Showing results by narrator "Emma Wilder" in All Categories

Ex-cop Maxwell Fear knows all too well what can happen to a witness of a violent crime—which is why he has no choice but to protect her. Sloane Robertson is no longer the woman he met at a dinner party, or the woman he kissed at the front door. She’s a client, a job, nothing more than a person who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong damn time.

After two years of culinary grind, I was about to land my dream job. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could dampen my spirits. Or so I thought... until fate decided to hit me with a dirty little plot twist. My cozy, one-bedroom cabin rental is double-booked. With whom, you ask? None other than my ex, the NHL star with a knack for making headlines from his off-field conquests since we called it quits.

Three full-length standalone stories by USA Today Bestselling author Claudia Burgoa about the men who created HIB Securities and the women behind them.

Enter Luke Rodgers. My brother’s best friend. Former major league baseball player. A guy who now hangs out on his farm, sweaty and shirtless, as he nurses a shoulder injury. If the rumors are true, he also likes to work up a sweat behind closed doors. A total MVP in the sack. Just the take charge guy I’m looking for.

Once, Eryn Hope fell fast and incurably for Weston Quaid. And he seemed to adore her too―until she learned their love was built on lies when he walked out on their wedding day. Three years later, West has finally won control of his family empire and fortune, but it cost him Eryn―something he regrets every day. When business forces him to return to her life and temporarily shut down her livelihood, of course she’s furious. But their chemistry is still beyond combustible.

Logan Winchester. Star running back for the Denver Mountain Lions and the man of my dreams. Until he left me without another word, shattering me in the process. I had other things to focus on. Like being the top skier in the world. I put my ex and his small town in my rearview mirror and tried not to look back. Until an injury sidelined me. Now with the press following every minute of my return to competitive skiing, I need an escape. But I end up in the one place I never thought I'd return to. With the man who nearly broke me.

Being sentenced by a woman in a black robe is not a meet-cute. Quinn Jeffries follows the rules. A judge in small-town Sinful, Montana, doesn’t have much room for missteps, and when you spend your childhood training for the Olympics, you don’t have time for anything but discipline anyway. And, see? It’s worked! Her life is just fine. Of course, it doesn’t include any romance, but her new six-first-dates plan could fix that. She just has to be feminine and beguiling, or maybe marginally less take-charge. Too bad she doesn’t know how.

A stately home in the English countryside seems the ideal place for a bad boy billionaire and his bride to tie the knot. Until the internet fails. And the oven breaks. And paparazzi invade. And police crash the bachelorette party. And four unlikely couples discover that passion never waits for perfection.

Ex-Cop Paxton “Tank” Sokolofski’s life is shattered—first by a bullet, then by a woman. Now he passes his days tracking down cheating spouses. Not his idea of a good time. When Cori Transue moves in next door, things get a little more interesting. She’s a sultry little firecracker, and the way she looks at him definitely gets his attention. However, he doesn’t need a woman added to the mix, especially one with even more baggage than he has.

Santino DiLustro changed me. You can’t spend time in bed with the devil without getting addicted to the heat. Before him, I was a girl. Innocent and weak. Now, I’m a woman. A fighter. A killer. I’ll burn the world down for him. Shatter the sky. But I will not break. No. I will rise up and destroy whoever dares to threaten what my king has built, because I am forever his queen.

Our plan? Fake an engagement, have a showy wedding, solve our little problems, then amicably split. It's simple: I keep my B&B, and he shows his team he's serious about cleaning up his act. Perfect, right? But Jake doesn't know how to do things by halves.

My teammates can't know how much she tempts me. Her brother certainly can't know the things I'm imagining doing to her. We'll both keep pretending we're just having fun, even when she winds up sharing my bed in secret. We both agree it's harmless. Just casual. But when her old life comes calling, will I keep pretending, or will I put it all on the line?

When Hope Delancey showed kindness to another slave, she never expected it to put her in the crosshairs of a dangerous man. After weeks of being held captive she's rescued by a gruff, grumpy, intimidating soldier who obviously wishes he was anywhere but in Colombia rescuing her. But Hope sees through the cold exterior to the man underneath, a man she could fall in love with, a man who has already told her he has nothing to offer.

That’s my name, my birthright, and my curse. I didn’t always hate being a Harrington. At one time, I took it as a privilege. I used it to my advantage. But a name doesn’t stop you from losing everything, and after six haunting years, that everything is back forcing me to face the past or give up a future.

Pro snowboarder Stella Lazarus has always loved her brother's best friend. But the one time she tried to show him, she was shot down faster than you can say "competitor disqualified". Until one blissful night in Tahoe, when Stella finally gets her man. Or does she? In the morning, Stella and Bear wake up to horrible news. The sort that sends them racing back to Vermont, and straight into the arms of guilt and family obligations.

Camila was 17 when Van Quiso kidnapped her. Ten years after her escape, the shackles refuse to release her. Not while there are still slave traders preying on her city. She will stop at nothing to end them. Even if that means becoming a slave again. Returning to chains is her worst fear - and only option. They won’t know who she is or what she intends to do. She’s prepared for every complication. Except him. The one who decimated her 16-year-old heart.

People who say “love is trust” probably didn’t grow up in a cult. My name is Daisy Nabhitha Kittredge. I chose it myself. As an RN in the emergency department in one of New Zealand’s largest hospitals, there wasn’t much left in me of the 16-year-old girl, covered from neck to ankle and not allowed to make eye contact with a boy, who’d run away with five dollars in her pocket and terror in her heart.

What happens when the biggest blizzard of the year hits and you’re trapped in a cabin with your best friend’s brother? You take every opportunity to spend time together and make him fall in love with you.

I get paid to follow a womanizing troglodyte who thinks rules are for other people and that my pants are the next pair he’s getting into. Bet your first professional job didn’t involve babysitting an extremely hot, muscle-bound Scottish highlander with an ego the size of a kilt and libido bigger than his…well…chicken. Keeping Scottish football (that’s "soccer" to us Americans) player Hamish McCormick away from inappropriate scandals while he does product endorsement campaigns is my mission. No problem. Until Hamish decides I’m his next scandal. And maybe more...

“Sometimes love happens when you least expect it.” That was what my husband’s mistress told me the day I found out about their affair. I didn’t believe it until five minutes later when mouthwatering celebrity chef Tanner Reese walked up, tossed his arm around my shoulders, and told my cheating husband to take a hike. Tanner and I couldn’t have been more different. Our relationship shouldn’t have worked, but it did. That is until Tanner proved to me that even though love happens when you least expect it so does heartbreak.