Chris Gardner has a good life in New Orleans. He owns a club in the French Quarter, has a wonderful crew of people who call it home, loyal, caring friends, and even gets his kid fix by helping to take care of his chef’s daughter. What he doesn’t have is that special someone to share his days and nights with. He thought he did, once upon a time, but that man left to find fame and fortune, became a rockstar, and never returned. And that’s fine. Life isn’t a fairy tale. Now if only he could find a band to play music in his club at night, that would be a Christmas miracle.

Anyone who spends time with me knows two things. One: If I want something, I get it, which is how I end up back in my old college haunts, buying a dilapidated bar with my five best friends and staring down the barrel of an unknown future. Two: The idea of settling down makes my skin crawl, and that's how I made it to forty with zero serious relationships in the rearview mirror. At least I'm smart enough to hire the right people. Enter Salem Barlowe, the prettiest twink who ever twinked and my personal kryptonite.

Act as the dude of honor for my best friend? On it. Play nice with her scheming groom? Sure. Sabotage the wedding so she doesn’t make the biggest mistake of her life? Someone has to. The only obstacle is her fierce, over-the-top wedding planner. I can’t get distracted by Zye Roessler’s sass or his kissable lips. Not when he’s fixing things faster than I can break them. We’re both determined. I want to protect my friend. And Zye needs this wedding to save his business. Not that he believes in love or marriage. I mean, neither do I. But I’m not the one making a profit from other’s mistakes.

Detective Quinn Hughes doesn't have many regrets in life, but Sebastian Devlin is the biggest. As a cop and a defense lawyer, the deck was stacked against them to start with, but Quinn was the one who left a burning inferno behind him. Missing his chance with ex-Special Forces Commando Peyton Sinclair is a close second on his regrets list, but Quinn isn't going to ruin the happiness Peyton has found with fellow police officer Will McMahon for anything—not even a chance at his own happiness.

"Oh my God, Briar! Where did you get that prosthetic leg?" Things as a parent Lane thought he'd never say for four hundred, Alex. But that's par for the course in Lane Ashbury's life considering everything is on the verge of falling apart. He not only has a toddler building her skills as a professional klepto, but he's also on the verge of divorce, and hoping desperately to save his business before it goes under. Luckily, the owner of the stolen leg might just be an angel in disguise when he offers to be Lane's new nanny instead of pressing charges.

Paris's path is clear, his future settled. He's trained his whole life in politics and the running of a kingdom. He's going to be an adviser to the future king, his beloved prince. But when his father dies unexpectedly, the current king takes the opportunity to get rid of him, sending him to the barbaric southern tribe lands of Nemeda as a diplomat. No one has ever returned from the tribes alive.

A part-time professor and photojournalist, Hayden immerses himself in work, finding it easier to face the world from behind his camera lens. When his one-night fling walks into his classroom four days later, his carefully constructed walls begin to crumble. Carefree frat boy Tyler Statler loves a good time. He's eager to take advantage of everything college life offers before embarking on his dream job as a music journalist. But when the bright-eyed stranger from a few nights before turns out to be his new professor, his world changes.

One hall pass—redeemed. In college, I made the mistake of falling in love with Ward, who was deep in the closet and terrified to come out to his conservative, religious family. He called me Master. Said he loved me. Said he'd be mine forever. I guess he lied, because he ghosted and didn't even attend graduation.

All I want is to help those who need it the most. So when a devastatingly handsome stranger lands in Neon Nights, the gay bar where we spend our days and nights, I immediately know he's in trouble. I also know that we share an instant connection that comes once in a lifetime, but our clumsy kiss freaks him out and turns the night into a total disaster.

Rafael owns my heart. He stole it with the first clumsy bump in a Parisian bookstore, and I never asked him to return it. He gifted me a night to remember, a night that shaped the person I would become. And then, I lost him. I lost every trace that could have helped me find him. Until fate meddled again and put Rafael and me on the same cross-European train through the Alps.

My first day working as the Marketing Director for the world-renowned theme park moguls Blackmoore Enterprises was going really well until I came face-to-face with the man who has my heart. But he is not the man I believed he was. The man is an ogre. He’s a bully and likes the words “You’re fired” a little too much. I need to decide. Do I go home with my tail between my legs, or do I stay, ignore him, and show him he’s not the boss of me?

Shunned by most species and abandoned by their warlock fathers, necromancers are marginalized, feared, and reclusive. Erasmus Boone is different. His warlock father chose love instead of abandonment. Unusually powerful and talented, Boone embraced his necromantic abilities and managed to carve out an existence within a world that would rather he not exist at all.

Nefarious Nights: Aiden, who protects a crime lord, ends up trading banter and kisses with the man he’s supposed to kill. Never Have I Ever Ridden a Bike: Owen’s penchant for opening packages propels him and his best friend (and hopeless crush) Lance into a race against time… and a pantsless bicycle ride?

There are several principles of landscaping, but my favorite has always been simplicity. I'm a go-with-the-flow and keep-it-simple kind of guy. Always have been. Always will be. It's how I do my job and how I live my life. Of course, as luck would have it, it only takes one job and one indescribably hot stranger to change everything for me. Because one thing Dutton Collins is not... simple.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love Rhett Walker, which is complicated since he’s ten years older and my brother’s best friend. After a falling out, we didn’t speak for years—until today, when he found me sleeping in my car, threw me over his shoulder, and dragged me “to safety.”