Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can't escape. Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart. But when he's forced to look after his best friend's sister, he starts to feel something in his chest. Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can't remember. But despite her past, she's never stopped seeing the beauty in the world . . . including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn't want.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy. His belly full of laughter, his life full of joy. Until one day, something changed; stripped his innocence away. The hole inside making space for the devil to come and play.

Everything has a price, and the price of truth is steepest of all. Eden has an ironclad five-year plan. In three months, she's saying good riddance to Los Angeles and returning to the Pacific Northwest for medical school. Nothing is going to get in her way. Nothing... but the impossible. When she glimpses her doppelgänger at a party, the seemingly accidental meeting turns her life in a direction she never imagined, shredding everything she knows about herself and where she comes from.

When Maddie Donovan runs out on her high school sweetheart moments before walking down the aisle, she ends up at a bar in the small town of Revival, Illinois, with only the wedding dress on her back, fifty dollars to her name, and her "good girl" reputation in tatters. Not ready to return to Chicago and face the music, she accepts hot bartender Mitch Riley's offer to stay at his place. But sharing such close quarters is driving Maddie insane with desire.

Between being hunted by vampires and her inability to control her siren's powers, all Adelle Constance wants is to be left alone. She runs from her home, hoping to lay low in the small Washington town of Whitmore. She didn't count on meeting Jack, a cranky 900-year-old dragon who, despite her protests, vows to protect her. She also didn't count on him being so deliciously attractive in that grumbling way.

Pepper has been hopelessly in love with her best friend's brother, Hunter, for, like, ever. He's the key to everything she's always craved: security, stability, family. But she needs Hunter to notice her as more than just a friend. Even though she's kissed exactly one guy, she has the perfect plan to go from novice to rock star in the bedroom: take a few pointers from someone who knows what he's doing. Her college roommates have the perfect teacher in mind.

To most, Kal Anderson is a villain. Harbinger of death, keeper of souls, frequenter of nightmares. Doctor Death. Hades incarnate. They say he stole me. Usurped my fiancé and filled the cracks in my heart with empty promises. Imprinted his crimson fingerprints on my psyche and tried to set me free. They’re not wrong, per se. Except it was my choice to stay.

until he was blinded in the car accident that killed his lover. Now, all he sees are ghosts in need of help. They follow him everywhere, and the only way to be rid of his ethereal visitors is to help them resolve their unfinished business here on earth, so their spirits can find peace. Ghostwriter Logan Riley is assigned to pen Daniel's biography. He plans to reveal him as a fraud, but when they meet he's struck by Danny's quiet sincerity - and a growing attraction.

Nine years after a tragic accident, Hannah “Brennley” Evans has returned home to the snowy mountains of Whistler, Canada. After failing school and the death of her grandmother, the woman who raised her, Hannah is drawn back home. This is the very place that destroyed her, the reason she now goes by Hannah Jennings. Struggling with his own tragic past, Rhys Axton, an infamous sexy snowboarding champion, wants nothing more than to be the next Olympic hopeful. Sex, snowboarding, and working out are all he cares about, which helps shut off the demons that haunt him and the family who rejected him.

Eighteen-year-old Charlee Parker met the love of her life in a parking lot-a leggy brunette with a valedictorian medal hanging from her rear-view mirror and an attitude as biting as a Boston winter. Alexandra Woodson was guarded, a 19-year-old orphan set on a bright future in hospitality administration. She never imagined an art student with a penchant for cheesy pick-up lines and stealing parking spaces would crack her rigid exterior and claim her heart. For four years, theirs was an enviable love - evergreen and growing. Unbreakable... until it broke.

When my college boyfriend betrayed me and left, breaking my heart, Jay picked a side. He chose me. He stayed, and for the past six years, he's been my rock, my anchor, my compass....Now we've grown up, finished school, and have careers. Me as a nurse practitioner; Jay as a doctor. He's been everything I needed, but now I want more. I can't stop thinking about him, and I'm done hiding it. It's time to find out if he wants me, too.

I waited my whole life for Zee St. James to open his eyes and see me. But Port Clover's official bad boy would never view me as anything more than his best friend's little sister. He shattered my heart into thousands of pieces when he left. And I spent years trying to forget him. Trying to banish the memory of that one kiss. I thought I'd moved on. But when he comes crashing back into my life, or rather my apartment - the one he still owns - I'm defenseless against him. Just when I think I might finally get my happily ever after, a web of secrets and betrayal threaten to unravel the hope I finally found in his arms. And I'm faced with the soul-baring question: Is loving Zee worth the torment he inflicts?

Lydia Anderson is an unbonded omega who left her life behind to escape a family more interested in their status than protecting their daughter from an alpha who won't take no for an answer. It took everything, but Lydia managed to break free, running as far as she could. Now she lives with her head down, avoiding attention.

The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, whom she hasn't seen in years. When rescue shows up - six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle - Rita's pretty certain she's gone from the frying pan right into the fire.

It's been almost a year since I've seen her, the only woman that's ever gotten under my skin, and made me wish I was a better man. More than just the washed up hockey player, turned sports journalist whose body is almost as scarred as his soul. Now, she's pregnant with my brother's baby. A baby he wants nothing to do with. And he's asked me to clean up his mess. I have no intention of offering her the deal he's laid out. I have a deal of my own. One that will finally make her mine.

When Maddie Donovan runs out on her high school sweetheart moments before walking down the aisle, she ends up at a bar in the small town of Revival, Illinois, with only the wedding dress on her back, fifty dollars to her name, and her "good girl" reputation in tatters. Not ready to return to Chicago and face the music, she accepts hot bartender Mitch Riley's offer to stay at his place. But sharing such close quarters is driving Maddie insane with desire.

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.

He's arrogant, domineering, and...To. Die. For. Hunter is a ruthless killer. And the Department of Defense has him firmly in their grasp, which usually doesn't chafe too badly because he gets to kill bad guys. Most of the time he enjoys his job. That is until he's saddled with something he's never had to do before: protect a human from his mortal enemy.

London Sinclair was the boy my mother warned me about for as long as I can remember. His name alone has brought my family nothing but shame and suffering, so it’s no surprise we’ve been sworn enemies since the first moment we met. With his bedroom eyes and cocky smile, he has all the girls under his spell. I have one more year of school left, and then I’m home free because I’m guarding a secret, one I’m ashamed to keep. The boy who is completely off-limits is the one who drives me, Holland Brooks, wild. I want London, and I think…he wants me, too.

My name is Sebastian Lindstrom, and I'm the villain of this story. I've decided to lay myself bare. To tell the truth for once in my hollow life, no matter how dark it gets. And I can assure you, it will get so dark that you'll find yourself feeling around the blackened corners of my mind, seeking a door handle that isn't there. Don't mistake this for a confession. I neither seek forgiveness nor would I accept it. My sins are my own. They keep me company. Instead, this is the true tale of how I found her, how I stole her, and how I lost her.

When Marty Andrews gets bitten by a mangy mutt while walking her teacup poodle, her blond hair darkens, the hair on her legs starts growing at an alarming rate, and her mood swings put her dream job as a sales rep for Bobbie-Sue Cosmetics in serious jeopardy. Then a drool-worthy man shows up at her door claiming that he accidentally bit Marty. And since he's a werewolf, she is now, too. Thinking Keegan Flaherty is clearly insane, Marty refuses to believe a word until a kidnapping makes her realize there's more at stake than just her highlights.

Being in lust with my dead brother's wife pretty much guarantees that one day I'll be the devil's bitch. But Eden Gordon works with me, so it's getting harder and harder to stay away. I promised my family - and him - I would, though. My days as an MMA champion are behind me. But whenever I see her, with those wicked curves and soft mouth created for dirty deeds, it's a knock-down fight to just maintain my distance. "Hard Knox" becomes more than just the name of my tattoo shop. However, surrendering to the forbidden might be worth losing everything...

Anna Rossi lives by one simple rule: Don't get attached, don't get hurt. But Alec Flynn doesn’t play by the rules... Anna never takes on a massage client without screening him first, but the paycheck offered by billionaire Maxim Stein is too good to turn down. Stein is the richest man she's ever laid her hands on, and despite the risks, she trusts that she can take care of herself. After all, she's handled difficult clients in the past.

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.

Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses. Raised among the Wardens - a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe - Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most.

Twelve years and too many pairs of stilettos later, Shaelyn Lawrence is back where she started: New Orleans. She's returned only to take care of her grandmother, and after that? She's out, hopefully long before she sees irresistible Brady Taylor, the boy who stomped all over her heart. But when a family member approaches her for help, there's only one person she can to turn to...and he's just as infuriatingly sexy as she remembers. Oh boy. New Orleans Detective Brady Taylor has his sights on the finish line: getting promoted to sergeant.

Kenna Starr will do anything to overcome her bad-girl past in Gena Showalter's The One You Want. Dane Michaelson is rich, sexy and plays hard, exactly the kind of guy she needs to avoid, but he's used to getting what he wants, and he wants her.

Gage Carter is the poster boy for rude, rugged, and obnoxious. He's the town's mechanic. When he's not giving me a hard time about my car, he's mocking my city girl ways. He's a small town roughneck with a dirty reputation and a mouth to match. I'm a city girl. We go together like champagne and whiskey. People told me he was trouble. But that didn't stop me from craving his filthy promises that make my blood pound for hours. Or having full body shivers whenever he says my name. This joy ride's gone too far. Now we're married - by accident - no less.

The biggest story of her life is the one he wants to hide. I’m homeless by choice. I have no intention of returning to my former life after what I’ve done. This - living among the filth and discarded remnants of others - is what I deserve. As atonement for my sins, I give back; I help those who cannot help themselves. But it’s always under the guise of anonymity. Newspaper headlines throughout the city are clamoring to discover my identity. Including the beautiful woman who manages to see through my “armor.” She has the capability to put my entire life at risk.

From Romance Writers of America comes a never-before-published collection of tales that showcases the breadth and complexity of the world's most popular genre of fiction!