Showing results by author "Cora Brent" in All Categories

No one would say that our story is pretty. But we were in love before we hated each other. And we were friends long before that. Growing up, I saw Jace Zielinski every day. He lived next door. I cheered him on at football games. I gave him advice on girls. He was my brother’s best friend, and the three of us were inseparable. I didn’t realize I’d already fallen for Jace until we kissed for the first time. Our magical season felt like destiny. And then came the disaster that tore us all to shreds. I lost Jace. I lost my brother. In many ways I lost myself.

I don't even know if love is real. After running from the bastard who brutalized me, I limped back to Arizona, choosing a vibrant college town in the hopes of starting over. I never expected to find him there. Cord Gentry. He and his brothers were tough, lusty forces of nature I'd known since childhood. Years ago Cord seduced me as a sick game. I've hated him ever since. Now here he is again, a man who beats other men bloody for money.

I'm determined to leave my mistakes in the past. These days I'm back in school, I'm surrounded by my wonderful, crazy family, and I'm working for my dad. Then Curtis Mulligan happens. A supposedly reformed gang member from the rundown prison town where my folks grew up, Curtis looks like he was built for mayhem. We have nothing in common. If he hadn't taken a job working for my father, our paths wouldn't even cross. But I can't admit that menacing mix of ink and muscle has flipped a switch inside of me.

As a project manager at a successful construction firm, Audrey Gordon is used to grueling 80-hour workweeks. That’s what it takes to be the best in this business, especially when you’re a woman. But what happens when Audrey is assigned to the biggest project in the city? She’s forced to team up with former lover and office rival Jason Roma. Not only is Jason as cocky and hot-wired as ever, he still manages to get under Audrey’s skin in ways she has spent years trying to forget. Yet Jason is determined to rekindle the past. And this time the lines between work and passion might be permanently blurred.

Still reeling from a nasty divorce, Melanie Cruz's pride takes another beating when she loses her enviable job at an upscale resort. After a flurry of unsuccessful interviews, she finally - desperately - accepts a job managing a small chain of family-owned pizzerias in a quaint downtown Phoenix neighborhood. The job also comes with Dominic Esposito, her overbearing but ridiculously handsome boss. Falling for him might be the last thing she expects, but maybe it's the one thing she needs.

I was a lost girl, a child bride. Now, to most people I appear to be just an average college student. They would never guess my strange history. But secretly, I'm still held down by my past. I cannot bring myself to trust men. So why do I find myself drawn to the most dangerous one of all? Oversexed, foul mouthed, and 10 years my senior, he should be my nightmare. Instead he's my fantasy....

Conner Wiseman was once my only friend—until a cruel accident made him forget me. All through high school, I watched him, the boy of my dreams, longing for him to see me standing there. Then, one night, he noticed me in a big way. But only for one night. For that, I hated him. So I decided to make him hate me back. Fast forward ten years, and now Conner is the city's most beloved football hero, while I'm known as the cold-blooded heiress to my father's criminal empire.

A summer job. That's all it was supposed to be. It never crossed my mind that I was about to collide with a man who would obliterate every plan I ever made. My mother has always warned me that love is like a lightning bolt and it strikes without warning. But I had no intention of getting struck by either lightning or love anytime soon. I'd be too busy finishing my journalism degree and landing a job in a city far more sophisticated than Phoenix. There was certainly nothing in the cards about getting involved with an ex-ballplayer turned nightclub boss.

Stephanie... As a bookie, I know more about money lines, pay sheets, and point spreads than any six men. I always thought I was in control until a terrible betrayal taught me otherwise. The price was my dignity, and I can't bear to make any more mistakes. Chase Gentry figured it would be easy to get to me. He thought I was like every other girl, just dying to spread wide for him. I knew it was a rotten gamble to get mixed up with a guy too smart and too hot for his own good.

I thought I was lucky to have a fresh start. Those don’t come around often for a girl from the streets of this city. But a fortunate chain of events has delivered me to the center of wealth and power and into the midst of three very different, very formidable cousins with the world at their feet. Gage, Micah, and Conner were determined to be my enemies. So I braced for a war. But they underestimated me. I earned respect from one of them, friendship from another, and I found love with the third. Or so I thought.

When I was too young to know any better Ryan Jedson fascinated me. After he went on the run I thought I’d never see him again. I was wrong. Now that he’s back in town I realize it’s a bad idea to catch his eye. And yet I can’t help it. Sometimes you want the one you shouldn’t want. But there’s a complication. He has no idea that I’m the reason his life fell apart. And I don’t know what he’ll do if he ever finds out.

Tristan Mulligan knows how to get under my skin. He says this is his town and that I don’t belong. He says I’ll get eaten alive here. He’s arrogant and condescending and insanely sexy. He’s also a criminal. I knew better than to start something with him. I did it anyway. Tristan might shatter my heart. He might destroy my future. And there's something dangerously explosive about the way we are together. You can warn me about him all you want.

This isn’t the first time I’ve known tragedy. My self-imposed exile ends when a terrible twist of fate makes me the guardian of my four-month-old brother. Suddenly I’ve got a kid to raise and a family business to save and there’s no time for anything else. That’s why Kathleen Doyle and I made this arrangement. Once a skinny little girl who used to follow me around everywhere, she’s now a single mom with flaming hair, a killer body and too many responsibilities. We told each other it was just physical. We told each other there were no strings attached, no expectations. We lied.

A long time ago, in a small town I've tried to forget...I married the charismatic all-American king of high school. He was sexy and charming. I was shy and infatuated. We were both 18. Of course we did not live happily ever after. We did the opposite. You thought that was the end? So did I. Seven years later and without warning, Branson Hickey is back in my life. Many things have changed and a few things haven't. I still want him. I still can't stand him. I still think about him all the time, even after everything we did to each other.

"I'd seen enough of Creedence Gentry to know he might be the worst thing I could do. Yet one lustful glance from him scrambled all my sanity. My life hasn't been uneventful, and a few things should have sunk in by now. I'm a tired age-21 with a laundry list of heartbreaks. Most of all, I know what carnage comes from carelessly risking the heart. So what drives me to jump into bed with a brooding player who can barely carry a conversation?"

This is not a simple story. This is not even just one story. There’s a boy, and there’s a girl. But there’s so much more than that. I was going home. Not forever; only long enough to watch my eternally irresponsible father marry a girl who happened to be my childhood enemy. There were no plans to embark on some crazy sex odyssey with a wild 19-year old baseball player. Easton Malone is insufferable, crude, and far too close. The hot, reckless days we shared should never have happened. I would forget him.

Micah Lyonne is the worst man I know. As children, we were constantly thrown together by our powerful parents. And we always despised each other. He was supposed to be the heir to a billion-dollar empire. Instead, he lives in the shadows and chooses a life filled with violence. Meanwhile, I'm the mayor's ambitious daughter with a long list of responsibilities. Micah sneers at everything I stand for. And I know better than to dance with danger. But when the inked, volatile Micah comes to my rescue one night, I'm forced to trust him.

I met Colt Malene when I was fourteen years old...and I never recovered. He became the headstrong star quarterback in a town that idolized high school football titles. Meanwhile, I was the coach’s dutiful perfectionist daughter, never daring to step out of line. We should have stayed far away from each other, but we didn’t, and the volatile fallout was unbearable. More than a decade has passed and my father is now dying. He wants to make amends. He wants to be forgiven for the role he played in Colt’s ruinous downfall. To give a dying man some peace, Colt and I agree to a plan.