The first time I saw her was across the room at a bar. I had no idea at the time that she was only 16. All I knew was that she was beautiful, she was sending me do-me vibes from across the room, and I was fresh off a deployment where there’d been nobody but men for nine of the longest months of my life. The second time that I saw her was at a court hearing that would decide how long I’d be sent to prison for. She was a cute, little curly-haired blonde with wide, expressive eyes, a banging body, and the reason that I’d gone to prison in the first place. 

Don’t ever, ever, ever go near that boy. Not unless you want to be a single mother at 17. That boy is Bad with a capital B. The words that my father spoke to me when it came to Trouper Aoki didn’t scare me like they probably should. In fact, they only made me intrigued all the more. When it came to Troup, there was just no resisting fate when it came to the two of us. 

The moment that Caro wakes up, she knows that she’s not alone. One thump-thump from the living room and she quickly moves into action. One 9-1-1 call later, and she’s ready to defend herself. Only, she gets more than she bargains for when she steps out into her living room and comes face to face with a living, breathing nightmare. And isn’t it just fitting that the man that saves her by coming down the chimney with a large black gun in his hand is named Saint Nicholas? 

Going from a professional baseball player to a SWAT officer should’ve been seamless. Should have been. But it wasn’t. All it took was one single calendar shoot for word to spread that Nathan Cox was not only no longer playing professional baseball, but he was also the man behind saving the life of Reggie Morton, the city of Kilgore’s princess. Reggie didn’t know that by agreeing to provide the expertise and the know-how for the Police Officer’s Ball that she would be required to actually attend the function.

He should’ve never left his house. He should’ve stayed at home. He has a legitimate excuse - he’s running a fever and he’s fairly sure he’s developing pneumonia. He should have called in sick...but he doesn’t. He goes to work, because his team is relying on him. Needless to say, when Samuel Adams walks into the pharmacy hours later, he only has one thing on his mind. Ibuprofen. Sadly, he never gets to the Ibuprofen. Mostly because before he gets there, he finds a junkie waving a gun around threatening to kill anybody that moves.

Sierra started writing to soldiers overseas through the soldier pen pal program when she was in high school. Years later, she had no idea that the one soldier that she’d been paired up with in the very beginning would be the one man that would change her world eight years down the road. 

Amelia loves her good friend, Avery. So much so that she agrees to do the stupidest thing ever. A stranger photo shoot. You know the type. The photographer takes photos of two individuals. Two individuals that, until that day, have never met in their life. The moment she shows up at the photo shoot, she knows that she made a terrible decision. Why? Because the total stranger about to be in an intimate photo shoot with her is the hottest thing that’s ever walked the streets of Kilgore, Texas. If not the entire US of A.

Angie is a survivor. Anything you could throw at her, she could overcome. After her father left her like a pile of unwanted trash, she began fighting. Fighting to build a life. Fighting to keep her child. Fighting to matter. She thought she had it all figured out. Then Bowen Race Tannenbaum walks into her life, turning it into a flurry of confusion, hope, and then ultimately despair. He tore down, brick-by-brick, her carefully constructed world, leaving her heart in tatters and longing for more. Such as a happily-ever-after, something that wasn’t ever going to happen for her.

There are a few lessons one has to learn for themselves. Then there are the lessons that most people don’t have to learn because it’s just not done. For instance, most people know instinctively that they shouldn’t crave the mother of their brother’s child. Bourne Pena isn’t most men. Bourne does everything he can to fight the attraction he feels for Delanie, but in the end, his refusal to go there almost ends up costing him his life.

Tyler Cree has never been good at the whole "look and don’t touch" thing. From the moment he was old enough to walk on his own two feet, he’s been looking for trouble. Trouble comes in many forms...quite a few of those forms being the female persuasion. Tyler knows what girls want - a bad boy. And he has the bad boy image down pat. Ex-military - check. Hot cop - double check.

Coke Solomon has lived a full life. He’s a retired army drill sergeant, so he is more than used to getting his way. And if he can’t have it his way? Well, let’s just say that’s never happened before... At least not until Cora Maldonado walks into his life, demanding he fall in line, or she’ll find a way to make his life hell. It doesn’t matter that she’s younger than him, and has a father that would rather see him dead than have his baby girl anywhere near him. Nor does it matter that his ex-wife is highly offended that she’s been replaced with a much younger woman.

Booth Pena definitely didn’t make the smartest of decisions when he was a teenager. At eighteen, he knocked a girl up and signed up for the military all in the same day. There weren’t a lot of things that the baby’s mother and he saw eye to eye on after that. He honestly wasn’t sure why he even slept with her in the first place. Okay, that last part is a lie. He knows exactly why he slept with her. Because the real woman he’s in love with, her twin sister, Dillan, won’t give him the time of day. Five years later, and he still wants her.

Royal St. James got her name when she was born. Not because her mother loved her royally, but because Royal was a giant pain in the ass. She’s spent her entire life fighting to live, and the last thing she needs is to deal with some pretty-boy police officer who wouldn’t know a hardship if it came up and bit him in the...you know. Justice Rector wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was raised to work hard and always fight for what he believed in. His father was a cop, and ever since he could remember, he wanted to be one, too.

Ares saw him for the first time at a Kilgore Police Department benefit dinner. She’d gone with her dad as his plus one. Hayes Greer had gone by himself and brooded silently across the same table as her, drinking whiskey and not saying a word. It only took that one time for her to become interested. The next time she saw him, he was doing another benefit - but this one requiring a whole lot fewer clothes. And that was when she knew. She wanted him. Badly. But the morose Hayes was too busy thinking about his sins to see what was right in front of his face - Ares.

This is for charity. This is for fun. You are a professional. You can do it. Those are the words that Calloway Alvarez chants to herself as she watches all the large men gather into the small room where she’ll be doing the interviews for her employer - Hero Magazine. Honestly, she’s convinced herself that she can’t accomplish the task at hand. That is until she hears his voice, and her head turns to see him standing there. Louis Spurlock. Greek god. SWAT officer. Keeper of her secrets. Ultimate fantasy. Man who will break her heart.