SSgt. Ryder was born, bred, and enhanced as a warrior, but when he returns home to his new wife--exiled from the Army along with the rest of his disgraced team--he faces mounting anger and paranoia. Something shady followed Ryder back from the desert, and he disappears to protect his wife, but his departure leaves a vacuum filled with intrigue.Lauren Ryder married thinking she had finally found stability, until her new husband disappeared. In six months, she's lost everything that mattered, and now a madman has her in his sights. Ryder's return lands her in deeper danger from a formidable enemy. As the threats escalate, so does the heat, but even if Ryder can save Lauren from the forces mounting against them, will they survive what he has become?"The chemistry between Lauren and Ryder jumped off the pages. Exactly why we read romance." (Beth Rhodes)Military trained, medically enhanced, designed to kill. The Team Fear novels are fast paced, with twists and turns and a side of steamy. The surviving members of Team Fear are out of the military and in a world of secrets, lies, and cover-ups in this new romantic suspense series by Cindy Skaggs.

    Unimaginably skilled, they’re the spies you want on your side…of the bed.Christian Bane is a man of few words who battles demons rooted in a woman’s betrayal, and being left to die in a Thai prison. All these years later, he still isn’t free of the past.Now Spectra IT, the crime syndicate responsible for his imprisonment, has recruited a computer scientist facing his own death sentence to hack critical government encryption technology. Christian, a member of the elite Smithson Group, SG-5, has been tasked with stopping him.Posing as a womanizing Spectra boss, Christian gets up close and personal with the scientist’s goddaughter, Natasha Gaudet, who handles his business affairs, and is the most obvious way in.But the closer Christian gets to Natasha, the harder it is to deceive her. The fact that she knows nothing about her godfather’s dealings has Christian wondering who fed him the faulty intel.Because if she isn’t the criminal he’s been led to believe, they’re both being taken for a very dangerous ride. And if he doesn’t face his demons and trust her, neither one of them will survive.

    That was before she watched the love of her life die before her very eyes. Brokenhearted, her emotions on lockdown, she finds purpose and hope as an LCR elite operative rescuing victims from some of the most volatile places in the world.As a covert ops agent, Declan Steele was used to a life of danger and distrust, but when the one person he trusted and believed in above all others sets him up, he’ll stop at nothing to make her pay. Finally rescued from his hellish prison, Declan has one priority—hunt down Sabrina Fox and exact his revenge.Trusting no one is a lonely, perilous path. Sabrina swears she’s innocent and Declan must make a decision--trust his heart or his head. As memories of their life together returns, he realizes just how treacherous his torture had been and the target of his revenge shifts. But when Sabrina is taken, retribution is the last thing on his mind. With the assistance of Last Chance Rescue Elite, Declan races to rescue the only woman he has ever loved before it’s too late.

    Now she lives alone, works alone, survives alone. When a covert mission goes horribly wrong, suddenly she can trust no one. Not her boss, not her agency, not even herself. Lucas Goodman, former FBI agent turned PI, is on the trail of a missing teenager when his investigation leads him to Jamie. Despite her attempts to ditch him, Lucas tenaciously continues to shadow Jamie, realizing he doesn’t just want information...he wants her. When their investigations collide and her sister is in danger, Jamie is forced to team up with Lucas. Together they must expose the connection between agents’ murders, a missing teenager, and a sixty-year-old government conspiracy. But can she open her heart to find the truth within the lies? been odd man out in his family. Not the oldest, not the most charming, he'd had a lock on the youngest until another half-sibling came to live with them, so he raised hell in his youth. Con knows now the only way to redeem himself is with deeds, not words and sets out to prove once and for all he is worthy of the Stone family. When his older brother asks him to take care of business, Con finally will have redemption he craves. Except when Ava Sanchez, his brother's assistant, is threatened, he must choose between saving the girl and protecting his family. Will his choice bring him love or break his heart?

    After a traumatic assault, Hannah Novak returns to her home-town hoping for a fresh start. However, when strange gifts turn up on her doorstep, and a stalker fixates on her, she discovers that Blackbridge isn’t the safe haven it once was. With no family left to turn to, she’s forced to seek help from the broody new cop in town. Ryan Kilpatrick has travelled across the country to create a stable home for his young son, but being a police officer makes that hard. He doesn’t need Hannah’s problems added to his own, yet her courage and vulnerability awakens the protector in him. With time running out, can Hannah learn to trust again before it’s too late? Because this time, there are no second chances.

    Get up, go to work, avoid talking to the dead—that sort of thing. But not everyone dies quietly, and Rania’s soon being pestered by one ghost, blackmailed by another, and distracted by a handsome private investigator who’s got his own reasons for wanting to solve a particularly gruesome murder. While Will Lawson doesn’t mind using unorthodox methods to crack a case, he’s never had to contact his witnesses via a seance before. But the clock is ticking, and Will and his unlikely sidekicks need to hunt down a killer before he’s dispatched to join the spirit world himself. Cursed is a standalone paranormal romantic suspense novel in the Electi Series—no cliffhanger!

    See author's note, below Pulling Home (That Second Chance #1) It's taken nine years and a cross-country move, but Audra Valentine Wheyton has kept her secrets safe. She's created the perfect life: a husband who loves her, a daughter she adores, and a position as head writer for an award-winning daytime soap. When her husband dies suddenly, Audra returns to her hometown for the funeral and faces a community that has not forgotten her meager beginnings and the man who has never forgiven her for marrying his brother. Jack Wheyton is a successful pediatric neurosurgeon who is about to become engaged when Audra walks back into his life with her daughter. He forgave his brother long ago for taking something that had been his, something he hadn't even realized he wanted until it was gone. But forgiving Audra is another story...and forgetting her? Near impossible. When a shattering illness strikes Audra's daughter, she turns to Jack to save her child and risks exposing a secret that will change their lives forever. A Family Affair: The Promise (Truth in Lies #7) Grant Richot sprinted through life, a boy wonder with talent, intelligence, confidence, and charm. He never doubted the world awaited him, just as he never doubted the right woman would come into his life—but only when he was ready for her. Anyone before that was simply preparation for the one. How wrong he was. Years and a tragedy later, Grant arrives in Maggie Finnegan’s hometown of Magdalena, New York—broken, uncertain, and searching for that second chance with the woman he cast aside. But Maggie’s no longer naïve and impressionable; she’s a confident, competent widow with a child, who has more at risk than another broken heart… Note from Mary: I love secondary characters: writing them, reading about them, even watching them on the big screen. Secondary characters support the “stars”; make them more vibrant and compelling. But when the story ends, I’m often left wondering what they’d do if they were in the “spotlight”. That’s why I’ve created special boxed sets that were part of That Second Chance series and the Truth in Lies series. These boxed sets let the reader follow the before and after of select characters as they first appear in That Second Chance series and later in the fictional town of my bestselling Truth in Lies series. Boxed Set One contains Pulling Home and A Family Affair: The Promise. I invite you to follow their journey!

    Vowing to only look forward and not behind, she attends a Masquerade Ball with no expectations. That is, until a mysterious masked man sits beside her. Attraction ignites, and, setting her inhibitions aside, she embarks on one night of passion. Alex Scavoni has sacrificed a lot to be the best ER doctor he can be. Now he’s about to start his dream job as the Registrar of the ER Department and getting involved in a relationship is the last thing on his mind. When he meets a masked Sophie, he knows he has to have her, and he won’t take no for an answer. Fate plays her hand and Sophie and Alex find themselves working closely together in the stressful world of emergency medicine. Determined to keep their passionate interlude a secret they attempt to maintain a working relationship. Only they find that their one night together isn’t enough. Can they push aside their growing feelings or will fate have one more card to play that will change their lives forever?

    Her only ally is a recuperating PI who unfortunately is the owner's best friend. Soon she is caught between a blossoming romance and a far-reaching conspiracy...where misplaced trust can be deadly.

    Now she wants revenge…Accused of stealing artifacts from a five hundred year-old shipwreck, underwater archaeologist Erica Kesling is determined to clear her name. She’s concealed her past and taken a job certain to give her access to the buyer of the missing antiquities. She's finally closing in on her goal, when she's distracted by a sexy, charismatic intern who makes her want something other than revenge.But Lee Scott is no intern. He's looking for the lead conspirator in an international artifact smuggling scheme, and Erica is his prime suspect. He’ll do whatever it takes to win her trust and get her to reveal her secrets, even seduce her.As Erica and Lee struggle to conceal their real agendas, the one thing they can’t hide is the attraction that burns hot between them. When Erica’s quest puts her life in jeopardy, Lee must choose between old loyalties and a woman he never expected to fall for.

    But when her brother is kidnapped and the price to save him is the priceless artifact, keeping one promise means breaking the other. In a no-win situation and facing a dangerous trek through the jungle, Kate is forced to rely on a guide she doesn’t trust… yet whose touch makes her yearn for so much more. A cynical guide The only person Max Rivera can truly count on is himself. That's why he prefers to work alone. Unfortunately his Devlin Security Force assignment to guide and protect Kate includes covertly finding proof her kidnapped brother has sold black-market antiquities. And sticking close to this delectable and vulnerable woman proves more dangerous to Max than all the threats in the jungle. A race against time While following the kidnapper’s instructions, Max and Kate must outrun black-market smugglers and a predicted earthquake in a race that takes them from Washington to England and into the Costa Verde jungle. But as perilous as their quest becomes, when desire flares between them, risking their lives seems simple next to risking their hearts.

    Ex-Navy SEAL Julian Montgomery thinks rescuing the alluring conservator will be simple … until he recognizes the gunman as the missing woman he’s been looking for—Ella Sapphire.Finding Ella could be Julian’s one chance to make up for the mistakes of his past, mistakes that led to the destruction of his SEAL Team. Dodging a blaze of bullets, Julian rescues Mena and Ella’s newborn son as Ella escapes into the night.Days later, Ella’s corpse is found on a secluded beach. Struggling to fight the sizzling attraction brewing between them, Julian and Mena search for answers to the gruesome murder. But a killer lurks, willing to stop at nothing to keep Julian and Mena from discovering the twisted truth.

    . . Rocco Silas has come home to Wyoming after long years as a Red Team operative in Afghanistan. It isn't easy returning to civilian life, especially burdened as he is with a staggering case of PTSD or hunted as he is by an enemy determined to seek an eye-for-eye--neither of which can he battle until he confronts the truth of what happened one fateful day in the high mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush. . . . She alone holds the key to his sanity. Mandy Fielding's dream of opening a therapeutic riding center on her family's ranch is almost within her grasp--until she hires Rocco Silas, a dangerous ex-Spec Ops friend of her brother's. His haunted eyes and passionate touch promise a love she never dared believe possible. Can they confront the truth of his past and build a future together or will the enemy stalking him destroy them both?

    She’s good at what she does, and the ghost town vacation resort would look great on her resume, but it means tangling with the ex-military cowboy who is determined to stop her as soon as she arrives. Beau Paxton needs to sell the land and ghost town to save his family’s struggling ranch. He’s a formidable enemy to Ava’s determination, but the harder she works, the more his attraction for her grows. He doesn’t want to set aside his plans so she can succeed at hers, yet he finds himself doing just that... Will a promise bring a city girl and a sexy cowboy together? Or will a broken one drive them apart?

    She hasn’t seen Jake in years but her former college friend told her he’d always be there for her and she definitely needs him now. Even though her feelings for him go far deeper than friendship and just being around him risks her heart, she would do anything to keep those she loves safe from a madman bent on unleashing hell.Only one man from her past can helpFBI Special Agent Jake Evers made the biggest mistake of his life when he let Rachel slip through his fingers over two years ago. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t seen her since then—if she needs him, he’ll be there. When he learns that she’s the target of a domestic terror cell, he’ll do everything in his power to keep her safe. He’s never gotten over her and won’t risk losing her again now that she’s reappeared in his life. But the threat is more widespread than they realized and now it’s a race against time to keep her and scores of innocent civilians alive.