Showing results by narrator "Connor Crais" in All Categories

From USA Today bestselling author Claudia Burgoa comes the fourth novella in the Kentbury Tales series.

I’m 3,000 miles from New York City. Three thousand miles from the pain, betrayal, and heartache of a string of failed relationships. Including the relationship with my parents. Back in the Bay area, I can start fresh. Become one with the sea again. Rise or fall on the tide of my own choices. But on the first day of my bright new life, the darkest shadows of my past follow me through my office door. Both shadows have names. And I refuse to let these men into my future.

This summer was supposed to be my pre-graduation reward, doing nothing but catch up with all the fun my friends had while my nose was to the academic grindstone. Instead, I’ve been guilted into helping out with the family’s cleaning business. At least there’s a consolation prize. My client is fabulously successful, insanely rich Chadwick St. Clair. We have sort of a history. As a pigtailed kid, I lived to torment him. When I grew old enough to notice his hard-as-steel body, warm eyes, and gentle voice that talked me through some hard times, I crushed on him. Hard.

A devastating betrayal shattered our relationship before it ever began, my attempt to escape going horribly wrong. But telling Xander it’s over proves to be a dangerous mistake, revealing a ruthless side of him I was only beginning to suspect. Surrounding me with bodyguards, he swears he’ll go to any lengths to protect me. I swear he’s keeping me prisoner.

He has it together. I’m falling apart. Two broken souls, one emotional book.

The good news is that the Gold Quartet has been invited to play one of their favorite concertos as guest artists with the noted Berlin Philharmonic. The bad news? The concert falls on Ruby’s birthday, so she’ll be traveling to Europe with her fellow musicians instead of celebrating at home with family and friends. The guys hatch a plan to make it up to her, a plan to celebrate Ruby’s birthday in a way she’ll never forget.

I didn’t have a lot, but what I had I was proud of. I was raised to keep my head down and work hard. I followed the rules, rarely straying off the straight and narrow path. That’s why, when the opportunity to get wild and have a little fun presented itself, I jumped on it - or more like, on him. The handsome cowboy from the bar. It was one night in Vegas. I never expected to see him again. I definitely never imagined he’d show up in my small hometown seven years later, only to discover the daughter he never knew about.

After the breakup of Kings Quarters, Oliver Eastland joins a new band on tour where he’ll do much of the same: make music and perpetrate practical jokes on his new bandmates. Despite the perks of band life, he’s eager to make an enduring romantic connection. Rowan Edwards is an aspiring jewelry designer slogging away her days as an assistant photo editor while enduring the sexual harassment of her lecherous boss. Under a mountain of college debt, she can’t yet afford to leave her job and pursue her artistic dreams.

Can a spirited, down-to-earth influencer get an uptight hockey player out of his shell? Josh: I am a warrior. That’s been my motto since I recovered from a near-death accident when I was younger. Now, I enjoy my nice, settled life in Dallas playing pro hockey - a boring life is better than being dead. I’m not a party guy or an adventurer; I like my routine and peace and quiet. So, being traded to New York is the worst possible change that could happen. And, meeting unfiltered and fascinating Sara Carrington throws my life into even more chaos.

Rock-n-roll is hell on relationships. Especially his. Aya Aldringham has it all, but wealth can't make her father love her or give her more time with her dying grandfather. Nor can it stop her from yearning for Nash Porter - the boy she never forgot. The boy who saved her. Nash doesn't do relationships, not after watching his parents use each other's feelings as weapons. When he finds Aya again, after so many years, he can't help but get close - really close - like in her bed and in her arms.

There is a new player in the Naked City, and I want it all. The money. The casinos. The power...that so few can handle and even less deserve. There are obstacles. Rules of engagement that limit my action and shorten my reach. But the fates have been shuffled and the cards now dealt. It is time to begin.

One stormy night brought us together. I woke up in a stranger's bed, somewhere in a secluded cabin in the dark. I thought I was alone...until he spoke. He saved me, but I want more.

A sorted little world within my circle of friends and family had carried on for years without my knowledge. So when Liam tipped over the rock I was hiding under and exposed his world to me, one fraught with stigma and societal disrespect, I struggled to decide if I should find a bigger rock to hide under or embrace it. He was, after all, the most charming of men, the most handsome of anyone I'd ever dated, and the most incredible lover I could ever have imagined.

I’m not sure how I ended up in Heartwood Lake. One minute, I’m trying to help a friend, and the next, I’m being shipped off to a small town. And the only person to blame for my predicament is Callahan Thorndale.

She has never lived a normal life outside of the dance studio. He has never fallen in love. Levi O’Connor is trouble. At 22, there are a few things that he was sure he would never do: go back home, and fall in love. After spending months on tour with his band and making bad decisions that landed him on the front cover of numerous tabloids, it is not until an incident happens at one of his shows that everything changes.

Rory Costas, Arcane Transporter, finds herself babysitting a trio of badass Arbiters, including the highly distracting Zev Aslanov, as they track down a magical serum that shouldn't exist and a killer who's targeting the researchers behind it. As if that wasn't enough for the fledgling Arcane entrepreneur to handle, the growing attraction to Zev is shifting into potential relationship territory, a terrifying road that could expose her lifelong secret behind her magical ability. But that's not the only hazard ahead. One of the Arbiters is Zev's ex-girlfriend.

After surviving my worst nightmare, Xander proved to be my hero once again, shielding me the best he could. Our peace is cut short, brutally destroyed when a vicious killer strikes too close to home, revealing devastating secrets that should have remained forever buried. Cutting me out of his life with the cruelest words possible, Sin left me broken, my heart shattered in pieces. After weeks without him, his unexpected reappearance catapults me into a tailspin, torn between the fierce desire that never seems to diminish and my inability to trust him again.

"Definitely Kinky": Ruby's known the guys in her string quartet forever. But after five years, Ethan, the viola player, is still a mystery: quiet, unassuming, and intensely dedicated to the music they create. Who would've thought he'd be the one to tilt her world sideways using only his voice, his fingers, and a bundle of rope?

Ex-Cop Paxton “Tank” Sokolofski’s life is shattered—first by a bullet, then by a woman. Now he passes his days tracking down cheating spouses. Not his idea of a good time. When Cori Transue moves in next door, things get a little more interesting. She’s a sultry little firecracker, and the way she looks at him definitely gets his attention. However, he doesn’t need a woman added to the mix, especially one with even more baggage than he has.

I go long, I go deep, but I never go soft. They call me "The Damage" because I crush it on the field and off. I’m all about the offensive penetration. No one knows the game as well as I do. It doesn’t hurt I’ve got a goal post in my pants. But the moment I see Indiana’s smoky eyes and tight end, I know I’m in trouble.