Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Contemporary

"Hard pass." That's what the last girl I slept with said when she got her first sober glimpse of me. She laughed, walked out of my penthouse - and I never saw her again. It doesn't matter that I'm a rich, professional athlete; what mattered was my face. Beauty might only be skin deep for some - but I know better. "Pay up." That's what the last girl I spoke to said over the phone when I made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

Author Catherine Cowles brings you an addictive small-town romance series full of protective heroes and suspenseful twists and turns. Wrecked Beginnings contains the first three stand-alone novels in the Wrecked series. Includes Reckless Memories, Perfect Wreckage, and Wrecked Place.

The only place Suzanna Peacock finds comfort is her shop, which provides a haven for the misfits in town. But she is forced to confront events of the past and her family that have been haunting her for so long. And she discovers that the key to her happiness may have been in front of her all along....

I'm locked in a cage in my wedding dress. How did I end up here? Three days ago, I was a normal girl living a normal life. My adoptive parents came over to my apartment for dinner, just like they do every week. But this time, they brought bombshells. They tell me I'm not who they said I was. And all those dance lessons, those etiquette classes? They weren't just for show. They were to groom me. To mold me into what I'm about to become—the forced wife of a don. Then, with my jaw on the floor, they opened the door and let the nightmares in.

Eleven years ago, Jem and Ralph fell in love. They thought it would be forever, that they’d found their happy ending. Then two became four, a flat became a house. Romantic nights out became sleepless nights in. And they soon found that life wasn’t quite so simple anymore. Now two people who were so right together are starting to drift apart. As they try to find a way back to each other, back to what they once had, they both become dangerously distracted. But maybe it’s not too late to recapture happily ever after....

I’m the only woman on staff for the Windy City Warriors, and after years of putting up with a sexist lead doctor, I’m desperate to land my dream job with a new team next year. All I have to do is maintain my professional reputation for my final season in Chicago. But a Las Vegas run-in with the team’s shortstop threatens it all, leaving me with a fuzzy memory and a ring on my left hand.

Taya Maverick has just volunteered to marry a random Navy SEAL as part of the military's new spouse-matching program. What other choice does she have? Her former best friend killed her father and torched her house. Taya's determined to start over, but to be safe she has to disappear. The program is the perfect opportunity, complete with refuge and a built-in bodyguard. Her Navy SEAL husband can keep her safe, right?

Coach Gavin Blackburn has been through hell. Three years ago, he was on top of the world, courted by the best teams in the NHL to coach their players. His wife’s unexpected death destroyed him, and sent him running from hockey. He thought he’d left the sport behind forever, but when his ex-player shows up at his remote cabin, begging him to return to Portland University to coach the Evergreens again, he agrees. The last thing Gavin expected was their mentor-student relationship to turn into something entirely different now that Zach is grown up.

If my childhood taught me anything, it was to survive. Now I have a deep-rooted mistrust of people and a wall of steel and ice surrounding my heart. So, when Reed Ryan steps into my life, I know I need to keep him far away. He’s everything I grew up hating. Fighting. Fleeing. Devastatingly handsome, he looks like a drunken regret and has heartbreak written over every inch of his body - literally. He’s the quintessential bad boy...and he’s a cop. But the man is my undoing.

McKay: I wasn’t the one who broke her, but I helped. She came to us when she was 10. I raised her. I loved her. I taught her how to survive in a world of evil men. But it wasn’t enough. Adam: I wasn’t the one who saved her but I did my best. Bought and paid for on the auction block. But not for the reasons you think. She was my weapon. Donovan: I wasn’t the one who lied to her but I hid her truth. She was broken before I got there. Wild and angry. Defiant and bratty. But she trusted me most. She loved me best. So I set her free.

I’ve spent my life putting others first. So when my father runs for New York City mayor—on a promise to take down the city’s most notorious crime family—I do what I always do: push my own dreams aside to help him win. Until I wind up at the wrong party. Trapped in a bedroom with Romolo Ferraro—the dangerous, merciless youngest son of the man my father has sworn to destroy. He terrifies me. He fascinates me. Six foot four and covered in tattoos, he’s everything I should avoid.

My entire life has been one steady plan after another. Go to college. Get married. Have a successful career. More than a decade goes by, and my entire world is rocked in more ways than one. Everything I thought I knew is ripped from under me in one fell swoop. Then I meet him: the enticing man behind the camera with the boyish grin and charismatic energy who makes me question everything. He was only supposed to be a means to an end. But what I got was so much more.

Savva is a filthy bratva beast, as cruel as he is charming and as brutal as he is gorgeous. When I took over my late father's biker bar, I also took over the payments he was making to Savva, the leader of a powerful mafia family operating on the edge of Las Vegas. But Savva couldn't be satisfied with money alone. He wanted more. He spilled into my life like a dark, inescapable shadow, stealing my dignity and drowning me in his sin. But his twisted promises and dark desires aren't enough to convince me to fall for him. Neither are his whiskey kisses and his iron abs.

I had everything I ever wanted, until my life was flipped upside down. Now, I’m suddenly being forced to live in my parent’s hometown, with complete strangers. Like my heart isn’t broken enough. Could I fall any further? Yes. Yes, I could. Why might that be? The Allstars - Xavier Knight, Hunter Asheville, and Tobias Holmes - Asheville High’s prestigious star football players. They’re my worst nightmare. But damn...why do they have to be so mouth-wateringly hot?

I thought he'd always be mine, even when I was forced to say goodbye. We were never meant to let go, but it happened anyway. Two years later, we were exactly where we'd always planned to be. I'd kept my promise. He'd forgotten all about his. Not only had he moved on, but the person he'd moved on with was my best friend, leaving me to begin college with a broken heart. I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you some other guy stepped in and repaired my shattered pieces. This isn't that kind of story. My heart might have been broken, but it refused to fall out of love.

At work, I’m King of Wall Street. I’m shrewd. Exacting. Some say ruthless. At home, I’m a single dad trying to keep his fourteen-year-old daughter a kid for as long as possible. And nothing I say is ever right. When Harper Jayne starts as a junior researcher at my firm, the barriers between my worlds begin to dissolve. Soon, she will have to learn that I don't just rule the boardroom. I’m in charge of the bedroom, too.

They say Cyrus Reed is ruthless. That he rules the underworld with an iron fist. A criminal. A murderer. A monster. He controlled fortunes and amassed empires. Our paths should never have crossed, but one poker game intertwined our fate. I woke up stranded on his island. Trapped. Forced to play a dangerous game of hate and lust. He said he took me to protect me. That he was saving me. But who will save me from him?

Growing up, it was always the three of us. Me, my twin brother, Kyle, and our best friend, Aiden. We were inseparable all the way through high school. Did I picture myself with Aiden from the first moment I laid eyes on him back when we were eight? Hell. Yes. I fell in love with his soul that day. But he was always more Kyle’s friend than mine. And Kyle made damn sure we both know the rules. I was strictly off limits. Forever. But now, Kyle is gone. Dead from a freak accident. And Aiden is still here.

I had my whole life planned out... until I met a hockey player obsessed with breaking all of my rules. My five simple rules for hooking up keep me from being distracted. Now that I'm so close to landing my dream internship, nothing is going to make me break them. Not even a protective hockey player with clear grey eyes, a sharp jaw, and a body that makes my breath catch. Until Jax wins a bet and one kiss has me breaking them all.

Meadowridge College was supposed to be a fresh start at the safest college in America. I'd be rubbing elbows with the elite of the world, while trying to complete my degree and find a path to a brighter future. My trauma had other ideas though. When the panic attacks send me into the arms of a gorgeous stranger in the library, it sets off a chaotic chain of events that end with me being kicked out of my dorms and forced to live and renovate a rundown old house on the edge of campus.