Showing results by narrator "Rawlins Loretta" in All Categories

Media mogul Cormac Sheenan had no desire to become a family man, but his newly-adopted goddaughter Daisy has a way of changing all his rules, including him moving back to Marietta, Montana. Now four, precocious Daisy strikes up an unlikely friendship with Marietta’s seasonal Santa Claus, and believes he’s the real thing, even though Cormac points out to her that this jolly old Kris Kringle is renting a room at Bramble House, not living at the North Pole. Daisy’s not worried. She’s made her Christmas wish for "a new mommy" clear—and she's got the perfect candidate in mind.

Private investigators Liz Talbot and Nate Andrews are all set to enjoy some quality time on the beach. That's until they get the news about Darius DeAndre Baker. The star of the hit TV show, Main Street USA, has had enough of the Hollywood high life. After 10 years of visiting everyone else's hometown, he returns to his own - Stella Maris, SC. But the moving trucks have barely unloaded when Trina Lynn Causby, Darius's high school girlfriend, turns up dead, and the entire town reels as Darius is arrested. Despite the mounting evidence, Liz and Nate believe Darius is innocent.

A beautiful stranger. That's all she was when I moved into the house beside her. And then I discovered something. My neighbor isn't your typical girl next door. She's a preacher's daughter. She's a business professional. She's a fiery vixen who desires a strong alpha in the bedroom. And a firm grip around her throat. That's what I give her. But more than that, I want to leave my mark on the most intimate, untouched part of her body. Her heart.

Luke Benedict is Mystic Springs' very own Santa. He's also owner of the hardware store and the local handyman. Not everything can be fixed with magic. His gift is a handy one; he knows what those around him need before they do. What he can't see is what he needs. Jordan Carter's family has been making it snow on Christmas Eve for years, but this year there's a problem. She can't call up a single flake. Something within her is broken, and going to Luke for help is a desperate response. Maybe he'll see what she needs. Is it possible that what she needs is him?

For Gabi Lawson, Mystic Springs has been the perfect hiding place for her and her daughter. For the past year she's kept her head down and made a decent living cutting and styling hair. Even though she's becoming comfortable in her new home, she's always behind locked doors when the sun goes down. The last thing she wants or needs is a man in her well-structured life.

His name was Kevin but his keepers called him Zoo Boy. He didn't talk. He hid under tables and surrounded himself with a cage of chairs. He hadn't been out of the building in the four years since he'd come in. He was afraid of water and wouldn't take a shower. He was afraid to be naked, to change his clothes. He was nearly 16. Desperate to see change in the boy, the staff of Kevin's adolescent treatment center hired Hayden. As Hayden read to him and encouraged him to read, crawling down into his cage of chairs with him, Kevin talked.

Rachel Murphy longs for home and family. Since childhood, she's dreamed of owning her own pastry shop, but after being burned by a celebrity chef and losing her lease in Arizona, Rachel's spending the holidays with her brother in Montana. To keep her dream alive, she's creating custom gingerbread houses and selling them around town. All she needs is a bigger kitchen - and to stay away from her brother's handsome boss.

Can she piece together a dream on a shoestring? As new owner of the falling-apart family homestead in West Texas, Dee Bennett is wrangling ways to earn a living, mend fences with farm and family, and manifest her dreams as a writer - all while nurturing the budding relationship with her beau, outdoorsy photographer Max Miller. But when a drop-dead-gorgeous, high-powered handler for a candidate in a key statewide election blows into Claxton, rivalries bigger than politics and football develop.

Every writer knows you can't go home again, but that's just what is required of West Texas expatriate Dee Bennett-Kaufmann when her mother is badly injured in a mysterious car accident. Single-again "Dr. Dee" has never been on the A-team in her trendy East Coast MFA program. When a prestigious summer fellowship gives her the chance to finally finish her book, salvage her career, and spend some quality time with her college-age daughter, Dee's certain her luck is about to change.

Taming of the Sheenans, book one: Since the loss of her family in a plane crash, Harley Diekerhoff has led a quiet life and keeps to herself. Taking the temporary job at the Copper Mountain Ranch as widower Brock Sheenan's housekeeper seems perfect for her. But her calm cocoon is invaded with the arrival of Brock's preteen twins, Mack and Molly, who've never experienced a proper Christmas, and before she knows it Harley's determined to make their holiday perfect.

Colter Greyson is off limits. There's a long list of reasons why I can't give into the attraction that simmers between us. But quite possibly, the biggest reason being . . . He's my best friend's father. With my sarcastic sense of humor as a weapon, I fight off all of his advances. My heart is safe behind the titanium walls I've carefully constructed. Until it isn't. Until the night the life I knew is snatched away, and I find myself with nowhere and no one to turn to. Colter transforms once again from my sparring partner into my white knight.

Traveling west aboard a wagon train with her late husband's family, young widow Marybeth MacKender wishes only to leave behind the memories of her loveless marriage, and to protect her infant son. But the dangers of the train are endless, as are the advances of her brutish brother-in-law who is resolute in claiming Marybeth as his own. It isn't until Marybeth meets Joshua Rivers, a frontiersman both tough and tender, that her hope for the future ignites as brightly as the desire in her heart.

Marietta, Montana's new librarian, is the quiet type who likes her glamour between the book covers. When she's pushed into attending the formal Valentine Ball with Marietta's Most Eligible Bachelor Troy Sheenan, Taylor can't imagine a worse pairing. What in the world would she have in common with a wealthy playboy like Troy?

Trey Sheenan has cultivated his reputation as Marietta's resident bad boy, until one day he lets things go too far and he loses everything - his freedom, his fiancee McKenna Douglas, and his infant son. McKenna has loved Trey since they were kids, but she's had enough. When Trey is sent away for five years, McKenna is determined to do what's right for her and baby TJ, which means putting her mistakes - namely Trey - behind her, and move on.

My employee's daughter. That's all she was when I let her do odd jobs around the warehouse for a few extra bucks. And then she went away for college. This now beautiful, sexy, desirable woman is no longer the tomboy I once called Kiddo. I want to see how she responds to my kiss. I want to feel her body tremble as she anticipates my touch. I want to learn all the places that bring her pleasure. And I do...in secret. She's my intern and under me for the summer. Literally. This was supposed to be a fling. A little fun between the sheets without commitment - that’s what we called it.

Three novellas and an unforgettable short story, now available together in one festive package!

Annie Prudhomme never expected to be back in Marietta, Montana, and her family is fond of reminding her that she left them and the town behind in search of better things. A humiliating divorce that cost her everything she'd gained has driven her back home, and her family isn't about to welcome her back into the fold. She's in town to rebuild the old home she inherited and to move on once again. Carson Scott never forgot Annie or the way she left.

Spending a quiet Christmas housesitting and reading novels about hot cowboys sounds perfect to Caitlin--until a stray kitten brings her face to face with Noah, her crush from college. Watching the handsome vet in action melts Caitlin's heart and brings back long-forgotten emotion. She would be safer back at the house lost in the pages of a book. But a toe-curling mistletoe kiss tempts her to stay. Maybe she won't be spending this Christmas alone.

Raised in the hills of Tennessee, Emma Simms dreams of the day she’ll escape her life of poverty to start over in the excitement of Knoxville. But when her mother dies and she’s left with no one but her stepfather, Luke Simms, her dream abruptly becomes a nightmare. Luke plans to send Emma to Knoxville all right - straight to a notorious brothel. River Joe, the mysterious Cherokee-raised frontiersman, knew from the first time he set eyes on the beautiful Emma that he had to have her as his own.

The Charleston streets are dressed for the holidays in sophisticated Southern style: topiaries adorned with red ribbons, garland entwined with white lights, and poinsettias potted in gold planters. The high-class bordello in a stately historic home is certainly no exception. When Private Investigator Liz Talbot's dear friend, Olivia, swears she saw a dead body in the parlor of this bordello, one Olivia accidentally co-owns, Liz promptly comes to her aid.