Showing results by author "Lani Lynn Vale" in All Categories

I blame getting pregnant on my sister getting mauled by a bear. If she hadn’t been attacked that day, I wouldn’t have come home to check on her. I wouldn’t have run into Boone Windsor at that bar. I wouldn’t have gone home with him, ready to drown my sorrows in a different, more satisfying way. I wouldn’t have given him that second chance. Not after he’d so badly burned the first chance. I would’ve gone back to work half the country away, and I would’ve kept my head in the sand where Boone was involved.

All Birdee Calvert wanted was to be normal. She wanted the parents who didn’t divorce when she was a kid and make her life a living nightmare. She wanted the sisters who actually liked her. She wanted to live in a town where everyone loved her and didn’t have a single bad thing to say about her. That was not the life Birdee was given. She had the exact opposite life. The kind of life where she slunk through the grocery store with a hoodie on so no one would recognize her. The kind of life where men like Creed Daugherty didn’t give her a second look.

For a solid five years, Jasper Madden has done nothing but look the other way when it comes to Calliope Hodges. At first, she was way too young for him, barely eighteen the first time he laid eyes on her. It also didn’t help that he’d witnessed her at the lowest of lows, practically making peace with rock bottom. But as time goes by, he realizes that Calliope is different. She’s a brave, stunning young woman that has slowly captured his heart while he was watching from the shadows.

Edith “Eddy” Wheeler was having a bad day. A no good, very bad day. It’s understandable, really. I mean, there didn’t seem to be anything worse than walking in on your elderly parents doing things no child should ever see. Add into that their proclivities, and Eddy is disgusted and disturbed. So of course, after seeing the atrocious things her parents—the pastor and pastor’s wife that are supposed to be holy and a teacher of faith—are into, she makes it her life goal to expose them to their masses.

There was right, there was wrong, and then there was the in-between. The place where normal people reside, understanding that there are two sides to every coin. People that do bad things for good reasons. People that do bad things for bad reasons. First, I knew that Shasha Semyonov was a bad man. One that did bad things for bad reasons. That didn’t mean that I was rational when it came to him.

Nastya Semyonov first met Haze at a bar, but for Haze Hopkins, duty calls before either can act on their desires. He’s gone without a glance back, leaving her thinking that maybe all the hot looks were only one-sided. Fast forward to the next day, Nastya hitches a ride to her car that she left behind the night before, only to run into the same man from last night. Neither one truly thinks before they act, and they spend a hot fifteen minutes in a fast-food restaurant bathroom before parting ways again.

Finnian “Apollo” Reins met Dru Noel Rossi at his lowest. She was a bright ray of sunshine in his darkest, cloudiest night. He had no clue that he needed her. He was just struggling to keep his head above water, going from day to day, waiting for it to be his time to go. But then she catches his eye in the swankiest restaurant in Washington DC. She’s wearing all black and sticks out like a sore thumb among the elitists’ otherwise dressiest affairs. She may have been severely underdressed, but that didn’t stop Finnian from following her every move and becoming obsessed.

She was enraptured by the man they called Romeo the moment that he turned those butterscotch-colored eyes her way. What wasn’t to love about a big, burly, plaid-wearing lumberjack? He was tall, gorgeous, and knew how to wield a chainsaw better than Leatherface. He could fell a tree in seconds, had thighs that were as thick as said trees, filled out a pair of Wranglers better than any cowboy ever, and didn’t care that she could operate heavy machinery better than him. He was everything a girl like Mable could ask for. The caveat?

After a horrible marriage, Haggard has zero plans of ever finding a woman again. One-night stands not counting, he adores his life as a single man. There are no expectations. No "where are yous" and "are you coming homes". The life he chooses to live is a simple one. Until he makes a huge mistake, and he steps over that line between "daughter’s best friend" and "a woman he desperately wants". Before long, he can’t stop thinking about her. Can’t stop wanting her. Can’t stop feeling things for her that a man 20 years her senior should never feel for a girl he watched grow up.

Flaws? He has them. Laws? He breaks them. Dues? He’s paid them. Scars? He bares them proudly. Lessons? He’s learned them. Problems? He has one. Her name is Iris, and she’s the one thing in his life that he can’t control.

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.

Etienne LaFayette hits the ground running the moment he breathes free air after being paroled from a maximum-security prison in Texas. He claws his life back from his brother-in-law who’d taken over his business during the years he’d spent as an inmate at Huntsville Penitentiary. Though it is hard, he puts his life back together in Accident, Florida.

Piers “Webber” Webb knew two things for certain. One, he needed to stay the hell away from Silver Donahue. Two, he didn’t think there was a chance in hell that he could. He tries, though. For a solid year, he does his best to be dismissive to the point where he appears cold and threatening. But when Silver finds herself in danger, he forgets why he was giving her the cold shoulder to begin with. The thing is, Silver didn’t forget.

The first day that she walked onto the surgical floor that Chevy Clayborne spent most of his time on, he knew that he’d do anything to make her his. For two years, he played the long game. He slowly insinuated himself into her life, and the moment that she needed him, he swooped in like the knight in shining armor that he only pretended to be but most assuredly wasn’t. He’s no real knight. In fact, he’s the villain in everyone’s story but his own.

Six Ines Broussard walks right into the middle of hell. And at the center of it? Lynnwood Thatcher. The mayor. The man that she took one glance at on the night of his inauguration and dismissed as boring. A total stick in the mud. Only, he’s not so boring shirtless, in the middle of nowhere, doing things that are very illegal. At first, she’s appalled. Then her interest gets piqued. Stuck-up suit is hot! And he has tattoos. Then, he goes and kidnaps her...and she soon realizes, nobody is quite as hot as you thought they were when they’re holding you hostage.

When Mr. January himself tells Rowen to do what a gunman says, she’s had enough. Rowen has never really been a girl that does what she’s told. Mr. January won’t have to save her. She can dang well save herself.

Baker Ritter knew how to pick them. She met the man she thought she was going to marry in middle school, gave him some of the best years of her life, for him to leave her pregnant and alone hours before she’s due to have his baby. To make matters worse, he brings his side chick to the birth, and she’s left with a decision—fight for what she wants, or cut her losses. What she should’ve done was cut her losses. What she does instead is take him back and experiences what it’s like to live in hell.

Was it considered stalking if the woman you were stalking liked the idea of being stalked? It started out like any other job. My brother, the head of the Russian Mafia, wanted me to delete an opponent. Like the good brother I was, I decided to give him what he wanted. In doing so, I ended up finding a woman that made my cold, dead heart start to beat again. One day while doing some reconnaissance on my target, I happen to overhear Keely telling her friend one of her darkest fantasies, and I decide that I’d be the one fulfilling that particular craving for her.

From the moment Creole Williams met Audric Ingram, they were inseparable. But not the way one would think. They shared a best friend. What they did not do, however, was like each other. You could say that it was a war to win the best friend title. The only problem was, their best friend would never choose a clear winner. So they spent their teenage years fighting it out. What Audric didn’t know, though, was that Creole was desperately in love with him. The same went for Audric. He wanted Creole more than his next breath. But it was never the right time.

Her: I wanted to have a pity party of one when I went for that beer. I never imagined I would meet a dark and dangerous man. That man took me on the wildest ride of my life. Literally and figuratively. He quickly became my entire world. Him: I didn't know I was looking for her. I saw her warming that bar stool and knew she would be mine. A man like me doesn't deserve the likes of her. But damned if I didn't take it. Her: When we met for the first time we didn't know that we already had a connection.