They tell you that a parent's love is all consuming. I never put much thought into it. Not until the minute I heard her take her first breath. That little girl is my world. I'd do anything to protect her. My ex signed over her rights, and her family vowed that my daughter didn't exist. Now that she's gone, they want my little girl. They're trying to say I can't give her what she needs.

He's sexy and irresistible. I've done my best to ignore the magnetism that flows between us. I don't need complications in my life. I can't get wrapped up in his world, the last thing I need is to get attached to a professional athlete. I don’t have time for heartbreak.

Expect the unexpected. That's what they say, but it's easier said than done. How do you expect a change so huge it rocks you to your core? How do you prepare yourself for an event that will alter your life forever? One breath. One second. One minute. One hour. One day at a time, you learn to live with your unexpected reality.

It’s been years since I’ve been back in this small town of West Virginia for more than a day or two. Spending time here brings back a lot of fond memories. When I stopped by an old friend’s bar, I was expecting to grab a drink and catch up. What I didn’t expect was her. We share an undeniable attraction, but we continue to fight it. Until one night in Vegas changes everything.

Jase Andrews is trouble...but the best kind. Too gorgeous for his own good, the former professional athlete is every woman's dream, including mine. I need to stay away, but he's relentless. Most girls want Jase because of who he is, but that's exactly why I don't want to get involved. A guy like him and a girl like me are bound to fumble.

It took one night with her to know she was my forever. It took one minute for me to climb out of bed and drive away from her. It’s taken me three years to confess that leaving her behind was the biggest mistake of my life. I won’t stop until she knows what she means to me. I’ll convince her to listen to her heart.

Life is a series of events, one leading you to another. The hell I lived through with my drug-addicted parents led me to the Marine Corps. Committing my life to my country was easy. My brothers were my family - all I had and all I needed. I wasn’t looking for her, but I should have known life had other plans. It led me to her.

I'm out of my depth participating in a blind-date photo shoot. Not only am I meant to act like I'm open for dating, but I'm meant to be sexy and get up close and personal with a complete stranger.

I’ve kissed a lot of frogs, just to be covered in warts. I’ve been lied to, cheated on, and used more times than I can count. I don’t have it in me to keep going. I need a break from it all. I need time for the wounds to heal, and the scars to fade. Wouldn’t you know it’s my luck to meet a gorgeous man after declaring my self-imposed break? He’s charming, sexy, and determined to change my mind.

I'm the girl who doesn't let anyone in. My world was shattered and turned upside down in one night. Since then I've been trying to live, if that's what you call it, but fighting the anxiety of what happened and trusting others is hard. Each day is a struggle to reach for the unknown. I watched my father give my mother the world and the stars. She took everything from him, then left him as a broken man with nothing to live for. I told myself I'd never fall in love. I'm guarding my heart and emotions, only looking out for number one.

Saving myself for marriage, not hardly. Saving myself for someone who will make my heart race, most definitely. In theory it's a good plan, however even the best-laid plans fall through. Seeing him, being around him, alerts all my senses and I dream about being his, wrapping myself in his arms and never letting go. The only problem - he sees me as his sister. My name's Ava Evans, and I'm in love with my older brother's best friend, Nate Garrison.

I'm making strides in the world of dirt late model racing. With back-to-back championships under my belt, I'm determined to win a third and be the youngest driver in history to do so. I'm going to make it happen. My career is my focus. That is until the ultimate distraction in the form of a redheaded bombshell drops into my life.

Lila James is my best friend’s little sister, and I’ve always looked out for her. She's five years younger than me, and when she left for college, she was just a kid. But now she’s home for the summer—and she’s definitely not a kid anymore.

I think for sure it must've been a dream because there's no way a guy could look like that, touch me like that, and be so in tune with me on every known level and disappear, leaving me with nothing but a good story to tell my friends. When he walks into my bar three months later, everything I thought I knew and what we'd had disappears in the blink of an eye and the blinding light of the three-carat diamond on his fiancee's hand.

I’ve sworn off men to focus on my dream job that starts on Monday. But my best friend talks me into a final night of fun—a blind date. I only agree because the guy is going to work as a doctor in Africa. It’s the best date of my life. Dr. Africa makes me laugh and swoon, and I want to give him a thorough physical examination. He turns into Dr. One Night Stand, and I’m not sad about it. Monday morning, I’m enthusiastic and excited, until I bump into...you guessed it.

Life is a series of events, one leading you to another. The hell I lived through with my drug-addicted parents led me to the Marine Corps. Committing my life to my country was easy. My brothers were my family - all I had and all I needed. I wasn’t looking for her, but I should have known life had other plans. It led me to her.

I’ve kissed a lot of frogs, just to be covered in warts. I’ve been lied to, cheated on, and used more times than I can count. I don’t have it in me to keep going. I need a break from it all. I need time for the wounds to heal, and the scars to fade. Wouldn’t you know it’s my luck to meet a gorgeous man after declaring my self-imposed break? He’s charming, sexy, and determined to change my mind.

MacKenzie Cahill has dealt with overbearing and overprotective brothers her entire life, making it near impossible to enjoy her teenage years. Having a boyfriend was practically impossible until she met a guy that wasn't afraid to stand up to them - Dominic. He was sweet, thoughtful, and everything MacKenzie ever wanted in a man. But when they go away to college at Old Dominion University, MacKenzie sees a whole new side of Dominic and begins to wonder if he really is different from every other guy.

Three novellas from Alexa Riley: Stay Close: A former Russian mafia soldier is hired to protect a friend’s daughter, but he knows he’ll do more than keep her safe - he’ll make her his. Forever. Hold Tight: A hotshot consultant hired to streamline Osbourne Corp. meets his match in Pandora Justice. Don’t Go: CEO Henry Osbourne has only ever desired one woman - the one who got away. She ran from a boy, but a man of power and persuasion now stands in his place.

Seduction is quickly becoming the hottest new restaurant in Portland, and Addison Wade is proud to claim one-fifth of the credit. She's determined to make it a success and can't think of a better way to bring in new customers than live music. But when former rock star Jake Keller swaggers through the doors to apply for the weekend gig, she knows she's in trouble.

What do ice cream and Sadie Montgomery have in common? They're both ice cold, but one taste is never enough. I wanted to be friends - I would have even settled for her seeing me as anything but a nerd - but there was no getting through. So just like any hard-headed, red-blooded man out there, I made up my mind. I'd make my coworker fall for me.

Moving back home to my parents' cattle ranch in Texas was the last thing I thought I'd be doing. But, here I stand...in front of my high school girlfriend. A beautiful, confident woman has replaced the young girl I once knew and loved. Hell. I'm still in love with her. Yep. Paxton Monroe was my first love and the one girl in town who now hated my guts. So much so, Paxton swore her revenge on me if it took her until the day she died.

What happens when you’re forced to seduce the one person you vowed never to love? You get screwed...in more than one way. I walked out of Tucker Middleton’s bedroom seven years ago, leaving him hurt and angry. Now I need his help; the only way I can get it is to make him think I want him back. The only problem is we have silently vowed to hate one another for the rest of our lives. In order to get Tucker to help me - I have to seduce him. Easy right? Hell yes! I’m the CEO of CMI Consulting. If I set my mind to something, I make it happen.

Can a guilty conscience keep wounds from healing? Fine arts major, Candace Parker, grew up with a mother who thinks image is everything, and her daughter’s perfection will never be good enough. About to graduate college and pursue her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, Candace decides it’s time to let go and have a little fun. But fun is short-lived when a brutal attack leaves her completely shattered. The memories that consume and torment Candace are starting to destroy her when she meets Ryan Campbell, a successful bar owner.

Donya Stewart's chest filled with the soft beating wings of butterflies when she first met Emmet Grayne's green eyes at the ripe age of five. Unable to identify the tugging pressure within her when in his presence, Donya moved through the first several years of her life addled by her feelings for the boy who was her best friend's brother and very much like her own sibling. But one cool autumn night in her mystifying teenage years, Emmet erases any ideas Donya has of him being anything like a sibling.

She is only 19. She is his new stepfather’s daughter. She is still nave and innocent due to spending the last three years taking care of her sick mother. But for 24-year-old Rush Finlay, she is the only thing that has ever been off limits. His famous father’s guilt money, his mother’s desperation to win his love, and his charm are the three reasons he has never been told no.

He was my older brother's best friend. He was never supposed to be mine. I thought we would get it out of our systems and move on. One of us did. One of us left. Now he's back, looking at me like he wants to devour me. And all those feelings I'd turned into anger are brewing into something else, something that terrifies me. He broke my heart last time. This time he'll obliterate it.

The rules of Society X are simple...break them and you're out. The Dark Room is the only place you can live out your fantasies and no one will ever know it's you. For Parker, what started out as a business transaction has turned into an addiction. For Mia, it's been a chance to discover who she truly is. What happens in the dark will have you begging for more...

They say young love isn’t real. It’s only our bodies full of raging hormones and our minds filled with lust that make us think we are in love. I can tell them that they’re wrong. Young love is real. It can and it does exist - at least in my 17-year-old life. My name is Claire Montgomery and I come from a family of snobs. Born into wealth, against my will, my family will do just about anything to uphold the perfect Montgomery name. I ruined that for them the day my car broke down on the side of the road and I met the love of my life, Sam Snow.

I fell in love with my brother's best friend the first time I laid eyes on him. He walked through the door, flashing me a crooked smile with his blue eyes shining bright. I knew in that instant he was the man of my dreams. As the years went on, my feelings grew stronger, waiting for the day he'd see me as more.