Showing results by narrator "Ava" in All Categories

Fifteen years ago, I fell for Jack O’Donnell. I was just a girl, but I knew my brother’s best friend was the only man I’d ever love. On my 18th birthday, when I asked him to kiss me, I never imagined it would change my life so completely. I gave Jack everything that night. In order to move on, we had to go our separate ways and pretend like nothing happened...as though it wasn’t the greatest moment of my life. But even that wasn’t as heartbreaking as the secret we were forced to keep.

Photographer Amber Malone sucks at love. She’s been dumped and duped and dated more a-holes than any girl should ever have to. Then she meets rock star Dylan Cope, drummer for the mega-successful rock band Dirty: gorgeous, charming, and all-around nice guy. For once, the stars seem to be aligning in Amber’s favor. There’s only one problem. Dylan’s rock star best friend, Ashley Player, is not a nice guy. He’s broken, bitter, and protective of Dylan - and wants Amber gone.

Valley U was supposed to be my fresh start after I escaped the glitz and glam of Hollywood. I didn’t want to be the former child star who graced TV screens across the world. I wanted to feel normal. When the same hot guy runs past my off-campus house every day, I assume he’s another college student. When he protects me from boys who still think of me as the character from their teenage dreams, I think he is being kind. When my past comes back to haunt me, he makes me feel safe. I’m falling hard and fast for a guy I barely know. Until I realize my mysterious new crush has a secret.

As longtime manager of Dirty, the hottest rock band on the planet, gorgeous and brooding Brody Mason has had his share of beautiful women. Yet, the only one he’s ever wanted is the one he never had - the one who tore his heart out. Beautiful and elusive Jessa Mayes appears to have it all. Talent, money, and a glamorous life. But she also has a secret. Six years ago, she ran away from her dream career as a songwriter with Dirty, and the only man she’s ever loved, without telling anyone why.

I’ve been alone long enough. As a chart-topping country singer, I’m living the dream. While my family is all back in Austin, embracing their happily-ever-afters, I’m on the road on a sold-out tour. I should feel ecstatic, yet all I am is lonely. Maybe that’s why I find myself drawn to a fan who pops up at one of my shows. Something about the way he watches me on stage has me thinking… he knows my secret. And after the first kiss, I can’t seem to let him go. But Jensen Miles has some secrets of his own: He isn’t just a regular fan. He’s a preacher.

After the death of her parents on the day of her college graduation, Delilah Armstrong thought she could finally follow her heart and come out to her closest friends, but the guilt of going against her parents' beliefs haunts her. The feelings she has for her best friend, Ashley, are stronger than anything she's felt before, but Delilah has never even kissed a girl, and fear stops her at every turn. Ashley Carver promised herself that she would never again date another girl who wasn't out, but that was before she met intoxicatingly sweet and sexy Delilah.

Maisy is happily content with the life she’s built for herself and her young son in small-town Prescott, Montana. Her child is thriving, her business is growing, and her family is as close as they’ve ever been. But when a handsome stranger walks into the lobby of her motel, her simple life is swept up in a wave of affection for his gentle heart. None of those feelings can be trusted, though. She made that mistake before with another man. The man she murdered.

Addie has dreamt of freedom for as long as she can remember - peace away from the torment of her old life. But now that it’s finally within her grasp, she’s struggling to take those first steps into her new reality. The last thing she wants is a new roommate to see the scars she’s desperate to keep hidden, especially not the ruggedly handsome man who steals her breath and sends her heart into overdrive.

Loner Boone Hendrix left the military with ghosts that haunt him. He lives with his dog Atlas on a farm in Vermont. Alone. Just the way he likes it. Until he rescues a half-drowned, beautiful brunette from his river. Gemma Newhouse is the daughter of the richest man in America, and from the abrasions on her wrists and her drugged state, she’s on the run from someone dangerous. She’s nothing like Boone expected—sweet, smart, and likes baking—and she ignites a fierce need inside him.

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. 

The bet was simple. You draw a name from the hat. That's the girl you have to seduce. The girl you have to make fall head over heels in love with you. It wasn't hard for him to do, in fact, it was something he did all the time. He was known for breaking hearts. Sex was just that, sex. And it didn't take him very long to get a woman on her back. And then he drew her name: Jules Peterson. His former best friend, first kiss, and first love. She shattered his heart into a million pieces three years ago. She left him right when he needed her most.

The former Clifton Forge, Montana motorcycle club has everyone in town convinced they’ve locked their clubhouse doors and ripped off their patches. Everyone but Bryce Ryan. There’s more happening at the club’s garage than muscle car restorations and Harley rebuilds. Her instincts are screaming there’s a story—one she’s going to tell. As the new owner of the small town’s newspaper, Bryce is hungry for more than birth announcements and obituaries.

Life for Emma isn’t good. The world knows her as Princess Anya on Dark Castle, but then her character gets the axe - literally. The cherry on top is finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman. She needs a break, and sanctuary comes in the form of Rosemont, a gorgeous estate in California promising rest and relaxation. Then she meets the owner’s equally gorgeous grandson, ex-hockey player and current recluse Lucian Osmond, and she sees her own pain and yearning reflected in his eyes.

Duke Evans didn’t expect to find a beautiful woman in a staring contest with a bison on his favorite hiking trail. He also didn’t expect to see her again after rescuing her from the surly beast. As the sheriff in Calamity, Montana, he’s had his fair share of surprises but none as pleasant as pulling over a shiny black car and finding his mysterious hiking companion behind the wheel.

The last person on earth I want to be stranded with is Gianni Lupo. But, thanks to the blizzard of the century, I’m trapped in a roadside motel room with that cocky bastard for two straight days, and with one small bed. Some women might thank Mother Nature for delivering a polar vortex that maroons them with six feet of solid muscle, those deep blue eyes, that sexy grin - but not me. I’ve known Gianni Lupo all my life, and he’s never brought me anything but bad luck, and trouble. I should have known what the disastrous end result would be.

Mark never cheated—honestly. But Susie never believed him. Her constant accusations finally push him to end things for good. Over coffee, he makes it official: the relationship is over. He doesn’t expect to fall into something new so soon... but a few days later he’s unexpectedly drawn into a budding romance. It feels right—natural—even if he knows he has to keep it quiet for Susie’s sake. But secrets never stay buried. When Susie finds out, she’s furious. Not as furious as her mother, Elaine, though. Mark once promised Elaine that if he ever hurt her daughter, he’d pay the price.

Dean Evans is the worst. Not only does the devil in disguise steal my pie on a regular basis, he also lives in the apartment right. Next. Door. I see him all the time. At the mailboxes. In the elevator. Every single morning. It's exhausting because he's exhausting. Now, after setting his apartment on fire, he's my roommate, and he's the worst at that, too. I don't know what possessed me to let him stay with me. Pity, perhaps? I do know that I won't be falling for his charm.

I've never been afraid of the dark...but that doesn't mean I wanted to live in it. Maybe everyone wants what they can't have, but I should've thought it over before I unlocked the door to their forbidden world. Number One is mostly silent. He watches me very carefully. Number Two is mostly gentle. But it's the other side of him I like best. Number Three is mostly reserved. It was carnal, it was sensual, and it was erotic. That's it. That's all it was supposed to be. A trip into the dark. A peek into the forbidden. I just didn't expect to like them.

I had an excuse two years ago when I met the sexy but innocent reporter on campus. She interviewed me for a story on major league baseball's rising stars, and we shared a hot, passionate night that ended far too soon. Now I know the woman I can't stop thinking about is the coach's daughter....

Mackenzie 'Mac' Cabot is a people pleaser. It's exhausting, really, always following the rules. Mac has dreams of her own but to please her parents she moves to the beachside town of Avalon Bay to get her college degree. Twenty-year-old Mac has had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.