Showing results by narrator "Emma Wilder" in All Categories

Protector-for-hire Sasha Budanov is accustomed to life as a loner. Always on the move, she’s now reached a crossroads. Looking for answers about her shadowy youth, she’s returned to the strict boarding school in Germany where she was raised. It’s also where she was trained in the stealthy, militarized art of survival. But behind its gleaming gates, Richter is a fortress of secrets, including those buried in Sasha’s mysterious past. To uncover them, she’s clinging to her first rule of defense: stay guarded.

Pepper Blue wants a baby. Forget the husband. She’s better at training men to be good husbands for other women than she is at getting one herself, so she’s doing this on her own. But she hasn’t exactly shared the news with her family, and they’re determined to find her a date to the next family wedding. A date that won’t ditch her for one of her sisters or cousins. This time. Which means Pepper Blue needs a fake boyfriend. A fake boyfriend that she has no chance of actually falling in love with. A fake boyfriend like her obnoxious neighbor.

From the outside looking in? I’ve got it all. Prestigious job. Pretty house. And a perfect boyfriend who just proposed with the perfect ring. I should feel ecstatic—but instead, I feel suffocated. So I break up with my boyfriend, hop in my car, and head south. Charleston, South Carolina: home to stunning architecture, sultry accents, and—oh yeah—my perpetually shirtless neighbor, Elijah Jackson. As if his abs for days and inked up deliciousness aren’t enticing enough, he also encourages me to chase down my dreams. And the chemistry between us? Hotter than the kitchen at Eli’s restaurant.

I’ve spent my life building a vast empire, my hands coated with blood and sweat. And I’ll do anything to keep my family safe. Including abducting a young woman and forcing her back to Italy, a debt repaid. But the closer I get to Valentina, the more I lose control. She’s strong and independent, yet innocent in ways that set my blood on fire. She doesn’t know my story, and I’m not sure I can keep it that way for much longer...or if I even want to.

Deacon Slater was my high school crush—the bad boy with haunted eyes that made my heart skip a beat. But in our small town, the Slater name is synonymous with trouble, and Deke lived up to it when he landed in prison a few years after graduation.

Belinda Baker and I were not made for each other. We are not soul mates, or lovers, or even frenemies. She is the one who needed to get away. What we had together wasn’t blind love, it was sick rage. We were a match made in hell, it was hate at first sight, and when she walked away from me and never looked back - it was a relief. It was bliss. So why did I travel 2,000 miles so I could be near her? Why can’t I stop thinking about this girl I never want to see again?

Jason is a cynical rich playboy. He doesn’t take life seriously. He doesn’t believe in settling down. Eileen’s 27th birthday is almost here. But as always, she’s an afterthought in her parents' minds. Her family is too busy planning a shotgun wedding for her older sister to pay attention to her. And now, she has to help. It’s just another year where she’s overlooked. But the best man is smoking hot. He actually notices her and makes her feel special.

He’s the grumpy captain with everything to lose. She’s the PR problem he didn’t ask for. Hockey is my life. Always has been. As captain of the team, I’ve built my career on discipline, loyalty, and laser focus. But after a scandal tanks the franchise’s image, the owner relocates us to Driftwood Cove, a small sleepy Florida beach town. New name, new strategy. And a bubbly PR consultant hired to clean up the mess. Harbor Hayes.

I shouldn’t want my bodyguard the way I do. His job is to protect me. It’s not to fulfill all my nighttime wishes. And so, I resist him, working hard on the hotel reopening, all while fighting the enticing pull of the powerful man who watches over me. Until the night we combust in my penthouse suite. It won’t happen again, we say the next day.

Secrets—you know my family is founded on them. Lies—my marriage hinges on one. I kept the past buried like a coward. Now, I feel the constraints of my choices like they’re a chokehold. I know that it’s time to tell my wife the truth. It’s time to deal with the consequences of my actions. Aoife deserves to be my judge, jury, and executioner. If she burns down the house with me in it, well, that’s on me and my filthy secrets….

I hope this email finds you well. Your well-being and personal growth are of the utmost importance to me, as a therapist. As such, I have decided it is in your best interest to continue individual therapy with another practitioner. This is due to the potential for boundaries being crossed between us. Attached is a list of colleagues I would recommend for you.

I live my life by a few simple rules - let no one in, trust only my family, and don’t ever spend more than three nights with a woman. Those are easy enough to abide by when I meet gorgeous, captivating and absolutely brilliant Sophie Winston, who wants nothing more than to explore all her sinful desires with me after dark. Desires that put me firmly in control in the bedroom. That works for me - as long as I can keep the secrets I need to protect. Not only the ones about my family, but the ones about how she’s interwoven into my dangerous past.

He has it together. I’m falling apart. Two broken souls, one emotional book.

I’ve been friends with Cooper Rice from the moment we met. He was just as famous a decade ago on our college campus as he is now being the star quarterback for the Chicago Grizzlies. But he’s not only talented on the field, he’s also the gorgeous football star women fawn over, posing in underwear and razor ads. Here’s a secret those women don’t know—Cooper Rice isn’t a playboy. He’s the kind of man who wants to settle down with a family. He’s content ordering pizza and massaging my feet after my long shift as an emergency room doctor. He listens to me.

They say never mix business with pleasure. As a single father, and the captain of the Seattle Sasquatches, I’m adamant to keep every corner of my life separate and running perfectly. That is, until Indie Decker walked into my life. She’s the team owner's little sister, my new nanny, and so completely out of my league. Our first encounter? Pure fire, clashing wills with a passion that ensnared us both. Our second? A tentative truce, maybe even a budding friendship. But at some point, we slid recklessly into a 'friends with benefits' arrangement, thinking we could stay casual.

One night only - that was the deal we made. But one fantastic night had us both changing our minds in the morning. And making plans for another. Until I walked into the office to learn he just bought my company.

Fancy boats. Lakeside mansions. Luxe watches and bespoke suits. The Kings of High Court College act like Gods. And Cooper Valcourt is the worst of them. He is the bully king. His family owns everything. And his mission is to put me in my place and send me packing. But Cooper and I have a history filled with secrets. And everyone knows that power doesn’t come from having money. It comes from holding secrets. And I’m holding one of his.

Top three reasons why sleeping with the enemy is a bad idea.... She's my fiercest rival. She's also my fiery ex. We're going up against each other in a stiff competition to win the hottest new client on the market. And yet, I'd like to be up against the wall in a stiff competition to get her to call out my name. Time to double down on my resistance to her tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners, sexy-as-sin attitude. The same attitude I find irresistible.

No take-backs. That was the motto that Drew lived by in all things, including his love life. He’s a player, pure and simple. He’s learned the hard way that women aren’t all hearts and flowers. Sometimes their sexy bodies and beautiful faces are just a pretty shield to hide the crazy, and he’s so freakin’ over crazy. For the first time in a year, he’s thinking about his life, and how it would be a lot more enjoyable with a woman like Aspen at his side. Maybe crazy isn’t so bad after all.

You know those stories where an adorably misunderstood, clumsy girl needs a fake date to a wedding so she asks her brother’s best friend and they accidentally fall in love? I wish that was the kind of life I lead, but it’s not. I don’t need a date to a wedding. I need a date to a funeral. And I don’t have a brother, or a best friend with a brother available, which means I’m stuck with Tyler Jaeger. Sure, he’s a professional hockey player who also knows advanced calculus, but let’s say we’re not compatible and leave it at that. I should know. I am a matchmaker.