Showing results by author "Zoe Blake" in All Categories

I'm the only one standing between her and those who want her dead. She sees a monster when she looks at me—blood-stained hands, a heart blackened by violence. What she doesn't see is that those same hands are the only thing keeping her alive. She runs from me, again and again. But every escape only drags her closer to the enemies hunting us both. She burns with hatred for the cage I've built around her… And yet, there's heat beneath the fury. A hunger neither of us can outrun.

She couldn't have known the danger she faced when she dared to steal from me. She was too young for a man my age, barely in her twenties. Far too pure and untouched. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't going to stop me. The moment I laid eyes on her, I claimed her. Determined to make her mine… by any means necessary. I owned Chicago's most elite gambling club, a front for my role as a Russian Mafia crime boss. She was a fragile little bird who had just flown straight into my open jaws. Naïve and sweet, she was a temptation I couldn't resist biting.

Tearing off the gilded veneer of elite privilege exposes the sordid scandals, dark secrets, and taboo desires of New York's jaded high society in this dark romance series from best friends and USAT bestselling authors Zoe Blake and Alta Hensley, writing under their new pen name, Blake Hensley.

Her innocence was going to get her killed. That was if I didn't get to her first. She's the protected little sister of the powerful Ivanov Russian mafia family–the very definition of forbidden. It’s always been my job, as their Head of Security, to watch over her but never to touch. That ends today. She disobeyed me and put herself in danger. It was time to take her in hand. I’m the only one who can save her and I will fight anyone who tries to stop me, including her brothers. Honor and loyalty be damned. She’s mine now.

With a single gunshot, she brings the violent secrets of my buried past into the present. She may not have pulled the trigger, but she still has blood on her hands. And I know some very creative ways to make her pay for it. I am as ruthless as my Cavalieri ancestors, who forged our powerful family legacy. But no fortune is built without spilling blood. I've earned a reputation as a dangerous man to cross and made enemies along the way. So, to protect those I love, I handed over the mantle of patriarch to my brother and moved to northern Italy.

The true legacy of the Cavalieri family, my birthright, ties me to a woman I despise: the daughter of the mafia boss who nearly ended my family. Making her both my enemy... and my future wife. The hatred is mutual; she has no desire for me to be her groom. A prisoner to her family's ambitions, she's desperate for a way out. My duty is to guard her, to ensure she doesn't escape her gilded cage. But every moment spent with her, every spark of anger, adds fuel to the growing fire of desire between us. We're trapped in a volatile duel of passion and fury.

I didn't come to her apartment planning to tie her to her bed and ravage her. A Russian arms dealer has no need for an innocent schoolteacher. I would have done what I came to do and left, but when she opened those gorgeous red lips and threatened to scream I knew she would be screaming long before I was finished with her.

For weeks, I've been watching her. Stalking her. Now, it's time to start playing with my beautiful little pawn. From the moment I first saw her from afar, I knew she would become my prized possession. I will gaslight her into thinking she is my obedient ward, trapped in the Victorian era. She is my unwilling captive, forced to play my sadistic game for her own survival. She will have no choice but to bow to my rules and discipline. In time, her memories of a modern life will fade. If not, she will pay a painful price.

I came for my money. I took her instead. She's not the one who stole from me. She's a pawn caught up in her family's deadly game. It doesn't matter. Her innocence won't save her from me. I could just let her return the money, but as I stare down at the beautiful creature stretched out before me like a virgin sacrifice, I thank God for every sin that has blackened my cold heart. Because I'm going to make her beg, scream, and suffer for me. Then I'm going to make her mine.

I'm not the hero in this story—I'm the monster who claimed what wasn't his to take. I was supposed to sell her to the highest bidder, a marriage that would seal alliances and strengthen her family's power. But seeing her bloodied and defiant changed everything. Her father and brother thought they could use her as a pawn. They didn't realize I was playing a different game entirely. I destroyed them all, leaving her seemingly free—only to chain her to me instead. She thinks she can escape, build a normal life away from the violence she was born into.

She was supposed to be a problem—one I would deal with, forget, erase. Instead, she became my obsession. A hotel maid drowning in her father's debts, working among killers and Bratva bosses, believing silence would keep her safe. Then she saw something she shouldn't. She should have run. Should have screamed. Should have begged. Instead, she held my gaze, defiant and unbroken. Now, I can't let her go. The only way to keep her alive is to make her mine—a marriage that will satisfy Bratva law and place her firmly under my control. What I offer isn't protection. It's possession.

I've started a new game, this one more sinister than the last. Every time she tries to fight what we have, I just pull her deeper into my deception. The slightest disobedience to my rules brings swift punishment. I've pushed her to the edge. She wants to kill me. The only problem is...she loves me.

She's finally under my complete control, yet it's not enough. I hold her body captive but not her heart. She has no money. Nowhere to go. No one to turn to for help. She knows I took everything from her to make her mine, so she fights me at every turn. This began as a game, but 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. One way or another, I'll get what I want. And I want her...all of her.

Fart is desperate to make friends and have fun. But no one likes a fart -- not even a fart with a heart. With plenty of laughs and even more heart, this delightful picture book, adapted for audio, shows that even the smelliest among us can find a friend in this world. It's hard out there for a...

Cam and Holly have a picture-perfect marriage and life: a beautiful house in the suburbs and two adorable little boys. Cam has sold his successful marketing agency to look after the boys while Holly goes full throttle on her career post-maternity leave, and everything’s peachy. ‘Til Cam discovers Holly has been having an affair with a colleague. Heartbroken but pragmatic, Cam sees the situation as an opportunity to confess his own infidelity with his 21-year-old assistant.

Most of us mosey between single, dating and committed in a half-rapturous, half-tortured loop for a large portion of our lives. There's no right or wrong when it comes to love, life and relationships. There are no rules and there is no normal when it comes to the heart; it's different for each...

Ana and Louis are tired after a long day at school and kinder. They just want to watch TV...but Mum wants to play battle! She has a whole bunch of new moves to try out and there's simply no stopping her. 'Just FIVE minutes!' pleads Mum. 'Pleasepleaseplease?'
So the kids drag themselves off the couch. Mum PROMISES not to be too rough and that there will be absolutely NO TICKLING. So Ana and Louis prepare to take on Battle Mum! Hopefully they can complete the game before Dad gets home...and wants to play too!

Bath-time is fun! There's the bubbles, the bath toys and lots of splashing of course. But have you ever wondered what it's like for the bath? Scaredy Bath does not like bath time...the piping hot water, the gooey muck and especially not the small, boisterous grubby ones that shout and splash and make Scaredy all mucky! What's a bath to do? Will Scaredy Bath ever enjoy bath time?

Abby runs her own agency, and when she calls in the web contractors for her new site, none other than the gorgeous, sexy, young Marcus turns up. Abby had met Marcus at a party a few weeks earlier, and they had an amazing one-night stand. Marcus is determined to prove to Abby that he is wise beyond his years and knows what he wants. Abby is not so sure.... She must decide whether to follow her head or her heart.

After Hannah Atkins, the magazine world’s most unlikely beauty editor, is dumped for the local TV weather girl, she adopts some hardcore rules to attain the perfect life. She will learn how to blend her eye makeup so she doesn’t resemble an over-emotional beauty queen. She will triumph over the catty mag-hags waiting to see her trip in her new-season Jimmy Choos. She will not drunkenly disgrace herself at achingly hip PR launches. She will not accidentally go home with inappropriate men. And she absolutely will not fall in love with one of them....