Hard Ever After
Page 12
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HARD TO LET GO
Beckett Murda hates to dwell on the past. But his investigation into the ambush that killed half his Special Forces team and ended his Army career gives him little choice. Just when his team learns how powerful their enemies are, hard-ass Beckett encounters his biggest complication yet—a seductive, feisty Katherine Rixey.
A tough, stubborn prosecutor, Kat visits her brothers’ Hard Ink Tattoo shop following a bad break-up—and finds herself staring down the barrel of a stranger’s gun. Beckett is hard-bodied and sexy as hell, but he’s also the most infuriating man ever. Worse, Kat’s brothers are at war with the criminals her office is investigating. When Kat joins the fight, she lands straight in Beckett’s sights . . . and in his arms. Not to mention their enemies’ crosshairs.
Now Beckett and Kat must set aside their differences to work together, because the only thing sweeter than justice is finding love and never letting go.
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HARD AS STEEL
After identifying her employer’s dangerous enemies, Jessica Jakes takes refuge at the compound of the Raven Riders Motorcycle Club. Fellow Hard Ink tattooist and Raven leader Ike Young promises to keep Jess safe for as long as it takes, which would be perfect if his close, personal, round-the-clock protection didn’t make it so hard to hide just how much she wants him—and always has.
Ike Young loved and lost a woman in trouble once before. The last thing he needs is alone time with the sexiest and feistiest woman he’s ever known, one he’s purposely kept at a distance for years. Now, Ike’s not sure he can keep his hands or his heart to himself—or that he even wants to anymore. And that means he has to do whatever it takes to hold on to Jess forever.
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HARD EVER AFTER
After a long battle to discover the truth, the men and women of Hard Ink have a lot to celebrate, especially the wedding of two of their own—Nick Rixey and Becca Merritt—whose hard-fought love deserves a happy ending.
As Nick and the team shift from crisis mode to building their new security consulting firm, Becca heads back to work at the ER. But amid the everyday chaos of their demanding jobs and upcoming nuptials, an old menace they thought was long gone reemerges, threatening the peace they’ve only just found.
Now, for one last time, Nick and Becca must fight for their always and forever, because they know that when true love overcomes all the odds, it lasts hard ever after.
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HARD TO SERVE
To protect and serve is all Detective Kyler Vance ever wanted to do, so when Internal Affairs investigates him as part of the new police commissioner’s bid to oust corruption, everything is on the line. Which makes meeting a smart, gorgeous submissive at an exclusive play club the perfect distraction . . .
The director of the city’s hottest art gallery, Mia Breslin’s career is golden. Now if only she could find a man to dominate her nights and set her body—and her heart—on fire. When a scorching scene with a hard-bodied, brooding Dom at Blasphemy promises just that, Mia is lured to serve Kyler again and again.
As their relationship burns hotter, Kyler runs into Mia at work and learns that he’s been dominating the daughter of the hard-ass boss who has it in for him. Now Kyler must choose between life-long duty and forbidden desire before Mia finds another who’s not so hard to serve.
Coming June 2016
About the Author
LAURA KAYE is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty books in contemporary romance and romantic suspense, including Hard As You Can, winner of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Romantic Suspense of 2014, and Hard to Let Go, nominated for the 2015 RT Award. Laura grew up amid family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses, cementing her lifelong fascination with storytelling and the supernatural. A former college history professor, Laura also writes historical women’s fiction as Laura Kamoie. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day. Learn more at www.LauraKayeAuthor.com.
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By Laura Kaye
Hard Ever After (novella)
Hard as Steel
Hard to Let Go
Hard to Be Good (novella)
Hard to Come By
Hard to Hold On To (novella)
Hard As You Can
Hard As It Gets
Coming Soon
Ride Hard
Hard to Serve
Give in to your Impulses . . .
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EVERYTHING SHE WANTED
BOOK FIVE: THE HUNTED SERIES
by Jennifer Ryan
WHEN WE KISS
RIBBON RIDGE BOOK FIVE
by Darcy Burke
An Excerpt from
EVERYTHING SHE WANTED
Book Five: The Hunted Series
By Jennifer Ryan
Ben Knight has spent his life protecting those in need and helping abused women escape their terrible circumstances. He’ll stop at nothing to save the lives of his clients, especially the hauntingly beautiful Kate Morrison, a woman threatened by a man whose wealth allows him to get away with everything—including murder.
Ben pulled in behind several police cars nearly thirty minutes later, their red and blue lights flashing. He turned off the car’s engine and sat staring up at the massive house. Morgan’s prediction played in his mind. This late at night, the woman meant for him had to be in that house. He hoped she wasn’t the dead woman Detective Raynott called him about.
Evan Faraday hit Ben’s radar when Detective Raynott caught the case of a man found beaten to death in an alley after gambling with some guys in the bar, including Evan. That man was the son of one of his Haven House clients. Ben stepped in as a legal advocate for the family. The guy was only trying to scrape together extra money for his mother and sister. Evan played cards with the guy, but Raynott couldn’t link him to the murder. Not with any actual evidence, but the circumstantial kind added up to Evan drunk and pissed off about losing to the guy. Evan killed him; they just couldn’t prove it.
More recently, Evan got into another bar fight. Donald Faraday paid off the guy with a heavy heart. He knew what and who his son was, but that didn’t stop him from getting Evan out of trouble. Again.
Detective Raynott caught that case too. Ben asked the detective to call him if Evan got in trouble again. Ben wanted to take the selfish, smart-mouthed prick down. Then came the DUI arrest. Now he’d killed again.
Ben got out of the car, tucked in his shirt, and straightened his tie.
“What am I doing?” He was at a murder scene, not meeting a date for drinks and dinner.
But she was in there. He knew it. Anticipated it. And hoped he wasn’t a fool for believing in Morgan.
The anticipation and hope swamping his system surprised him more than a little. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted a woman in his life. Not just any woman, but the right woman.
“I’m sorry, sir, this is an active crime scene. Law enforcement only,” the officer guarding the police line said. Ben noted the neighbors’ interest. They lined the street, whispering to each other and staring at him. Some in their bathrobes, others in lounge clothes. This late at night the sirens got most of them up out of their beds. In this neighborhood, a murder was the last thing they expected.
“My name is Ben Knight. Detective Raynott called and asked me to come.”
The officer held the tape up for him to pass. “He’s in the living room. Give your name to the officer at the door.”
Ben did and stepped into the elegant home and surveyed the officers
and crime scene techs working the scene at the back of the house and what looked like the entrance to the kitchen. He spotted Detective Raynott standing over a woman with long brown wavy hair, a baby sleeping in a car seat at her feet. With her back to him, he couldn’t see her face, but something about her seemed familiar. A strange tug pulled him toward her.
“Ben, you made it. Thanks for coming,” Detective Raynott said, waving him forward.
“Anything to nail Evan Faraday and see him behind bars.”
The woman turned and raised her face to look up at him. He stopped midstride and stared into her beautiful blue eyes. Like a deep lake, the soft outer color darkened toward the center. “Kate?”
He never expected her. Morgan had been right though—they’d shared a moment at a wedding reception for a mutual friend and colleague. That had been more than a year ago now. They sat at the same table and talked, mostly about work and how out of place they felt at the event, made even more uncomfortable when they realized they were seated at a table full of singles and the bride had arranged them as couples, playing matchmaker. They shared some laughs and danced, deciding to make the awkward situation fun. They fell under the spell—the music, champagne, the celebration of love—and Ben enjoyed himself more that night than any other date. He kissed her right there on the dance floor during a particularly slow, sweet song. He remembered it perfectly. The way she stared up at him with those blue eyes. The way her mouth parted slightly as she exhaled and he leaned in. The softness of her lips against his. The way she gave in to the kiss with a soft sigh. The tremble that rocked his body and hers when the sparks flew and sizzled through his system.
The startled look on her face when he pulled back just enough to see the desire flaming in her eyes. A split second later she bolted for the door.
He went after her, but didn’t find her. She didn’t answer his calls over the next two days. He still didn’t know if he’d overstepped, done something wrong, or simply scared her.
“Ben.” Her soft voice, filled with surprise, startled him out of his thoughts. “What are you doing here?” Her sad eyes narrowed on him.
Click to buy Everything She Wanted now!
An Excerpt from
WHEN WE KISS
Ribbon Ridge Book Five
By Darcy Burke
In the fifth novel in the Ribbon Ridge series, thrill-seeker Liam Archer will try anything once—except falling in love—but what happens when the one woman whose kiss is better than any adrenaline high puts an end to their no-strings fling?
Aubrey Tallinger finished drying her hands and set the towel down. Lifting her head, she caught her reflection in the mirror. Her hazel eyes stared back at her and seemed to ask what she was doing dawdling in the bathroom when a perfectly lovely wedding reception was going on.
Isn’t it obvious? I’m avoiding Liam.
She was proud of herself tonight. She’d done a good job of ignoring the one person who always seemed to command her attention: Liam Archer. It helped to have a date along. A date she should get back to.
She took a deep breath and opened the door. Liam stood on the other side of the threshold.
He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the left through a doorway. He let go of her to close the door then stood in front of it, his blue-gray eyes narrowed. “Who’s the loser?”
Aubrey registered that they were in a sitting room attached to his parents’ bedroom. She wanted to turn and look at the sun setting over the garden through the back windows, but couldn’t tear her eyes from Liam. Dressed in a crisp black suit with a natty, striped tie, he was the sexiest best man she’d ever seen. His dark wavy hair was perfectly styled and, as usual, she had an almost irrepressible urge to mess it up.
She tensed as she forced herself to present a cool demeanor. “I introduced you to him at the church.”
“Yes, Stuart the Accountant. But why did you bring him in the first place?”
She cocked her head and gave him a sarcastic stare. “Was I supposed to wait for you to ask me? You don’t take me on dates, Liam. You never have.” The dinner he’d surprised her with at her house when he’d been home for the long Thanksgiving weekend didn’t count. Dates were public.
He frowned, and she was shocked when he didn’t fire a snappy comeback. “I might’ve, actually.”
Ha! She’d believe that when she saw it. “Too late. I told you at New Year’s that our little . . . thing was done.”
“It wasn’t a thing.”
“No, I think you’re right. It was a series of convenient hook-ups, and they are no longer convenient to me.”
She called them hook-ups, but they’d been more than that. Every time they were together, she’d felt as though they’d connected on some sort of intimate level that went beyond just sex. But that was stupid. While she’d come to know him at least a little bit, they hadn’t spent enough day-to-day time together to allow anything meaningful to spark. Except for Labor Day weekend. They’d spent the better part of four days in each other’s company, and it had been bliss. They’d laughed, they’d danced, they’d talked. And yes, they’d had a lot of sex. The physical aspect of their connection was so far the most powerful.
He prowled toward her, like a jungle cat on the hunt. She had no intention of being his prey. Nor did she want to run. She stiffened her spine and crossed her arms over her chest. Meager protection when she knew just how dangerous his weapons of mass seduction could be.
“Come on, they were a little more than hook-ups. We planned to hang out over Labor Day.”
That was true, but they’d both been going to the Dave Matthews Band concerts up in central Washington anyway. It wasn’t like they’d formulated and executed the trip together.
He stopped in front of her, his lips curving up. “And you have to admit it was pretty great.”
Incredible. Right up to the point when she’d suggested they see each other again soon. He’d said, “Sure, I always call you up when I’m in town.”
Like she was a convenience. And there was that word again. She didn’t want to be anyone’s hook-up girl. She’d quashed her burgeoning feelings, but it had maybe been too late. She’d already been crazy infatuated with him. So much so that when she’d seen him at Thanksgiving, she’d allowed herself to be the convenience she didn’t want to be.
But no more.
She gave him an arch look. “So it was a great weekend. You still can’t argue it was more than a hook-up. I walked away from that without knowing when—or if—I’d see you again.”
He frowned at her. “That’s absurd. You’re our attorney. Of course you’d see me again.”
Was he being purposely obnoxious?
He put his hands on his hips. “I suppose you’re going to tell me Thanksgiving was just a hook-up, too? I brought you dinner.”
After they’d flirted all day at a winery event they’d just happened to meet at. She’d accepted his sister Tori’s invitation to attend without realizing Liam would be there. Wait, had he known? “Did you know I would be at the winery that day?”
He arched a brow. “Who do you think suggested we invite you?”
Damn it. She didn’t want to know that. “Now you tell me,” she muttered.
He flashed her a grin. “Am I wearing you down?”
Click to buy When We Kiss now!
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Ride Hard copyright © 2016 by Laura Kaye.
Excerpt from Everything She Wanted copyright © 2016 by Jennifer Ryan.
Excerpt from When We Kiss copyright © 2016 by Darcy Burke.
HAR
D EVER AFTER. Copyright © 2016 by Laura Kaye. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. For more information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780062421722
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062421746
Avon, Avon Impulse, and the Avon Impulse logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers.
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