The first time Avery Flynn saw Derek Roberts, she was photographing him for the first annual Kilgore Police Department SWAT calendar. He was leaned back in his squad car, shirtless, and giving her a smile that was completely between them. A smile that hinted at what he wanted to do to her later. When she scrounges up the courage to ask him out after the photoshoot, he laughs in her face. Well, screw you, too, Mr. February.

Ares saw him for the first time at a Kilgore Police Department benefit dinner. She’d gone with her dad as his plus one. Hayes Greer had gone by himself and brooded silently across the same table as her, drinking whiskey and not saying a word. It only took that one time for her to become interested. The next time she saw him, he was doing another benefit - but this one requiring a whole lot fewer clothes. And that was when she knew. She wanted him. Badly. But the morose Hayes was too busy thinking about his sins to see what was right in front of his face - Ares.

Ford Spurlock has known Ashe Trammel since they were babies. He’s also done his level best to stay away from her because every time he gets to within five feet of her, they’re fighting like cats and dogs. Ashe is the apple of her father’s eye. The motorcycle club princess that was never to be harmed in any way - or touched for that matter. Fast forward to adulthood, and Ashe is still off limits. Still driving him insane. Still...beautiful. She never misses an opportunity to give him hell, either.

This is for charity. This is for fun. You are a professional. You can do it. Those are the words that Calloway Alvarez chants to herself as she watches all the large men gather into the small room where she’ll be doing the interviews for her employer - Hero Magazine. Honestly, she’s convinced herself that she can’t accomplish the task at hand. That is until she hears his voice, and her head turns to see him standing there. Louis Spurlock. Greek god. SWAT officer. Keeper of her secrets. Ultimate fantasy. Man who will break her heart.

Piper Mackenzie first sees him shirtless, standing in front of the military plane she was about to board, with one rather large wrench in his hand. The fact that he has the plane - the one that she’s about to be flying on for hours - in pieces only minutes before she’s set to take off on it doesn’t faze her. At least, not until a flippant joke about dying in midair leaves his lips.

His Wranglers fit him like a glove. A really tight, leaving nothing to the imagination, glove. Codie wants nothing more than to shove that Wrangler-covered butt straight into the mud. Ace Valentine has a smart mouth, a devil-may-care attitude, and those wicked eyes aimed directly at her. She doesn't know what to do with that kind of attention. Especially not from the sweet-talking man that has no problem charming every woman that enters his orbit - everyone but her, at least.

"I’m kind of a lady, but definitely more of a weirdo." Hearing the woman at the table behind him say that to her friend should’ve turned Logan Gibbs off. It doesn’t. In all honesty, it only makes him listen harder. He’s had enough weird in his life to last a lifetime. The last thing his complicated life needs is a woman in it who has no clue what color you get when you mix yellow and blue together. Yet, her obvious blonde moments aren’t enough to deter him. Nor is her lack of finger-painting skills.

He saw her from across a crowded ballpark and knew she was about to change his life. Yes, he realizes just how cliché that really is, but the moment his eyes locked on her, he knew that she was the one. At least, the one that royally screwed him over. The one responsible for his demotion and the subsequent disciplinary action taken against him before he’d even gotten out of the probationary period with Kilgore Police Department. It all started with a kiss.

Booth Pena definitely didn’t make the smartest of decisions when he was a teenager. At eighteen, he knocked a girl up and signed up for the military all in the same day. There weren’t a lot of things that the baby’s mother and he saw eye to eye on after that. He honestly wasn’t sure why he even slept with her in the first place. Okay, that last part is a lie. He knows exactly why he slept with her. Because the real woman he’s in love with, her twin sister, Dillan, won’t give him the time of day. Five years later, and he still wants her.

Gabriel Luca Maldonado, III and Francesca Leandra Solomon were meant to be. They were so in love that everybody prayed for what they had. Everything was glorious. They would get married, have children and live a perfect life. She would be a doctor in the emergency room once she finished her doctorate, and he would be a badass Navy SEAL and save people for a living. But then Luca is deployed across the world, and per military regulations, Frankie isn’t allowed to follow.

Callum Valentine didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Then, again? When a man is calling a woman fat right in front of your table, it’s kind of hard not to intervene. Especially when the town’s most beautiful creature ever is the one being called fat. Desi just wants to be left alone. After an ugly divorce, she thinks she’s in the clear. Then, her ex takes it upon himself to continue to make her life miserable, giving Desi no choice but to take it or leave.

He should’ve never left his house. He should’ve stayed at home. He has a legitimate excuse - he’s running a fever and he’s fairly sure he’s developing pneumonia. He should have called in sick...but he doesn’t. He goes to work, because his team is relying on him. Needless to say, when Samuel Adams walks into the pharmacy hours later, he only has one thing on his mind. Ibuprofen. Sadly, he never gets to the Ibuprofen. Mostly because before he gets there, he finds a junkie waving a gun around threatening to kill anybody that moves.

Amelia loves her good friend, Avery. So much so that she agrees to do the stupidest thing ever. A stranger photo shoot. You know the type. The photographer takes photos of two individuals. Two individuals that, until that day, have never met in their life. The moment she shows up at the photo shoot, she knows that she made a terrible decision. Why? Because the total stranger about to be in an intimate photo shoot with her is the hottest thing that’s ever walked the streets of Kilgore, Texas. If not the entire US of A.

She’s in a white dress that dances around her ankles, and her hair tumbles in a long sheet of curls down her back. A veil covers her beautiful eyes, and she smiles directly at him. Janie is everything Rafe’s ever imagined she would be on her wedding day. Breathtaking. Gorgeous. Perfect. The moment he sees her walking down the aisle toward him, he knows that she’s the one. Then, she passes him, making her way to the man she’s to marry.

There are a few lessons one has to learn for themselves. Then there are the lessons that most people don’t have to learn because it’s just not done. For instance, most people know instinctively that they shouldn’t crave the mother of their brother’s child. Bourne Pena isn’t most men. Bourne does everything he can to fight the attraction he feels for Delanie, but in the end, his refusal to go there almost ends up costing him his life.