For Your Heart

It's a new start—brand new school in a completely different state. For the first time, I now have the freedom to be unapologetically me. But as my luck would have it, I have shit taste in men. The first man to pay me a compliment has so many red flags, that I think I'm in a storm. Life can't get any worse… until he turns into a stalker. Then my stalker ends up brutally murdered, I walk blindly into a serial killer's nest, and I catch the attention of a sociopath.

My relationship with twins Damon and Declan has always been close. Too close, according to what society has deemed appropriate between guy friends. But that's never stopped our hugging and cuddling—in public or private. My best friends knew I didn't receive affection from home, so they never let me go without it.

Egon Wolf is on a hockey scholarship but failing at everything else. Knowing he's going to lose his ride if he doesn't get his academic act together, he seeks out a tutor. Rakesh Aahnu is a dual major and dangerous when bored. What he enjoys more than anything is the challenge of making straight men fall for him before walking away. Just because he can. Both Egon and Rakesh are about to discover that life has a way of throwing you in the sin bin when you least expect it.

In one moment, I found the man of my dreams. In another moment, I lost him. Without Cooper, my world was fractured, and I made sure his twin brother knew it. I unleashed all my pain onto Caiden, ignoring the fact that he wasn't to blame. Afterwards, I spent three years pretending I'd moved on, pretending that I'd left the past behind me. I became so good at it. No one saw the heartbroken man behind the mask. Until one phone call brings Caiden back into my life, seeing him again opens old wounds, forcing us both to be painfully honest and making me question everything I believe about love.

I should hate Rowan Hughes. He was a bully when we were kids, and now I find out he's messed around with my girlfriend. But how can I hate the campus soccer star when he's everything I've always wanted to be? With my reputation on the line, I can't let Rowan get away with humiliating me in front of people I know—people we both go to school with. When he swears he didn't know Annalese was my girlfriend, I actually believe him. When he says I'm good enough to play beside him, I want to believe that too. But when he insists he's not gay, all I want is to prove him wrong.

The first time I witnessed death was my mother's when I was eight years old. It devastated me. The second was at sixteen when I stumbled on my stepfather's body after he was brutally murdered. That one screwed me up in a different way. Since then, I've kept my shadows at bay, my secrets locked up tight. That is, until Stone Wakefield joins my college hockey team.

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.

If there’s one thing I don’t need upsetting my quiet and comfortable routine in the small town of Darling, Montana, it’s newcomer Ash Alcott crash landing on my family’s ranch like some sort of blonde angel. I don’t need his flirting. Or his smile. I don’t need the way he makes me question whether or not I’m truly happy being alone at forty. I certainly don’t need to be giving him riding lessons or appreciating the meals he cooks for the ranch.

Anthony Costello may be a vicious mafia boss with a penchant for violence and torture, but he’s also my best friend’s father and the sexiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. His buttoned-up demeanor and grumpy attitude only fuel my desire to take him apart. I live to push all his buttons. And though he says he’s straight, it seems Anthony may have a soft spot and possessive streak for this smart-mouthed twink. Because as war between rival gangs escalates, things between Anthony and I start to heat up. And I think I’d rather like to sit on the king’s lap to watch it all burn.

To the unassuming observer, Ben Lockwood is your typical suburban dad. Aside from the fact that he's only thirty-six and his daughter is a sophomore in college. He and his wife, Jessica, had their only daughter, Hailey, when they were in high school. So you can imagine the unease Ben is feeling when said daughter brings her new boyfriend home for Thanksgiving… To stay in their house for the whole weekend.

Only two things matter to me in this shitty town: freestyle motocross and my best friend. They're my only escape from my father's fists, but one slip in junior high almost changed everything. I confessed a secret to a beautiful boy, and I've been punishing him—and myself—ever since. I can't have Huckslee the way I want, so I take from him in the only way I can—with violence. When my mother wants back into my life, and I'm forced to move in with the object of my obsession, the lines between hate and desire begin to blur. I'm not sure we'll survive each other.

Brady is my overprotective best friend, and I love him like this. He's so much bigger than me and makes me feel safe. We are opposites in so many ways, but when I'm cuddled up against him and he reads to me, all those differences fade away. Brady promises to be friends forever, but what will he say when he finds out my secret? Will I lose my best friend and the boy I love more than life itself?

When I’m tossed into the trunk of a car, I realize that what little luck I have has finally run out—especially when I find that Tony, the man who’d abducted me, is planning on using me to get back at my father. My chances for escape look pretty bleak when I’m handcuffed to Tony’s bodyguard, an intimidating man named Shepherd who apparently loves tight shirts and seems to be amused by making my life miserable. Soon, though, I learn that Shepherd has a heart and a brain.

Charles Preston Carmichael is the most infuriating man I've ever met. I want to sock the golden boy of college hockey right in the mouth. He enjoys telling me everything I'm messing up—publicly. And since he's my roommate for the next year, I can't avoid him. Yet there's something about him that makes me watch him. Something dark. A secret I want to uncover. When he returns from a weekend away, broken and haunted, I can't keep my distance anymore. He needs someone, and I'll be damned if it's not me.

Twenty-eight-year-old Oryn Patterson isn't like other people. Being an extremely shy social introvert is only part of the problem. Oryn has dissociative identity disorder. He may look like a normal man on the outside, but spend five minutes with him, and his daily struggles begin to show.