When Mia shows up for the interview at a well-known architecture firm, she only has 27p, a squashed loaf of bread, and a jar of peanut butter to her name. She needs this job, even if she is scared to death of the owner of the company. To Mia, huge, grumpy men aren't sexy; they're simply terrifying. She knows from experience that even men of average size can be dangerous. If she weren't so desperate, she'd run.

When I was ten, I was a naïve, shy girl. A girl who dreamed of sunsets and roller skates. Until my grandparents died. Then I found myself alone in the world. One bad thing after another seemed to find me but I dealt. I dealt because a man with a black leather jacket and ink from head to toe, told me how to survive this world. He told me that, sometimes, you have to get mean. And so, I embraced my mean. I hated it at first but as time went on, being mean became second nature.

Only regret the things you haven't done. A cheap motel or the guest bedroom of Newport's infamous heartbreaker? Any sane person would run the other way after hearing a "move in with me" proposition days after meeting Theo Hayes. Not me. Having escaped a dark past and started over with only three suitcases, I'm not guided by pride but survival instinct. Taking the plunge, I soon find Theo's magnetic pull impossible to resist. I should keep my secrets, maintain my distance, and build a new life, but... with Theo, I don't want to have any regrets.

Balancing life in Esperance while looking after my four wild siblings? A challenge. Keeping things afloat with two part-time gigs? Harder than it sounds. Flipping burgers at the diner by day and enchanting kiddos as Elsa by night is a grind. Enter Wolfe Rivers, an older-than-me, hotter-than-Hades billionaire with an allure that's impossible to resist. But he's not just any rich guy—Wolfe's secret haven in Raleigh is all about raw passion and dark desires.

I love flowers. Being a botanist has always been my dream, but life got in the way—and, nowadays, I have a job at the flower shop near my crummy apartment. So that's something, right? Maybe it's not in the best neighborhood, but it's a bright spot in a dirty city, and at least there are usually cops around. I've noticed one in particular lately, keeping an eye on the shop.

No one would say that our story is pretty. But we were in love before we hated each other. And we were friends long before that. Growing up, I saw Jace Zielinski every day. He lived next door. I cheered him on at football games. I gave him advice on girls. He was my brother’s best friend, and the three of us were inseparable. I didn’t realize I’d already fallen for Jace until we kissed for the first time. Our magical season felt like destiny. And then came the disaster that tore us all to shreds. I lost Jace. I lost my brother. In many ways I lost myself.

The last place city girl Cecily Kennedy expected to end up was a cattle ranch. But she needs a job—and refuge from her abusive soon-to-be ex-husband. If only her new boss, Austin Wells, would make it clear whether he hates her or wants her. His gaze makes her feel things she hasn't in years. However, getting over her ex by getting under her grumpy boss isn't worth the potential fallout.

In one moment, my freedom is snatched away when my father tells me I have to marry a man I’ve never met. I expect an 80-year-old retired boss who craves my virgin flesh in payment for his service. Bright side—in a few years, he’ll be gone, and I’ll be free again. I’m not prepared for the dangerously gorgeous soldier my father presents. Like anything that looks too good to be true, so is my new husband. He’s cold, cruel, and worst of all, young. Suddenly, marriage is a life sentence. That is, if I don’t show him from day one that no one controls Eliza Pomponio.

I didn’t know I was pregnant. Ayden walked away from me a decade ago and never looked back. The only thing he left me was our sweet, amazing daughter, and a mile-long list of small-town secrets. When his father—the town’s mayor—threatens me, Ayden’s childhood best friend steps in, and I have no choice but to fight the battles he ran away from. I spent years looking for the only man who’s ever stolen my heart. When I finally find him in Sugarland Creek, Tennessee, I go and face him.

Abel LeBlanc, better known to his brothers as Riggs—president for The Kings of Retribution MC, Louisiana Chapter. As a former Green Beret, he runs the club with the same amount of precision and grit he did serving his country. Dedicating years of his life to mercenary missions, and to his club, left no time or desire to settle down and start a family of his own. What good could come of loving a woman if he could never promise her forever, when he willingly puts his life on the line every day? No one has ever come close to making him want more. No one until Luna.