In order to convince Sculpt to give me self-defense lessons, I had to follow his one rule: no complaining, or he'd walk. I didn't think it would be a problem. I could handle a few bruises. What I hadn't anticipated was landing on my back with Sculpt on top of me and my entire body burning up for him.

It was one night together. I wasn't supposed to see him again. I never thought I would. And then the six-foot-three cement graffiti wall of badass strode back into my life, and did it with full force. He's protecting me from his past, and I'm protecting myself against the heated chaos he erupts in my body. It doesn't help that he can do playful and sweet when he's not doing bossy. But the overly confident playboy Deaglan Kane is danger, has no boundaries, and is totally off-limits. And I know behind his walls there's a man with a dark and damaged past.

Macayla: My new landlord, ex-Special Forces Vic Gate, is intense, and even that's too domesticated a way to describe him. Extreme raw power seems more appropriate. Or maybe godlike, except there isn't anything forgiving or merciful in him. Then again, he gave me and my little boy Jackson a week to vacate his cabin instead of seven minutes. But the dangerously quiet, six-foot-four muscled wall does something to me. And it's way more than a sweet fluttering in my belly. This is an eagle-diving, bee-stinging, fire-breathing-dragon fluttering that causes all kinds of chaos inside me.

I hate Dante Moretti. He is cold, calculating, and vicious. It’s no secret that he wiped out his former fiancée and her entire family on the eve of their wedding. He’s the kind of evil that makes even devils cry. But that’s not why I hate him.

It was supposed to be a harmless kiss at a lavish debutante ball. A clandestine moment with a handsome stranger. But unlike his namesake, my Romeo isn’t driven by love. He’s fueled by revenge. To him, I’m a chess piece. Leverage. His rival’s betrothed. To me, he is a man deserving of poison. A dark prince I refuse to marry. He thinks I’ll accept my fate. Well, I plan to rewrite it. And in my story, Juliet doesn’t die. But Romeo? He perishes.

Pine River was supposed to be a new start for me. And it was, especially attending school with my three overprotective cousins, who were the triplets at the top of the social hierarchy. Except they weren’t alone there, and the first day when I came to school, I saw him. Scout Raiden. Tall. Lean. Tattooed. Mesmerizing. He was a golden god with dark and piercing eyes—looking like he wanted to eat me up. The feeling was mutual, and that was a problem.

Bastian Bishop. That’s his name. He’s rough, rugged, and utterly unpredictable. He’s not cautious or contemplative. He’s a volcano. Silent and steady one second, and a nightmare in the next. But that’s not the worst of it. This guy? He’s an outsider, and in my world outsiders don’t belong.

Working as Ruslan Oryolov’s personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire’s every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that’s exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole, who’s ruining my life. That’s fine—because of all Ruslan’s many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous.

Rose Cassidy doesn’t truly live; she just exists. Numbing herself to fear and pain is the only way she can survive in this cruel world. So when she’s taken as collateral by the notorious Danny Black in a deadly game of power, she’s thrown by the deep fear she feels rising within her. And, worse than fear, a profound desire. She’s heard tales of The Brit. He’s callous. Coldblooded. But no one ever said he was wickedly beautiful and darkly captivating.

It all started with an unexpected phone call. Two years after my fiancé passed away in an accident, his father died suddenly, leaving Brad’s adult special-needs brother with no one to care for him. The next thing I knew, I was on a cross-country drive to New Hampshire where I’d be moving in to look after Scottie until I could get him into a group home. The last thing I ever expected? I wouldn’t be taking care of him alone.

You’ll judge me. Hate me, and tell me I’m wrong. Refuse to see how my darkness is what she needs. While I don’t particularly care about your feelings in the matter, and while I pursue her - despite the wedding bells that rang for another - only I can see how she is drowning beneath mediocrity. He had his chance to make her happy. He failed. He didn't see how she was dying inside, because he couldn't know her. Not like I know her. I am her stalker. Her protector. And the only man that can bring her back to life.

It was an innocent mistake; she knocked on the wrong door. It was mine. If I were a better man, I would've just let her go. But I'm not. I'm a cruel bastard. I ruthlessly claimed her virtue for my own. It should've been enough but it wasn't. I needed more...I craved it. She became my obsession. Her sweetness and purity taunted my dark soul. The need to possess her nearly drove me mad. A Russian arms dealer had no business pursuing a naive librarian student. She didn't belong in my world. I would bring her only pain. But it was too late...she was mine and I was keeping her.

Did you know roughly twenty-seven percent of child abductions are carried out by an acquaintance or family friend? Who better to lure you away than someone you know and trust? With every day that passed, the likelihood of my being found grew smaller. I never imagined I’d be one of them—my face tacked to a bulletin board at the local grocery store and a statewide search issued on my behalf. Even harder to fathom was that I’d ever be one of the lucky few who made it home after enduring years of captivity.

When I met him, I didn't realize who he was. I still didn't when I let him take me back to his hotel for the night. I never expected to see him again. Until I found him on my father's couch, revealing he and I are connected in more ways than simply a one-night stand. To make it worse, he was a Saint, part of the ruling mafia family that owned the city of Redhill. I should have stayed away at that point. I had a lot at risk and my own mess to deal with, but it wasn't that easy. Not when he kept showing up, and that one night turned to two, and then three.

When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she doesn't think it's love at first sight. They wouldn’t even go so far as to consider themselves friends. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. Once their desires are out in the open, they realize they have the perfect set-up. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her.

In order to convince Sculpt to give me self-defense lessons, I had to follow his one rule: no complaining, or he'd walk. I didn't think it would be a problem. I could handle a few bruises. What I hadn't anticipated was landing on my back with Sculpt on top of me and my entire body burning up for him.

From the moment I saw her through the window of her flower shop, something other than darkness took root inside me. Charlie shone like a beacon in a world that had long since lost any light. But she was never meant for me, a man that killed without remorse and collected bounties drenched in blood. I thought staying away would keep her safe, would shield her from me. I was wrong. Danger followed in my wake like death at a slaughter house. I protected her from the threats that circled like black buzzards, kept her safe with kill after kill.

They call me Girth for a reason. I’m a damn giant. The muscle in the MC. It’s why I get sent out on loan when some of our brothers down South need some help. And by help, I mean crush some guys' skulls. That’s what the Marked Skulls are good at. Name fits, right? But when I get there, I’m tasked with protecting the President’s daughter, Lila. She’s petite and gorgeous, and all I can do is look. The Pres made it clear; I can’t touch. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right? Until he finds out.

Devin and Ayden were my best friends. We were practically joined at the hip since age two. When we were kids, we thought we were invincible, inseparable, that nothing or no one could come between us. But we were wrong. Everything turned to crap our senior year of high school. Devin was turning into a clone of his deadbeat lowlife father - fighting, getting wasted, and screwing his way through every girl in town. I'd been hiding a secret crush on him for years.

Dominic Valetti is only interested in two things: getting paid and getting laid. He's a bookie for the Valetti crime family, and he knows his shit. Dom's busy doing business, no time to dabble in social niceties. The women that chase after him wanting more than a dirty, hard f--k are only gonna get their hearts broken. That is, until Becca stumbles into his office to pay off her ex's debt. A hot brunette who's just as guarded as he is and has a body made for sin...and for him.

Hayden Summers just landed the job of a lifetime taking pictures for Time magazine, but she's determined to leave with no regrets. The first thing on her list? Erase the memory of her cheating ex with a wild night of anonymous sex. The second? Figure out why her best friend, sexy bar owner Jace Jennings, stopped speaking to her the night she told him about the job.

Ryan Kendall is broken. Being broken doesn’t stop him from wanting the one thing he can’t have: Finlay Tanner. She’s the girl he grew up with, the girl he loves, the girl he protects from the world and from himself. At 19, Ryan leaves to join the Australian Army. After years of training, he becomes an elite SAS soldier and deploys to the Afghanistan war. His patrol undertakes the most dangerous missions a soldier can face. But no matter how far he runs, his need for Finlay won’t let go. Returning home after six years, one look is all it takes to know he can’t live without her.

Family is everything to gambling den darling, Teresa Valentini. So when her brother lands himself in hot water, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to save him. And showing up topless in her unwitting savior’s motel room is turning out to be the furthest thing from a hardship. Will Caruso is the bad boy of New York’s financial scene…and he just found out the very thing that drives his success is a damn lie. Now he’s exchanged his high-stress life for the open road. When a beauty arrives, her secrecy prods his suspicions, even while she tempts his lust to the breaking point.

His heart beats for the music. She's his favorite song. Lyric Cassidy knows a thing or two about bad boy rock stars with raspy vocals. In fact, her heart was just played by one. So when she takes an assignment as road manager for the world famous rock star, Wolf, she's prepared to take him on, full suit of heart-armor intact. Wolf is the sexy lead singer for the hottest rock band around with a line-up of guaranteed one night stands. Lyric Cassidy isn't one of them. That's fine with him.

Aleena Moore is haunted by Jared Holt. It's been six years since she's seen her brother's best friend, the self-destructive bad boy she secretly loved in high school. As the years pass, she knows it's time to move on. Time to decide between a practical nursing degree and her true dream as an artist. Time to get over Jared and give another guy a chance…Just when she opens her heart to her friend, Gabe, Aly returns home to find Jared sleeping on her couch. The teenage boy she loved has grown into a man she can't resist.

The Beast Scarred. Damaged. Living with a terrible secret. Agent of the Underlight Wesley 'Hauk' Haukon has nothing left but the fight for liberty against the oppressive Order of Ananke. He's starting to lose hope...and then he sees her. The Beauty Despite her night job as a burlesque dancer, grad student Jolie Benoit has always played the mostly good girl. That all changes following a scorching sexual encounter with a stranger whose face she doesn't see.

She was supposed to be mine forever. But the night our fathers were killed, Sydney decided this life wasn't for her. So she ran. She left me, and our club behind. I never expected to see her on my doorstep six years later. With our child. She looks different, but she's still as beautiful as ever. Those hips, her sultry smile, I can't get over her. But she didn't leave the life, and she's got a DEA agent on her tail.

It's been 12 years since Tru Bennett last saw Jake Wethers, her former best friend and boy she once loved. Jake Wethers, sexy, tattooed, and deliciously bad lead singer, and brains behind The Mighty Storm, one of biggest bands in the world, left Tru with a broken heart when he moved from England to America with his family when they were both 14. Sent to interview Jake for her music column by the magazine she works for, they are both unprepared for the sparks that fly the instant they reconnect.

After getting tangled up in Carnage business, it isn’t long before I'm tangled up in their sheets. They see is my blonde hair and sweet smile, and they want to dirty me up a little. I'm a splash of pink within the leather-clad army, standing out like a tampon in a condom factory. But it’s not my fault they underestimated me. I might like girly things, but I’m much more likely to spray you with bullets then sprinkle you with glitter. I could just tell them they have me labeled all wrong...but where’s the fun in that?

Toni’s no stranger to making mistakes. She has experienced firsthand how walking down the wrong path can send life spiraling out of control. Fortunately, she had someone to drag her from the gutter and help set her on the right track. As penance for the poor choices of her past, she pledges to suppress her baser desires and focus on finding a steady, dependable man, even if that means embracing a boring lifestyle.

In order to convince Sculpt to give me self-defense lessons, I had to follow his one rule: no complaining, or he'd walk. I didn't think it would be a problem. I could handle a few bruises. What I hadn't anticipated was landing on my back with Sculpt on top of me and my entire body burning up for him.

Chef Emma Sparrow has poured her heart and soul - not to mention all her money - into the restaurant of her dreams. But when Quinn Ryker, her landlord and billionaire playboy, refuses to renew her lease, her entire world and all those who depend on her are at risk.

Best-selling author Nikki Sex presents three full-length stand-alone novels, all featuring André Chevalier.

I lie to survive. Have since I was 16 and my world fell into chaos. But I found a way to endure, or rather it found me. Now I'm a prisoner of my own doing, hiding behind a false mask so no one sees the truth. Not even the man I want but can't have - Deck. But I messed up and the lies are spilling over, out of control.

The Game of Love is a collection of four sports romances with heart, humor, and heat from four bestselling romance authors.