I made a promise not to sleep with my new personal assistant. Too late. I’d already slept with her before I knew Grayson, my human resources director, hired her. Long story short. We first met at a café when she let me have the last apple turnover. Then I saw her again that same night at a bar. She was incredibly sexy, and she wanted me as much as I wanted her. We both agreed it was a one-time thing, and she left the following day. Imagine the shock on both our faces when she showed up for work on Monday. I wasn’t a relationship type of guy and for good reasons.

Lila James is my best friend’s little sister, and I’ve always looked out for her. She's five years younger than me, and when she left for college, she was just a kid. But now she’s home for the summer—and she’s definitely not a kid anymore.

I grew up wealthy and was given everything my parents wanted me to have. After years of being molded into the perfect daughter, I played a role. I was only what they wanted me to be. My parents controlled everything. My life, my friends, my career, and even the man I was supposed to marry. When I stood in front of the mirror and looked at myself, the person looking back was a total stranger. Leaving my fiancé at the altar on my wedding day was the start of a journey I embarked on in search of the person that I truly was.

Betrayal. The pain and rage that consumed me was unbearable. My perfect reality had become my hurtful one. Loss of illusion settled inside me and constricted the air I breathed. I felt as if my entire life was a lie. Fresh out of law school, I needed a new start and to put the pieces of my life back together. When I left Boston and moved to New York, I met Luca Russo, a high powered, sexy attorney who liked control.

Have sex with a stranger in a foreign country. It was on my list. It was something I'd never done before, and I wasn't sure if I could go through with it. But I did. That one night was the best night of my entire life. He was sexy, intense, and made me feel things I had never felt before. The next morning, the thrill was over, and he was gone before I woke up. What happened in London should have stayed in London, but it didn't. I was never supposed to see him again, but the universe had other plans.

By the age of 30, I had suffered more tragedies in my life than anyone should ever have to experience. Even though I ran and owned a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that I saved from bankruptcy, had more money than I could spend, and lived in a high-rise penthouse on Fifth Avenue, my life was still desolate and empty. I closed off my heart and myself to everyone. This was my life until a woman named Zoey Benson crossed my path. For the first time in over five years, I felt something. A feeling that I had long buried deep inside me. A feeling I never wanted to experience again.

It was supposed to be the best day of my life. But the second I got up, things started to fall apart. The kitchen just caught on fire. Flowers were from a funeral. My bride-to-be just had an allergic reaction, leaving by ambulance. Oh, and my ex-girlfriend just walked into the church. They say you have to see the signs when they are right in front of you. Maybe she was just mine to have.

My name is Delilah Graham, and music is my life. I moved from Chicago to live in the one place that I considered to be the center of the universe: New York City. At 23 years old, after raising my two brothers and sister, it was time for me to start my own life. I worked as a waitress in a greasy diner by day, and by night I performed my music in small clubs around the city and on the streets of New York. That was until a man and his daughter stepped into the diner and changed my life forever.

Men. Lying, cheating bastards. All of them. I had a great boyfriend, a great job, and a promising future. Until the redheads started ruining everything. In an instant, my life changed. My boyfriend cheated on me, I was forced to quit my job, and my father went and had a massive heart attack. Before he died, he left me something: His company, Winslow Wines. I was the newly appointed CEO of my family-owned business, which was in the midst of financial ruins until one man stepped in and offered to save me.

At the age of eight years old, I lost two things: my parents and something that most people take for granted. It was at that moment I began to experience the world differently from everyone else. I accepted my fate, living my life to the fullest and the best way I know how. Giving up on love was something I had to do because men couldn't cope with my condition. Then I met him and he changed everything for me. A smart, sexy, and shattered man who hid in the shadows of his own tragedy.

Men. They all come from the big genetic whirlpool of dysfunction central and their brains are all wired the same when it comes to women. “I’ll text her when I get around to it, in a day or two. Three if she’s lucky.” From one failed relationship after another, I made it my mission to get inside the heads of men to find out what really made them tick when it came to pursuing a woman. My goal was to help women take their lives and their power back when the guy they liked behaved badly. I wanted to empower them by teaching the concept of #Delete.

My name is Lily Gilmore, and I was supposed to be getting married today. That was until I found my fiancé having sex with my sister in the church moments before I was supposed to walk down the aisle. I grew up with a father who was a womanizer and cheated on my mother every moment he had the chance. He would even stoop as low as to take me and my sister with him on his trysts when we were younger. Cheating was all I grew up with, and I vowed never to live the life my mother did.

When Sierra's father died, he left her in charge of the family business. At the age of 28, Sierra Adams became CEO of Adams Advertising & Design, one of the top 10 advertising agencies in the world. Her work was her life. She lived and breathed it every day, leaving little time for play. Having once been in a relationship that completely destroyed her, Sierra vowed to use men for one thing only: SEX. No strings, no problems, and most importantly, no heartache.

I was a small-town girl with big city dreams and more ambition than money to my name. He had everything—money, privilege, and the world at his feet. Opposites in every way, but that didn’t matter. We were lightning in a bottle, and everything felt possible when we were together. Life was perfect.

From the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Sandi Lynn, comes the continuation of Ian & Rory's love story.... After Rory Sinclair suffered a brutal attack, she fell into the arms of millionaire Ian Braxton. He took her in, healed her, and they both gave each other something they never had: love.

Have sex with a stranger in a foreign country. It was on my list. It was something I'd never done before, and I wasn't sure if I could go through with it. But I did. That one night was the best night of my entire life. He was sexy, intense, and made me feel things I had never felt before. The next morning, the thrill was over, and he was gone before I woke up. What happened in London should have stayed in London, but it didn't. I was never supposed to see him again, but the universe had other plans.

By the age of 30, I had suffered more tragedies in my life than anyone should ever have to experience. Even though I ran and owned a multi-billion-dollar enterprise that I saved from bankruptcy, had more money than I could spend, and lived in a high-rise penthouse on Fifth Avenue, my life was still desolate and empty. I closed off my heart and myself to everyone. This was my life until a woman named Zoey Benson crossed my path. For the first time in over five years, I felt something. A feeling that I had long buried deep inside me. A feeling I never wanted to experience again.

Love and the right timing were two things I didn't believe in. Love is about walking to the edge of the cliff and taking the leap together. Timing was never on our side. My first mistake was hooking up with my best friend. My second came years later, when we met again, and I fell for her. My third was letting her go, because I had to. Because a love like this wasn't built to withstand the winds coming in our direction. Love and timing. I didn't believe in either. Then there was you....

Momma's Baby Daddy's Maybe is an Essence best seller by popular author Jamise L. Dames. This steamy tale revolves around the lives of the three Jacobs siblings: wild Kennedy, corporate Simone, and handsome Derrick.

Claire Gracen's life is picture perfect. Her career as a marketing director is on the brink of being legendary, and her marriage to her high school sweetheart has never been stronger. No, wait. It has. It used to be amazing and fulfilling, but one day Claire realizes that she's been living a lie and her best friend and husband have committed the ultimate betrayal. Broken and depressed, Claire is in need of something new - new city, new job, new friends.

The day her mother passed away, Beulah was only given a name. That was it. No other explanation. Portia Van Allan was not someone Beulah could believe her mother ever knew. Wealthy, self-absorbed, and other than the fact Portia was supplying special care for Beulah's sister, Portia was cruel. The day Portia's son returns home for the summer, Beulah discovers that Portia isn't in charge. This isn't her home at all. Her late husband left her with nothing. It all belongs to their son, who doesn't seem to like his mother at all.

No matter how hard she tries, Elleanor Fisher never thinks she's good enough, from her job to her weight to her love life. After enduring years of abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, Elli has been drifting through life in a daze. Until, that is, she meets Shea Adler on a promotional shoot for the NHL's Nashville Assassins. Before Elli knows what's happening, the gorgeous Shea breaks the ice and shatters her world. A brilliant athlete inside the rink, Shea Adler is tired of the life he's living outside of it: the women, the money, the drinking. But everything changes when he meets Elli.

He'd been mine - until I made the biggest mistake of my life. I thought if I put enough time and distance between us, my heart could forget him. I thought wrong. Drake Foster owns my heart, my entire being. He always will. As the pieces of what happened to us begin to fall into place, I realize our relationship had been sabotaged. We'd​ been pawns​ in a game neither of us knew we were playing, and our relationship was the price we paid. Now, we must find our way together ​before it's too late.

On the night of her high school graduation, Vale McKinley and her boyfriend, Crawford, are in a terrible car accident that leaves Crawford in a coma. They were supposed to spend the summer planning for college, for a bright future full of possibility. Together. Instead, Vale spends long days in the hospital, hoping Crawford will awaken. Slate Allen, a college friend of Vale's brother, has been visiting his dying uncle at the same hospital. When he and Vale meet, she can't deny the flutter of an illicit attraction.

It would take a miracle for Storm Decker to return to Red Hook - or a tragedy. The neighborhood holds too many painful memories of his troubled childhood, along with the mistake that sent him running from the kindness of the ex-cop he'd come to consider his father. But when Pete suddenly falls ill, Storm is called home to face the past he tried to leave behind long ago. Breanna Collins never expected to see Storm again after he left town without a word, breaking her heart.

Aja James hasn't had it easy. She has kept a close watch over her siblings ever since tragedy robbed them of their parents. Tired of carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, Aja is ready for a change. Her best friend, Roxie, knows just what to do - she sets Aja up on a date with one of the most sought-after bachelors in town, handsome sportscaster Charles Clayton. Charles is everything Aja has ever dreamed of - sensitive, sexy, and charming. But "happily ever after" isn't that simple.

When Dwight Wilson is offered a big promotion, the wrinkle is he must move from Florida to Maryland. Although Dwight accepts the job, his wife Tracey decides to remain in their new Florida home. Try as they might, their relationship ends in divorce, and Dwight eventually marries co-worker Alicia Dixon. And that’s when Tracey comes back into the picture—with some rather surprising news.

Claire Walters has worked for Jason Danvers as his assistant for three years, but he’s never appreciated her as a woman - until the day she jumps out of a cake at his friend’s bachelor party.... To support her ailing mother, Claire is forced to work a second job at a party-planning company. But when her handsome boss ends up with a front-row seat to the action, she’s mortified - and he’s intrigued. With Danvers International in the middle of an important merger, Jason asks Claire to accompany him on weekend business trips - and suddenly all her fantasies are coming true.

How did I go from being insulted by Charlee Cox to hiring her to be my assistant? How is it that she’s chaos in color - making me crazy and my life better at the same time? I never thought I would be staring down at her bright blue eyes begging me to go along with the ridiculous scheme I suggested. Yes, I suggested it. Like the idiot I am, I thought hey, why not start an HR nightmare and have my assistant ask me to marry her? Confused? Don’t worry, so am I.

I'm in the midst of scrawling "I quit!" onto his fancy cardstock letterhead when my boss corners me. He needs a favor, he says. And then he asks how well I can act. Hudson Rutherford needs a fiancée. With his old-moneyed parents forcing him to marry some bratty hotel heiress and his hedonistic, playboy lifestyle at stake, the only way to get them to back off is to make them think he's truly, madly, deeply in love...with me - his third personal assistant this year. But I can hardly stand working for him as it is.