Stay

Everyone says I’m a bad girl. They’re only partly right - I don’t let fear rule me, and I certainly don’t care what people think. But I draw the line at sleeping with the enemy. As the daughter of Briar’s head hockey coach, I’d be vilified if I hooked up with a player from a rival team. And that’s who Jake Connelly is. Harvard’s star forward is arrogant, annoying, and too attractive for his own good. But fate is cruel - I require his help to secure a much-coveted internship, and the sexy jerk isn’t making it easy for me.

Hosting her brother's wedding for an MVP guest list is the challenge of Jess Canning's life. Already the family screw-up, she can't afford to fail. And nobody (nobody!) can learn of the colossal mistake she made with the best man during a weak moment last spring. It was wrong, and there will not be a repeat. Absolutely not. Even if he is the sexiest thing on two legs.

It all started with a sexy selfie. Texted to the wrong number. Oops. Not my finest moment - but I have nothing to be ashamed of. She thought I was no better, and I quote, than the knuckle-dragging douchebags she was never dating again. It was a stupid dare from a girl I’d met online, but since she’d given me a fake number, I didn’t feel bad that my interests were suddenly focused elsewhere - on the fiery and sharp-tongued Peyton that I found myself sparring with over text. The following day, my case of mistaken identity came back to bite me in the banana.

Kailyn Flowers was always calm, rational, and controlled - until she ended up sprawled all over Daxton Hughes, the former actor she totally crushed on as a teenager. Then she did the unthinkable: She became a mortifying fangirl in five seconds flat, which may or may not have included professing her undying love. And oddly, he didn't run away. In fact, their meet-cute led to a friendship she never saw coming. Of course, she never saw his betrayal coming, either.... Now, Dax needs her help. As guardian to his 13-year-old sister, he's in way over his head.

Everyone says opposites attract. And they must be right, because there’s no logical reason why I’m so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don’t usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I’m flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn’t help that he’s buddy-buddy with my brother. And that his best friend has a crush on me. And that I just moved in with them. Oh, did I not mention we’re roommates?

My love wand is on a strike. As bad as that blows, pun unintended, it’s 10 times worse for me. I’m a male escort, but not just any escort, I’m the escort. The one with a mile-long waiting list and a pristine reputation that’s very well-deserved. Only now, I’m on hiatus. Because after years of pleasing women all over the city, my man missile decides to get finicky. And the only woman he wants? Someone I can never have - my best friend’s younger sister, the nerdy and awkwardly adorable Sienna.

Heidi and I have been trading hungry looks all year, and everything she does makes me smile. But I don't do girlfriends, and I certainly can't get involved with the league commissioner's daughter. I need shots on goal, not a hookup and a widely misunderstood paparazzi photo. Can I resist her, though? The way she teases me should be a game penalty for interference with my libido.

I have a fantastic family, great best friends, a job I love...and now I’m up for a promotion to police sergeant. I need total focus - not a flirty, dirty, irresistible, tattooed hottie riding into my town on his motorcycle. Can I arrest him for being too good-looking? When he kisses me senseless in the back of a waffle truck, it’s criminal, the things he makes me think about hot syrup and melted butter. One order of hot, fluffy hookup to go, please. But the next time I see him, it’s not for our date with benefits. He’s the guy who just rented the room above my garage.  

I hired her to be my girlfriend. To fix my reputation. To save my career. It's not that I don't want a girlfriend. I do. I want it all. Wife, kids, side-by-side burial plots. The problem is - I can't have any of it. So I've made myself untouchable. The quintessential bachelor of baseball. Because it's not worth the risk. Not even for someone I love. Especially not for someone I love. We made the arrangements. We agreed to a contract. It's iron clad. No sex. No love. No future.

Everything is clicking for the Vengeance. We may be new, but we’re well on our way to winning the championship, and I’m having the time of my life headlining the sports media as the hottest goalie - hell, player - ever. I, for one, am going to live up to my name...because I am Legend Bay. Dragging my ass home from the gym, I’m blinded by some gaudy, glowing holiday lights. As usual, my hot-as-hell neighbor Pepper Nantais has gone way over the top. But just as I’m about to tell her off, something else catches my eye.

He’s bossy, moody, and overprotective. He’s also a pro athlete who needs to focus on winning games and staying out of the headlines. I’m fiercely independent and need a man like I need a second period each month. So when our worlds collide, I never expected him to be the one to jump in and save me. Especially not when my roommate disappears, leaving me with her baby. I’m clueless about babies - and it shows. Good thing Alexei isn’t.

I have a long history of acting first and thinking it through later. In fact, I'm the definition of a screw up. Case in point - I’m having a baby with a woman I can’t stand, my ex is now my best friend’s wife, and I’m in love with a woman I can never have. My biggest secret is falling for my best friend’s sister 12 years ago. My biggest mistake is thinking I could live without her. And now my biggest regret is the look on her face the moment I tell everyone I’m already married to the woman they hate most.

I’m having the time of my life with my new brothers on the Arizona Vengeance. The only person who doesn’t seem to think I’m so great is Blue Gardner, the hot flight attendant on our team plane. I sure wouldn’t mind joining the mile-high club with her, but besides bringing me lukewarm coffee, she won’t give me the time of day. My teammates think it's hilarious: we’re used to women flocking to us. When I run into Blue back on land, I’m shocked to learn how she spends her time off: taking care of her handicapped brother. There are layers to this girl I never imagined.

It was my home run ball that shattered her face. Right along with her modeling career. Now it's my mission to help her rebuild her life. And get her to love the game that she hates. The game that dictates my life both on and off the field. But when the lines of our friendship become blurred, I worry she'll just be another casualty of my three-strikes rule. The rule I have to protect my money, my future, my heart. No girl has ever broken it. I've never wanted one to. Until now.

You'd think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You'd be wrong. For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don't know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.