Showing results by narrator "Desiree Ketchum" in All Categories

Once, I had everything. Drummer for the biggest band in the world. Fame. Money. Happiness. All at my fingertips. Then, six years ago, my world stopped turning. My best friend. My best girl. A burning field in the pouring rain. I survived, but I left the biggest part of me with them. And now I sift through the rubble of my broken life. I didn't want a second chance. Redemption. Closure. Not for me.

Mac has one more year of baseball eligibility left. One more year to show the major league scouts that he’s worth it. That he’s good enough to play professional baseball for them. He’s not sure that he is. So far, not a single scout has approached him. There are no agents banging down his door, hoping to represent him; no emails, no phone calls, no messages through Coach Jackson. No, nothing.

He enters the car accompanied by a chill from the evening wind and the car rocks gently, until he’s seated behind me and the door is shut. His scent fills my lungs first and as it does, I remember that I’ve been told that smell is the sense that holds the most memory. Maybe I read it somewhere, but I’ve never known something to be truer than that fact is now.

I was the only daughter of the Italian American mafia boss on the East Coast. After my mother was murdered, he made sure the world forgot he had a daughter. I had to pretend to be the girl I’ve never been: meek. There is not one submissive bone in my body, but I had to look and act the part. Matteo De Salvo is the only person that has ever made me nervous. My skin itched around him and my throat closed up. I watched him from a distance, the defiant part of me hoping he’d catch me. He did.

Ten years ago, I crushed Damiano De Luca’s heart, vowing false promises I never delivered. The revenge? Didn’t happen. The destruction? As if I could. Betrayal? Not. A. Chance. We were 18 when I left, taking my secrets with me. Now at 28, there’s no trace of the jaded mafia prince with the protective streak. He’s crueler. Colder. More calculated than ever. And he’s glaring at me from a funeral pew, looking at me and my wedding ring like we should be the ones buried six feet under. The war is back on, but I’m not that teenage girl anymore. This time, there will be blood.

I thought the most annoying thing about being a single dad was that my friends were always trying to find me a date. Until a sassy British ray of sunshine bumps into me at a bookstore. One accidental butt grab, a viral photo, and a lot of misunderstandings later, I find myself in a fake relationship with a movie star.

He arrives all dressed in black. Diamond cufflinks. A watch on his tanned wrist that cost more than we would ever see in a lifetime of work. He carries a single red rose. It turns out he is my new guardian. I should have known from the very start that he had more in common with the thorns than the rose. Now I know the truth: I’m a pawn in his dangerous game of revenge. I was too young and naïve. Now it's too late to save myself from his clutches.

Damiano De Luca: a curse with no cure. Before he ruled the De Luca family, before he became the man everyone feared, before he scoured an empire in search of me, he chose me to ruin. I was innocent. An untainted princess. The heiress to the Vitali mafia throne. And I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when I met the wrong boy. My name is Renata Vitali...and this is not a love story.

Trina Rockwell here. You know, your favorite TV host from Midwestern Matchmaker? While I've been setting up Midwestern singles for seven years, I've not had any luck finding myself a guy. My last great encounter was a year ago when I bid on a date with billionaire Heath Fox at a charity auction. But then, after a great date and an even better good night kiss, Heath told me he wasn't looking for a relationship. Super. Now that Midwestern Matchmaker has been cancelled, my producer has got it into his head to do a new show where I'm the one who finds love.

Ben Castillo. NBA champion. Olympic gold medalist. Widely hailed "King of the Court." The morning he walks into my dingy diner, I have enough sense to keep my head down and go right on wiping tables, pouring coffee, and serving up short stacks. A man who looks like that—superstar or not—has only ever meant trouble, and more trouble is the last thing I need. If anything, he seems drawn to my indifference. 

She was hell-bent on making her father disown her. Her rebellious attitude and the color that marred her snowflake skin was proof of that, so I used that knowledge to my benefit. I promised her hate and blood. Instead, she got my heart and a weak man on his knees in front of her. She was never supposed to be my bride. She was the daughter of a rival family, not even of Italian descent. She was from a different culture. Sasha Nikolayev was my vice. I was an addict for her. I would have said and done anything to chain her to me—so that’s what I did.

Raised in a cult where opinions and freedom in women were not tolerated, Mara Greene narrowly escaped a life as a child bride—one where she would’ve been shared and owned by all the men in the compound. Her testimony helped put the cult leader in prison, but she’s never truly gotten past the horrors inflicted on her. Her conditioning to keep silent persists even now—despite having found a safe haven at the Resting Warrior Ranch.

After the devastation on Daminius, Ophelia threw herself into restoration to cope with her losses. Two months later, answers to an ancient curse still evade her, a queen threatens her life, and war rages in the southern mountains. Despite her scars and the loved ones lost, Ophelia knows she must move forward for her people.

High school graduation is supposed to be the ending of one chapter and the beginning of another. The excitement of college comes, and the mystery to what the future holds. Mine ended in tragedy, and although my life didn’t end, and the world didn’t stop turning around me, my heart still broke. They told me she was dead. But that was a lie.

During her journey to the Mystique Mountains, Ophelia uncovered twisted secrets of love and war. Now, she's left to pick up the pieces while stepping into her new role. But when a chancellor of a minor clan delivers a destructive premonition, Ophelia's appointment is challenged, forcing her into a trial period—one that heightens the tensions already brewing in her relationships.

A different side to the story: Jake's side. "We're getting a new roommate," they said. I thought nothing of it...until she walked in the door. Her hand trembled in mine as she looked at me with fearful eyes. My entire world spun on its axis.

Faith Benson isn’t your emergency contact, she’s the party-girl friend you call for a good time. She's the gal-pal who loves mimosas at brunch and martinis at Happy Hour. But her carefree lifestyle threatens her job at a top Seattle ad agency; there’s no one better at landing big accounts (when she shows up). But now her boss demands she take a leave of absence to get her head on straight.

My goddess is reborn. The mouthy peacock shifter I find is not the woman I knew. She's somehow more. More human. More lovely. More sinful. And I want her more than I ever have before.

When Knox gets trashed in the tabloids, his publicist pitches the idea of an image-saving marriage to Irina. Irina figures the publicity can't hurt and accepts—until the offers for major roles start pouring in, and she doesn’t need the arrangement. Unfortunately, Knox has broken the first rule of marrying an actress for publicity: Don’t fall in love. But can he handle a real relationship? And is she ready to stop pretending?

As Sloane Chambers stood at her window and creeped on the new guy moving in next door, she was immediately drawn to the tattoos, muscles, and the way his jeans hugged his perfect frame. But when she caught him hacking up her rose bushes with a chain saw, the battle was on.