I don't even know if love is real. After running from the bastard who brutalized me, I limped back to Arizona, choosing a vibrant college town in the hopes of starting over. I never expected to find him there. Cord Gentry. He and his brothers were tough, lusty forces of nature I'd known since childhood. Years ago Cord seduced me as a sick game. I've hated him ever since. Now here he is again, a man who beats other men bloody for money.

I thought I was lucky to have a fresh start. Those don’t come around often for a girl from the streets of this city. But a fortunate chain of events has delivered me to the center of wealth and power and into the midst of three very different, very formidable cousins with the world at their feet. Gage, Micah, and Conner were determined to be my enemies. So I braced for a war. But they underestimated me. I earned respect from one of them, friendship from another, and I found love with the third. Or so I thought.

A summer job. That's all it was supposed to be. It never crossed my mind that I was about to collide with a man who would obliterate every plan I ever made. My mother has always warned me that love is like a lightning bolt and it strikes without warning. But I had no intention of getting struck by either lightning or love anytime soon. I'd be too busy finishing my journalism degree and landing a job in a city far more sophisticated than Phoenix. There was certainly nothing in the cards about getting involved with an ex-ballplayer turned nightclub boss.

I met Colt Malene when I was fourteen years old...and I never recovered. He became the headstrong star quarterback in a town that idolized high school football titles. Meanwhile, I was the coach’s dutiful perfectionist daughter, never daring to step out of line. We should have stayed far away from each other, but we didn’t, and the volatile fallout was unbearable. More than a decade has passed and my father is now dying. He wants to make amends. He wants to be forgiven for the role he played in Colt’s ruinous downfall. To give a dying man some peace, Colt and I agree to a plan.

Tristan Mulligan knows how to get under my skin. He says this is his town and that I don’t belong. He says I’ll get eaten alive here. He’s arrogant and condescending and insanely sexy. He’s also a criminal. I knew better than to start something with him. I did it anyway. Tristan might shatter my heart. He might destroy my future. And there's something dangerously explosive about the way we are together. You can warn me about him all you want.

A long time ago, in a small town I've tried to forget...I married the charismatic all-American king of high school. He was sexy and charming. I was shy and infatuated. We were both 18. Of course we did not live happily ever after. We did the opposite. You thought that was the end? So did I. Seven years later and without warning, Branson Hickey is back in my life. Many things have changed and a few things haven't. I still want him. I still can't stand him. I still think about him all the time, even after everything we did to each other.

This isn’t the first time I’ve known tragedy. My self-imposed exile ends when a terrible twist of fate makes me the guardian of my four-month-old brother. Suddenly I’ve got a kid to raise and a family business to save and there’s no time for anything else. That’s why Kathleen Doyle and I made this arrangement. Once a skinny little girl who used to follow me around everywhere, she’s now a single mom with flaming hair, a killer body and too many responsibilities. We told each other it was just physical. We told each other there were no strings attached, no expectations. We lied.

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.

Charming, captivating, seductive—and a cold-blooded killer. I married the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva anyway. I had to, it was part of the deal. Now, I’m faking marital bliss as I tremble with fear, and I cannot wait to be out of the clutches of this ruthless man.

Zanders: Chicago hockey isn't complete without me—everyone's favorite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night. What I don't like is the new flight attendant on our team's private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I'll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she'll be begging to quit her job.

They thought she was unsuitable as a bride because she was mute. I thought that made her perfect. Silent. Invisible. I could pretend she didn’t even exist.

After failing my last semester of grad school, I decided to come back to my hometown and wallow in my boyfriend’s sympathetic arms. Instead, he proceeded to dump me...for being boring! Now, I'm not typically a spiteful person, but there's only so much I can take. Hence why I’m holding the box of his most cherished possessions...stolen possessions no less!

Hockey with benefits. That was what Mara proposed, and I was down. She said no feelings, and she meant it. Just benefits. No strings attached. Nothing else. Not even friendship. College was her escape, including us. I didn't have time for a girlfriend. I had classes, the team, my family, and the game. It was all working too.... Until somewhere down the line, things got messy. Until somehow we were dealing with threats, secrets, rivals, and so much more. Until I began to want her in ways that weren't part of the deal. Our agreement didn't just get checked into the wall, it got obliterated.

Linc Kingston doesn’t accept anything less than perfection. Not in his billion-dollar business or in his personal life. He has it all, except one thing: his personal assistant and best friend in his bed, moaning his name. No matter how much Linc wants her, she’s completely off-limits. Jordan Greene grew up the daughter of the housekeeper at the Kingston estate, where she met and bonded with Linc at a young age, despite their economic differences.

Salome knows only one way to live - under Prophet David’s rule. In the commune she calls home, Salome knows nothing of life beyond her strict faith, nor of life beyond the Fence - the fence that cages her, keeps her trapped in an endless cycle of misery. A life she believes she is destined to always lead, until a horrific event sets her free. Fleeing the absolute safety of all she has ever known, Salome is thrust into the world outside, a frightening world full of uncertainty and sin; into the protective arms of a person she believed she would never see again.