Cruel North, an all-new surprise pregnancy, forced proximity contemporary romance with sizzling chemistry from New York Times bestselling author JB Salsbury is now available!
Cruel North is an angsty second-chance, enemies to lovers romance where the most hated man in the North Brothers world finally gets brought to his knees.
A teenage girl with my eyes and a familiar glare, strolls into my life and she’s calling me Dad.
Vanessa was my high school girlfriend and the smartest person I knew. She had a plan, a future, and she swore nothing would get in the way. Until she became pregnant. I thought we agreed on our plan. I sent her the money. Then she disappeared.
Her parents told me she was in South America for a year. They told me she needed space. I never heard from her again.
Seventeen years later and she’s back. I’m staring into those green eyes that used to tempt and taunt me. But it’s not just about us anymore. We have a daughter.
Wanting to get to know her, I convince them to move in with me for one month. I’m so angry with Vanessa and she seems to be equally upset. Every insult from her smart mouth invites me to engage. The brutal chemistry between us ignites old embers. I wish I could hate her. Instead, I want her.
But too much time has passed, and I fear some hurts run too deep to heal. At the end of thirty days, I’ll have to let them go. Unless I figure out a way to keep them.
JB Salsbury, New York Times Best Selling author of The Fighting Series, lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and two kids. She spends the majority of her day lost in a world of battling alphas, budding romance, and impossible obstacles as stories claw away at her subconscious, begging to be released to the page.
Her love of good storytelling led her to earn a degree in Media Communications. With her journalistic background, writing has always been at the forefront, and her love of romance prompted her to write her first novel.
Since 2013 she has published six bestselling novels in The Fighting Series and won a RONE Award.
Vicious Games, the gripping conclusion in The Dark Obsession Duet from USA Today bestselling author Zoe Blake is available now!
I have taken everything from her. She has no friends. No money. No one to turn to for help. She's finally under my complete control, and yet, it's not enough. I hold her body captive, but not her heart. She knows I destroyed her life to possess her, so she fights me at every turn. But she hasn't guessed the true purpose of my game. She needs to understand that I will do anything to win. Anything. She is my possession. Nothing, and no one, not even her, will keep us apart. If she denies me much longer, she will learn just how vicious I can become when I don't get what I want. And I want her... all of her.
Something was wrong. As my brain clawed its way back to consciousness, my body stiffened, a primal reaction to danger. I could feel it, sense it. I stilled. I just knew… something was wrong. I tried to open my eyes, but groaned when the bright sunlight sent a stab of pain straight to my temples. I threw my elbow over my eyes as I focused on taking a deep breath to quell the nausea which rose against the back of my throat. My lungs tried to expand, but a clinging pressure restricted them. I flattened my hand on the center of my chest. Intricate beading and what felt like stiffened lace scratched my palm. What the hell? The dress I'd had on earlier was fashioned of soft silk. I rose on my elbows and stared down the length of my body. Is that blood? I tried to swing my legs over the side of the bed, but my feet got caught in the voluminous skirts of the dress I now wore. I tumbled over the edge of the mattress, landing painfully on my hands and knees. Flecks of crimson marred the pale back of my right hand. Scrambling to my feet, I ignored the twinge of pain in my knee as I hobbled across Roman’s bedroom to the dressing room. I swung the door open and crossed to the floor-length mirror at the other end. My mouth dropped open in shocked horror. I raised my fingertips to the dress bodice as if I needed to feel it to know this was real. My gaze traveled over my body, taking in each unfamiliar detail of the dress I wore. The top was a tightly laced silk corset with cream lace and crystal beads in an elaborate floral pattern. I swiveled my hips to stare at the back in the mirror. There were reams of gathered silk where a large bustle would go, ending in a small train. It was a beautiful Victorian-looking wedding gown. The problem was, it wasn’t my dress. This one was the same color as the one I last remembered wearing, but it was different. I had never seen it before in my life. It was also covered in blood splatter along the right side. As I tried to come to grips with my mounting terror, I stared at my haunted reflection. My cheeks looked pale and sunken in. My eyes were rimmed with red, as if I had been crying. Red lipstick was smeared across my lips, which mirrored, in a macabre way, the mascara stains under my eyes. My breath rising in panic, I shoved my fingers into my tangled hair. I hissed as a sharp sting had me wrenching my hand back. There was a thin cut down the center of my right palm, and a small droplet of blood clung to the skin. Furrowing my brow, I gingerly dug into my wild nest of hair and yanked free the remnants of what had probably been a floral head wreath. The delicate white orange blossom petals were crushed and bruised. A sharp wire poked out from behind the ivory ribbon which had been wrapped around the head wreath. Its end was stained with my blood. With a cry, I hurled the crushed flower wreath across the room. I grabbed at the bodice, trying to wrench it off me. It was too tightly secured. Reaching behind my back, I desperately searched for a clasp, a button, a corset string, anything to loosen the dress. After several minutes of trying, I sank to my knees in front of the mirror. My chest was covered in scratches from where I'd tried to claw the bodice off. Why couldn’t I remember putting on this dress? Why couldn’t I remember anything? And whose blood was this? I could already tell it wasn’t mine. I had no visible injuries. There wasn’t a lot of blood. It was just hundreds of tiny drops, as if someone had flicked a paintbrush full of red paint at me. Except it wasn’t paint. I knew the smell of blood. I had smelled the coppery harbinger of death right before finding my mother and stepfather dead. The memory of that scent never left you. The only sound in the dressing room was my labored and erratic breathing. There was, of course, one question I hadn’t asked yet… Where was Roman? Oh God. I wrapped my arms around my waist and rocked back and forth. Why couldn’t I remember? What the hell had happened to me? What had I done? I placed my hands over my face. Think. I had to think. I had no complete memory of the last twenty-four hours, just flashes of color and unknown faces. Fear. I remembered feeling afraid and confused. Then nothing. As if someone had wiped my mind blank. What if it wasn’t that I couldn’t remember but that my mind didn’t want me to remember? I'd read about the mind protecting itself from traumatic memories by refusing to recall them. What had I done? I stared at the wrinkled and bloodied wedding dress. It seemed oddly familiar, and yet I couldn’t imagine why. I'd think I would remember willingly wearing a freaking Victorian wedding gown. Think! Nothing was going to come to me kneeling on the floor. I needed to get out of this awful dress and wash the blood off. Maybe then it would all come back to me. I ran my hands over my upper arms as a shiver wracked my body. That was, if I wanted to remember. I wrapped my left hand around a drawer handle and used it to pull myself upright. I then searched the other drawers for a pair of scissors. My only option was to somehow cut my way out of the dress. I found a pair of large, silver, lethal-looking shears. Just as I was about to thrust the opened blades between my breasts to cut the silk corset, I heard a sound behind me. I turned, gripping the shears like a weapon and raising them high. Roman stood in the doorway. His chest was bare. He was holding what looked like a wadded up white dress shirt soaked in blood over his shoulder. I gasped. “What happened?” His eyes narrowed. “You shot me. And on our wedding day, no less.”
About Zoe:
USA Today bestselling author Zoe Blake, delights in writing Dark Romance books filled with overly-possessive Billionaires, Taboo scenes and Unexpected twists.
She usually spends her ill-gotten gains on martinis, travel and red lipstick. Since she can barely boil water, she’s lucky enough to be married to a sexy Chef.
Vicious Games, the steamy and explosive conclusion in The Dark Obsession Duet from USA Today bestselling author Zoe Blake is live now!
I have taken everything from her. She has no friends. No money. No one to turn to for help. She's finally under my complete control, and yet, it's not enough. I hold her body captive, but not her heart. She knows I destroyed her life to possess her, so she fights me at every turn. But she hasn't guessed the true purpose of my game. She needs to understand that I will do anything to win. Anything. She is my possession. Nothing, and no one, not even her, will keep us apart. If she denies me much longer, she will learn just how vicious I can become when I don't get what I want. And I want her... all of her.
Nothing, and no one, not even her, will keep us apart.
USA Today bestselling author Zoe Blake, delights in writing Dark Romance books filled with overly-possessive Billionaires, Taboo scenes and Unexpected twists.
She usually spends her ill-gotten gains on martinis, travel and red lipstick. Since she can barely boil water, she’s lucky enough to be married to a sexy Chef.
Before I Let Go, an all-new sensual and poignant second chance romance from USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan, is out now!
Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn’t solve or save everything.
It couldn’t save their marriage.
Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s is finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other, and now they’re beginning to wonder if they’re truly ready to let go of everything they once had.
Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another…and then more. It's hot. It's illicit. It's all good—until old wounds reopen. Is it too late for them to find forever? Or could they even be better, the second time around?
“Before I Let Go is a masterpiece… A beautifully honest portrayal of love in its many forms, and the most raw, poignant, and romantic journey of healing I've read in a long time.”
I knock and wait for Josiah’s deep baritone telling me to enter. He sits behind his desk, eyes trained on the laptop in front of him. He doesn’t look up, but keeps typing. The silence persists, stretches to awkwardness, so I drop into one of the armchairs in the center of the room along with a sofa and coffee table, and set my purse on the floor.
“Harvey’s on his way,” he says, still not looking away from the screen. “His last meeting ran a few minutes over, but he’ll be here soon.”
“Oh. Sure. Great.”
I run damp palms over my legs, the jeans smooth and cool beneath my hands. Fidgety and looking for something to do, I tighten my topknot. I got box braids last weekend because I was tired of messing with my hair. This morning they’re studded with a few gold cuffs scattered throughout the strands. All in all, I feel pretty. And confident, and I won’t be shook by the pissy mood Josiah seems to have saved just for me. Finally, he closes the laptop and walks over to the sitting area. I study my nails, taking my turn to ignore him.
“I like the braids.”
Surprised, I glance up to find him sitting on the arm of the leather sofa across from me. I didn’t expect him to say anything personal. Definitely not about my appearance. When I meet his eyes, they’re cool like they’ve been for weeks, and his face remains unreadable.
“Thanks.” I scour my mind for something else to say. Gone are the days when I couldn’t get the words out to him fast enough. We’d watch couples eating dinner in absolute silence and promise each other that would never be us.
“Um, did you see Deja’s report card?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He frowns. “I can’t believe she got a C in English.”
“It used to be her best subject. It’s not just the grade itself, but I worry she’s spending too much time on social media.”
“I think she’ll find the balance without us having to come down hard. Your relationship with her is already strained enough and—”
“Strained?” I ask, my voice dropping to a quiet warning.
“You’ve said that yourself, Yas.” He crosses his stupid muscular arms
across his stupid broad chest. “Let’s not fight over how we need to handle things with Day. Have you given any more thought to Kassim playing football?”
“You mean since I said never when you asked last time? No. Besides, he has soccer.”
“He really wants to play football too.”
“A kid can really want a lot of things that aren’t good for him, like literally ramming his brain into a brick wall over and over again and risking his life, his mind, for what? A game? With all that’s come out about CTE, I just don’t think it’s worth the risk. Lots of parents aren’t doing football anymore.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic? I played football. Preach played. Theo’s playing.”
“I love Preach, but him letting Theo play doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. What he and Liz decide for their kids has no bearing on what we decide for ours. Kassim has barely mentioned football to me.”
“He hasn’t mentioned it,” he returns with obvious stretched patience, “because he loves you and he doesn’t want to displease you, but he asks me almost daily.”
“Of course, because you’re the cool parent.”
“Well, I’m not the one who says no to everything because I’m too scared or too uptight to allow my kids some freedom to make their own decisions.”
“How dare you!”
I surge to my feet, unable to stay seated one more second. I need to move, let this anger circulate, or it will clog in my veins. My steps eat up the space separating us, and before I know it, I’m right in front of him, standing in the vee of his powerful legs. The air sizzles with a lightning strike, sudden and hot and dangerous. Unpredictable. I should take shelter, but I don’t step back. His expression remains inscrutable, the stark beauty of his face unaffected, but his breathing deepens. In response, my breasts rise and fall with the struggle to draw breath as the air between us thickens. This close, his presence overwhelms me and my deprived senses devour him. The way his cologne mingles with his unique male scent. The hardness of his jaw at war with the sensual curve of his mouth. The heat his big body radiates, even at rest, surrounds me.
I lick suddenly dry lips, and he tracks the movement with narrowed eyes. I feel hunted by that look, like I stepped into a trap laid by my own body, devised by my own mind. Something I thought we’d buried long ago rises, encircles us, breathing new life into a connection I thought was dead. I’ve known for months that I’m still attracted to Josiah, but right now, with his eyes darkening and his jaw flexing and his hands curling into fists, I can’t help but wonder . . .
Is he still attracted to me too?
About Kennedy Ryan:
A RITA® and Audie® Award winner, USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Her heroes respect, cherish, and lose their minds for the women who capture their hearts. Kennedy and her writings have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, TIME, O magazine, and many others. She is a wife to her lifetime lover and mother to an extraordinary son.
Before I Let Go, an all-new powerful, soul-gripping second chance romance filled with raw emotion and sizzling steam from USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan, is now available!
Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn’t solve or save everything
It couldn’t save their marriage.
Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s is finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other, and now they’re beginning to wonder if they’re truly ready to let go of everything they once had.
Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another . . . and then more. It's hot. It's illicit. It's all good—until old wounds reopen. Is it too late for them to find forever? Or could they even be better, the second time around?
“Breathtaking, gut-wrenching, viscerally romantic. I want to curl up and live in this book.” ―Talia Hibbert, New York Times bestselling author
A RITA® and Audie® Award winner, USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Her heroes respect, cherish, and lose their minds for the women who capture their hearts. Kennedy and her writings have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, TIME, O magazine, and many others. She is a wife to her lifetime lover and mother to an extraordinary son.
Wild North, a sexy and emotional standalone contemporary romance featuring a damaged hero from New York Times bestselling author JB Salsbury is on sale now for a limited time!
He saved her. Now she’s ready to return the favor.
To me, he was Grizzly.
To the world, I would learn, he’s someone else completely.
I should have died on that mountain.
But he rescued me.
More animal than man, he’s cold, distant, and fiercely territorial. He seems to hate me for simply breathing, and yet, he brought me back to life.
After my return to the city, I can’t stop thinking about him. His rough hands, intense glare, and the way he cared for me as if I meant something to him.
He tells me he’s dangerous. That I’m not safe around him. I would eventually understand why he warned me away. But by then it’s too late. My heart is his.
The Proposal, an all-new enemies-to-lovers fake-marriage standalone romance full of heat from bestselling author L. Steele is available now!
Wedding Planner meets Fifty Shades of Grey
I never should have agreed to become his...
Liam Kincaid. Super grumpy. Super grouchy. Super tall, dark ...hottie. Who’s engagement I was responsible for breaking up. It was all a big mistake... honest. Only he doesn’t see it that way. He now has twenty-four hours to get married and claim his inheritance. And he insists I pay for my error, ...by posing as his fake wife for thirty days. It’s not like I have a choice. If I don’t agree he’ll destroy my wedding-planning business. Besides it’s only until he convinces his mother that he’s settled down, he says. We only have to pretend to like each other. Reassure his family and friends that we are in love. Only catch? We can’t stand the sight of each other. Every time we are in the same space we almost come to blows. But what happens when the chemistry between us detonates?
"I need to be married and have a child before I can get ownership of my business." "You talk like this is a stipulation of some kind..." He shuffles his feet. For the first time since he prowled into my office, he seems less than confident. In fact, he looks downright pissed. "My father’s will says, unless I marry and produce an heir by the time I’m forty, I won't inherit my company or get access to my trust fund." "I see." I lean back in my seat. "So, this is why you proposed to Lila and hustled her into marrying you." "If by that you mean I courted her—" "You used your charisma to unduly influence her." "—I wooed her, took her on dates, to dinners, even the blasted opera, then bought her the biggest engagement ring I could lay my hands on." "You mean that tasteless hunk of stone on her finger?" I cover my mouth and cough. "No wonder it was so easy to convince her to walk away from you." His jaw tics. A nerve pops at his temple. He looks about ready to burst out of his uber-fitted suit. Oh, goodie. At least I got a rise out of him. That has to count for something, eh? "That tasteless hunk of stone cost close to a million dollars," he says through gritted teeth. "Money isn’t everything," I announce in a prim voice. "You certainly weren’t complaining when you chose the most expensive venue possible for the wedding." I straighten my spine. "If you mean the All Villa in Bali, that was Lila’s choice. She wanted to get married in Bali, you know." "And, no doubt you jumped at the idea, considering you get a fifteen percent commission on the entire cost of the wedding." "Hey, you get what you pay for. I’ve been busting my ass for the past few months to get this event organized. Do you even know what an impossible task I’ve pulled off? I’ve managed to get all of the preparations completed in eight weeks. Eight bloody weeks. That’s just forty-two days. It normally takes close to a year to organize a ceremony of this scale. And I pulled it off in less than one-fourth that time." "Good, so it won’t be a problem to flip things around to accommodate yourself as the bride, too." "I never said I was going to marry you." "Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?" His features grow even harder. Grays and greens shoot through the blue of his eyes until the color resembles that of a gathering storm. "If it’s custody of the child you’re worried about, once you deliver the child, we will separate. There’ll be a prenup, of course, but I’ll make sure you’re reimbursed for your time." He says all of this in a voice so casual, he might as well be asking about the weather. No, strike that. I’ve heard people speak with more emotion about the weather changes in London than he has about his entire crazy-ass idea. I curl my fingers into fists and resist the urge to leap up screaming. Won’t do to lose it. Need to keep my cool. Need to make him see just how crazy this entire conversation is. "Have you even heard yourself? We barely know each other, and now you’re saying you want me to marry you—instead of the woman the world thinks you’re going to marry. Not only that, you want me to produce a child, and then you’ll divorce me?" "We’ll co-parent and have equal rights to the child." He raises his arms in a conciliatory gesture. "I’m not the kind who’ll keep a mother away from her child." "Of course not," I scoff. "But you’re the kind who’d force a woman to marry him." "Fake marry." "Doesn’t seem fake when we’re supposed to produce an heir," I protest. "There are ways of doing it without my having to touch you. Unless," he looks me up and down and a calculating look comes into his eyes, "unless you prefer it to be done the old-fashioned way. In which case, I might oblige you. If you ask me nicely, that is." My head spins. My heart seems to have taken up permanent residence in my throat. My stomach feels like a twister has become entangled inside. "You’re not making any sense. You can’t walk in and threaten me into marrying you, then announce you need me to produce a child for you, in the same breath." His grin widens. "I just did." "There’s still time." I raise my hands. "Walk away now, and I’ll forget any of this happened. In fact, I won’t even go to the media with news of how you intimidated me." "You’re not going to do that." "Oh, yeah?" I snap back my shoulders. "And why is that?" "Because when you marry me, even though the marriage is fake, no one else will know. To the outside world, you’ll be the wife of Liam Kincaid, which means, doors will automatically open for you. Your past transgressions—" "Transgressions?" I shout. "Transgressions" —he firms his lips— "will be forgotten. Socialites and influencers will queue up to patronize your services. You’ll run the most successful wedding planning outfit in this country, if not all of the continent." I blink. Now that he mentions it… It’s true. Once I hitch my star to the Liam Kincaid reputation, it’ll be easy sailing. Everyone will want a piece of my wedding planning company. I’ll have more projects than I can handle. "Your showpieces will, of course, be your own wedding. You can give it any twist you like; make it the kind of wedding you’ve always imagined for yourself." "For myself?" "You must have thought about how you’d like to get married." He glances at his watch and straightens. "Well, this is your chance to execute it. Use it to show the world and all the headline seekers exactly how it should be done." "S-o-o-o, I can do anything I want for my wedding ceremony?" I pluck at the rubber band around my wrist. "Yes." "The budget?" "Unlimited. I’ll need to sign off on the bills, but nothing is too good for my bride. Whatever you want, you can have it." I squeeze my fingers together. Surely, I’m not considering this. I’m not actually thinking of going through with this insane proposal of his. On the other hand, if I do, I’ll have everything I want. The wedding of my dreams, the chance to prove a point to all the naysayers who thought I’d never make it, and a resounding ‘fuck you’ to all my competition. Hell, there won’t be competition. I’ll wipe them off the map with this showpiece of a wedding. No one will ever question my competency again. And I’ll have enough clients to keep me going for years. Even after I divorce him, it won’t make a dent in my reputation. "Well?" He scowls. "What’s it gonna be?" I pluck at the rubber band with more intensity. "So, I can transform it into the wedding of my dreams, the kind that'll make every media outlet, gossip magazine, and wedding blog sit up and take notice?" "Do you not understand English? Or have you not been listening to me?" I straighten in my seat. "I heard you the first time," I say in a low voice. "Good, so what’s your answer?"
Meet L. Steele:
L. Steele loves to write romance novels featuring dangerous men and feisty women. She enjoys trading trivia with her filmmaker husband, watching lots and lots of movies, and walking nature trails. She lives with her family in London.
The Proposal, an all-new deliciously-hot enemies-to-lovers fake-marriage standalone romance from bestselling author L. Steele is live now!
Wedding Planner meets Fifty Shades of Grey
I never should have agreed to become his...
Liam Kincaid. Super grumpy. Super grouchy. Super tall, dark ...hottie. Who’s engagement I was responsible for breaking up. It was all a big mistake... honest. Only he doesn’t see it that way. He now has twenty-four hours to get married and claim his inheritance. And he insists I pay for my error, ...by posing as his fake wife for thirty days. It’s not like I have a choice. If I don’t agree he’ll destroy my wedding-planning business. Besides it’s only until he convinces his mother that he’s settled down, he says. We only have to pretend to like each other. Reassure his family and friends that we are in love. Only catch? We can’t stand the sight of each other. Every time we are in the same space we almost come to blows. But what happens when the chemistry between us detonates?
L. Steele loves to write romance novels featuring dangerous men and feisty women. She enjoys trading trivia with her filmmaker husband, watching lots and lots of movies, and walking nature trails. She lives with her family in London.
