Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Dauer" in All Categories

When your bestie thinks her new boyfriend might be a bookie, you do a little digging. Which is precisely how I ended up in the Falcons' locker room. I didn't expect to find Colter Bayliss naked. Nor did I expect the crazy hockey player to be so bossy. Now, I can't seem to get him out of my hair. He's determined to solve this mystery with me. And the more time I spend with him, the less I want to solve it alone.

He shattered my heart. Rejected me. Rejected my love. He walked away so easily, tossing the three words I told him aside as if they meant nothing. But they meant everything. At least to me. Fine. I'm done. He's pushed me away and turned his back on me one too many times. I've accepted it. Accepted that it's over, despite how I feel. But then why is he acting like it's anything but over?

They don't call me Belinda Boring for nothing. It's my name, after all. And for a 23-year-old with plain brown hair who still lives at home and gets tongue tied over nothing, it's a fitting one. I'm not even one of those quiet girls with a hidden talent, unless making a mean order of nachos at the NHL arena I work at counts. My life consists of working, reading, and harboring a secret crush on a hockey player who doesn't know I exist. At least, until we accidentally meet and become unlikely friends.  

What should I do with my life? Whether you're just starting out on your journey or you've found yourself at a crossroads and feel the need to change direction, each of us wants to know what our purpose is on this Earth. We want our work and our lives to have meaning and impact far beyond our immediate context. But how do you know what you were meant to do? And once you know...then what?

Wolf shifter and fashion designer Zane Bellamy has a secret: he's "face-blind," unable to recognize people easily no matter how often he's seen them. Victoria Hawthorne has a secret, too, but if she's learned anything from teaching first graders, it's that the best way to keep a secret is to not tell anybody. She and Zane have that in common . . . but absolutely nothing else. Haute couture collides with ordinary life when Vicki wins a dress design by Zane himself. 

I've kept my secret—that I'm only a half-blood demon—hidden my entire life. But stepping into Blackthorn Academy has unveiled me to the four most powerful men in the kingdom, and they have no intention of letting me go. Receiving an invitation to the academy was the first surprise. Me, a powerless half-blood, suddenly among the elite. I knew it was risky to go there . . . What I couldn't foresee was becoming indebted to the four royals—the brooding future king, his cunning brother, and their mischievous twin cousins.

I only have one love now - the home furnishings business I'm building into an empire. Maybe money and success can't love me back, but they keep what's left of my heart safe. One-night stands are my way of scratching the occasional itch I get for something more. And no one's better for that than a sexy as sin hockey player I'll never see again after one very hot night together.  

Wasted, covered in glitter, and wearing the ugliest dress in existence. Also known as: me, the night I stumble into bed with a Fairfield. Cohen isn't my type. I mean, other than his legendary family genes, and a smirk that leaves me as breathless as it does enraged. One night. That's all I want. Then daylight comes, and all I want is to forget him. There's just one problem: that night was too incredible to black out. Actually, there are two problems. Now my sister wants me to be her surrogate. To carry her child. To be pregnant. But, as luck would have it . . . I already am.

Lincoln Cunningham doesn't do relationships. Mostly because he learned in college that he doesn't do them well. Translation: book smart guys focused on learning the art and science of vineyard tending aren't always girl smart. Lincoln's mother, however, isn't so sure. Her oldest son found his match, and now her sights are set on Linc. Why she insists on setting him up at the Paint it Pal pottery shop is beyond anyone's grasp.

The moment I set eyes on Gabbi Sterling, I know she's mine. Unfortunately, she doesn't agree. Her brother owns my team. Her best friend told a little white lie. And my girl is giving me nine kinds of hell. Right up until we get lost in the woods together. Now, it's up to me to get her out safely. There's just one problem. I have a concussion and no clue where we are.

As a small-town librarian, Sarah has her hands full with projects that range from running an in-library day care to planning her best friend's wedding. Romance is a complication she doesn't need...until he walks in.

I've moved on with my life. I've started over in a new city, with a promising career ahead of me. I have the independence I've always wanted. Needed. I've even started dating again. Kind of. Sort of. The point is, I'm happy. Then why is it that when Rhett unexpectedly shows back up in my life, years later, does just the sight of him leave me breathless? I have no idea why he's here, especially now. But I'll be damned if I let him back into my heart.

When I agreed to take my brother's new business partner out to dinner, I figured it would be just like any other boring business meeting. Then Jensen Sparks walks in the door and changes everything. There's no denying our attraction—it sizzles from the moment our hands touch, and I know that my rules of never mixing business with pleasure just flew right out the freaking window.

If anyone had told me that coffee would change my life, I would have laughed. Right up until I set eyes on Aspen Whatley at the local coffee shop, anyway. She's everything right in this world. But she's a little spitfire, hellbent on taking on the world by herself. Knowing her brother wants me to keep an eye on her doesn't earn me any points. Until her life is on the line, and she has nowhere to turn. Now, she's looking over her shoulder, and I'm pissed about it. No one threatens what belongs to me. But I've been playing defense my entire life. I'll protect this goddess and make her mine.

It didn't take me long to realize I'd made a mistake trying to regain my lost youth or something like that. I was headed right out the door when I saw her. The woman who will change my life forever. She bowled me over, and I got so caught up in making love to her, I forgot to get her name. When I wake up the next morning, ready to make her mine, I find my little tigress has disappeared.

After a devastating accident crushed my dreams, I ended up back in my hometown teaching kindergarten. I was trying to make the best of it. That is, until the world I had to leave behind, showed up in my classroom in the form of a five-year-old little girl. Her father living the exact life I almost had. Adam Jacobson is known as the bad boy of rock. While he and his band tour the world, they leave a trail of mayhem. What no one knows is behind the music is a caring, straightedge man with a secret-a daughter who the world is about to discover. 

17-year-old Sadie is tired of being a good girl. Her Career Aptitude Test results say she's ideally suited for a career in the clergy (a.k.a. a nun), and on top of that, she receives yet another rejection. An aspiring dancer/choreographer, Sadie dreams of being featured on Dancer's Edge - but they say she's too sweet, needs more life experience. Her BFF, Kyle, and her oldest friend, 79-year-old Betty, agree: Sadie is in desperate need of a life makeover.  

When 15-year-old Tisha Crowder gets caught shoplifting, Attorney Nolan Duffy tries to protect her from consequences that could rattle her already troubled life. His daughter, Jillian, feels like she's the one being punished instead - by having Tisha assigned to work with her on a backlog of genealogy files. Tisha doesn't seem interested in taking the job seriously, and Jillian's patience wears thin. Besides, everyone in Canyon Mines knows the Crowder family has experienced generations of brokenness. Then a sliver of hope turns up.

Meri's family has been producing doctors for so many generations that no one remembers why, so when she flunks out of medical school, she runs as far from her parents as she can get. In the small mountain town of Canyon Mines, Colorado, she takes a job at the Inn at Hidden Run B&B. And waits. It's only a matter of time. What she doesn't count on is genealogist Jillian Parisi-Duffy and her father, Nolan, having her back when it takes everything she has not to bolt again but to stay and face the truth that only unfolding her family's history will reveal....

Sharp suit, fabled smile, and a sexy shyness guaranteed to equal one incredible lay. Translation: Levi Fairfield is impossible not to want. He's also damaged goods. Not that I care; I don't do relationships. I do casual. And going after men whose hearts are too shattered to function is the easiest way to get it. One night. That's always enough for me. Then a few things happen that I didn't count on. I can think of 100 ways to describe Mara, from the moment we meet. When she shows up on my doorstep with nothing to her name, I can't turn her away....The truth is, she needs me.