Showing results by author "Maya McKenna" in All Categories

His daughter found me first. Then he came to claim me. I rented a cabin in Cold Creek to finish illustrating my book. I didn't expect to befriend an eight-year-old at the general store, or for her father to show up during the blizzard and carry me home. Nash Brody is the fire chief, the single dad, the man everyone in town relies on. He's steady and strong and looks at me like I'm something he didn't know he needed. When the power goes out and I end up drawing by his fireplace with his daughter in my lap, I realize I'm not just weathering a storm. I'm falling into a family. And when ...

I got lost in the mountains. He found me. One wrong turn. That's all it took. Now my car is buried in snow, my phone is dead, and the only shelter for miles belongs to a growling giant who looks at me like I'm the first woman he's seen in years. Boone Callahan doesn't do company. Doesn't do conversation. Doesn't do soft. But when he carries me through the blizzard and locks us inside his cabin, something shifts. His hands are rough. His voice is gruff. And the way he watches me peel off my wet clothes makes me forget I'm supposed to be scared. Three days until the roads clear. One bed. And ...

He saved my life. Now he won't let me go. ER nurse Sloane Winters is running for her life when she crashes in the mountains, bleeding from a bullet wound. She begs the massive stranger who finds her not to take her to a hospital—they'll kill her there. So ex-Special Forces medic Cade Wolfe does the only thing his training allows: he kidnaps her. She wakes up three days later, stitched up and handcuffed to his bed. Cade knows she's in danger. Hit teams are searching the mountain roads, and she's too weak to run. So he keeps her—changing her bandages, feeding her, protecting her—even ...

He trains wild horses. I didn't realize I was next. My grandmother left me a horse I can't ride and a grief I can't shake. Braveheart is wild, stubborn, and only responds to one man--a quiet horse trainer with patient hands and eyes that see too much. Ezra Vance doesn't push. He just says, "We'll go slow," and teaches me to breathe, to trust, to stop being afraid. His calm voice steadies the horse. His steady presence undoes me. I came to Silver Spur planning to sell the mare and run. But somewhere between the riding lessons and the sunset conversations, I realize he hasn't just been ...

He's supposed to be dead. Instead, he's keeping me captive in paradise. Wildlife biologist Gemma Pierce discovers billionaire tech CEO Thorne Ashford bleeding in the wilderness—except the world thinks he died eighteen months ago. When she saves his life, he makes her an offer she's too broke to refuse: stay the winter in his hidden bunker, and he'll pay her more than her failed research grant. Thorne can't let her leave. Not when assassins are still hunting him. Not when she's the first real thing in his world of lies. Not when her curves and awkward brilliance have become his obsession. ...

When Freya's car breaks down at 2 AM in the middle of nowhere, she doesn't expect to be rescued by six feet of protective mountain muscle. Ryan Hawthorne is everything she's running from—stable, commanding, and dangerously capable of seeing through her carefully built walls. He's also 38 to her 23, with calloused hands and a voice that makes her shiver every time he calls her sweetheart. "You're safe with me now," he promises when her past threatens to drag her back into darkness. "I protect what's mine." Freya came to Thunder Creek to disappear. She never expected to find sanctuary in ...

When a grumpy mountain man agrees to supply her festival, she doesn’t expect him to claim more than her pumpkins… Event planner Tessa Langley is desperate - her business, her future, and her pride are all riding on the Cedar Falls Harvest Festival. There’s just one problem: the only pumpkin farmer within a hundred miles is a brooding, broad-shouldered recluse who hates crowds… and city girls. Brody Kane has three rules: no festivals, no complications, and no getting close to anyone who can break his heart. Tessa is a walking violation of all three. But her fire, curves, and stubborn...

I crashed into his fence. He caught me before I fell apart. I was supposed to be coordinating a wedding four hours away. Instead, I'm stranded on a cowboy's ranch in the middle of a blizzard, crying over a car I can't drive and a job I'm going to lose. Cade Sullivan doesn't let me spiral. He just pulls me out of the snow, wraps his coat around me, and says, "Someone else can handle it." No one's ever said that to me before. He makes me sit. Makes me eat. Makes me stop apologizing for existing. And when I finally let go of the panic, I realize he's been holding me the whole time. The storm ...

When my van goes up in flames, I don't expect to be rescued by six feet of protective mountain man perfection. Knox Rivera is everything I'm not - rooted, stable, completely comfortable in his small-town world. He's also fifteen years older than me, with broad shoulders that fill doorways and hazel eyes that see straight through my carefully constructed walls. "You're staying with me," he growls when I have nowhere else to go. "I'm not letting anything happen to you." He should intimidate me. Instead, he makes me feel safer than I ever have in my life. I came to Pine Ridge to rebuild my ...

Four ruthless mountain men. Four women running from danger. And one remote wilderness where captivity feels a lot like devotion. In the Heartland Heroes Collection, survival is never simple, and protection comes with a price. A tech billionaire presumed dead hides in a fortified bunker. A former Special Forces medic refuses to release the woman he saved. A reclusive hunter stalks the criminals preying on his land. A scarred rancher steals women from the horrors chasing them. Each heroine arrives in the mountains hunted, broken, or desperate. Each hero steps in without asking permission. ...

He steals women from danger. He's never wanted to keep one before. Wren Blackwell escaped a trafficking ring three weeks ago and has been living in her car, terrified they'll find her. When horse rancher Flint Everett discovers her starving in the woods, he doesn't ask permission—he takes her. Carries her home. Locks the doors. Refuses to let her leave until she's healed. She's a prisoner again. Except this cage has soft beds, hot meals, and a scarred giant who tends her wounds with devastating gentleness. Flint has been rescuing tr*fficked women for fifteen years—ever since he lost his...

He's twice my size and looks at me like I'm made of glass. I came to Cold Creek to audit the lumber mill's books. I didn't expect the owner to show up at my cabin in a blizzard, take one look at me, and announce I was staying with him. Holt Jennings is enormous. Bearded. Quiet. His hands could crush me, but he touches me like I'm precious. When I ask why he's still single, he looks away and says, "Never found anyone who wanted to be held by hands like these." I want to be held by those hands. I want to be held down. I want to show him that everything about him is exactly what I've been ...

He told me to leave the mountain. I didn't listen. The ranger warned me that a storm was coming. I needed one more shot, and then I'd go. But the blizzard hit fast, and now I'm trapped in his remote station with a man who's equal parts frustrated and fascinating. Wes Hartley doesn't waste words. He just looks at me with those sad eyes and says, "You could have died out there." I know. I know I was reckless. But when he wraps a blanket around my shoulders and pulls me against his chest "for warmth," I stop feeling sorry and start feeling something else entirely. Four days. One ranger station...

When my BMW skids up a gravel mountain road, I don’t expect to end the day stranded in a storm and falling hard for the man I came to destroy. As a high-powered environmental lawyer, I’m used to wielding cease-and-desist orders like weapons. This trip to Colorado was supposed to be quick and bloodless: serve papers to Cruz Construction, shut them down, and catch my flight back to the city. Then I meet Dane Cruz. Six-foot-four of raw muscle, golden skin, and work-roughened hands that know how to build more than just homes. He’s supposed to be the villain in my legal brief, but he sees ...

When the town’s fire chief shows up for an inspection, she doesn’t expect him to reignite an old flame… After a messy divorce, Lila Morgan is back in Cedar Falls, knee-deep in corn silk and tangled extension cords as she helps her brother prepare the family’s haunted maze. The last thing she needs is Sawyer Grant—her brother’s best friend, first crush, and the man she’s spent a decade trying to forget—walking back into her life in full fire chief uniform. Sawyer has three priorities: protect his town, protect his crew, and never touch the one woman he’s wanted for ten ...

He's been watching me for days. I should be terrified. When true crime podcaster Mari Vance hikes into the mountains to investigate a cold case, she doesn't realize she's being hunted by two men - one who wants to hurt her, and one who's been protecting her from the shadows. Garrett Blackwood is a reclusive wildlife photographer who knows every inch of these mountains. He's tracked Mari's stalker for three days, documented every threat, and when the danger closes in, he doesn't ask permission - he takes her. His hidden cabin. His protection. His rules. He's not the monster. He's the man ...

She came for peace and quiet. He gave her heat she never saw coming. Romance author Angeline Winters needs one thing this December—silence. A snow-covered cabin at Morrison Ranch should be the perfect place to finish her overdue novel and escape the noise of her failed relationship. But when a blizzard hits and she nearly freezes trying to find the cabin, her rescuer isn’t a fantasy cowboy—he’s the real thing. Wyatt Morrison doesn’t have time for stranded city girls or Christmas miracles. He’s got cattle to feed, a ranch to run, and an eight-year-old daughter who just asked ...

Four snowy nights. Four rugged men. One mountain town where Christmas heat burns brighter than the firelight. From storm-stranded strangers and snowed-in rescues to small-town traditions and unexpected second chances, four women arrive in Aspen Grove just as the holidays are about to change everything forever. These are the kind of heroes who shovel your driveway before dawn, pull you close when the cold sets in, and make forever feel inevitable—gruff on the outside, fiercely loyal underneath, and all-in when it counts. And when forced proximity, crackling chemistry, and Christmas magic ...

He's five years younger, way too charming, and absolutely not part of my plan. My car broke down on a dirt road in Montana. The cowboy who towed me in has dimples, a wicked grin, and no intention of letting me leave. Jake Slade is the definition of trouble — young, gorgeous, and he flirts like breathing. I'm older, freshly out of a broken engagement, and smarter than this. One night, I tell myself. Until the car's fixed. But he keeps making me laugh. Keeps looking at me like I'm art. And when I try to call him a fling, he backs me against the barn wall and says, "I've never been serious ...

I'm being hunted. But the most dangerous predator just claimed me as his. Investigative journalist Piper Thornton went undercover to expose an illegal hunting ring—and walked straight into a trap. Now she's running through the mountains with killers on her trail, and the man tracking her through his rifle scope isn't who she thinks. Boone Savage stopped guiding trophy hunters years ago, sickened by the cruelty. Now he hunts the hunters—tracking poachers across his private reserve, documenting their crimes. When he realizes the blonde running through his forest is prey, not predator, ...