Malika C.

They say bad things happen in threes. The first was when I lost my parents. The second came when I had to leave behind everything I knew to move across the world to live with my only remaining relative. But what was life for, if not for living? So I kept moving. Then the third thing happened, just as I was about to begin my junior year at the prestigious Blackstone University. I caught the eye of not one, not two, but three of the most infamous guys on campus. The three guys from the wrong side of the tracks.

On a normal day, Emmaline Darling isn’t a car thief. She’s just a simple girl who runs a bookstore and adores cats. But when she’s stranded in the desert and needs to get away from her dangerous ex-boyfriend, she picks her only option: swiping the keys to a famous football player’s Lamborghini and speeding away. Football star Graham Harlan is in chaos. First he took a hit on the field that left him with a near-death experience, and now he’s promised his brother he’ll get married to secure the family inheritance. Trouble is he isn’t even seeing anyone.

Lennox Kennedy is beautiful, loud, and the love of my life. She's also my ex-girlfriend. The first time I saw her after ten years apart, I slammed into the plexiglass minutes before our game was set to begin. The second time I threw up. The third time's a charm apparently because as my fiancée and I walked into an appointment to meet the woman hired to plan our nuptials—there she was again. Obviously, I did what any smart man would do—I called off the wedding. I don't have a plan per se, other than winning back the only girl I've ever loved.

Zanders: Chicago hockey isn't complete without me—everyone's favorite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night. What I don't like is the new flight attendant on our team's private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I'll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she'll be begging to quit her job.

Carter Beckett is the NHL’s resident bad boy, top player both on the ice and in the bedroom, and quite possibly the sexiest man to ever grace my field of vision. But worst of all? He knows it. He’s arrogant, self-centered, and the man doesn’t seem to know what a filter is, let alone how to use one. He’s had everything served to him on a silver platter, including endless strings of women, and apparently, I’m up next. I have the solution to all my sexual frustrations in a drawer at home, and it’s far less complicated than Carter Beckett.

I don’t want to hurt him—I just want to punish him. It’s bad enough being the only female owner of the Salacious Players’ Club, but I’m also the only one without a kink, or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when the kink quiz suggests that I’m not so vanilla after all. In fact, I’m a lot more like Emerson Grant than I thought. Just one problem—I have no idea how to be a Domme. That is, until the app matches me with someone willing to help me learn.

Nothing says happy birthday like catching your husband in a compromising position with his boss. His male boss. Why, hello, midlife crisis. I’m starting over, but this time I’m doing it right. Or at least I’m doing what I want. Taking the day off from work to hang out poolside? Yup. Do I leave the swimsuit in my house? Sure. Does my very hot, 20-something pool boy happen to catch me naked? Oh, yeah, he does. And he likes what he sees…a lot. My best friend keeps telling me to have a fling and get back out there. But I’m not so sure she meant for me to do it with her son.

It should have been a simple arrangement. Luca needs a wife to clean up his image as the new CEO of Rossi Motors, and I need my mother to stop trying to fix me up on terrible dates. In two years, we'll part amicably with no attachments or hard feelings.\ Anything that happens between us will be outside the confines of our arrangement. By anything, I mean falling into Luca's bed. Which I also do frequently and with abandon. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. It isn't long before I fall for my motorcycle-riding, dirty-talking, sexy-as-sin husband.

Being judged isn’t something foreign to me. I’m used to the whispers, the stares, the way people scatter or cross the road when they see me walking their way. It comes with the territory when your last name is De Bellis. But being judged by her before she gives me a chance to prove her wrong? Yeah, I’m not going to stand for that. Zoe thinks she knows who I am, assumes I’m nothing more than a street thug with no morals or ethics. Letting her walk out of my life isn’t an option. I’ll show her just how virtuous this sinner can be.

Charming, captivating, seductive—and a cold-blooded killer. I married the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva anyway. I had to, it was part of the deal. Now, I’m faking marital bliss as I tremble with fear, and I cannot wait to be out of the clutches of this ruthless man.