Showing results by narrator "Ava Lucas" in All Categories

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 27 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017.

After spending the last 10 years in prison, Zak, former DAMC president, has a few priorities: to reconnect with his “brothers”, to get drunk, and to get laid. Not necessarily in that order. When he spots a stunning woman in the clubhouse and mistakes her for one of the club’s strippers, those priorities get a bit skewed.

Crow, self-proclaimed bachelor biker, can’t believe his eyes when a woman from his past shows up at his tattoo shop. She not only needs him to cover up a scar created by a rival MC but is looking for a hero to help her heal and officially move on from a tragic incident. One that dragged her into the darkness against her will and extinguished her light for years. While willing to help, he’s not sure he can be everything she needs him to be. How can he help her when he hasn't even faced the demons that haunt his own past?

Grace Castle lived through hell, and she’s never fully recovered. Nor may she ever. But she’s better than she was and now devotes her time and energy to helping other women, until someone connects her old life to her new one. Suddenly, she’s forced to do something that goes against her conscience, moral compass, and heart.

When strong statements must be made, Hawk, as the MC’s VP, must be the one to make them. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences, like him landing in jail. Though the club keeps an attorney on retainer, the one who shows up isn’t quite who he’s expecting. Not even close. Feisty, classy, and curvy, this attorney pushes his buttons in all the right ways. And Hawk can’t ignore a challenge. However, she’s so out of his league, he can’t hope for anything more than a few chances to scratch all her itches.

My name came with big skates to fill. At the top of my game, I had everything I wanted - or so I thought. Being traded to Dallas was not what I was expecting, but neither were the divorce papers I was served. Now I’m a single dad in a city that isn’t my home.

Robin Brannon was a normal wife, mom, and antique shop owner until a brush with death turned her day-to-day life upside down. Now, she and her two best friends are seeing things that belong in a fantasy novel. Ghosts. Visions. Omens of doom. Nothing that belongs in the peaceful mountain town they call home. Added to that, Robin's marriage is on the rocks, her grandmother's health is failing, her mother is driving away the customers at her shop, her teenage daughter refuses to get her driver's license, and her left knee aches every darn morning.

Caroline Abbott loves her job - helping engaged couples pick out the perfect save-the-date cards and invitations for their dream wedding. Working at Noteworthy means she has to deal with the occasional bridezilla, but Caroline’s always up for the challenge. Until one particular bridezilla, whose fiancé happens to be the boy Caroline shared her first kiss with, walks into the stationery store. Alexander Wilder is all grown up now, helping run his family’s successful luxury hotel chain, and is somehow even better looking than she remembers.

Billionaire Lucas Oliver is hell-bent on revenge. And his plan begins when Sydney Blake - the stunning daughter of his enemy - is tricked into bidding on him at a bachelor auction. Then he serves up a little blackmail...followed by a marriage proposal Sydney has no choice but to accept. Sydney has been controlled by her family her whole life. When Lucas threatens to reveal her father's shady business, she is once again forced to do her duty for her family. But worse - oh so much worse - is the rush of lust that Lucas ignites in her blood.

Dante Marino’s the definition of beautiful destruction. Everything he touched, he destroyed...including me. We were friends. Then we weren't. He used me. Played me. Took every ounce of my affection and threw it away. He became my enemy, then risked everything to save me. Now, he wants me back, claiming he's changed - determined to make me his. Each vow, every possessive kiss, feels like he’s mine. But I can't forget that underneath his rock-hard body, seductive grin, and wicked promises, one thing will always remain true - he's my undoing.

In Sag Harbor, two neighbors have mastered the art of being content. Or so they tell themselves. At 38, Aldo is a successful realtor with effortless charm and a past rooted in Rome, where family loyalty runs deep. He came to New York for a fresh start, not complications, and definitely not feelings he didn’t plan on.

Destroying my partner became sweeter when his daughter stepped on stage at a charity auction. But I don’t want her for a month. I’m upping my bid to make her sign for a year. Her strong will, independence, and defiant attitude toward her family indulges my carnal desires and need for revenge.

Constantine Costa has spent his life shielding others from harm. As the eldest brother and a former clandestine operative, he’s made it his mission to help those who can’t help themselves. But despite his strength and dedication, there’s always been something missing—a void he’s never been able to fill. Juliette Carmichael had her future mapped out with medical school, a bright career, and a stable life all within her grasp. But on her twenty-first birthday, she threw caution to the wind and embraced a moment of freedom. No names.

A 3AM call is never good news, and for college student Britannia Vale, it’s the worst. Michael, the man who helped raise her, is on the other end, relaying a tragedy that will tear her entire world apart. In the midst of grief, Britannia and Michael struggle to pick up the pieces, but the old pieces don’t quite fit together the way they used to. She's no longer the little girl Michael helped her mother raise. Michael is still her hero, but looks at her in a way that incites overwhelming desires for the only man who can keep her whole in the aftermath of her mother's death.

Though the club blood runs thick in Axel’s veins, he’s despised by them for being a cop. They also hate him because his family turned their back years ago not only on the club but his brother, the president of the Dirty Angels MC. However, he's loved Bella forever, watched her marry the wrong man, one who broke her in almost every imaginable way, and yet she's still the strongest person he knows. Despite their rivaling families, he won't let anything stand in the way of making her his this time. Bella hasn’t known anything other than alpha bikers her whole life.

He's, my bodyguard. My marriage of convenience husband. And the one man I can't have feelings for. Ryot Davenport: Former Marine. Billionaire security expert. A man built to keep his walls high and his heart untouchable. Our fake marriage? A calculated political move. Our real chemistry? Impossible to ignore. He’s sworn to keep me safe. I’m determined to make him feel again. Every unspoken promise. Every stolen glance. We’re playing a dangerous game where the only rule is: don’t fall. But some rules were never meant to be kept…

He was a rugged man she met in a bar - a man Grace couldn't get out of her head.... A week later, she came home to find him sweaty and shirtless with a tape measure in hand, remodeling her loft. As a Parker-King, she's not allowed to want someone like Noah Dalton. She's sick of her life, though. Sick of the rules of being a Parker-King. She wants something more, even if it isn't forever. Finding comfort in the arms of a SEAL is easy, not falling for one...not so much.

Charlotte has spent her 20s adrift, searching for a spark to jump-start her life and give her a sense of purpose. She’s had as many jobs as she’s had bad relationships, and now she’s feeling especially lost in her less-than-glamorous gig at a pie-and-fry joint in Los Angeles, where the uniforms are bad and the tips are even worse. Then she collides - literally - with Adam, an intriguing, handsome, and mysterious painter.

Trip, son of the former president of the Blood Fury MC, is determined to resurrect his dead father's destroyed club. It’ll be a long, difficult road as the new president attempts to rebuild the club from the cold ashes left behind. Bad blood and bitter memories are only some of the obstacles Trip has to overcome. The local police department, Manning Grove PD, is another, since they don’t want to see their small town once again overrun by outlaw bikers.

USA Today best-selling author Elizabeth Hunter weaves an enchanting adventure, full of mythology and romance, in the first installment of a brand new romantic portal fantasy!