He was 18. The heir to a notorious, criminal MC. And my student. There was no way I could get involved. No way I could stay involved. Then, no way I could get out alive.

Football star. Single dad. And once, a long time ago, mine. I’ve spent the better part of a decade forgetting Ford Ellis. If he had just stayed away from Montana, I might have erased the memory of his striking blue eyes and rugged smile forever. Avoiding him was easy when the only place I saw his face was on ESPN—and a remote control could fix that problem.

It’s been a long time since Walker Ironside left behind Scotland and the memories that haunt him. Yet after years of traveling the world as a bodyguard, Walker misses his homeland enough to return. To a village in the Scottish Highlands that plays host to an exclusive members-only club, Ardnoch Estate. If not happy, Walker is content working with the elite security at the club and maintaining his bachelor lifestyle. What he doesn’t need is distraction in the form of the enticing but too-young newcomer, single mother Sloane Harrow.

I’m not looking for a hero, and definitely not a fake relationship with my new boss, nightclub owner Dante Fury—over six feet of dark, hot, and dangerous. But he isn’t taking no for an answer. The plan was to run, live under the radar, survive. My life’s been destroyed by some very bad people and everything I know is gone—career, friends, family. I thought I could hide as a bartender at New Orleans’ hottest new club, Ember.

We met at my older brother’s house and instantly I knew that he was trouble. He kissed me, right there in the bathroom without a care in the world. And from that moment on, I was his. We were young, brave and naïve when we met. Sneaking around and falling in love. Giuliano Ferrara was perfection. A beautiful, crazy mistake. With his big brown eyes and his boyish charm.

Jilted by my fiancé. A disappointment to my family. Haunted by my childhood traumas. I felt so much all my life that I resolved to feeling nothing at all. Until I met my match. As the most infamous mafioso of the 21st century, Dante Salvatore was madly passionate, unequivocally bad, and entirely too dangerous to know. He was everything I abhorred, yet I found myself representing him in the biggest criminal trial of the decade. I was so focused on winning and achieving the success I deserved that I didn't notice the gorgeous, black-eyed man's effect on me until it was too late. 

I only wanted one kiss. One kiss, under the dark of night, in a city where no one knew us. One kiss fueled by my hormones and alcohol and the blinding grief over losing my mother. One kiss from the man I told myself was untouchable. But, it didn’t stop at one kiss. And now we are running full speed down a road with no intention of stopping. His touch disarms me. His kiss revives me. But our love could destroy me.

In the dark underbelly of the mob, Tristan Caine has been an anomaly. As the only non-blooded member in the high circle of the Tenebrae Outfit, he is an enigma to all. His skills are unparalleled, his morality is questionable, and his motives are unknown. He is lethal and he knows it. As does Morana Vitalio, the genius extraordinaire daughter of the rival family. What Caine does with weapons, Morana does with computers. When a twenty-year-old mystery resurfaces, Morana infiltrates Caine's house, intent on killing him, unaware of a tie that binds them together.

When you've been told your whole life that something is sinful, you have two options. Avoid it like the plague, like it has the power to destroy all that is good and pure. Or become as fixated upon it as Eve was upon that apple. I'm sick of the push-pull of terror and temptation. It's tearing me apart. I just want a bite of the apple. More than a bite. I want to devour it. Have its juices spill from my lips. And by apple, I, of course, mean sex.

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.

We were 16 the night she was violently assaulted while I helplessly watched. I’ll never forget the sounds of her suffering. Or my inconsolable agony when she left Oklahoma. Years later, she returns to honor our teenage pact. Except the boy she loved is gone, replaced by a ruthless cattle rancher knotted with secrets. She doesn’t know my dark cravings or the trails of sin that lead to her. I don’t deserve her, but one truth remains: She’s mine.

Five years ago, my fiancé disappeared. He left me with a wedding dress I’d never wear. Left me with the kind of scars that can’t be healed. The man I built my future on vanished like a ghost. All that remained were my broken heart and a million unanswered questions. Until a mysterious stranger arrives in town.

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.

I’d go anywhere for her.... Even to Kingmakers, the most brutal college in the world. Where mafia heirs are trained to control, dominate, infiltrate, and kill. I followed Anna because she’s my best friend. I’ve always been right by her side. She needs me to protect her. Especially from Dean Yenin, a Bratva heir with a lethal grudge. He plans to take everything from me. Starting with Anna....

Fifteen years ago, she fell into my world. Fifteen years ago, I fell for her. She’s the love of my life. No going back. Loving someone means sacrificing your own happiness to protect them. Loving someone means making them hate you to keep them safe, to get them away from the toxicity that is your world. I destroyed us before we even had a chance to begin…. Can a near death experience bring both my kid and the woman who owns my heart back to me? This is Declan O'Donnelly's story.