Showing results by narrator "Joe Mallon" in All Categories

His name is Rafaele Vestri, Rafe to his friends. He’s tall, strong, handsome. Distant. He often comes to the coffee shop where I work, but we don’t talk much. He looks at me, though. Stares at me, his gaze heated, and I can’t help but stare back. I want him, I won’t deny it. I’ve never seen anyone that beautiful, anyone that powerful, in my life. But he’s growing more withdrawn by the day. Something’s up, and he won’t tell. I know about his past - the murder of his family when he was 15. I can imagine how much it must have cost him.

Smoke Jensen is mighty proud of his son Louis for finishing law school. But he can’t help being a little disappointed that Louis isn’t returning to the Sugarloaf Ranch. Instead, he’s setting up his own law practice in nearby Big Rock—a career choice that turns out to be every bit as dangerous as fending off cattle rustlers. The boy’s first case lands him smack in the middle of a heated dispute between two riled-up ranchers over water rights. If Louis can’t settle them down, the whole thing could blow up into a bloody range war.

Some say bad luck comes in threes. And if you’re a bandit, bank robber, or bloodthirsty killer, that bad luck comes in the form of three hard justice-seekers known as the Jackals. Each of the Jackals has his own path to follow: Former Texas Ranger Matt McCulloch is trying to protect a young Commanche from scalphunters.

Gavin King is not boyfriend material. And neither am I. That’s how our friendship works. We flirt and tease and joke, but at the end of the day, playing wingman is preferable to risking my heart.

Whitney Gable is the kind of woman you fight to the death to protect. To keep. To cherish. I've finally learned my lesson, and it's time to prove I'm the man who's worthy of her. I don't care what it takes, because failure is not an option. No matter who or what stands in our way - this time, she'll be mine forever.

A collection of short stories gathered from the far reaches of the Space Team Universe.

A bad boy. A good girl. A second chance that could send them both up in flames. Emily was a cop's daughter, and I was the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. At 18, our affair was wild and completely secret until she left town for college and a better life, and I hit the road to nowhere. Eight years later, we're both back in town. My father is in prison; Emily is selflessly helping her sister. We should be farther apart than we've ever been. But I've never been able to resist temptation, especially when that temptation is Emily.

I've hated Rachel Dawson since I was seven years old. My next-door neighbor and number-one sworn enemy - she's the reason why almost all of our childhood fights ended with me setting something of hers on fire. (Or, vice versa.) She snitched on me when I broke curfew. I snitched on her when she lied about having a boyfriend. We went back and forth like this throughout high school, both vowing to never talk to each other again when we went off to college. But that was until she showed up at my apartment during my senior year and asked me for a temporary place to stay.

He’s too hot for this small town. Too polished for this seedy bar. And a hundred percent my type. Our connection is immediate. The desire is blatant. I’ve never felt anything like it. Then, I make the mistake of a lifetime: I let him walk out. I’m still kicking myself when I show up to my best friend’s Wright family pool party. I walk outside and stop dead. He’s here. And he’s a Wright cousin. My best friend’s brothers are off limits, but she never said anything about her cousin.

You can only keep what you can protect. That’s all I’ve ever known. It’s the way I’ve lived my life. Now, everything I never knew I needed is at risk, and I’m not letting anyone take it from me. I won’t let anyone take her from me. They say love is a battlefield, so I’m ready for war. This time, it’s the fight for forever.

After surviving a brilliantly plotted murder attempt, the richest man in San Francisco is looking to hire the best protection money can buy. Enter Matt Jensen, who, for the princely sum of $5000, agrees to escort millionaire John Gillespie and his very fetching daughter on a railway journey from Frisco to Chicago. There’s just one catch: The world’s deadliest killers are coming along for the ride....

He's my business partner, my good friend, and the man I've craved for years. But I've resisted the sexy Brit, and I plan to keep up my walls because I've been there, done that, and I know how much it hurts when you let someone into your heart. Then an opportunity comes along for us to snag the business deal of a lifetime. The catch? We need to pretend we're married to pull off this high-stakes deal. So the clever, charming man with secrets a mile deep becomes my temporary husband, as we travel around Europe.

Past indiscretion with life-altering effects. Macy Spencer hit rock bottom and clawed her way out of the hole her cheating, lying, gambling ex-husband left her in. Drowning in debt and penniless, the single mother of two worked hard to get her life back on track and protect her children from the fallout. But now her ex is in more debt, and his bookie’s knocking on her door for payment. The last thing she needs is the handsome, rough, sexy-as-all-get-out Alec Hall overhearing the threats.

Building a ranching empire is one thing - keeping it out of the hands of robbers, kidnappers, murderers, embezzlers, and every no good opportunist crawling through the Arizona desert is a daily grind for Chet Byrnes. He’s just as likely to rescue a stolen daughter as he is to recover rustled cattle on any given day. But with a family to keep safe and enough real target practice to keep his aim deadly, nothing’s going to stop Chet from bringing his ranch into a bold new era.

There’s nothing like a wedding to bring families together. And there’s no place like the Sugarloaf Ranch to throw a foot-stomping hoedown — even if it turns into a gun-blazing showdown. Smoke and Sally Jensen are delighted that their son Louis is marrying the lovely widow he met during a perilous stagecoach journey through the Donner Pass. The whole family welcomes the bride and her young son with open arms. In fact, everyone is invited to the party — even the handsome stranger who rescued Louis’s twin sister Denise from a runaway mustang.

I’ve known him since we were six, long before he became the professional soccer star he is now. We’ve weaved in and out of one another’s lives as rivals, teammates, friends, and lovers. Until three years ago, when my life took a hit, and I ran back to my small Alaskan town, Lake Starlight, away from anything or anyone that could hurt me.

I can’t believe that I pulled my boss’ name for our company’s annual Secret Santa tradition.... As the devil incarnate, this infuriating, cocky bastard never gives us the holidays off, and he honestly expects us to be grateful for his generous alternative: The Office Party. It’s a mandatory, all-expenses paid trip for two weeks at a surprise luxury resort - where we still have to work 12 to 15 hours a day.

From New York Times best-selling author Meghan March comes the story of the ruthless, calculating billionaire Jericho Forge. India Baptiste, his latest prey, is now caught in the high-stakes game that has become her life since colliding with Forge, and she'll need the luck of the devil to survive.

It’s the dawn of a new century. But on the vast Sugarloaf Ranch not much has changed since legendary gunfighter Smoke Jensen and his wife Sally tamed the land two decades ago. Raising cattle is still a dangerous business — and just as deadly as ever. When Smoke is injured swapping bullets with some cow thieves, Sally puts out a call for help to Matt, Ace, and the rest of the Jensen clan. But time is running out. The bloodthirsty rustlers are ready to strike again — and there are lots more of them. And the Sugarloaf’s last defense is Smoke and Sally’s next of kin....

Have I already told you that I hate my boss today? Sexy as hell or not, this pompous, arrogant, ASSHOLE asked me to pick up his dry cleaning the second I walked through the door. Then he told me that I needed to take his Jaguar to a car wash that was ten miles outside of the city, but only after I needed to stand in a never-ending line to buy some type of limited, hundred-dollar watch. I honestly can't wait to see the look on his face two months from now when I tell him that I'm quitting his company and that he can kiss my ass.