For Kip Barrett, a secret commission from her boss's boss's boss, CEO Tamara Sterling, shows that the respect she's earned for her integrity and intelligence as a fraud investigator is justified. All she has to do is what she's done successfully before: follow the cyber-trail, find the high-tech thief, and document it so that justice prevails. This time, however, the embezzler is one of their own. Sterling Fraud Investigations has an unblemished reputation for ethical conduct and security. Kip must find out who and how, as soon as possible, and no one but Tamara can know what she's doing.

Six months ago, Ty Sutherland dropped out of an online sex chat group. It was anonymous. No one knew their real identity. And it was a space where they could finally be themselves. Unfortunately, it was also a space where they fell in love with a woman whose name they promised to forget. Leslie Brandt would like to forget the online sex chat group she joined on a whim. In real life, she's a successful realtor with a professional image to maintain. She'd never want anyone to know the kinky things she's fantasized about—even if maybe she wishes some of those things could actually happen.

In the heart of Paris, Chiara Conti is a Queen trapped in an Ivory Tower of haute couture, fortune and lovelessness. Lonely and dejected, she's longing for inspiration, for direction, for understanding. When Vi Courtenay falls at her feet, losing her shoe like a veritable Cinderella, events are set in motion that will unravel their carefully fashioned lives. With everything tainted, will the thin lines they rend ever be mended?

Alice Cabot's only great love is science, but a lapse in judgment has exiled the New York journalist to the glitzy Gallerias and vapid bubble-babble of Beverly Hills. The assignment to do a flattering feature series on Simply the Best and the superficial nonsense it sells threatens to crush what little is left of her spirit.

It’s an ordinary workday when intelligence analyst Lexie Martin learns about a horrific chemical weapon attack abroad. Just an ordinary day...until a stranger breaks into her house and warns her to forget what she saw and heard, setting off a chain of events Lexie thought only happened in movies. Falsely accused of stealing intelligence and unsure of who to trust, Lexie quickly realizes the significance of the intel and that she must do everything she can to keep it safe. And as she runs—maybe for her life—Lexie knows she needs something, or someone, to help her.

Finnley O'Connell is at a crossroads when her life takes an unexpected turn after getting fired from her family's lawn care business. Seeking refuge in Chicago with her gay uncle, Finnley discovers a vibrant city and a new sense of freedom. But it's meeting Emerson, a captivating and mysterious woman, that truly changes everything. Drawn to Emerson's strength and vulnerability, Finnley begins to untangle the threads of her own heart and identity. What begins as a temporary escape turns into a journey of self-discovery.

When professional soccer player Alex Grey goes on a vacation to the local South Carolina islands, she isn't anticipating any life-changing events. Just a relaxing weekend to prepare for the upcoming season. But that quickly changes when she finds herself the lone witness to a sailing accident and makes the decision to risk her own life to save a drowning woman—unwittingly coming to the rescue of a US senator's wife, Catharine Cleveland.

Sharon Harrison and Tony Morelli were never able to control the powerful chemistry between them. It led first to heart-stopping passion, then to marriage and children. They thought they had it all, but under pressure their happy home became an explosive battleground. Even divorce, however, can't completely separate them. Spending alternate days in their home with their children, they have an unorthodox arrangement that keeps them in close contact. And keeps the desire alive...

Stella Carter is a former criminal prosecutor and new widow facing down middle age alone in Los Angeles. Without being a prestigious lawyer and someone's wife, she's not sure who she is anymore or where her life is headed. When she invites her niece to move in with her, Stella accidentally reconnects with her former colleague, LAPD Captain Elizabeth Murphy. The woman is beautiful but cold; someone she was always at odds with on the job.

Mac and Jamie had their life together all planned out. Until Jamie did the unforgivable and left Mac for another woman. Twenty years later, they meet again for the first time at a friend’s wedding. Mac’s pain lingers, while Jamie is still haunted by regret.

Since A-List actress and Hollywood's sweetheart Wren Acker came out, not only is she at the top of the acting world; she's also crush number one for her queer fanbase. Loving life, loving her job, loving her cat-everything is fantastic. Except that lack of any kind of private life. When a car accident brings her to the ER, the bottom falls out of her world when she realizes that reserved Doctor Taylor, her physician, is Madison Taylor from camp way back when she was a kid. And boy, does Madison still hold a well-earned grudge for how that all ended.

Romance writer Calliope DeAndre's heart was buried with her wife, Abby. Plagued by anxiety attacks, Callie hasn't left her house since Abby's funeral. Callie's publisher is pressuring her for the travel romantic suspense she contracted to write before Abby got sick. But her writing process requires experiencing the thirty-day Romantic Italy tour leaving in two weeks. Encouraged by her friends but hoping the tour is fully booked, Callie calls and is told "we just received a cancellation."

Australian crime reporter Maddie Grey is out of her depth in New York, miserable, and secretly drawn to her powerful, twice-married media mogul boss, Elena Bartell, who eats failing newspapers for breakfast. As work takes them to Australia, Maddie is goaded into a brief, seemingly harmless bet with her enigmatic boss - where they have to tell the complete truth to each other. It backfires catastrophically.

Blaze Sonnier has had a bad year. In the spring, she made national news while dressed as the Easter Bunny in a brawl where she was trying to defend herself, and earned the moniker Bitch Slap Bunny. In the fall, the mother who abandoned Blaze for an acting career showed up on her doorstep, not only injured from an accident but broke and in need of a place to stay. While on a bike ride to purge her stress Blaze encounters one small (in physical stature only) silver lining with a flat tire.

When Dr. Paris DeMont lost her beloved Gabriella to the mindless tragedy of 9/11, she lost more than her partner of eight years. She lost her will to love. A successful cardiologist to New York City's elite, Paris now lives a sterile existence on Manhattan's Upper East Side. But Paris finds out that even when one tries to give up on life, life has a way of interfering and forcing you to live it. When Paris returns to Banyon, Missouri, to oversee the repairs to the aging farmhouse she inherited from her grandmother, the barrier she has wrapped around her heart is tested to the limit.

Sharon Harrison and Tony Morelli were never able to control the powerful chemistry between them. It led first to heart-stopping passion, then to marriage and children. They thought they had it all, but under pressure their happy home became an explosive battleground. Even divorce, however, can't completely separate them. Spending alternate days in their home with their children, they have an unorthodox arrangement that keeps them in close contact. And keeps the desire alive...

Logan Phillips didn't expect to like his nurse, let alone find himself attracted to her. But Melissa VanFleet's gentle humor and sweet spirit soothes the architect's frustration at his temporary blindness. He finds she's tempting him down a road he's sworn never again to travel. But a little TLC can go a long way.

Bold Strokes Books romance authors give listeners a glimpse into the lives of favorite couples celebrating special moments "after the honeymoon ends." These short stories from Ali Vali, Clifford Henderson, Lee Lynch, Lisa Girolami, Megan O'Brien, Nell Stark and Trinity Tam, Radclyffe, Winter Pennington, and a dozen others provide touching moments in love stories that need no introduction and also offer a special treat to those who have read the original courtships.

Mark Holbrook was a legend. A tall, rugged, imposing legend. He'd won a Pulitzer, interviewed kings and queens, presidents, and movie stars. Carly Barnett, on the other hand, was a former-beauty-queen-turned-advice-columnist. Not exactly on the same level. Still, Carly was determined to prove that she was more than a pretty face. Mark wasn't sure the beautiful and spirited Carly had what it took to be a reporter, but he was sure that he wanted her. And Mark never denied himself what he wanted.

Holly Garrett was in trouble. The stranger who'd saved her from a storm was not asking for her help. And he was inviting her to live with him. She could cook for him, and bathe him, but nothing had prepared he for the glances he threw her way.

Idealistic good girl Madelyn Grayson believes in doing what's right. Even as a high-powered executive in the mad world of advertising, she doesn' t cut corners, making her ad campaigns sizzle without having to burn anyone along the way. Rival exec Zack Douglas never wastes an opportunity to land the next big deal - especially when it benefits him. A bad boy with a reputation to match, he has no qualms about doing whatever it takes to get ahead, no matter who gets in the way.

NYC's most eligible bachelor Brit Bencher is also known as The Slayer for his reputation in the boardroom - and the bedroom. And he'll do anything to take care of his family, even seduce high-powered corporate attorney Tori Anderson in the hopes of getting her to reveal confidential information about one of her clients. But for the first time in his life, he finds he's falling for a woman - and then he started to break them.

When Hope Prescott's parents disappeared, her carefree teenage life vanished forever. She and her three siblings were separated and sent to different foster homes around the country. Now, seven years later, Hope is still searching for them. To support herself, she works for an answering service, and cares for her clients as if they were family. When wealthy businessman Zachariah Givens hires Hope's service, Hope initially mistakes Zack for his butler....

Cath Talarico knows a mistake when she makes it, and God knows she's made her share. So many, in fact, that this Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed never to go…in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her. Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and miserable in his family's banking empire.

Grace has taken care of her widowed father her entire adult life and the ornery old goat has finally died. She has no job, no skills and very little money, and has heard her father's prediction that no decent man would ever want her so often she accepts it as fact.

Maggie O'Shea knows that because of her dark past, there's no place for love in her life. She owns a successful store in Philadelphia, where she uses her special gifts to help the people she meets. Though this doesn't fulfill her, she is content. Most of the time.

Dr. Olivia Simon is on duty in the emergency room of North Carolina's Outer Banks Hospital when a gunshot victim is brought in. Midway through the desperate effort to save the young woman's life, Olivia realizes who she is - Annie O'Neill, the woman Olivia's husband, Paul, is in love with.

Though Diane Randall’s jewelry business is a great success, her marriage is not, and she finds herself growing lonely as her children near adulthood. Meanwhile, her eighteen-year-old daughter Julia is falling dangerously in love, and Diane’s mother, Jean, is relishing her newfound freedom as a single woman in Europe. Distracted by their individual concerns, the three women are ill-prepared for the crisis that suddenly appears on Diane’s doorstep in the form of a handsome FBI agent asking about an explosive secret that’s laid buried for decades.

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!

Three women, united by love and kinship, struggle to conform to the social norms of the times in which they live. In 1931 Katherine Henderson leaves behind her small town in Kansas and the marriage proposal of a local boy to live on her own and work at the Sears & Roebuck glove counter in Chicago. There she meets Annie - a bold, outspoken feminist who challenges Katherine's idea of who she thinks she is and what she thinks she wants in life.

Alice Cabot's only great love is science, but a lapse in judgment has exiled the New York journalist to the glitzy Gallerias and vapid bubble-babble of Beverly Hills. The assignment to do a flattering feature series on Simply the Best and the superficial nonsense it sells threatens to crush what little is left of her spirit.

Kesa Sapiro had to grow up fast. With her parents gone and a little sister to protect, Kesa has spent over a decade of her life trying to keep a roof over their heads. She's learned the hard way that love is a luxury and that the price is way too high. When her sister Josie announces she wants to marry a boy she's known for less than a month, Kesa immediately forbids it. Shannon Dealan's floored when her son-by-choice says he wants to marry a girl he's just met. Shannon has real reason to scrutinize any strangers who come into Paz's life. She's not about to let him do anything stupid.

As a behavioral scientist, Professor Nicole Hathaway's work strips away the foolish mystique that surrounds the human mating dance. When her academic tome is treated as a viral "love manual", her ecstatic publisher books her to appear all over the US and Europe. Worse yet, her quiet, managed life has been shattered by a series of incompetent assistants. And she's certain this Lily Smith creature isn't going to be any less a burden than the last assistant they sent her. Or the one before that. Or before that....

Anita Topaz, Queen of the Bodice Rippers, is deliberately a woman of mystery. But pressure is mounting for Anita to reveal herself to her clamoring public. It's scrutiny that writer Paris Ellison can't allow, especially since the glamorous "Anita" is a work of pure fiction. Lady Diana Beckinsale excels at disappearing into a good role. Especially if that role gets her close to certain objects she desires. When Diana proposes the perfect solution to Paris' predicament, Paris is less than enthusiastic. She can't let someone as unsettling and observant as Diana get too close.

Elise Grayson has it all. Money, looks, a comfortable home in an upscale Boston neighborhood, and the social status her family has long enjoyed. She has everything she's ever wanted. Almost. Elise's private life is her one failure. Jan Chase needs a new job and new surroundings—a place where no one will ask questions or judge her ability. Driving a limousine for Boston's privileged elite seems like the perfect answer. Being a chauffeur is something Jan is tailor-made for. At least until she meets Elise Grayson.

Unemployed university professor Tyler Marsh is pounding the pavement looking for a job. After a year of rejections based on her over-qualification, she's dumbed down her resume in a desperate attempt to get her foot in the door somewhere—anywhere. Chief Innovation Officer and wounded veteran Georgie DiNamico doesn't want an assistant or anyone else bothering her. But when Tyler's resume lands on her desk, along with a company background check listing the advanced degrees she omitted, Georgie sees an opportunity to add a researcher to her R&D team.

Motion picture producer Selena Ryan has the impossible: Fame and fortune and her integrity. Her reputation for playing fair in an industry rife with games has earned her respect from other producers, writers, and actors. She's learned the lesson that plenty of people would like to use her to get what they want - a starring role or some other way into the movies. Burned badly by actress Jennifer Lamont, who used her and left her with a devastating aftermath, she's wary of everyone related to the industry.

When Dr. Paris DeMont lost her beloved Gabriella to the mindless tragedy of 9/11, she lost more than her partner of eight years. She lost her will to love. A successful cardiologist to New York City's elite, Paris now lives a sterile existence on Manhattan's Upper East Side. But Paris finds out that even when one tries to give up on life, life has a way of interfering and forcing you to live it. When Paris returns to Banyon, Missouri, to oversee the repairs to the aging farmhouse she inherited from her grandmother, the barrier she has wrapped around her heart is tested to the limit.

Anidyr Bycall is frozen in her past, regretting words never spoken to the woman she loves and the one impulsive act that cost her all her dreams. Running from the courts of public and academic opinion in Fairbanks, she has landed in Key West. The nights are hot but she is colder than the glaciers she once explored. When a few innocent questions raise Ani's doubts about what really happened three years ago, she realizes she may have a chance to clear her name and reclaim her career. But there's no data to suggest that Eve has thawed and that the fire they once shared can be rekindled.

Maya Scanlon doesn't want a fling. The former EMT's attempts at finding true love have been a self-esteem kick in the teeth, so it figures that the one person she hits it off with is looking for the opposite of "forever." Sophie Kent is charming and gorgeous, but she's got a secret: she's actually the princess of a tiny European kingdom, come to America for one last hurrah before she has to take the throne. The best she can promise is a few weeks, and that's not what Maya's heart is after. But they have too much chemistry to just walk away.