know.  Mick Serve. Honor. Protect, are the only things I’ve ever cared about until her case was dropped on my desk. As we searched for her missing daughter, the last woman I thought I’d fall in love with became my reason for living.  Then the world came crashing down around us. One secret would change everything, but I had one more hand to be dealt. And if I played my cards right, maybe, just maybe we’d get our piece of heaven.

    Stirling.

    Recently widowed, Darci Cunningham swims against popular current that she should take her time and heal after the sudden death of her husband. But in a bold turn, she decides to follow a dream set aside and moves to Mackinac Island to pursue her dream of writing.But as she prepares for her first winter on the island, she is unaware of the dangers that have washed ashore--one that may steal her heart, while the other may steal her life(*available in ebook and soon in paperback)

    All of that changes when a strange golden space ship crash lands on it. Now, Abby has to deal with a golden ship, a tortured alien, and an insane local sheriff.Zoran Reykill knew he had to find a safe place to heal after he escapes from a Curizan military post. When his symbiosis Mothership takes him to an unknown planet he finds more than he expects – he finds his true mate. The only problems are Abby doesn’t understand a thing he says and the local sheriff wants her, too. There is only one thing the King of Valdier can do, abduct his true mate.Now Zoran has his hands full trying to keep his true mate safe in his own world while trying to help her accept her new life. He will need all the help he can get to help his stubborn human accept she can make a life in a place other than her mountain back on Earth. He just needs to keep her alive long enough to enjoy it and away from the other males on his planet who wouldn’t mind helping her accept her new sensual body. One thing he knows he will never regret – abducting Abby. Book 2: Capturing Cara Cara Truman is a pint-size pistol whose inquisitive nature has gotten her into trouble on more than one occasion. Her next adventure takes her farther than she ever expected when she ends up on a journey out of this world.Trelon Reykill thought he had his hands full. A militant group of Curizans had captured his brother Zoran, and he was busy trying to fortify the Valdier defenses against the Sarafin Warriors, even as his dragon was roaring for him to find a mate. He was furious about the first, excited about the second, and pissed about the last. The last thing he expected to find on the primitive planet his brother has taken refuge on was his true mate.Now, he has a whole new set of problems… capturing Cara long enough to make her his. His symbiot loves her, his dragon wants her, and he can’t catch her. On top of all that, someone is trying to kill her.His solution: Capture Cara and love her so well she will never want to escape him—if he can. Book 3: Tracking Trisha Trisha Grove enjoyed her job as a pilot for Boswell International but realized something was still missing from her life—her family. She is ready to call it quits and head back home to Wyoming where her father lives. She never expected her last flight for Boswell would end with an unplanned trip out of this world. Trisha isn’t sure at first what is real and what isn’t; all she knows is that she is determined to get back to her dad no matter what it takes.Kelan Reykill is the fourth son in the royal line of Valdier. Commander of the V’ager, one of the largest Valdier warships, he prides himself on his strict self-discipline, his ability to remain in command in any situation, and his skill at handling any challenge. That is, until he meets a stubborn human female from the primitive planet his older brother sought refuge on. Now, all he can think about is how to get the female into his bed and under his control while staying in one piece.When she is taken from him, Kelan will track Trisha to the ends of the universe and farther, because he knows one thing. She is his true mate, and he will do anything, kill anyone, who tries to harm her.

    Hours of reading, hot times and best of all, sexy alpha shifters.Please note, the Freakn' Shifters Bundle 2 (3-in-1) contains previously released stories:Human and Freakn' - Forget the dangers of the jungle. In peril is Ruth’s heart when two hunky shifters become determined to claim her despite her humanity. Jungle Freakn' Bride - Hot, steamy threesomes, chauvinism and more are running wild in the jungle. Can you handle the heat?Freakn' Cougar - Forget taming their cougar. They want her as is, even if she scratches.

    Working covertly as a new agent for the Bureau of American Defense agency, she's consulting with the New Orleans Police Department to bust an organized crime ring suspected of funding terrorism. But when rumors surface of a phantom ghost terrorizing and killing the very people she's investigating, she's suspicious. Nathan Drake has spent his life protecting his family, the only thing that matters to him...until the most feared drug lord in the southeast takes everything Nathan holds dear. Now he's a man on a mission with nothing to lose. He figures he only needs to stay alive long enough to protect the innocent lives the killers are out to destroy. As the two of them seek a similar goal by different means, Terri and Nathan are drawn deep into an evil underbelly that cuts through all levels of society. Now two people who have no reason to trust must trust in each other or die. And if they die, a deadly attack will be unleashed on thousands of innocent people. Whispered Lies In the suspenseful thriller from New York Times bestselling coauthors Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love, a Bureau of American Defense agent and an irresistible informant join forces to thwart a deadly global conspiracy. . . . Gabrielle Saxe has hidden from a killer for the past decade, sending anonymous tips on international criminals to intelligence agencies around the world. When a postcard arrives from a friend who is supposed to be dead, she takes a risk that catapults her into the midst of dangerous operatives on a treacherous mission—and into the arms of Bureau of American Defense operative Carlos Delgado. Dutybound to surrender her to Interpol as an international felon, Carlos is the last person Gabrielle should trust and the only one standing between her and death. But little does she know, she holds the key to his survival as well. . . . Silent Truth In the sizzling new adventure from New York Times bestselling authors Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love, a red-hot BAD boy teams up with a sexy television reporter on an explosive quest for revenge. Tough-as-nails Bureau of American Defense agent Hunter Thornton-Payne is no stranger to uncomfortable top-secret missions, but tonight takes the cake. He just needs to stick out a stuffy charity fund-raiser long enough to find the ruthless assassin he’s hunted for four years. It’s a rogue operation, but Hunter’s got nothing to lose—until a beautiful brunette unexpectedly pulls him into her own dangerous agenda. Abbie Blanton will do anything to cure her mother’s mysterious illness. When a high-profile heiress is murdered as Abbie tries to blackmail her for clues, Abbie realizes she’s stumbled into an unforgiving conspiracy—and she’s the next target. Soon, she and Hunter discover an alarming connection and begin a treacherous battle against an evil enterprise that someone will go to terrifying lengths to keep hidden.