Showing results by author "Kate Meader" in All Categories

I can’t marry him. I have no good reason to jilt my hockey player fiancé, except that the closer we get to the big day, the more I feel myself shrinking to a hollow shell. Two minutes after I slip into the church bathroom to calm my pre-wedding jitters, I jump out the window to make my escape . . . and land on Hatch Kershaw, my fiancé’s teammate on the Chicago Rebels. This guy has always hated me for reasons I can’t fathom. Half the time he looks right through me, like I’m no better than the ice shavings on his skate blades.

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling indie authors Jennifer Probst, Emma Chase, Kristen Proby, Melody Anne, and debut author Kate Meader come together to write a sizzling romance anthology. Outside it may be frosty, so turn the heat way up with these stories of desire! Can a determined woman...

Fans can’t get enough of Levi Hunt, the Special Forces veteran who put his NHL career on hold to serve his country and fight the bad guys. So when his new Chicago Rebels bosses tell him to cooperate with the press on a profile, he’s ready to do his duty - until he finds out who he has to work with: flame-haired, freckle-splashed, impossibly perky Jordan Cooke…the woman he should not have kissed the night she buried her husband, Levi’s best friend in the service.

This bundle includes the first three books in the Rookie Rebels series. In the first book of the series, Good Guy, Levi makes his pro-hockey debut. Jordan is a dogged sports reporter determined to get a scoop. She's also his best friend's widow. In the second book, Instacrush, Elle's hot hockey player neighbor, Theo, is the most annoying man in the world. But one sexy Santa visit and one dinner later, she's pregnant. In the third book, Man Down, Gunnar has been texting the wife he lost, the one he loved beyond measure, but someone else answers back.

If you ever get married, remember my name: Max Henderson. In my line of work, you acquire a certain perspective on supposedly everlasting unions. But some guys are willing to take a chance. Like my brother, who thinks he’s going to ride off into the sunset with the woman of his dreams in a haze of glitter on unicorns. And the wedding planner - the green-eyed beauty who makes a living convincing suckers to shell out thousands of dollars on centerpieces - is raking it in on this matrimonial monstrosity. As the best man, I know her game - and I can play it better than her.

Recently traded to the Chicago Rebels, hockey veteran Dylan “Banks” Bankowski is adjusting to what might be his last team and his final year in the NHL. That means taking care of his battered body while he strives for the one goal that’s managed to elude him: a championship ring. What he does not need is a visit from the woman to whom he gave a different kind of ring months ago. His young, flighty, socialite wife. Apparently, signing the annulment papers within a week of their wedding in Vegas didn’t quite take, and now she’s back, right before the playoffs when he needs his focus most.

At a crossroads, my life a hot mess, I swiped right on the guy with the washboard abs and the tree-trunk thighs. His handle was Holt (yeah, really) but as soon as he opened the door, I recognized him: Hudson Grey, the hottest prospect in pro-hockey and apparently, secretly playing for my team. Not mind-blowing enough? He needed someone to punch his V-card, and I was only too happy to volunteer as tribute... Then he ghosted me when it got to be too much. A year later, my life is back on track and I’m a candidate firefighter at legendary Engine 6.

Chicago Rebels hockey player Dex O'Malley has been a naughty boy ... again. Only his latest stunt isn’t quite like when he was caught with his pants down at a nightclub or was cited for drag-racing on Lake Shore Drive or even that time he said a few critical things about his teammates on a hockey podcast. Oops. This time, Dex is in real trouble, the kind that could get him kicked off the team and out of the league. And that cannot happen. Hockey is the only thing he’s ever been good at. The only thing he cares about.

Dante Moretti has just landed his dream job: GM of the Chicago Rebels. And screw the haters who think there should be an asterisk next to his name because he's the first out managing executive in pro hockey. He's earned the right to be here, and nothing will topple him off that perch—especially not an incredibly inconvenient attraction to his star defenseman, Cade "Alamo" Burnett. Cade has always been careful to keep his own desires on the down low, but his hot Italian boss proves to be a temptation he can't resist. Sure, they both have so much to lose, but no one will ever know.

Roaring back from a life-threatening injury, Theo has the world at his skates as defenseman for his new team, the Chicago Rebels. Everyone adores his big personality, his on-ice talent, and his killer smile. Everyone but his prickly neighbor - or so he thinks. One chilly Christmas Eve, Theo will learn that maybe the girl next door isn’t such a hater after all....

I’ve been texting the wife I lost, the woman I loved beyond measure.... Now someone else has answered back. Gunnar Bond is broken. Three years ago, he lived through the car crash that took his wife and twins away from him - though “lived” barely describes his current state. Giving up professional hockey, going off-grid, and drinking himself into oblivion are his coping mechanisms. Another is texting his dead wife about his days without her. Therapeutic? Doubtful. Crazy? Definitely.

Reid Durand isn't here to make friends. Coming from a legacy of hockey greatness, he has games to win and things to prove. With his focus during his first season as a Chicago Rebel purely on his drive to succeed, every vice is off the table - no booze, no sugar, and definitely no women. Kennedy Clark is the master of the side hustle. She'll walk your dog, brew your espresso, and pick up your dry-cleaning, all while rocking it in Warrior pose. Standing still is impossible because the moment she starts to slow down, it'll all come rushing back: the memories, the pain, the heartbreak.

Violet Vasquez never met her biological father, so learning he left his hockey franchise—the Chicago Rebels—to her is, well, unexpected. Violet is determined to make the most of this sudden opportunity. Except dear old dad set conditions that require she takes part in actually running the team with the half-sisters she barely knows. Working with these two strangers and overseeing a band of hockey-playing lugs is not on her agenda . . . until she lays eyes on the Rebels captain and knows she has to have him.

When the new general manager of the Chicago Rebels tasks Tara Becker with faking it with one of his players to help clean up the naughty jock's act, she's all over it. She'll make that misbehaving hunk of muscle look good and get her dream guy into the bargain. New Rebels GM Hale Fitzpatrick thinks ditzy blonde and wannabe WAG Tara is the perfect solution to his PR problem—until she isn't. Soon Fitz realizes that maybe he doesn't have control of the strings after all...especially when he starts to fall for his pretty little puppet.

Running an engine crew in the Chicago Fire Department is my dream job, and between that, my awesome kid, and my nosey sister, I lead a pretty great life. Bruised and burned by my marriage, I don’t have time for dating or drama, but I always have time for pie. And when I share a slice of cherry with a sweet redhead, followed by the hottest, dirtiest, most pulse-pounding kiss of my life, I start to rethink the possibilities. Until that woman walks into my firehouse and upends my well-ordered world.

Firefighter Gage Simpson has it all: the job of his dreams, the family of his heart, and no shortage of hot guys lining up to share his bed. "Fun and easy" is his motto—and it's kept him sunny through a painful upbringing and steered him away from trouble. But when trouble comes knocking in the form of a sexy, scarred, tattooed chef with a harrowing past and zero communication skills, Gage can't help but be drawn to the flame.

After almost a year away from hockey, Bastian Durand’s return to the game should be a triumph. Instead he’s taken down by the Chicago Rebels mascot. It can’t get worse. Or maybe it can. Because the human inside the Rowdy Rebel costume is none other than Pepper Calhoun. His friend’s sister. His coach’s daughter. And the woman Bastian has wanted for the longest time.

I might be a rookie Chicago firefighter, but I’m on top of the world. I’ve just earned my spot on Rescue Squad at legendary Engine 6, can get all the action I want both in and out of the bedroom, and am possessed of an enviable sneaker collection. Nothing can harsh my vibe except her—Cassandra Ferguson, my brother’s sister-in-law, or as I affectionately label her: the blister-in-law. Ever since I met her, she’s looked down her perky little nose at me, never mind that I’m a good foot taller.

After a very public breakup and a viral post that declares him the villain, power forward Cal Foreman is taking a time-out from women and relationships to focus on hockey. When Chicago Rebels captain and old friend Vadim Petrov “volunteers” him to help train Vadim’s sister Mia, Cal figures he can do a favor for a pal and get ready for the season with his new team. But the imperious Russian would slice a skate blade through Cal’s internal organs if he knew what lessons Mia really wants. Yeah, not that kind of stickhandling.

Actress Tess McKenzie is performing in the Tenth Circle of Showbiz Hell - dinner theater. All she really wants is to start a theater of her own. Then Tess receives an offer she can't refuse. She'll get her funding...if she pretends to be the fiancee to her nemesis, Texan property tycoon Hunter Dade. If she's going to pull this off, she'll need all the luck she can get. Break a leg, indeed.