Showing results by author "Lani Lynn Vale" in All Categories

I blame getting pregnant on my sister getting mauled by a bear. If she hadn’t been attacked that day, I wouldn’t have come home to check on her. I wouldn’t have run into Boone Windsor at that bar. I wouldn’t have gone home with him, ready to drown my sorrows in a different, more satisfying way. I wouldn’t have given him that second chance. Not after he’d so badly burned the first chance. I would’ve gone back to work half the country away, and I would’ve kept my head in the sand where Boone was involved.

"I’m kind of a lady, but definitely more of a weirdo." Hearing the woman at the table behind him say that to her friend should’ve turned Logan Gibbs off. It doesn’t. In all honesty, it only makes him listen harder. He’s had enough weird in his life to last a lifetime. The last thing his complicated life needs is a woman in it who has no clue what color you get when you mix yellow and blue together. Yet, her obvious blonde moments aren’t enough to deter him. Nor is her lack of finger-painting skills.

His Wranglers fit him like a glove. A really tight, leaving nothing to the imagination, glove. Codie wants nothing more than to shove that Wrangler-covered butt straight into the mud. Ace Valentine has a smart mouth, a devil-may-care attitude, and those wicked eyes aimed directly at her. She doesn't know what to do with that kind of attention. Especially not from the sweet-talking man that has no problem charming every woman that enters his orbit - everyone but her, at least.

Edith “Eddy” Wheeler was having a bad day. A no good, very bad day. It’s understandable, really. I mean, there didn’t seem to be anything worse than walking in on your elderly parents doing things no child should ever see. Add into that their proclivities, and Eddy is disgusted and disturbed. So of course, after seeing the atrocious things her parents—the pastor and pastor’s wife that are supposed to be holy and a teacher of faith—are into, she makes it her life goal to expose them to their masses.

For a solid five years, Jasper Madden has done nothing but look the other way when it comes to Calliope Hodges. At first, she was way too young for him, barely eighteen the first time he laid eyes on her. It also didn’t help that he’d witnessed her at the lowest of lows, practically making peace with rock bottom. But as time goes by, he realizes that Calliope is different. She’s a brave, stunning young woman that has slowly captured his heart while he was watching from the shadows.

All Birdee Calvert wanted was to be normal. She wanted the parents who didn’t divorce when she was a kid and make her life a living nightmare. She wanted the sisters who actually liked her. She wanted to live in a town where everyone loved her and didn’t have a single bad thing to say about her. That was not the life Birdee was given. She had the exact opposite life. The kind of life where she slunk through the grocery store with a hoodie on so no one would recognize her. The kind of life where men like Creed Daugherty didn’t give her a second look.

F--k me for choosing the wrong sister. Atlas Carter was a protector. He was a police officer, had spent years in the Air Force, spent his entire teen years as a volunteer firefighter. Being a protector was in his blood. It was his dream. So when a woman was in a dangerous situation, it was his every instinct to protect her. To shield her. To watch over her. Only, that woman had played him. She’d set him up.

The first day that she walked onto the surgical floor that Chevy Clayborne spent most of his time on, he knew that he’d do anything to make her his. For two years, he played the long game. He slowly insinuated himself into her life, and the moment that she needed him, he swooped in like the knight in shining armor that he only pretended to be but most assuredly wasn’t. He’s no real knight. In fact, he’s the villain in everyone’s story but his own.

From the moment Creole Williams met Audric Ingram, they were inseparable. But not the way one would think. They shared a best friend. What they did not do, however, was like each other. You could say that it was a war to win the best friend title. The only problem was, their best friend would never choose a clear winner. So they spent their teenage years fighting it out. What Audric didn’t know, though, was that Creole was desperately in love with him. The same went for Audric. He wanted Creole more than his next breath. But it was never the right time.

She was enraptured by the man they called Romeo the moment that he turned those butterscotch-colored eyes her way. What wasn’t to love about a big, burly, plaid-wearing lumberjack? He was tall, gorgeous, and knew how to wield a chainsaw better than Leatherface. He could fell a tree in seconds, had thighs that were as thick as said trees, filled out a pair of Wranglers better than any cowboy ever, and didn’t care that she could operate heavy machinery better than him. He was everything a girl like Mable could ask for. The caveat?

Finnian “Apollo” Reins met Dru Noel Rossi at his lowest. She was a bright ray of sunshine in his darkest, cloudiest night. He had no clue that he needed her. He was just struggling to keep his head above water, going from day to day, waiting for it to be his time to go. But then she catches his eye in the swankiest restaurant in Washington DC. She’s wearing all black and sticks out like a sore thumb among the elitists’ otherwise dressiest affairs. She may have been severely underdressed, but that didn’t stop Finnian from following her every move and becoming obsessed.

Being a twin is great. What isn’t great is having the hots for the same woman your twin does. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt. Since Auden Carter made that mistake in his teens, he’d promised himself never to do that to his brother again. Hence why he’s tried so hard to stay away from Maven, the sexy bakery owner that seems to have been put on this planet to tempt him. After months of watching his brother never make a move, Auden’s had enough.

After a horrible marriage, Haggard has zero plans of ever finding a woman again. One-night stands not counting, he adores his life as a single man. There are no expectations. No "where are yous" and "are you coming homes". The life he chooses to live is a simple one. Until he makes a huge mistake, and he steps over that line between "daughter’s best friend" and "a woman he desperately wants". Before long, he can’t stop thinking about her. Can’t stop wanting her. Can’t stop feeling things for her that a man 20 years her senior should never feel for a girl he watched grow up.

Flaws? He has them. Laws? He breaks them. Dues? He’s paid them. Scars? He bares them proudly. Lessons? He’s learned them. Problems? He has one. Her name is Iris, and she’s the one thing in his life that he can’t control.

When Mr. January himself tells Rowen to do what a gunman says, she’s had enough. Rowen has never really been a girl that does what she’s told. Mr. January won’t have to save her. She can dang well save herself.

Etienne LaFayette hits the ground running the moment he breathes free air after being paroled from a maximum-security prison in Texas. He claws his life back from his brother-in-law who’d taken over his business during the years he’d spent as an inmate at Huntsville Penitentiary. Though it is hard, he puts his life back together in Accident, Florida.

Baker Ritter knew how to pick them. She met the man she thought she was going to marry in middle school, gave him some of the best years of her life, for him to leave her pregnant and alone hours before she’s due to have his baby. To make matters worse, he brings his side chick to the birth, and she’s left with a decision—fight for what she wants, or cut her losses. What she should’ve done was cut her losses. What she does instead is take him back and experiences what it’s like to live in hell.

This is for charity. This is for fun. You are a professional. You can do it. Those are the words that Calloway Alvarez chants to herself as she watches all the large men gather into the small room where she’ll be doing the interviews for her employer - Hero Magazine. Honestly, she’s convinced herself that she can’t accomplish the task at hand. That is until she hears his voice, and her head turns to see him standing there. Louis Spurlock. Greek god. SWAT officer. Keeper of her secrets. Ultimate fantasy. Man who will break her heart.

Kettle had it all. Until he didn't. He lost it all in a moment. One heart stopping, soul shattering moment, and there wasn't a single thing he could do about it. From that day forward, he stayed away from relationships. Then he responded to a possible fire and there she was, rocking his world when he didn't want it to be rocked. Adeline was just a schoolteacher. She lived a boring life. Until she stole something. And it didn't have anything to do with the sexy firefighter's heart. Oh, she stole that, too, even if he didn't want it to be stolen.

Garrett Carter knew the moment he saw her years prior that she was the one. His one, however, had a fiancé. And she was rich. She also lived out of state. So what other option did he have but to let her go? Years later, he sees her again at her worst. Her husband-to-be has stranded her on a hiking trail with a head wound, convinced she’s faking her blindness. Garrett takes one look at the injured Bindi Howe and knows there’s no way she’s faking it.