Jolly & Jaded

Taking a job as a private nurse on a family ranch in Virginia was supposed to be a temporary fix—a way to disappear, lay low, and keep my past where it belongs. My patient? A grumpy old man with one foot in the grave and a foul mouth to match my own. Easy enough. His family? A whole different story. Jackson Rowe is a problem I don’t need. A rugged cowboy with a sharp stare, a sharper tongue, and a body carved by hard work and bad decisions.

Henley Holloway is my boss’s daughter, and I’ve been assigned to mentor her. The problem is, I’m not looking to babysit anyone. But I’m determined to make partner at the firm, and this is the final obstacle in my way. So, I agree to take the little princess under my wing. I’ll work her so hard, she’ll beg me to leave her alone. But from the first day she walks into the office and spills scalding hot coffee on my chest—I’m intrigued.

It’s Christmas Eve, and Maisie is convinced her boyfriend, Lucas, is totally going to propose. The cookies are baked, the mood is set, and her ring finger is perfectly poised. But when a confused elderly woman wanders into their home and claims it as her own, the couple’s plans are quickly thwarted.

Murderer. Unhinged. Remorseless. Insane. I’ve been called it all while rotting away in a maximum security psych ward, imprisoned for my crimes. When I’m given a chance to escape this hell, it’s an offer I can’t refuse. I’m transferred to Blackwood Institute, purgatory for the dangerous and disturbed. The deal is simple. Complete the three-year experimental program and you’re free to leave. I have no such intentions. People like me; we’re born to die. There’s no life for me out there. I’ll do whatever it takes to end my pitiful existence.

My boyfriend was perfect, up until he wasn't. When Mr. Vanilla found out about my deepest, darkest fantasies, he spread them all over campus and shamed me in the worst way possible. I dropped out of college and moved to a small town, where I have just inherited a house from my long-lost grandmother. I'm determined to get my life back on track and leave my old life behind. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be chased by a masked man through a haunted house on my first night in town. Or that he would make good on his promise to bring a friend next time.

No one tells you what to do when the boy who shattered your heart comes back to steal it. Roman Riviera was my everything once upon a time. I found my knight in shining armor in the form of a fellow foster kid. He protected me and promised to stand by my side forever. But Roman Riviera is a liar. He left me with monsters.

Cameron Mortem has a problem—he can't stop killing his partners. Officially labeled clinically insane, he's also one of the most lethal assets in the Dark Forces, a brutal underground military operation built on obedience, survival, and silence. But an experimental drug has fractured his control, making him a liability whenever someone else is on the field. As punishment, he's thrown back into the Under Trials—a merciless boot camp designed to break the weak and sharpen the ruthless. His one directive? Don't kill the new girl.

Isla has been surrounded by monsters her entire life. She was raised with them, so it was only natural that she would date one. Trapped in a world where she's nothing but a toy to be manipulated and used, she longs to escape. She never expects to find salvation in the arms of her abusive boyfriend's father--a dangerous man with a penchant for violence. Yet somehow, he offers the safety and comfort she never expected to find in her hollow and jaded life. But the thing about salvation, it never comes without sacrifice.

Conceited, unattainable, and downright delicious, renowned Michelin-starred chef Ambrose Casablancas has one passion in life: food. Women are a distraction, and he doesn’t do those. Especially Cal Litvin, his baby sister’s best friend. Her entire existence is a complication; she’s awkward, eccentric, infuriating… And, much to his chagrin, hotter than his kitchen. Ambrose has a lot on his plate: a new restaurant to open, a multi-million-dollar property deal to execute, and a violent stalker to tame. Then Cal shows up at his doorstep.

I've always been a tough North Shore girl. Fighting is in my blood, survival in my DNA. But two years ago, Caden King broke me, and he has proof of it. Now he wants to blackmail me into doing a job for him. The kind that puts my chance of escaping the North Shore at risk. The kind that means betraying my own crew.