Now, Dylan James, in-house counsel for a D.C. lobbyist firm is once again face-to-face with Cristine Palmer, defense attorney from New York. The passion that had been on a low simmer because of prior relationships is now on full blast. But Dylan has a dark side that he’s certain Cristine will not understand. Cristine has not come this far to walk away from her feelings for Dylan again, so following him to Chicago and bidding for the lover she’s always dreamed of is her only option. This novella is part of the Distinguished Gentlemen Series. It is 1 of 14 novellas that are connected by an event—The Southlake Park Bachelor Auction at the Book Euphoria Weekend Block Party. Here is a list of all the books in this series: The Alpha Bid by Ty Young The Rival Bid by Reese Ryan The Reluctant Bid by Sheryl Lister Losing the Bid by Suzette Riddick Invitation to Bid by Angela Seals The Contingency Bid by Sherelle Green The Renegade Bid by Kelsey Green The Birthday Bid by Suzette D. Harrison An Outlandish Bid by E.J. Brock A Bid on Forever by Joy Avery Switched At Bid by Nicole Falls The Closing Bid by Elle Wright The Bid Catcher by Anita Davis Each novella can be read as a standalone, so please do not feel as if you are committed to purchasing and reading each novella in the series. However, I can safely say that you might be missing out on 14 fantastic stories if you don’t.

    Right? Shonte’ had all of that, but it still wasn’t good enough for her. Being rejected by Darrell after previously doing him dirty, Shonte’s scandalous, ratchet side rears its ugly head and she uses the one thing he loves for than life as a bargaining chip; his daughter Blessing, leaving a whole in his heart. Filling that hole with frustration and hate pushes Darrell to the brink of insanity, leaving him no choice but to take drastic measures to ensure he and his Blessing can be together.

    And is also one of the best African American Urban Fiction books available. And now it’s here for your reading satisfaction. In this standalone you’ll take an unforgettable ride with the national bestselling author Yona Pearson, another great storyteller under Cole Hart Signature. Her writing is smooth and she know's how to make her characters come to life. **Warning** This is not your typical Urban romance, dope boy, thug love, or kingpin savage book. Heart pounding. Edge of your seat. Women's Fiction. Street literature. On everything I love, I hate living in this rundown Philly project. My mama doesn’t know how to handle her responsibilities. My daddy has been gone my whole life. My baby daddy stays playing games like he’s not my son’s father. He really needs to grow up though. Me personally, I want to do something with my life because I can’t continue to live like this. Seems like the more I try, the harder it seems to get. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a hood chick at heart and I don't mind the thugs and the dope boys trying to holla at me. But I’m not trying to become a product of anybody's environment. It’s like a living hell growing up in the streets of Philadelphia. And I am searching high and low for a way out. I can promise the moment I get a chance to make it, I am taking off and never looking back. Seriously, just because you're brought into this world poor don't mean you have to die poor. My love life is non-existent… that was until Ace, a old friend of mines back into it. Everything that comes with him screams to leave him alone. However, I could never do no such thing. It’s like my body grows weak every time I am close to him. The way my heart beats at the sight of him is crazy, like goose bumps crazy and butterflies in my stomach crazy. If you're a woman you know what I'm talking about. He always seems to have me feeling things I never knew existed. He gives me a high I didn’t want to come down from. I thought everything was all good until the unthinkable happens, leaving me stuck wondering what was next.

    His life runs on a neat, orderly schedule until he re-unites with Allison Worthy. She was just a kid when Thurman left for life on the high seas. Now, she’s a vivacious and beautiful woman who threatens to turn his world upside-down. And the worst thing is…he has to work with her. Allison, cruise director on the ship’s maiden voyage, takes one look at grown up Thurman Swain and swoons. He’s become exactly what she’s looking for in a man, except he might be a little too concerned about what others think. The intimate confines of a ship at sea soon brew a romance between the captain and the cruise director. They conduct a clandestine love affair until Allison wants to bring their love out into the bright southern sun. When former lovers meet again on a holiday cruise, are they ready to face their past and their future... Murphy Gilbert has few regrets. His family owns a luxurious small cruise ship line, and he’s on the maiden voyage of the newest ship doing what he loves. As the company photographer and digital media specialist, the Christmas cruise on the Grand Islander should be just the right combination of work and play. However, as the ship leaves Charleston, he discovers a woman from his past on board. Losing her is one of his few regrets, but resisting her on a two-week cruise may be wonderfully impossible. After graduating from college with an art degree, Cecelia took off to Europe to study with the masters. She left behind her best friend Murphy, but not before a passionate but unwise fling with him the week before graduation. Now four years later, her work takes her aboard the Grand Islander and into the path of the dark-eyed man she hasn’t been able to forget. Letting herself fall for him means revealing a secret that will hurt them both, and Cecelia must risk everything before New Year’s Eve.

    

    

    Wealthy wives pay her to trap their husbands for blackmail. It's not honest work but it pays the bills. Desperate to clear her balance with the dangerous loan shark, Shadow, she takes on another dangerous job. When a woman named Onya pays Indigo well beyond her fee to trap her husband, Indigo says yes. But once she lays eyes on Onya's husband, billionaire Hendrix, she is thrown into a world of passion and deceit. Indigo breaks her cardinal rule by falling for Hendrix. Their affair is mired in secrets, drama and passion. Are you ready to get enthralled with this African American Romance stand-alone.

    Being a plus sized woman hadn’t always been an easy task, but with the help of the one person she loves dearly, Blu has learned to love all of her. Despite the childish standards of what society has deemed to be beautiful, she has overcome her fears, conquered the world, and taken claim of success in all its glory. However, there’s still something missing in her life: love and companionship. One day, when she least expects it, cupid shoots her with his bow, and she bumps into the fine Mr. LaMir. He’s a hood dude through and through and is different from anyone she’s ever dated, but that’s what makes him special. The attraction between the two is undeniable, and Blu soon finds herself falling head over heels for him. However, there’s one problem: he has a baby mama from hell, and she’s willing to fight Blu tooth and nail to keep him! Thirty-two-year-old LaMir Wallace isn’t your typical hoodlum. When he hustles, he hustles with purpose, and that is to get out of the hood. The streets are the last place he wants to be, and he only uses them until he finds his way out. Now, LaMir is young, successful, and rich with a whole lot to offer a good woman. However, he’s stuck with the mother of his child, who doesn’t appreciate him, and feels like she’s owed the world. The only thing keeping the two together is their child, but is he willing to give up his happiness by staying in a relationship that is eating away at his soul? When Blu Stevens and LaMir Wallace cross paths, they both see and feel something in each other that they’ve never felt before. However, with LaMir knowing his situation, he desperately tries to shake those feelings for Blu, but he can’t, and Blu feels the same about him. Life isn’t always peaches and cream, and each relationship comes with their own set of problems. Will the two’s love be enough to conquer all, or will the trials and tribulations be too much to bare? You’ll see in this wonderful tale of Beautiful: The Epitome Of A BBW.

    Her husband had just passed leaving her with just their family Bed and Breakfast, The Sand Dollar Inn. After the difficult recent death of her husband, she had finally thought her worst days were behind her.Her children being grown, each day she continued to stay busy running and managing her Bed and Breakfast, located near the beautiful Manatee Bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The beauty of the area had helped ease her mind and keep her thoughts from diving too deep.Disaster strikes when her lawyer notifies her of the massive amount of debt that her late husband had accrued during their marriage. At risk of losing the Bed and Breakfast and the only thing keeping her afloat, Nina must figure out how to repay the debt.As ideas begin to come into place, an adventure begins. Nina discovers secrets held by her late father during his world travels. Hidden treasure that could be the answer to her biggest problems.Along the way, Nina and her grown children discover the thrill of adventure as help begins to come from some of the most unexpected places.An adventure she could have never anticipated.Dive in and come visit the beautiful South Florida coast and The Sand Dollar Inn. Tag along in Nina’s adventure and meet all the new characters The Sand Dollar Inn and Manatee Bay attracts!

    It sort of just happened. With an unmistakable chemistry lingering between them, their attraction towards one another seems inevitable. But there's only one problem. Cue is hiding a deep, dark secret that could potentially destroy everything they worked so hard to build. Kylie thought her troubles were over after leaving her no good ex, Jamaal. Finding solace in the arms of another bad boy, she soon discovers that the grass isn't always greener. Will her new love interest give her the storybook ending she envisioned? Or will he ultimately be her downfall?

    All she cared about was the scandal it caused within their small Amish community. Would the upstanding and righteous man May's got a crush on, think she's flighty just like her sister? After all, they are twins. May sees an opportunity to get closer to him and his children by volunteering to help at the school, but will charitable works be enough for him to see her in a different light? You will love these four sweet Amish romances, full of fun, love, and light-hearted moments.

    13:55 EST makes - she counts on her fingers - about 6pm in Berlin. He'll be on his way home. Alice settles into the armchair and dials the number...If Alice hadn't bumped into Will then she would probably never have phoned that afternoon. And if Alice hadn't called, then Michael, poor Michael, might still be alive today...In a digital age of world-spanning communications and easy travel these stories explore how interconnected and yet fragmented our lives have become, and how - no matter where we live or what we do, no matter how different our lifestyles - the universal desires for love and happiness draw us ever onward.Both short story collection and novel, 13:55 Eastern Standard Time finds Nick Alexander at his best. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes funny, these are stories of lives that cross and collide in life-ending drama, or simply run peacefully alongside for a few hours - lives filled with characters who are attracted and repelled, hopeless and yet inspired. Narrated in Alexander's trademark tense prose, these interwoven stories explore the ripples emanating from our every act, ripples that alter distant destinies, and occasionally bounce back, catching us from behind to haunt or inspire.13:55 Eastern Standard Time repeats the success of Alexander's first novel, 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye because again, as with life itself, the whole is mysteriously greater than the sum of the parts.

    The location of Earth has been lost for nearly as long. Through a series of incidents a single man has stumbled upon clues to the location of this fabled world and begins a quest to find the lost Man Home. His actions trigger consequences beyond his understanding or control.

    

    When she loses her job and breaks up with her boyfriend in the same week, she’s forced to think about the reality of moving back in with her parents in rural Idaho.On a weekend excursion in Sun Valley, she meets Levi Grant, a smokejumper who not only dives from airplanes into the center of forest fires, but also knows her darkest secrets, secrets that even she hasn’t uncovered. With his help, she conquers not only the Grand Canyon, but her own insecurities. Will discovering Mariah’s true identity bring them closer together or cause her to resent Levi for knowing the truth and keeping it from her?