Showing results for "Joe Arden" in Romance

Protecting him is my duty, but falling for him could be my undoing. I’ve spent five years burying my past, leaving behind the violence and bloodshed of my former life as a Bratva enforcer. Now, I’m just Luca—the quiet guy who keeps his head down, working security for a professional hockey team. I don’t get close to anyone, and I definitely don’t let anyone get close to me. But then I’m assigned to protect Max Ryan, the team’s star defenseman, and everything changes. He's my obsession. My crush.

I had my person I was supposed to grow old with, but he double broke my heart when he forced me to choose between marrying him or hockey. I chose hockey and if I’m choosing hockey, I’m doing it all the way and leaving love out of the equation. Sounds like a great plan until I show up to hockey practice and realize the guy I fell into bed with is actually my new coach.

Some men are just off-limits. Like, say, all the other football players in the league…. I have to stop replaying the one night I spent with my rival. Trouble is, that white-hot encounter with the other quarterback answered a lot of questions I’ve had about myself, but it also led me into this mess where he hates me…

Every bartender should follow one simple rule—don't go home with the customers. That’s been easy for me to stick to, until the night a cocky, confident, and sinfully charming hockey star walks into my bar. This sexy athlete is too hard to resist, especially when he makes it clear how much he wants the “sarcastic, witty, hot AF” guy behind the bar—also known as me.

Sex comes with a price tag. One I’m quite willing to pay. In fact, I prefer it. It’s easier that way, and in my life, I prefer ease. Prefer for most things to be transactional.

My moral compass is broken. That’s why I need rules. They keep me from killing people I shouldn’t. They keep me from crossing certain lines. I’m possessive. Obsessive. Deviant. And I like to fight. That’s what I see in Tristan when I spot him working in the swanky nightclub. His cool detachment is a mask. He’s angry, he’s lost, and he’s totally new to what he’s feeling. I want to feel that anger.

I never imagined the ruthless Titan would choose me as his rebellion, or that I’d become his shield. Hockey was supposed to be my ticket to stability, earning me a scholarship for an education I could never have afforded on my own. Until Connor Walsh, the ruthless star of the Crestwood hockey team and my captain, corners me with an ultimatum that changes everything. Marry him, or watch my scholarship—and my entire future—disappear. It's blackmail, pure and simple. A calculated move in whatever twisted game he's playing with his equally ruthless father.

Sometimes the universe gives you exactly what you ask for. Even when you’re too scared to say it out loud. I came to Copper Creek to start over. What I didn’t expect was three masked cowboys to show up on horseback, turning my darkest fantasies into reality. They chased me like I’d asked them to and left me wanting more. I didn’t know who they were, only that they saw the real me. They gave me what no one else could.

Lately, I’ve been full of questions. One hot summer night, I find all the answers when I kiss another guy for the first time. But he disappears, leaving me wondering who my mystery man was. I can’t stop thinking about him. Even on the ball field, I’m daydreaming about his hungry hands, and the filthy things he whispered in his posh British accent. Somehow, I still win one of the biggest games of my career, and afterward, the man surprises me with an invitation: “Meet me in a private suite.”

When I met Leonardo Ricci, he was determined I would only be a fling, while I was certain he was my forever. Seven years later, we’re the perfect couple. Happy, married, and in love–in sickness and health, till death do us part.

I caught the attention of a savage beast. My fault–ish after I crashed into Crestwood hockey team's star defenseman on my way to class. In typical Eli Holmes fashion, instead of walking away after he threw my books across the hall, I stood up to Alexei Petrov. Even sat right next to him in class, letting him know exactly what I thought of his brutish behavior. Someone should’ve reminded me not to go around poking monsters. But I’m not one to cower. Until a heated encounter leads to a steamy kiss.

Trevor Dixon has made too many mistakes to count. Sober for 13 months, he's determined to do the right thing: rebuild his relationship with his family and help his brother get Rock Solid Construction off the ground. Failing them again isn't an option. Too bad the first estimate Trevor goes on alone is for an uptight doctor with a superiority complex. A hand injury took away the only important thing in Dr. Simon Malone's life - performing heart surgery. He doesn't do well with people and has no family, but being a damn good surgeon? He always had that.

Six years before my phone rang and changed my life forever, I made a mistake. I met a girl, we had some fun, and then we had a baby. And I fell pretty damn hard for my daughter. I was going to be there. I was going to give her everything I never had. I was going to have a family. And then her mother disappeared and took my baby with her. And now she’s done it again. Because that call that changed my life was from my five-year-old daughter asking me if I knew where her Mommy was.

Eddie and Andrew have dynamite chemistry. But Eddie is profoundly dyslexic, and Andrew lives to read. Andrew is pathologically disorganized, and Eddie likes things neat and clutter-free. Andrew is desperately ashamed of his hoarder father, and Eddie is embarrassed by his lack of education - secrets that could pull them apart even as a friend's tragedy brings them together.

The Brothers Grime is Jack Masterson's way of helping people in crisis after disability ends his career as a firefighter. Jack's people get to a scene long after the physical trauma ends. They don't solve crime or rescue the victims. They help people move on. The new job is all Jack wants or needs, until he gets the call about old flame Nick Foasberg's suicide. Ryan Halloran's cousin Nick has been on a downhill slide for a long time. Despite that, Ryan does everything he knows to help.

Everyone knows that Tony Landon's dated dozens of different men and women since he joined the athletics department at the Falconer Institute of Training. Everyone who's ever gossiped with one of his exes knows that he's kinky, too. Donovan's reputation at the institute is different. The only reason people are pretty sure he's gay is because he drinks at the same pub as most of the gay and bi Falconer guys, and he's never actually said he's straight when he's brushed them all off.

When Colby earned a swimming scholarship to the Falconer Institute of Training, he expected to spend all his time either training or studying, but that was before he looked out of his living room window and straight into the dance studio opposite. It's taken Noah years, but he's finally got his life in order. He teaches dance classes all day, hits the clubs every night, and he's not looking for complications - especially not in the form of overly-innocent swimmers who like to spy on him from across the street.