Standalone Romance Bundle Set 1

Hiding from her ex, Shay takes refuge in an unoccupied cabin. Too bad the owner, NFL quarterback Josh, thinks she’s a groupie.

When NFL star Brock runs into his childhood friend and former neighbor Ainsley, all grown up and drop-dead gorgeous, he wants her. Too bad she friend-zones him.

He’s an NFL all-star and single father. She’s his daughter’s nanny. Too bad acting on their mutual attraction will ignite a firestorm.

NFL all-star Jax is intrigued by young widow Autumn, but when she finally dips her toe in the dating pool, disturbing things start happening to her. Too bad the police won’t take the incidents seriously.

NFL star Greg Sinclair has always been head over heels for his wife. Too bad she doesn’t remember him or the danger she’s in. Good thing he’d die for her.

An NFL player, his fake girlfriend, and a family camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. What could go wrong?

An actress with a dangerous stalker and the billionaire who wants to protect her.

Missing and presumed dead, when billionaire Nathan Hewitt is rescued from a deserted island a year after his yacht disappeared, everyone is thrilled. Except Chloe James.

He’s a billionaire used to being in charge.

She’s a woman who loathes being told what to do.

He’s a billionaire posing as a chef.

She’s an elementary school teacher who hates liars.

“Here’s one, Cait,” Amy said from the couch, holding up Cait’s phone as if Cait could see it from where she stood at the kitchen counter chopping carrots for their dinner. 

“Amy,” Cait said to her best friend and roommate, her tone slightly annoyed, “I told you. I can choose my dates myself.”

“Too late,” Amy said with a giggle. “I swiped right. Besides, he’s super hot.”

Wearing a bemused smile, Cait shook her head. If the man reached out to her, Cait could just ignore him. She didn’t know why she’d signed up on that dating app in the first place. Scratch that. Yes, she did. Because Amy had pressured her into it. “Put my phone down before you do something I’ll regret.”

Amy laughed, but at least she complied. “Thanks for making dinner tonight, Cait.”

“No problem. You’ve been working a lot of overtime, so I’m happy to step in.”

“I’ll clean up, of course,” Amy said.

“Yes, you will.” Though Cait got home earlier than Amy, she still had a lot of homework to review from her second grade class. She loved teaching those little seven and eight year olds, but it was also exhausting. Still, she was grateful to have a good job. Growing up, she’d seen her mother struggle to support her and her sister after their father had left when Cait had been a pre-teen. Ever since, Cait had made it a top priority to make sure she could support herself, and as long as she earned enough to meet her extremely modest needs, she was satisfied.

Amy got up from the couch and came into their tiny kitchen, then leaned against the counter. “At least all this overtime is giving me extra money.”

Cait nodded, wishing she could get paid overtime for all the extra hours she put in, but that’s not how teaching worked. Didn’t matter. She loved what she did and she was frugal. Though money had its place, it wasn’t the most important thing to her. No. The most important thing was doing what she loved and finding happiness among life’s challenges. 

She considered her challenges and knew the biggest one was her love life—or lack of a love life. Smiling, she shook her head as she put the carrots into a steamer and turned on the heat under the pot.

* * *

Luke Mills stretched his back as he stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows in his office, which overlooked downtown Los Angeles. He’d just finished an extremely important conference call, one that hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped it would. As founder and CEO of Mills International Holdings, a billion dollar company he’d built from the ground up, Luke was frequently under a tremendous amount of pressure. Pressure which made the muscles all over his body knot up in protest. To mitigate that, he made sure to spend at least an hour each day working out. It was amazing how much that physical exertion helped him reduce his stress. When those little endorphins flowed through his veins, he felt invincible. Too bad he wasn’t.

He shook his head. He would figure things out.

A knock sounded at the closed door of his office.

“Come in,” he called out as he turned around.

“How’d the call go?” Brad, the COO asked as he strode inside.

Luke sat behind his desk and Brad sat in one of the two chairs in front of the desk.

“Not great,” Luke said, before giving him the particulars.

Brad frowned. “Not to pile bad news on top of bad news, but TZK is talking about pulling out of the deal.”

Luke frowned deeply. Just what he needed. One more problem to deal with. Well, that’s what he did. Like a fireman, he was always putting out fires. Trouble was, if he didn’t extinguish his fires quickly they could turn into conflagrations that could burn his business severely.

They discussed how they could handle the issue, then Luke thanked Brad and Brad left, closing the door behind him.

Trying not to feel overwhelmed by all that he had on his plate, Luke clenched his jaw, then picked up his phone. He needed to get out of his head for a minute and he knew the perfect way to do it.

He opened the dating app he’d joined on a whim the night before. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been a complete whim. He’d been thinking about it for a couple of weeks. Now, as he pulled up his profile, he softly chuckled as he read the fiction he’d created.

Name: Luke

Occupation: Chef

Interests and Activities: Bowling, biking, hiking, camping, fishing, really anything outdoors. 

Tired of dating women who seemed to be interested in him only for his bank account, Luke had decided to create a fake profile. Well, mostly fake. The picture he’d posted was really him, and he really did enjoy those things he’d listed as a hobby—although he rarely had time to do any of them. Picturing himself as a chef made him smirk. Yes, he enjoyed cooking, but he couldn’t imagine doing it full time. Then again, maybe that would be an awesome job. Had to be less stressful than running his billion dollar corporation.

He wondered what woman would be interested in the person he’d created in his profile—a man who wasn’t a billionaire, but rather a man who lived a regular life. He was intrigued by the thought, actually. In a way it felt as if he was infiltrating the dating site as a way to do some research. Kind of like those shows where the boss pretended to be an employee to see what it was really like to work at his own company. Luke wanted to see what it was like to date a woman who was interested in him for him, separate from his financial worth. A woman who had no idea he was a billionaire but instead believed he was a regular Joe.

The app notified him that several women had shown interest in his profile since he’d created it the night before. He skimmed through the profiles of the women who had apparently swiped right on him. One in particular caught his eye. Cait. Honey blonde hair and an engaging smile. Enjoyed outdoor activities. Taught elementary school. 

He stared at her picture for several long moments, then on impulse, he sent her a message.

“Thanks for nothing!” Shay Campbell yelled at the fading tail lights that belonged to the man she’d hitched a ride with—the man who had dumped her in the middle of nowhere. He hadn’t even had the decency to let her get her one small suitcase out of his trunk. Now all she had was the pitiful contents in the purse slung over her shoulder. That, and the clothes on her back.

Slowly turning in a circle, she looked around. No one was in sight. The only thing she saw were pine trees. Lots and lots of pine trees. She was on a road in the Sierra-Nevada mountains of California, on her way to a new life—or at least what she hoped was a new life.

“Great,” she muttered. “What else can go wrong?”

That morning she’d had the last fight with her boyfriend that she was ever going to have. How did she know this? Because after he’d punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her, she’d finally had enough. After he’d stormed out of their tiny apartment, she’d packed her few belongings into her suitcase, walked to the nearby grocery store and bought a pack of gum. While paying for her gum she’d gotten forty-five dollars cash back, which had emptied her bank account. Then, with resolve pushing her forward, she’d caught a bus to the Greyhound station and bought a one-way ticket from Fresno to Sacramento. She would have preferred to travel farther, but that was all she could afford. 

Reno was the vague destination she had in mind, although she really just wanted a place to start over.  She’d visited Reno once, a long time ago, and when she thought about the bright lights she’d seen on that visit, they seemed like a beacon of hope.

Once she’d reached Sacramento, and with her cash gone, she’d been kind of stumped about what to do next. Although she’d known it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, she’d hitched a ride with a man who said he was on his way to Reno, which was well over a hundred miles from Sacramento. He’d told her he wasn’t going straight there, but he was the only one who’d offered her a ride, so she’d taken it. Everything had been going fine until he’d decided to hit on her, and when she told him to shove it, he’d pulled over and shoved her right out of his car.

Now, as Shay sighed in frustration that things never seemed to go her way, she unzipped her purse and dug around until she found her phone. Even as she wrapped her fingers around it, she wondered what the point was. There was no one she could call, except maybe an Uber. Although since her money was nearly gone, that would be pointless.

Despite that, she took her phone out, almost tempted to call Will, her boyfriend. Scratch that. Ex-boyfriend. Okay, she wasn’t really tempted. She wasn’t that desperate yet. In the end it didn’t matter because when she looked at the screen she saw that she had no service.

What did she expect? She was in the middle of freaking nowhere.

Sighing loudly, she knew her only option would be to try to grab a ride with the next car that came along. Maybe a nice woman this time. Or a family. She would even settle for a man who looked nice.

Then she heard the voice of reason in her head—or maybe it was her older sister Megan’s voice. “Shay, don’t be foolish. Do you want to end up dead?”

Of course she didn’t want to end up dead, but she also didn’t want to walk fifty miles—or however far it was to the nearest town. At least it was June so she wouldn’t freeze to death.

With one positive in mind, she started walking as she waited for a car to come along. There hadn’t been much traffic as she and the creep had been driving, so she knew it could be a while before her ride appeared on the horizon.

Glancing at the clothes she’d put on before racing out the door—a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops—she knew that when the sun went down in a few hours, the comfortable temperature she was feeling at that moment would rapidly drop. 

She kept on walking, her purse slung across her body, her ears attuned to the sound of an approaching car or truck or motorcycle. Basically anything with at least two wheels that could carry her away. And as time went on she became less picky about who she would take a ride with.

She walked and walked and walked, but no one came. Not one single person. Millions of people lived in California, so why wasn’t even one of them driving on this road?

A breeze whispered through the pine trees, and for a moment she forgot her predicament as she enjoyed the simple peace of solitude. Lifting her face to the gentle wind, she closed her eyes and flung her arms outward as she listened to the trill of a bird. But like an idiot she didn’t stop walking, and after taking a few steps in her bliss, she tripped on a rock and went down on the asphalt. Hard.

“Dang it,” she said through clenched teeth. Her eyes were definitely open by then, and when she saw the drops of blood seeping out of the scrapes on her knees and palms of her hands, she nearly screamed in frustration. 

Daring the universe to send a car down the road at just that moment, she sat down right in the middle of the road. Of course no one came. Still.

If she could at least wash the blood off of her hands…

That’s when it hit her.

She didn’t have any water. Or food. Or anything.

Trying to quell the panic that swam into her head, she turned toward the sun, which hung low in the sky, and guessed she had less than two hours before that ginormous ball of fire would sink behind the mountains, extinguishing all light. Trudging onward, she focused on the road ahead.

Her inner voice taunted her with the reality that no one was going to come looking for her. Her mother was too busy with her new boyfriend to realize she’d left town, and her sister Megan hadn’t spoken to her ever since Shay had told her to mind her own business when Megan had tried to tell her how to live her life. 

Then she thought about her girlfriends. Will had pretty much scared all of them away, so basically she had no one to turn to. Besides, Fresno was nearly two hundred miles in the other direction. Not exactly a quick trip to come pick her up, even if she had cell service.

She had no one to turn to. No one except Will. 

She didn’t want to think about his reaction when he realized she’d bolted.

Holding back a soul-deep sense of regret at her choice in men, when Shay turned her thoughts away from Will, her mind went to how thirsty she was and how much her hands and knees had begun to throb. And then she noticed that the soles of her flip flops were much thinner than she’d thought they were, and that the ground under her feet was pretty dang hard.

The heat from the sun poured over her like hot molten lava—which she knew she would wish for once the sun set. But at that moment she desperately wished the road provided some shade.

Well, genius, you could always walk under the trees, you know.

Her gaze slid to her right where a thick forest lined the road. Thick with shade, yes, but also possibly thick with creatures she couldn’t see. Like bears. Or maybe mountain lions. Then she looked at the carpet of pine needles under the trees and knew it would be easier on her feet to walk there rather than on the asphalt—assuming her flip flops didn’t fall apart or fall off.

Moving off of the road and onto the pine needle carpet, she listened extra hard for cars since she would have to dash back to the road if someone came along. Turned out she didn’t need to worry about that. No one came. Not a soul.

She’d been walking for nearly an hour when she felt the first blister forming on the big toe of her left foot. Anger at Will and at the man who had dumped her there grew inside her like a geyser getting ready to erupt. What kind of person dropped a woman off in the middle of nowhere just because she wasn’t interested in him?

Clenching her jaw in fury, she was so focused on her anger that she didn’t hear the car coming until it had flown right by her.

“Hey,” she yelled as she ran onto the road, her arms waving in a frantic attempt to get the driver’s attention. “Hey! Come back!”

Moments later, the car disappeared over a rise.

Wanting to scream in frustration, she trudged on, this time staying on the shoulder so she wouldn’t miss her chance to hitch a ride if another car came along.

Fifteen minutes later, when she came upon a rutted dirt road and saw a nearly-concealed cabin, a smile lit her face.

The moment she woke she knew something was seriously wrong. Glancing around the room where she lay, she recognized that she was in a hospital. But why? What had happened? Her mind was fuzzy, her world uncertain, and when she wasn’t even sure who she was, panic set in.

A tall, attractive man who she guessed was in his late twenties approached her bed, his eyes shiny with relief. The look on his face gave her a sense of calm. But only for a moment. Who was this stranger reaching for her?

As he drew near, she recoiled. 

He stopped, his eyebrows tugging together. “Olivia?”

Was that her name? It felt familiar, but she couldn’t be sure. 

The sincere look of concern in his eyes made her want to agree, to nod, to pretend that she knew he was talking about her. Still, she couldn’t quite get there. Not when everything felt so uncertain, so…unknown.

When she didn’t reply, he stayed near the foot of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

Blankets over her lower body kept her from seeing what damage she had to her legs, but her right ankle ached, and her head pounded in time with her heartbeat. She reached up and felt a small bandage on her head. A head injury. That was bad, right?

What had happened? She was in the hospital, so obviously she was hurt or sick. Had she been in some kind of accident? Had she been attacked? Not knowing scared her more than the fact that she was laid up in a hospital bed.

Not wanting to think about how much she didn’t know, she focused on her pounding head, but that only made her grimace.

“Do you want morphine?” the man asked, his forehead creased.

Morphine? Would that knock her out or just take the edge off? She wanted the pain to vanish, but she also wanted her wits about her. Especially with this stranger hovering around her. Maybe she should ask him to leave. But what if he had answers? 

“I…” she began, but her voice was scratchy. Swiveling her head to find some water, when it was just out of reach, she closed her eyes in frustration.

The man was by her side in two long strides. “Here.” He held the straw to her lips. “Just sips.”

She complied without argument, and when she’d had enough she leaned away from the straw. The man stepped back, taking the glass away. Lifting her gaze to his face, when his grey eyes met hers with an unflinching stare, a stare that said I know you well, she felt unsettled. How could he know her when she had no clue who he was?

Wanting to focus anywhere but his eyes—eyes that seemed to see into her very soul—she turned her attention to the rest of him. 

He was tall—over six feet. And he was built. Powerful biceps were visible in his short-sleeved t-shirt, and the way the fabric lay against his stomach hinted at six-pack abs. His dark hair was cut short and his strong jaw was covered by a perfectly trimmed beard. But those eyes... Something about them drew her in. 

He was attractive, no doubt about that. But that didn’t help. She still had no idea who he was.

“Who…are you?”

He took a step back, his brows knitting together. “I’m Greg.” A muscle worked in his jaw. “Your husband.”

Husband? She was married? To him? Why didn’t she recognize him? 

This all felt wrong.

Narrowing her eyes, she studied him, looking for any sign of deceit.

Was he telling the truth? But why would he lie?

When she didn’t reply he sent her a long pained look before turning toward the window.

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