Marrissa Horton

I’m the bad boy of baseball. And she’s the good girl who’s meant to repair my image. Falling in love with my pretend girlfriend is not part of the plan… My life is a mess. My career is in serious jeopardy because of one stupid decision that had disastrous results. I’m stuck on the injured list, for who knows how long, and losing endorsements because of my reckless behaviour.

I should have known I’d break the oath I made when I offered to let my best friend’s little sister move in with me… She’s the sweetest woman on the face of the planet. And to my great misfortune, the sexiest one, too. She’s been living under her brother’s roof her entire life, and she’s ready to spread her wings. And I’m the masochist who offers she stay at my place until she can find an apartment. When I hear her having a nightmare, the only thing I can do is go to her. Hold her so she knows she’s safe from her demons.

Demi Crawford was Magnolia Falls royalty. I was the boxer from the wrong side of the tracks. She was the epitome of everything good, while I was broody and rebellious. We couldn’t be more different. Her family was enemy number one which made her guilty by association. I despised her before I even knew her. It was easier that way. But now she’d moved in next door to me, and she was everywhere I turned. I couldn’t avoid her no matter how hard I tried. She was beautiful and honest and sweet. Everything I knew I shouldn’t want. Shouldn’t need.

I haven't been home for Christmas in eight years. That's about to change. This year, I'm traveling to my small hometown to convince my producer to make me the permanent host of Good Day Denver. The plan: Charm viewers by sharing my favorite family Christmas traditions and, in turn, get the likes, clicks, and shares to land the job. Not the plan: Run into my ex-boyfriend. In my house. For Christmas. Here he is, a guest of my mother, who apparently had more trouble letting go of Max Weber than I did.

She’s my secret. My answer. My Ace. I’m a cabal leader for KORT—not a man who gets involved. Never for more than a night. Certainly not with Celeste Carver—a Daddy’s girl whose biggest problem is which politician to marry. All I want is a taste. But the pretentious princess burrows under my skin. And I’m tired of being polite. Once she’s claimed, there’s no going back. Not without ending up six feet under.

She’s my mission. My prize. My obsession. Ivy Kingston is the most wanted woman in the world for reasons she is completely oblivious to, reasons I intend to capitalize on. She needs a husband to receive her inheritance, so I’m on the hunt for a wife. As long as it’s her. I’m not who she thinks I am. But she has no idea who she really is either. I’ll be her groom. Her keeper. Her lover. And quite possibly her demise.

LaRynn Lavigne and Deacon Leeds had one short and contentious summer fling when they were teens—certainly nothing to build a foundation on. But a decade later, when their grandmothers have left them with shared ownership of their dilapidated Santa Cruz building, they're thrust back together and have to figure out how to brace up the pieces. LaRynn has the money, but in order to access her trust, she has to be married. Deacon has the construction expertise, but lacks the funds. A deal is struck: Marry for however long it takes to fix up the property, collect a profit, and cut ties.

Ten years later, I'm back on the island for my best friend's wedding as her maid of honor. Who's the first person I literally stumbled into? Riley Dixon. Even worse? He's the groom's best man and a self-made billionaire to boot. Being forced to spend an entire week together for wedding festivities quickly leads to more—hot hate sex, late nights of sneaking out, and unexpected revelations. The boy I knew a decade ago is gone, and the hate becomes… something else entirely. And I begin to wonder if Riley is hiding some secrets of his own.

Torren King is rock-and-roll’s broodiest bachelor. Mysterious, moody, and coveted by nearly everyone. But to me, he’s just the sad boy who set fire to my heart, then reduced me to ashes in the desert. For four sweltering nights, I burned for him, and he conquered my heart one whispered lyric at a time. But on the fifth night, he shattered me in the way only a flawless rock god can: irreparably, and with devastating finesse.

Love. Sucks. I don’t know where I went wrong. Whether it was letting a man convince me that suddenly, the things I’ve never wanted are right for me, or if simply believing the best in the person who I wasted three years of my life on was what lead me here.