Showing results by narrator "Shirl Rae" in All Categories

I have three cardinal rules: Never mix business with pleasure. Never let a woman spend the night. Never date a woman with kids. Kids freak me out. God only knows how many this baby daddy has. Man, what was I thinking when I was in college? Me, Drake Hanson. Aka Donor 5262. It was a piece of cake and $1,500 a month for my deposits (in sperm bank speak) came in handy. I just didn't think about the consequences. One day, some kid is going to call me Daddy, and I'm going to get hit up for child support.

One drunken night turned a joke into a life-changing moment. He warned me not to fall for him, and I should've listened. He intoxicated me. He made me crave him. He ruined me. In the end, I'll never be the same.

Fifteen years ago, Celeste was eighteen, in love, and on the honor roll. Then she got pregnant. Now, a widow and a single mom, she does her best to give her daughter, Sabrina, a good life. But something is missing in her world. Or someone. Back when he taught her math, Celeste didn't have a crush on Mr. Travis, but that doesn't mean she's not hot for teacher now or able to ignore her rampant fantasies.

It should have been simple. Easy come, easy go, and in between, atonement. She was not who I would have chosen. Gwen was delicate and lovely: a former model with a ruined life, living loudly in the quiet of the Smoky Mountains, healing injured bears. When she laid her hands on me, she healed me too. That's how it began. That's where it went wrong. I knew she could never be mine. But I sinned. I sinned.

If you're lucky, you'll fall in love-truly, madly, and deeply in love. Maddy and Reid had that kind of love-the all-encompassing, Earth-shattering, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. Then life happened. Old wounds that were thought to be long healed and scabbed over are ripped opened, and they are forced to face the possibility that maybe they are not strong enough to fight their demons and embrace the light.

It's her best friend's wedding, and Autumn Lane is trussed up in a pink bridesmaid dress with a big "everything is great" smile plastered across her face. She's not going think about her life imploding, or spending the next two weeks housesitting in the ridiculously small town of Diamond. No, she'd rather think about the tattooed hottie in the wedding party...and how to turn the wicked way he's looking at her into a night of intense pleasure.

Everyone thought I was married to the perfect man. But if Conall Walsh were perfect, I wouldn't have killed him. I thought I got away with it until I received an anonymous note at the ballet company I dance for: You were a very bad girl. If you don't want me to report what I know about last night, meet me at the old opera house after rehearsal. I will tell you the price of my silence when you arrive. If you speak of this or bring anyone with you... no deal. But his price isn't money. It's me.

Ryder Diamond - the town's golden boy - doesn't have time for taking chances, let alone love. Against his better judgment, he lets his buddies set him up on a blind date with a girl who's only passing through town. But temporary or not, Whitney James sets fire to desires he can't control.

After catching her fiance cheating on their wedding day, interior designer Kylie Edwards swore off high-powered men. But before she can drown herself in wedding cake, she's dragged to a Vegas romance conference by her friends. At least she'll be able to meet the hotel's owner and pitch her new design idea. And maybe attend the elaborate masquerade ball, where business unexpectedly becomes pleasure with the hotel's oh-so-hot head of security.

Army combat veteran and registered nurse Erin Olszewski's most deeply held values were put to the test when she arrived as a travel nurse at Elmhurst Hospital in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. After serving in Iraq, she was back on the front lines - and this time, she found, the situation was even worse. Rooms were filthy, nurses were lax with sanitation measures, and hospital-acquired cases of COVID-19 were spreading like wildfire.

Caitlin Dufresne has never loved anyone as much as she loves winning. A ruthless fifth-year associate at an elite Chicago law firm, she's on the fast track to partner - until a stupid, serious error enrages her bosses. Caitlin's continued refusal to share work - or credit - lands her a forced two-week vacation. She needs to regroup and learn to be part of a team, not just the star. When she meets Eli Grant, head of the firm's IT department, Caitlin knows the overgrown frat boy isn't her type.

Jessica Channing's big-city life should be more exciting than 60-hour work weeks and popcorn nights with her girlfriends. She has worked hard fulfilling her role as a child prodigy and graduating college years before her peers. She's the good girl, the brilliant girl. She is also dateless. Jess's rigid, predictable life upends when she visits a small town to deal with a relative's death. Long-lost memories come crashing down on Jess's world when two men, the Blackard brothers, seem to lure her in.

After losing a bet, successful publisher Michael Chang is "pretending" to play the piano in a Vegas lounge in order to spy on his less-than-trustworthy employee. His espionage is quickly derailed after meeting Thea Danelle, an editor who's been wronged by Michael's company. She's smart and unpredictable...and clearly hiding a naughty side that tempts Michael to distraction.

Marshall Dyson wants one thing and one thing only: to raze his grandfather’s island to the ground. Everything is ready to go - except for the freakin’ bunnies! Hundreds of the furry critters hopping about and multiplying before his eyes. And then there’s the American Bunny League, along with one distractingly beautiful veterinarian, taking him to court to save them. Dr. Augusta “Gus” North can’t believe the grumpy - and annoyingly hot - builder she’s facing in court cares more about demo-ing some cabin than the lives of 200 bunnies.

Twist your bed sheets and dampen your palms. Under the stylish editorship of sex guru Violet Blue, Best Women's Erotica 2006 delivers risky, romantic thrills. These joyful, daring, authentic stories revel in erotic adventure, from the sparks between strangers to the knowing caresses of longtime lovers.

Sara Greaves has been planning her perfect wedding since she was five. Twenty years. Wasted. When she's dumped by her fiance, she heads to Vegas to forget and ends up at a hotel hosting a Romance Readers conference. Cuz she's lucky like that. Mr. Tall, Dark, And Anti-Marriage buys Sara a drink, and makes her a bet . . . she could marry any guy in Vegas tonight and make it work. She wasn't supposed to choose him.

Ski instructor Ellie Montgomery hits Vegas during a romance convention to meet the man of her dreams . . . only, the man of her dreams isn't the cover model she's there to see. He's the hot-as-sin bodyguard who catches her sneaking in the back door of a meet-and-greet, and he seems more than ready to do what it takes to prove he's twice the man her pretty boy crush could ever be.

Christina Stilton has waited all her life to become a wolf's bride. Becoming mate to a stranger in a faraway pack is the only chance she has to escape her Appalachian life of poverty and abuse. She wants safety, but trusts the Fates to steer her toward love, too. She might have been treated as a useless female back in Virginia, but her role in Anton's small pack is clear. He needs to be loved and loved hard, and she's just the woman for the job. She just needs to convince him to get out of her way and let her do it.

Imogene Walsh has always been unapologetically confident and ruthlessly opinionated with people, particularly men. No one is spared from her unfiltered mouth, but it hasn't seemed to deter Cooper MacKenzie. Although he is not the clean-cut, businessman type she's always thought she should pursue, Imogene is drawn to the sexy outsider who is the fantasy heartthrob women love to speculate about.

Putting away his notorious reputation as the wild guy with a womanizing past, Dylan Blackard is now on a new path, wanting to be the good guy his brother can stop worrying over. As long as he gives up his old vices - including women - he can keep himself on the straight and narrow and finally live up to everyone's expectations. However, obsessing about his lack of self-control is making Dylan one humorless, cranky hermit. That all changes, though, when his brother hires a new employee, the stunning Emma Keller.