What's that saying? When life hands you lemons... What if I don't want to make lemonade? What if I want to pummel them into non-existence? Anything is better than admitting how desperately I want a taste of that sweet lemonade. That's exactly how I felt when my college assignment threw me in the direction of Miller Cain. My body screams for him while my brain warns me to run for the hills. He's the captain of the ice hockey team with a cocky reputation. He's a sweet talker and the bad boy promising me the ride of my life.

As a single father, I often feel like the weight of the world sits on my shoulders. When my daughter’s nanny gives me her two weeks’ notice, I’m sweating bullets. Fear that my NHL season with the New England Bay Sharks could be derailed consumes me. Finding a replacement seems impossible when, suddenly, Maci McKenzie—a struggling author who’s running from some deep, dark secret in her past—steps into the picture. She needs a change of scenery to help her write, and I just need someone who isn’t a complete weirdo to watch my kid when I’m not around.

It all starts with a bucket list and a romance novel…. I’ve known Ryder McAdams my entire life. We’re neighbors and our families are besties. He’s also friends and teammates with my younger brother, Maverick. But Ryder and me? We’ve never been close. In fact, I’ve always gotten the distinct impression he doesn’t like me very much. He goes out of his way to ignore me. Know what makes it worse?

Sticks and stones may break our bones…Hockey is my life. After Wren Davis puts my dreams of the NHL in jeopardy, I vow to make her life hell if she ever comes near me again. But she’s my best friend’s foster sister, and even though they don’t live together anymore, their bond is still tight, which makes avoiding each other extra difficult.

A little white lie never hurt anyone . . . or so I thought. One fake date and we’d go our separate ways, at least that’s how hockey’s hottest golden boy—Nixon Sinclair—convinced me this would work. But it turns out, Nix had other plans. Now I’m sneaking around with my brother’s teammate, refusing to admit he’s everything I want but never knew I needed.

I’m sure if I hadn’t spilled beer all over him and gave a subtle suggestion of where he could shove his best friend’s dick, perhaps we would have started out on a better note. How was I supposed to know that the dude was the captain of Bradford Private’s precious football team? I had just witnessed my boyfriend three inches deep inside some random girl. Surely you can't blame a girl for word vomit after such a traumatic experience.

Knox Holland is in a jam. After an incredible first year on the pro motocross circuit, he should be on top of the world. Instead, his bad reputation has landed him without a team. He's untouchable and desperate to turn it around. Which is how he ends up at my gym asking me to train him. As a college gymnast with two Olympic medals to my name, I know a thing or two about the pressure to succeed. Last season I choked and then injured myself before I could show the world that I'm not a twenty-year-old has-been.

First Mistake: Agreeing to my brother’s crazy, horrible scheme to seduce and drug my college’s hockey star, Yom “Yum” Rustanov, to get him disqualified for doping before his big international championship game. In the dictionary under femme fatale, you’ll find me—in the antonyms section.

In the high-pressure world of varsity hockey at Wittmore U, being the team intern means more than overseeing grueling workouts and injuries. It's the colossal egos of the players that truly test my patience. Even if they did see me as something more than another locker room fixture created to tend to their bodies, my boss has made one thing clear:

Hockey is my life. It's my only goal, my only escape. Everything was going according to plan. All I had to do was focus on the game, keep my head down, then get drafted into the NHL. Starting the year as the captain of FU should have made that easy, but now my attention is torn between the ice and taunting my rival's little sister, Madeline Peters. My only real solace is the mystery girl inside my phone who refuses to tell me her name. Then, one drunken knock on the wrong door brings Madeline into my bedroom.

Hockey has always been my sole focus, getting to the playoffs, winning the Stanley Cup—that’s my number one goal. I won’t let the fact that I’ve just been traded to a new team derail my future. Nor will the daughter of the so-called King of Canada, aka my new boss. Aliyah, the gorgeous, feisty brunette who’s just been assigned as my official “babysitter.” Although, when you're trapped in a room with a temptation like her, there’s only so much restraint one man can have.

A forbidden romance with my brother’s hockey teammate wasn’t on my to-do list when I moved across the country… Neither was getting locked out of a friend’s place wearing next to nothing. Or spending the night with the sexy stranger who rescues me. But I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone so getting out of the rest of my clothes with him seems like a good way to start. In the morning, I learn the filthy-mouthed man with the talented hands is not only the hotshot new hockey player on my brother’s team: he’s also–wait for it–my brand new roommate.

When my stepbrother, Elec, came to live with us my senior year, I wasn’t prepared for how much of a jerk he’d be. I hated that he took it out on me because he didn’t want to be here. I hated that he brought girls from our high school back to his room. But what I hated the most was the unwanted way my body reacted to him. At first, I thought all he had going for him were his rock-hard tattooed abs and chiseled face. But things started changing between us, and it all came to a head one night.

They say you can never go back… ‘Course, I never wanted to return. It took me years to age out. Once I made it, I took off and never turned around. Trust me, there were only three reasons I managed to survive there as long as I did and they abandoned me as soon as they were able. I’d like to say I didn’t blame them, but that would be a lie. I had zero desire to return. Yet here I was, on the road to Northland chasing a story cause my editor told me kids were disappearing… again.

Moving in with a billionaire playboy is supposed to be some sort of Cinderella story, right? I’m supposed to be having the time of my life while living the dream. Wrong. When the bank took our home, it didn’t come as a surprise. The bomb was when mom told me we were moving out of Breakers Flats, away from my crew, and to a place that existed only in fairy tales - Bellevue Springs. Home of the insanely beautiful, rich, and famous.

Thrown in a cage and stripped of my dignity, I was auctioned to the highest bidder, but I never imagined that I'd end my night in the home of Killian DeLorenzo—head of the Romanian Mafia and the most powerful man in the country.

Ezra Knight is the biggest rockstar to ever walk the planet, but before he belonged to the world, he belonged to me. He was my brother's best friend, my soulmate and protector, and when their band—Demon's Curse—took off, so did he. He was like a roaring tornado, crashing through my world and sweeping me off my feet, and just when I had it all, I was abandoned. Left to fend for myself at the hands of a monster. For eight long years, I blamed him for everything that was out of his control. But one phone call changed it all.

Moving in with a billionaire playboy is supposed to be some sort of Cinderella story, right? I’m supposed to be having the time of my life while living the dream. Wrong. When the bank took our home, it didn’t come as a surprise. The bomb was when mom told me we were moving out of Breakers Flats, away from my crew, and to a place that only existed in fairy tales—Bellevue Springs. Home of the insanely beautiful, rich, and famous.

Noah Ryan was my whole life. From start to end, it was always him. He taught me pain, patience, forgiveness, and the impact of the footprints I will leave in the sands of time. But most of all, he taught me what it meant to truly give my heart to another. It was short-lived and intense—a soul-shattering type of love—but it was mine, and I clung to it right until the end.

Mascen Wade, star pitcher of the Aldridge University baseball team, is a lot of things. Rich. Hotter than sin. The campus’ reigning bad boy. We knew each other once upon a time, but even if I’m named after a princess, it doesn’t mean my life is a fairy tale. My plan is to keep my head down, get my degree, and leave this town. But the moment Mascen Wade recognizes me, all my carefully laid plans come crumbling down. He’s decided he wants to make my life a living hell, but I’m not so easy to push around.

It was dark, and in my defense, he was tall, muscled, and smelled like the most tempting sin. I couldn't resist, and the second he touched me, I knew I was never going to be the same. It was a night filled with the kind of intensity a woman could only ever dream of. Nothing could have tainted such perfectness. At least, that's what I thought. Because the delicious man I let rail me into oblivion isn't the perfect stranger I thought he was. No, he's anything but.

I’m sure if I hadn’t spilled beer all over him and gave a subtle suggestion of where he could shove his best friend’s dick, perhaps we would have started out on a better note. How was I supposed to know that the dude was the captain of Bradford Private’s precious football team? I had just witnessed my boyfriend three inches deep inside some random girl. Surely you can't blame a girl for word vomit after such a traumatic experience.

I'm addicted to my stalker. He watches me at night, sneaking in through my living room window and making my blood turn to ice. I feel him all around me as chills snake down my spine. Each night he becomes bolder, getting closer and welcoming himself into my bedroom, feeding his addiction.

They're both rich and powerful and have a debt to settle in the wealthy circles of NYC. Then there's me... the naive girl trying to make it in this city, pissed off and seemingly a willing pawn. It was supposed to be one night to get over one man by getting under another. Then one thing led to another, and it all spiraled out of control. It was never supposed to go this far.I was never supposed to fall for him. And he was never supposed to risk it all for me.

What's that saying? When life hands you lemons... What if I don't want to make lemonade? What if I want to pummel them into non-existence? Anything is better than admitting how desperately I want a taste of that sweet lemonade. That's exactly how I felt when my college assignment threw me in the direction of Miller Cain. My body screams for him while my brain warns me to run for the hills. He's the captain of the ice hockey team with a cocky reputation. He's a sweet talker and the bad boy promising me the ride of my life.