Welcome to alternative dating…the tenth circle of hellIt started simply enough. The editor of Tess Magazine demanded an assignment about dating practices for the urban set. Something fun. Something sexy. Something that the three women working on the assignment could research and really get into.Suddenly, Julia is smitten with a stranger she meets while speed dating, Samantha's coffeehouse dating research is less engaging than the naughty e-mails she's been getting from her pen pal in Italy and Abby is busy dealing with her new roommate, an Irish photographer who looks like sex in pants. Needless to say, there's not much work getting done!So how do you write about relationships when your own love life has been less than noteworthy? Until now…
FAMILY BONDS AND MESSAGES OF LOVEWhile Red Rock, Texas–beloved hometown of the celebrated Fortune family–prepares for its annual Spring Fling dance, three compelling couples discover the joy and passion of falling in love…Despite their long-standing feud and the town's annoying matchmaking efforts, rival business associates can't keep their hands off each other in SECRET KISSES by Ann MajorAfter surviving a robbery, a bank teller realizes that love is all that matters and confesses her secret desire for a courageous cop in HIDDEN HEARTS by Christine RimmerMarried for several years, a husband and wife who've drifted apart find the magic of spring breathing new life into their troubled relationship in DREAM MARRIAGE by Karen Rose Smith
The Bachelors of Bear Creek, Alaska, better watch out!Sexy, Single and Searching by Lori Wilde Devil in a blue dress…Thanks to her conniving great-aunts, shy Cammie Jo Lockhart has won a trip to Alaska to meet the bachelor of her dreams. Only problem–she doesn't think she's adventurous enough to tame the local «wildlife.» Until she receives a special charm and becomes glamour gal Camryn Josephine–a femme fatale who is more than ready to show local playboy pilot Mack McCaulley that he's met his match!Eager, Eligible and Alaskan by Lori Wilde Did you say hot sex?Thanks to a shipboard hypnotist, those very words transform prim-and-proper heiress Sarah Stanhope into Sexy Sadie the stripper. Easygoing Jake Gerard has no idea what he's walked into when he rescues a boa-clad woman from a man dressed as Pepe Le Pew. But as the feathers fly and passions ignite, this very eligible bachelor vows to show Sadie he wants more than just hot sex…but marriage, as well!
Dan All Over Again by Tina WainscottThe catch of a lifetime…Cassie had reeled Dan the fisherman in once before, but panicked at the first mention of babies and joint bank accounts. He thought the divorce from Hurricane Cassie had settled things once and for all. But now he's longing to test those stormy seas again. Trouble is, if he hooks her, will he be brave enough to hold on to her, or will she be the one that got away?The Mountie Steals a Wife by Barbara DunlopThe assignment of a lifetime…Melina Thurston had promised herself that she would not fall for her handsome houseguest in the red suit. She's only supposed to be training her horses, not showing some city boy how to get along in the wild. Logan Maxwell is with the Yukon detachment only temporarily to help solve a recent gold theft. And though at first he suspects his beautiful landlady, he soon realizes he has an even bigger problem-he's fallen for her and there's no getaway plan in sight!
Bailey's Irish Dream by Stephanie DoyleMarried by thirty or else!If still single on her birthday, Baily Monohan promised her family she'd return home and marry her boring childhood sweetheart. But fate has other plans when Baily is involved in an accident with a black Mercedes–driven by a man with an even blacker temper! Daniel Blake is headed east, as well–to stop a wedding! Can these two drive cross-country together without crossing swords? Or perhaps they'll be the ones crossing the threshold–together!Czech Mate by Kate ThomasShe knew all the right moues…Wendy Marek needs to see green–as in money to finance her studies in fashion design in Paris. But to claim her inheritance she must marry. Visiting Czech Peter Havel also needs to see green–as in green card! What will Wendy do with a Czech math genius with the body of an Olympic gold medalist? Well, marry him, of course. However, what will happen to this marriage of convenience when love enters the equation?
The West will never be the same…The Swinging R Ranch by Debbi RawlinsBoston playboy Maxwell Bennett needs cash–fast! So he's thrilled when he inherits a ranch in Nevada…until he discovers that the ranch is actually a brothel and that the «ladies» are all over sixty (the R that's swinging stands for Retiree!). Suddenly, Max has more women than he can handle. But the only one he's interested in is beautiful Abby Cunningham, the town's next mayor. Only she wants nothing to do with The Swinging R. Or its new owner…Whose Line Is It Anyway? by Debbi RawlinsAttorney Taylor Madison is tired of the Boston rat race. She needs to slow down and appreciate the finer things in life. And oh-so-sexy rancher Clint Southwick is definitely fine! So, when they hit it off at Max's wedding, Taylor decides a little fling might be in order…until a mix-up with their cell phones leaves her wondering if Clint is as honest as he seems. But how can she expose the man when she's quickly losing her heart to him?
BACHELOR BY DESIGNWhether you're looking for lattes or love, you'll find both at Cafe Romeo…Building contractor Trace Callahan is determined to stay single–even if his aunt reads romance in his coffee grounds–until he finds the perfect woman. And that woman is definitely unlike Chloe D'Onofrio, the hot-tempered interior designer who bumps heads with him at every turn. She's too opinionated, too unpredictable, much too pretty–and keeps a cache of stolen diamonds under her staircase. So naturally, Trace can't help falling in love….TOO HOT FOR COMFORTSomething was sizzling…and it wasn't steak…Sally Beaumont thought a call-in cooking show was a brilliant idea…at the time. Unfortunately, listeners thought Too Hot for Comfort referred to the bedroom, not the kitchen! Suddenly Sally was the local expert on S.E.X.–a topic that simply wasn't discussed in Comfort, Texas. Someone was even making threats, but more disturbing was that Jake Nolte–retired cop, sexy next-door neighbor–was watching over her…driving her crazy with thoughts of S.E.X.
There should be a four-letter word for beauty.She has more shoes than Sarah Jessica Parker and a skin-care system that could make Madonna swoon, but unlike her celebrity counterparts, Grace Noonan doesn't have it all. Her latest utterly-eligible-yet-maddeningly-unavailable boyfriend has just revealed that having sex with her is one thing and having babies quite another, forcing Grace to move on–again. And now that her employer–a top cosmetics company once devoted to «beauty beyond thirty»–is pursuing a teenaged supermodel as its future face, this thirty-four-year-old marketing exec is starting to wonder if she is going to get it all before the closing credits. Could it be time for Grace to back out of the beauty race and trade the singles scene for the sperm bank? Or is there something even this savvy bombshell has yet to discover about life and love in New York City?
Librarian Molly Brewster had successfully created a new identity for herself until Deputy Sheriff Holt Tanner started asking questions about her past. Molly couldn't help but look to the ground when he watched her with his soulful brown eyes and waited for her to answer. In Holt, she sensed a need as deep as her own–to be loved completely…and without fear.Holt had a case to solve and faced a beguiling librarian with secrets. He wanted to ease the pain that kept Molly from confiding in him, but he didn't quite trust her…or himself. Would his search for the truth force Molly into hiding, or would his love set her free and make her his?
She'd never had a real home…So it had never been about «what to keep» in her life; she'd not experienced that luxury. Then Juliette Carlton got a call, one that said she'd inherited a fortune–and could she please claim it? Juliette didn't know what to do. She was a down-on-her-luck Las Vegas card dealer with $38 in her bank account.Had she hit the jackpot? Or was it just another loss?At first it seemed the latter. The «fortune» was a dilapidated 140-year-old antebellum house that belonged to an uncle she barely remembered. Beneath layers of dust, every inch of the ancestral home was shrouded in secrets–secrets that would put in doubt everything Juliette ever thought she knew.She would have to decide what to give away. But along the way, she found what to keep….