She's fortunate enough to find a great opportunity to live in an exterior apartment of a beautiful lake house in a small town in Vermont. When she realizes the apartment and scenery are not the only gorgeous appeal but the home owner, Seth Finn, is as well, she puts it all on the line for the chance at love. When she becomes comfortable and confident in her own skin and sexuality, Mae realizes that this place and this man is exactly what she came looking for. Knowing Seth and his three children are as special as they come, Mae bets the house, and prays she and her gamble are enough.

    She had given him her youth, and all he gave in return was misery and pain. She was ready for a new beginning, but Ashton wasn’t about to let her go so easily, even if it meant destroying both their lives in the process.Three years later Emmie convinces herself she is ready to leave all of that heartbreak in the past and find a little piece of normal for herself. She heads to New York City to pick up where she left off, determined to finish art school. Emmie is determined to focus on school and not let anything distract her, but life has a way of throwing curveballs.Paige, Emmie’s new roommate, brings Colin Bennett into her life. His smoldering eyes and lean muscular body are difficult for any girl to ignore. Only thing is, Emmie isn’t any girl. Her past makes her resistant to his charms. Colin isn’t one to give up easily, and just when he thinks he may have found a way to her stubborn heart, her tragic history may have found a way to tear them apart.

    But the beautiful old house is a near-ruin and she can't afford to restore it. Elinor hopes to find a buyer who will cherish the home as she does. But she has one rule - she won't sell to handsome, self-made millionaire Cole Whittier.Cole has the locals upset over his plans to build a factory nearby and Elinor's leading the opposition. He's got a fight on his hands to convince the stubborn beauty of the merits of his plans - and of everything else he discovers he wants to offer her.It's up to Cole to persuade Elinor to see things from his perspective. The sexy industrialist is convinced that Elinor is well worth winning over.

    How hard can that be?My best friend is deployed and he worries about his little sister being alone. But I don’t mind taking her out for her birthday. I just have to remember one thing. 1) Keep my hands off her ridiculously curvy body.But there’s just one problem. Mara has her own ideas about what we should do for her birthday. And she wants a lot more than a Hallmark card.

    Sophie Calhoun can't imagine how she'll pay for the damage to the luxurious car.Already cash-strapped, she's struggling to launch her new interior design studio and make a home for her daughter. She's only days away from disaster.Out of the sleek black Jaguar storms super-yacht tycoon Rafe Severino. Steaming mad. Totally gorgeous. And desperately in need of a top-line decorator for his spectacular new harbor-side mansion.Sophie fears her dream contract comes with strings that tie her to the boat-builder's bed. No matter how she tries to escape, he's always there - implacable and irresistible.She knows he doesn't want a preoccupied single mother, but concealing her daughter's existence from the man she's falling in love with is getting harder and harder. If he discovers her lies, she'll instantly lose everything.Warning: contains one determined golden-skinned man who knows his way around boats, bodies and bed-sheets.

    Arianna (Ari) Lynn Harlow has led a charmed life until tragedy strikes her family. He’s looking for a no-emotions attached mistress, she’s looking for redemption.They are not a pair that should ever work, but undeniable attraction and devastating tragedies bring them together in the city by the bay where he fights to keep their relationship nothing more than an enjoyable way to meet his needs, and she battles to not lose herself in him. Spending time with Ari starts cracking the hard shell that Rafe has built around his heart, but he denies the affect she has on him until it’s too late to stop the inevitable conclusion that their relationship is headed for.Rafe once believed in happily ever after, coming from a large Italian family. He’s got the Midas touch, since every endeavor he tries turns to gold. That all ends when his wife walks out the door and leaves him blindsided. His devastation quickly turns to steel when he decides no woman will fool him again. From that point on he treats relationships as nothing more than business transactions where both party’s come out mutually benefited.Just when Ari has sunk to the lowest she’s ever been she finds an ad in the paper announcing a job that’s too good to be true. It turns out she’s right. She makes it through the intense rounds of interviews only to find out the job is for a mistress to the powerful Rafe Palazzo, owner of Palazzo Enterprises. Rafe gives her a day to think about whether she wants the position or not, and she’s sent on her way, only to find out her mother’s near-terminal position has taken a turn for the worse. Her mom’s only in the hospital because Ari messed up, and her mother’s the one who paid the price. Is Rafe her savior, or will he take her with him straight to the depths of hell?

    It's been ten years since he left the woman he loved behind to make a name for himself, and now he's bound and determined to claim her once and for all.But Charlotte Munroe has no desire to welcome home the Prodigal Son with a fatted calf. The bitterness of Dane's betrayal runs deep, and she has no plans of letting him back into her life.Especially since she's trying to protect the son Dane isn't aware exists from heartbreak, since she's sure he's only going to walk out of their lives again.

    What if the offers were so spicy, so naughty, so scandalous that you wouldn’t even want to tell your best friend? If you were me, you would say yes. There are three things you should know. His name is TJ Walker. He’s 28, hot as can be and he’s my brother’s best friend. TJ asked me to be his fiance for four weeks. I’m hoping to make the engagement real. I know. I can’t believe it either. What am I thinking? There are so many things that could go wrong by accepting to be TJ’s four week fiance? But, I can’t stop thinking that there are also so many things that could go right.

    A statistic. A victim. A single teenage mother from the poor part of town. Most of the time I'm too busy working and struggling to care what people think. Survival doesn't come easy.I have a dark secret, a pressure valve, a rare moment just for myself. On these nights I visit a club. There I find men who give me what I need.Men like Colin.But he wants more than a few stolen hours. He demands more than my body. He wants my heart and soul--my happily ever after. I never thought I'd be Cinderella. I never thought a man that rough could be my prince.HARD (Book Two)What Colin doesn't know can't hurt him.At least that's what I tell myself about the secrets I keep. I don't have a choice, not if I want to keep my daughter safe. And keep him Colin safe too. There are enemies in the shadows waiting to strike from all sides. I'm holding them out with my bare hands, but it's hard not to get crushed in the process.And the truth has a way of coming out.If I'm not careful, the past I've been working so hard to hide, the pain I've been fighting so long to outrun, will wipe out the man I love.FIERCE (Book Three)I'm torn between what I want and what I need. Between the men in my past and the man by my side. Colin has tried to control me, to use me. But he also guards me so fiercely my heart aches.Raincheck. Business. Don't wait up. --CThat's the note he leaves for me, as if I could sit around while he fights my dragons. As if I could let himself get killed in some vain attempt to protect me.There's no protection left for me. No redemption either.This is my battle, and I've already lost.Boxed sets in the Chicago Underground series:Rough Hard Fierce - Colin and Allie's storyWild Dirty Secret - Luke and Shelly's story

    She’s already working for one of the most prestigious law firms in Boston as a research assistant, and in a few short months, she will finally graduate from Harvard and collect her law degree. Everything she’s worked so hard to accomplish is well within her reach. But when Madison has to take an unexpected trip back home, she's blindsided by the one thing she never anticipated. A man who not only tests her patience but tempts her heart. Madison doesn’t have time for love and a love as consuming as his will only derail her perfectly laid plans. Desperate to escape his wicked past, Holden Brooks moved to Madison's hometown five years ago, hell-bent on overcoming the demons that nearly destroyed him back in Texas. He’s in a good place in his life. Love is the last thing on his mind until he tastes her honeysuckle skin and looks into those deep blue eyes. Desire ignites as their two paths collide and they soon find out, fate has a plan of its own.

    When the most difficult decision of Laurie Baker’s life needed to be made, she took off for a weekend alone to weigh her pros and cons and consider all her options.What she didn’t expect was to run face first into one more complication her life didn’t need.Distracting, sexy, and British, Liam Parker offered Laurie exactly what she needed when she was desperate for attention.One night of pleasure.She wanted it.She craved it.She took it.And when the sunlight dawned and the lusty haze of one night of passion disappeared and reality revealed itself…Laurie returned home knowing that everything she had once believed, everything she had once loved and desired, was about to be tossed upside down and shaken in a way she could never imagine.

    My friend needed a date, and my brother's best friend was single. Problem solved.Until I saw Jaeger for the first time in years, and sparks flew in the wrong direction.Jaeger has grown up and bulked up. But that shouldn't matter, because I have the perfect life. Really.Only my plans are beginning to unravel and now visions of Jaeger's hard abs, broad shoulders, and intense green eyes fill my head.I should hold back in case my friend is interested. Or in case of a million other reasons. But if Jaeger isn't willing to play by the rules, I don't think I can either.

    Now she can finally start a new life and figure out just who she really is. When her brother Matt dies suddenly, she takes a big risk and moves cross country to live in his house and take over his new business. This could be the chance she’s needed. There’s only one problem now. She can’t seem to escape the irresistible charm of her departed brother’s best friend. Todd Jordan just lost his best friend and business partner. Watching Matt’s sister move into town, his attraction to her is instant. Can he prove to her that all men are not the same, and resist his own desires as she learns to trust again? Overcoming the odds is just part of their journey. The two must first survive a fateful visit from Megan’s ex to have any chance at happiness.

    But the young, gorgeous, and sexy Daniel is more interested in fast cars, the family jet, and bedding women.When Francesco decides the best way to make his son grow up is to change his identity and move him away from his Manhattan penthouse, Daniel's world begins to rock.Sent to a little town in Tennessee, stripped of his family name and all access to money, Daniel finds himself on a mission to prove to his father that he can make it. If he doesn't, he risks losing the family business and billions of dollars. Country life isn't setting very well with the fast-paced New Yorker, until he meets the woman who stirs up every one of his senses. Katherine is beautiful, sassy, and has no intentions of hooking up with the new stranger in town. She leaves without a word. Will Daniel risk it all to find her?

    It's addictive romance reading that gets more satisfying as you journey further into these characters experience. Book one of the LOVE in the USA series features Daisy Blanchard and Belmont (Jack) Lord. Don't be surprised by the hot and fast start, Daisy and Belmont have a lot to learn about love, and here is where their education begins. It was one intense week in late October. I probably should've slowed our pace but I wasn't thinking clearly. I had just learned my boyfriend and best friend were engaged via a Facebook post, which left me heartbroken and wrestling with ghosts from my past.But Belmont Lord was so convincing and uninhibited, unlike me. He also had demons of his own. We threw caution to the wind. Could fate had picked a more perfect time and place for two people to meet?Yes, it was one steamy and surprising week, but was it long enough to make us last forever?Find Her, Keep Her: A Martha's Vineyard Love Story is the first sexy, sensual and addictive contemporary romance in the LOVE in the USA series by author, Z.L. Arkadie.This manuscript has been updated as of 6/18/2017. Sex scenes are still frequent but they are no longer written in graphic detail. Also, some of the details that were hard to swallow have been made palatable. Although, do realize that I had chosen to write two imperfect human beings. In later books, as they choose to make their relationship work, they also choose to resolve their personal issues. After all that is the theme of the LOVE in the USA series--true love, real love is another catalyst in life which helps evolve two people for the better. So I write love stories more than romance, and from book one through twelve of this series, you will be able to read the difference. Visit zlarkadiebooks.com to learn more about the author.