Showing results by narrator "Ava Lucas" in All Categories

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.

The bet was simple. You draw a name from the hat. That's the girl you have to seduce. The girl you have to make fall head over heels in love with you. It wasn't hard for him to do, in fact, it was something he did all the time. He was known for breaking hearts. Sex was just that, sex. And it didn't take him very long to get a woman on her back. And then he drew her name: Jules Peterson. His former best friend, first kiss, and first love. She shattered his heart into a million pieces three years ago. She left him right when he needed her most.

Right out of the Marines, Slade's first mistake was patching into a club that was headed down a destructive path. His second was rolling into Shadow Valley on a search for answers. He had no plans to patch into another club, even one like the DAMC, and he certainly wasn't looking for an ol' lady. Especially a ball-buster like Diamond, who could singe the hair off a brother's nuts with just a look. DAMC born and bred, Diamond was ready to give up on becoming an ol' lady until the heavily tattooed biker rolled into town on his Harley. Problem is, months later Slade's still a mystery.

Destroying my partner became sweeter when his daughter stepped on stage at a charity auction. But I don’t want her for a month. I’m upping my bid to make her sign for a year. Her strong will, independence, and defiant attitude toward her family indulges my carnal desires and need for revenge.

One woman, two men, a fierce attraction and a danger that could destroy them all.... Olivia Holloway’s life has never been easy. On her own at 16, she’s fought to survive ever since. When she finds herself in a dangerous situation that even she can’t handle, she has to break down and ask for help. She reluctantly seeks it by showing up at her estranged brother’s law firm. However, it’s not her brother, Trey, who steps in, it’s the firm’s private investigator, Elliot Stone and his husband, Grant Lane.

FBI Agent Kristin Webster has spent the last eight years tracking and taking down the worst of humanity. She’s seen too much to believe she could ever trust a human man, but the promise of a perfect match through the Coalition’s Interstellar Brides Program has her settling into the testing chair to be matched to her alien mate. But her match isn’t a male from a distant planet, but two scarred Prillon warriors on the Colony. And when warriors begin to disappear, Kristin will take matters into her own hands.

It takes a special kind of Omega to bring an Alpha to his knees. Kind. Sweet. Beautiful. With legs that go on forever, colored eyes, perky protruding nose, funny ears, and...Where was I? Ah yes, I collected one such Omega, and I’m bringing her before my king. I am Tayseer, the Collector, the Legend. And I will deliver my people the queen.

Paranormal women's fiction for lovers of sassy women, psychic shenanigans, and lifelong friends. Desert sunshine casts the darkest shadows. Successful realtor Julia Brooks moves to the quirky neighborhood of Vista de Lirio in the California desert and meets a riotous cast of eccentric characters. But her semi-retirement is spoiled when she finds the body of the neighborhood lothario dead in the kitchen of her brand new listing. Even more complicated? She also meets his ghost.

When my business partner asked me to do him a favor, I had no idea he was sending me on the blind date his mother had arranged for him. I walked into the bar, saw the woman drinking her third martini, and knew I was in for an eventful night. After an unexpected second date, she didn't know my real name or who I really was. By that time, the lie was too far gone, and I wanted her too much to admit the truth.

With a past he's not proud of and a secret only recently discovered, Dawg's life is about to change when a kindergarten teacher walks into Heaven's Angels Gentlemen's Club, a DAMC business he's run for the past 15 years. With no experience, her dancing sucks, but he can't deny the woman's determination to get the job and, against his better judgement, hires her anyway. While her girl-next-door looks may be good for business, he's not ready for someone like Emma to walk into his life.

As a state police corporal, Owen Decker is no stranger to working undercover. Now, as a member of the Tri-State Federal Drug Task Force, his latest assignment is to wear a prospect cut and infiltrate the Deadly Demons MC.

Though the club blood runs thick in Axel’s veins, he’s despised by them for being a cop. They also hate him because his family turned their back years ago not only on the club but his brother, the president of the Dirty Angels MC. However, he's loved Bella forever, watched her marry the wrong man, one who broke her in almost every imaginable way, and yet she's still the strongest person he knows. Despite their rivaling families, he won't let anything stand in the way of making her his this time. Bella hasn’t known anything other than alpha bikers her whole life.

Hollywood heartthrob Gavin Price invaded our small town, Sunrise Bay, like he owned it. Gavin was my biggest celebrity crush when I was young. He bears the charisma of an easygoing boy-next-door mixed with a rule-breaker personality both in person and on screen. For a moment, I thought maybe my fairy godmother sent him to me. Until he decided to run against my mother for mayor.

Toni Dusi grew up knowing everyone’s business and everyone knowing hers because in Moonstone Cove, you can’t pass a restaurant, farm, or winery that doesn’t have at least one Dusi involved. Despite her family, Toni has managed to carve out a private niche for herself. She has a car shop she loves, a country cottage all to herself, and has carefully avoided any long-term romantic commitments.

The North Yorkshire moors are always a magical place, but they’re particularly enchanting at the holidays…especially if one gets to travel back in time to a Victorian Christmas. For Bronwyn Dale, it is the stuff of dreams. Fancy-dress balls, quirky small-town traditions, even that classic one-horse open sleigh, complete with jingle bells. There’s just the tiny problem of the Butterfly Effect. How does a time-traveler make a difference without disrupting the future forever?

Sam Rider is mouthy, bossy, uppity as shit, and I have no choice but to deal with her smart-mouth since she’s my daughter’s teacher. Sam waltzes into our small town on a temporary contract equipped with brochures and more change than a single dad can handle. I never trusted anybody to tell me what to do and I sure as hell won’t start with Sam, ten years younger, a city girl and only in Starlight Canyon for the short haul. I have to watch those sinful pink lips tell me what’s right for three solid months and she won’t stop until I change my mind.

I've proven I can stand with the fiercest gang in Paradise Bend. Now it's time to crush my traitor ex-fiancé and his stooges into smithereens. They've already butchered my family. I can't let them destroy the streets I called home. Wylder Noble and his inner circle are ready to rain down their own brand of justice. Too bad they can't seem to decide whether they'd rather kiss me or kill me.

As part of the Tri-State Federal Task Force, Daniel Finnegan, road captain for the Blue Avengers MC, is investigating the Deadly Demons, an MC trafficking drugs into Pennsylvania. When he reluctantly goes undercover as a dancer with an all-male revue at a club recently purchased by the outlaw bikers, he comes face to face with Melina Jensen.

Ben gives in to Kat’s blackmail, but in the process, Kat finds herself in a situation she never expected she’d be in. She definitely didn’t expect to enjoy it so much. And she absolutely never expected to want more.

He was more than a bully, he was what living nightmares were made of. It started as a childish game played between two friends, which ended in heartbreak. She knew him once. A long time ago they may have even called each other friends. That was before she moved away, before her mother married his father, and before an entire life fell apart. She lost friends, popularity, and a future. This was supposed to be a fresh start, but it was real life hell.