Drama – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Drama – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.readnovels.website Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:52:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 http://www.readnovels.website/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Drama – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.readnovels.website 32 32 First Time Rush (Worth The Wait #1) Read Online Dani Wyatt http://www.readnovels.website/first-time-rush-worth-the-wait-1-read-online-dani-wyatt Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:52:40 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/first-time-rush-worth-the-wait-1-read-online-dani-wyatt Genre: Alpha Male, Crime, Drama, Erotic, Insta-Love, Novella, Virgin Authors: Dani Wyatt Series: Worth The Wait Series by Dani Wyatt
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Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 174(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)

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Previously published long ago as Where She Belongs. :) This book has been re-edited, largely re-written, additional content added. Now...what you are getting...May is a nineteen-year-old heiress who's never been allowed beyond the gates of her family's estate. But tonight she hops a bus into the city with twelve dollars in her pocket and a plan to get out of her own wedding to a man she's never loved. Her plan is simple, if not wildly flawed…find the first nightclub that's hiring. Then, dance until she's earned enough to get her and her sister new names and a new life.

What she doesn't plan on is Decker. Forty-three, the definition of tall, dark and dangerous. Oh, and he's never touched a woman in his life. By the time May finishes her first sentence, he's absolutely certain he's keeping her. The problem is, May has no idea what her fiancé is actually planning. And it isn't pretty.

Decker is about to discover the darkness that lurks behind the pristine doors of the place that May calls home. And once he does, there is nothing on this earth that's going to take her from him.

Author's The Forever Collection is all virgins, love-at-first-sight over the top fantasy. Fall hard, fall fast, take no prisoners. These are interconnected, following different couples in the series. Best read in order but can be enjoyed as stand alones as well! Get a hot read, hard breeding, happily ever after, no cheating, and an alpha obsessed hero who will paint the streets bloody to keep his girl safe. Step inside. It's steamy

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

1

Decker

Another girl, another firing. That's how my week is going.

"It was just a hand job." Claudia rolls her eyes, and her fake lashes brush her tattooed brows. "That's barely even anything. I didn't even kiss him, for chrissake."

Her eyes dart to the corners of the room as if not looking at me will change the outcome of what’s about to happen.

"You know the rules," I say, fighting the urge to lecture her like a daughter instead of fire her like an employee.

Believe it or not, it hurts me every time I have to do this. I want to help them all, but in the end, they have to want it. I can't do it for them.

"I'm great at hand jobs. I got him off in like twenty seconds." Claudia pouts. "It's almost like shaking someone's hand. Would you fire Allister for shaking hands with one of the clients?"

Allister, my right-hand man, cuts in. "Congratulations on your skill set. And no, it is not like shaking hands. Did you wear a rubber glove?" His voice is always low, but when he's disappointed, it drops to something like a bass drum learning to speak.

He's pissed. He's the one who talked me into hiring her. I told him she wouldn't take it seriously. Looks like I was right. No pleasure in being right about this kind of thing.

I press my middle fingers into my temples. The lights in here drive ball-peen hammers into my skull.

I glance down at the open employee folder on my desk, then scan around the room. The office is all white. Some would say too white. Too cold. Not me.

Neatly stacked pillars of white boxes line one wall, labeled and color-coded by unpacking priority. One of the girls asked me yesterday my favorite color. When I told her ‘white’, she snorted, said that's not a color. I disagree. White is clean, pure, without blemish. My house is the same way, and I've lived there five years.

I haven't had time to make any of it anything else.

I re-focus on the task at hand.

Claudia.

Allister is my GM. And my best friend. Heart of gold inside a body the size of Texas. The stark lights reflect off his bald head as he shakes it, running a hand back and forth over it, staring at Claudia as she inspects her shimmering pink nails.

This is my club. My rules. The girls dance, they don't strip. They wear barely anything to start with, but nothing comes off, and every customer’s hands stay where I can see them.

But in this environment, today it's a hand job, tomorrow a blowjob, next week one of my girls is in the back of some asshole's car with her face bruised. I've seen it. I won't have it.

"So, I'm done?" Claudia juts out her hip and finally settles her vitriol on me. "You're firing me? This is total bullshit. One hand job and one joint, that's all it was. And now you're firing me? I didn't even smoke it here, for chrissake. You can't tell me what I can do on my own time. This place is turning into the damn Westlake Baptist Church."

I hold up her file. "Yep, you're done. You signed the contract. School, no drugs, no drinking, don't touch the customers. You fucked up." I shrug and close the file. "I don't fire people, Claudia. They fire themselves. Get your stuff out of your locker. We'll send you a month's pay to get on your feet. Allister will walk you out. I wish you the best."

I lean back in my chair. My temples are still pounding, and my stomach is eating itself. One a.m. Haven't eaten since noon.

"You can suck my ass!" Claudia gives me one final middle finger before she stalks out the office door, Allister rolling his eyes at me as he walks behind her.

Sixteen years a Marine. Now I own nightclubs. Funny how life turns out. I don't even drink, and strip clubs never did a damn thing for me. But I got out, and the world doesn't have a lot of use for a retired jarhead with no taste for desk work, so this is what I built. Monarch was the first. Four more after that. This one, Monarch V, opened a month ago.

Every girl who walks through my door — and I do mean every one — gets the same offer. Stick to the rules, and I'll cover whatever they need to get out of whatever they're in. Rehab, attorneys, GEDs, college tuition. I've bashed in a few pimps' faces along the way, too, when they came around looking to collect what they thought belonged to them.

Some of my girls are lawyers now. PTA mothers. Social workers. One's a fucking pediatrician. I keep every Christmas card.

The low bass from the floor bleeds through the open office door. I'm usually gone by midnight. Tonight I'm not. Tuesday is tryout night. Girls who want to dance come in, we look, we decide. I usually stick around for it.

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Only Mine – A Dark Stalker Romance Read Online Loki Renard http://www.readnovels.website/only-mine-a-dark-stalker-romance-read-online-loki-renard Sun, 01 Feb 2026 09:24:10 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/only-mine-a-dark-stalker-romance-read-online-loki-renard Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Dark, Drama, Erotic, Mafia Authors: Loki Renard Advertisement

Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >74

By the time I knew his name, I belonged to him already.

At work, I could feel him watching me. As I walked home, I knew I was being hunted.

But as I climbed into bed, I didn’t expect to be awakened by my mysterious stalker’s hands roaming over my body, his fingers sliding beneath my pajamas to find me soaking w*t even as his sinfully sexy voice whispered in my ear all the filthy things he was going to do to me tonight.
He tore off what little I had on and r@vaged me bruta!ly, claiming and breeding me like a feral beast as I bucked and writhed and came so hard I nearly blacked out… and then he was gone.
But we both know he’s not done with me.

Publisher’s Note: Only Mine is a standalone romance that includes spankings, rough, intense sexual scenes, and strong D/s themes. If such material offends you, please don’t read this book

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER 1

Laura

“Miss Brown, are you paying attention?”

The question is asked in front of a hundred other students, all of whom are now looking at me. I’ve always been the shy, quiet, studious type. Not the sort of girl who draws scrutiny.

“Yessir,” I blush. “Of course.”

He has no idea how much attention I’m paying.

Doctor Rollins is the sexiest professor in Coyote Pass College, which most people wouldn’t say is saying much. It’s a small community college in a small city in California. Most people have never heard of the place. But everybody has heard of Sam Rollins.

He’s thirty-eight years old, a Scorpio with Leo rising. He’s written three books and he’s been on dozens and dozens of TV shows. He works for the FBI as a forensic psychology consultant. And he’s hot. He’s tall, and his dark hair is cut really well in swoops and fades.

I had a dream about him last night, a dream that’s making me distracted. One that kept me from paying attention to whatever question he picked me out to answer.

The dream started out just like this. We were in the lecture hall, except it was empty besides me and him. In the dream, he was trying to teach me something I couldn’t seem to grasp. Something about the dark triad of personalities. I ended up bent over the podium with pages falling all over the place like snowflakes in a snowstorm. It was filthy. It was primal.

He moves on with the lecture. It was embarrassing to be called out, but I figure nobody is going to remember that ten minutes from now. The real problem isn’t drifting off in class. It’s the fact that I have to ask him about my most recent assignment, and now I have to do it while he thinks I’m messing around and not listening to him.

As class ends, I am so nervous I feel like I might be sick. I keep glancing down at the paper I worked really hard on, thinking that it has to be a mistake. There’s no way this is really my grade.

This assignment is worth thirty percent of my grade, and right now it has a big, fat C on it. I’ve never approached a professor before to ask for an amendment, but I know it deserves a lot more than a C. I was hoping for an A. Maybe an A+. Right now, I would settle for a B.

I have to catch him before he leaves, but after the initial onslaught of questions that inevitably follow every class. I hang back behind the small gaggle of students, waiting until they’re all attended to.

He is putting his laptop into his briefcase as I approach, paper in hand.

“Yes, Miss…”

“Brown. Laura Brown,” I say. “I’m in your class.”

I immediately wish I hadn’t said that last part. He knows I am in his class. I’m currently in his class, after all. He just graded my paper barely above a failing grade. I wonder if he remembers that, or if what I’m going to ask is just going to come across really fucking entitled. I hope it doesn’t. I’m not spoiled. Not in any way.

His lips quirk into a smirk as he catches what I just said. I am making a fool of myself and I’ve barely opened my mouth.

Dr. Rollins has always made me nervous, ever since the first class he taught. Up close, he’s devilishly attractive in the way very few men ever really are. He’s got good, strong features and an energy to match. Superficially, he has thick dark hair that he runs his hand through when he’s stressed by some undergrad’s misunderstandings. He’s running his hand through his hair now as I push my paper across the desk toward him.

“Um, I think you might have made a mistake,” I say, stammering the words. I can barely believe I’m saying them. I glance at him to see if I have made him angry with that comment.

He’s old enough to be my father, but every time I make eye contact with him, which isn’t often, I feel a zap of electricity run through me. I feel like I am in trouble for some reason. Maybe it’s his stern demeanor. Maybe it’s his taciturn expression. Did I mention he has a very, very handsome face? It’s old fashioned, in a way, like the movie stars in the golden age of Hollywood.

I am lucky to be breathing the same air he breathes, let alone talking to him.

Doctor Samuel Rollins is one of the most respected psychologists in the country. He has a private practice that nobody can get into. Some people say he caters exclusively to a celebrity clientele. We’re lucky that he moonlights at the Coyote Pass College as a kind of favor to people who don’t have the money to pay for an Ivy League university. Dr. Rollins is someone we’re all grateful for, and that’s partly why I can’t believe I’m about to do this.

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Mistletoe and Mayhem Read Online Aria Cole http://www.readnovels.website/mistletoe-and-mayhem-read-online-aria-cole Thu, 25 Dec 2025 22:04:03 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/mistletoe-and-mayhem-read-online-aria-cole Genre: Alpha Male, Drama, Erotic Authors: Aria Cole Series: Series by Aria Cole
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Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 26056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >25

Holiday heat meets rugged retreat in this forced proximity, enemies to lovers, only-one-bed, Christmas romance.

Big-city interior designer Noel Hart doesn’t believe in silence, solitude, or “rustic charm”—but she does believe in prize money. If she can transform a crusty mountain man’s fishing cabin into a winter wonderland, she’ll win the $250,000 grand prize for Mountain Holiday Edition. There’s just one the actual mountain man still lives there.

Nash Hollis is a flannel-wrapped, beard-wearing, wood-chopping grump with a permanent scowl and a serious mistrust of tinsel. He didn’t agree to any holiday decorating. He definitely didn’t agree to a pink-lipsticked tornado of chaos marching into his cabin—and his life. But now they’re snowed in together, and the tension is heating up faster than the fireplace.

She wants mistletoe, garland, and glitter.

He wants her gone.

But when holiday foreplay turns into spin-the-mistletoe, strip-truth-or-dare, and very naughty cookie baking… neither of them wants it to end.

Full of dirty talk, playful bickering, heart-melting slow burn, and blizzard-fueled lust, Mistletoe and Mayhem is a wildly steamy, laugh-out-loud enemies-to-lovers holiday novella with a rugged hero, a chaotic heroine, and enough seasonal spice to melt the ice off Devil’s Peak.

He’s cold.

She’s chaos.

Together, they’re Christmas mayhem

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter 1

Noel

It’s snowing sideways and I’m five minutes away from committing a felony.

My combat boots crunch over ice as I hike up the front steps of the crusty cabin the bartender at The Devil’s Brew sent me to. “Nash Hollis’s place,” he’d said with a smirk that should’ve warned me. “Up the ridge. Big wood cabin. Can’t miss it.”

And now here I am. Frozen, out of breath, and fueled by half a cup of lukewarm gas station coffee and a highly questionable life plan. Answering a mail-order bride ad…what the hell was I thinking?

But hey—Mountain Makeovers: Holiday Edition said go big or go home. So I went big.

Specifically, I answered a fake mail-order bride ad. As a joke. As a strategy. Depends who you ask.

The network said they wanted “the most festive holiday transformation in the Rockies.” I said, sure—I'll give you mistletoe, magic, and marital mayhem. If I find a rugged bachelor with a beard, a cabin, and a soul in need of saving.

I knock. Loud. Twice.

No answer.

I fish the skeleton key out of my pocket—the one the bartender told me I’d find under a gnome statue by the woodpile—and unlock the front door.

“Hello?” I call out.

The air inside is warm. Pine-scented. Definitely inhabited. My boots scuff across a threadbare rug as I step inside.

That’s when I hear it.

A deep, guttural thud from somewhere down the hall.

Then a voice. Gravel and thunder.

“Who the hell⁠—”

I spin toward the hallway just in time to see him.

Nash Hollis.

Towel. Body. Dripping. Steam curling off his broad, tattooed shoulders as he rounds the corner, bare feet silent on the floorboards.

He stops dead when he sees me.

So do I.

Because holy. Actual. Shit.

He’s a bear. A bear with abs. Salt-and-pepper beard, chest like a slab of marble, towel clinging low on his hips like it’s seconds from surrender. He’s not built for Christmas. He’s built for sin.

And currently glaring at me like I’m the intruder.

Which, okay, technically I am.

“What the f—” he rumbles, voice still sleep-rough, “—are you doing in my house?”

I blink, trying not to stare at the droplet racing down the center of his chest. It veers around a scar over his ribs and disappears into the towel.

Don’t follow it, Noel.

“I’m your bride.”

He blinks.

“You’re my what?”

“Bride. Sort of. Mail-order. It’s not legally binding or anything.” I gesture vaguely to my oversized tote. “I come bearing ornaments.”

He doesn’t move. Just glares.

“You answered my ad?” he growls.

“Technically. It was part of a reality show application. Think HGTV meets Bachelor in the Boondocks.”

Nothing.

“I’m Noel Hart,” I try again, stepping forward, hand extended. “Interior designer. Reality show finalist. Here to turn this cozy—” I look around at the cabin’s violently beige aesthetic, “—potential-filled rustic hellscape into a holiday fantasy.”

His eyes narrow. “You broke into my house.”

“Your bartender said the key was under the gnome.”

“Jesus,” he mutters, rubbing a hand down his beard. “Rick’s a dead man.”

“Not if I win,” I chirp. “There’s a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar cash prize for best decorated holiday cabin. I keep half. You get the other half. I leave. You never see me again. I tried to call first but the call kept going to voicemail. Didn’t you check your messages?”

“Not if I can help it.” He crosses his arms.

Which just flexes his chest.

Which, frankly, feels like a personal attack.

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said no.” He stalks past me to the fireplace, snatches a flannel shirt off the arm of a chair, and shrugs it on—but doesn’t button it. Just lets it hang open like he’s allergic to modesty. “I didn’t agree to a damn thing. You’re not staying here.”

“Kind of late for that. Snow’s coming down like a cocaine Christmas outside. No one’s getting back down the mountain tonight.”

“Then you’ll sleep in your car.”

“I drive a Prius.”

“Then you’ll freeze in your car.”

I blink. “Wow. You really are the Grinch.”

He grabs a log from the basket and tosses it onto the fire like it personally insulted him. “I don’t do guests. I don’t do cameras. And I sure as hell don’t do mistletoe.”

I toss my coat over the banister and march past him toward the fireplace, pulling out a roll of garland from my bag like I’m about to go to war. “Then it’s a good thing you don’t have to do anything except stay out of my way and cash a check when this is over.”

He watches me kneel in front of the mantel, garland in hand, eyes dark and unreadable.

“You think you’re just gonna roll in here and turn my place into a damn catalog page?”

“Yes.”

He stalks forward. Slowly. Steps measured. Deliberate.

“Put the garland down.”

I arch a brow. “Or what?”

His voice drops. “You don’t wanna know.”

A shiver slides down my spine. Not from fear. From interest.

Which is dumb.

So dumb.

But the way he’s looking at me—like he could peel me open and feast on every part I’ve been trying to hide—it short circuits my brain.

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Take Care Taylor – Sincerely Yours Read Online Whitney G http://www.readnovels.website/take-care-taylor-sincerely-yours-read-online-whitney-g Wed, 19 Nov 2025 18:26:53 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/take-care-taylor-sincerely-yours-read-online-whitney-g Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Drama, New Adult Authors: Whitney G. Advertisement

Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 51243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 205(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >50

From the bestselling author of 'Sincerely, Carter' comes a bullies-to-lovers romance...

I’m not “bullying” her.
I’m not being mean.
If only you knew what she did to me …

Audrey Parker has been my number one nemesis since seventh grade, but she’s somehow convinced everyone that I was the bully. (Please don’t believe any of her tears. She literally majored in Drama.)

She got me suspended for placing scorpions into her locker.
I forced her to transfer after she nearly drowned me in the pool.

She swore on her life that she was “done ever talking to me after high school,” but her yellow notes and mean emails still invaded my life like clockwork.

It wasn’t until we graduated college that we saw each other again, when a mixup forced us to share the same suite for a fall program.

Until one filthy night in the library changed everything.

Well, it should’ve.

I’m not “bullying” her.
I’m not being mean.
Now I’m starting to question what she means to me.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PROLOGUE

AUDREY

Ionce heard someone say that “our hair holds memories,” but I desperately wished mine clung to grudges. If it did, maybe my curls would’ve jumped off my scalp and suffocated Taylor Wolff the second he stepped onto the bus today.

Instead, they hung docile and blissfully unaware that he was sticking wads of his disgusting chewing gum in them.

So, here I was, for the third time this month, sitting under the harsh bathroom lights with tears in my eyes as my mother hovered behind me. Her scissors clicked like tiny jaws, salvaging what was left of the strands Taylor ruined.

“Repeat after me,” she said, snipping another curl. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but⁠—”

“He called me a fugly bitch with buck teeth,” I cut in. “He said it in front of the entire class, and everyone laughed.”

“The principal suspended him for an entire week.”

Ugh, whatever. I groaned. His suspensions never did anything except make his return ten times worse.

And I’d never done anything to him to deserve his vitriol.

At least, I didn’t think so…

“I’m in the business of words, trust me.” My mother smiled at me in the mirror, motioning for me to smile back.

I refused.

“Words only have power if you let them,” she said. “Now, finish it. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but what?”

“Words will never hurt me,” I muttered.

“Perfect!” She washed my hair and styled it, and when she was done, I avoided looking in the mirror to assess the damage.

Her expression—and the oversized yellow glitter bow she slid into my hair—told me everything.

“Now, let’s make it even better.” She crossed the room to the bookshelf. “We’ll reread a scene from Jane & The Bully Boy, so you can get your confidence back!”

I folded my arms and braced for another unwanted book-club session.

As a bestselling children’s author, my mother never knew how to separate real life from fiction. She got so wrapped up in her characters she swore they lived among us, and she thought I was as obsessed as her readers.

I really freakin’ wasn’t, and any of her books that I’d read were against my will.

“When Jane was being bullied by Johnny, she didn’t take it personally.” She flipped through the pages with a little hum. “She knew it came from his inner dark trauma, right?”

“Right…”

“Slowly, they shifted from fighting to understanding, and they became enemies to lovers.” She squealed like one of her fangirls. “Now, of course you’re way too young for the details, but I think you and Taylor have potential to shift from enemies to friends. Or maybe even⁠—”

I mentally muted the remaining words that fell from her mouth.

There was no point in buying into any of her fictional hopes because I’d known the truth since we first moved here: Taylor Wolff was a fucking bully.

And it wasn’t because of some bullshit “trauma.”

He was born as Satan’s spawn, and it was simple as that.

He hated me, and I hated him.

End of the story.

No plot twists ahead.

I didn’t know it then, but as the years unfolded and our paths continued colliding, he became the type of guy that decorated the pages of romance books—the brooding bad boy who knew everything about sex and was “broken” at the age of seventeen.

Except... he was real.

And he wanted to break me.

So I refused to believe that we were blazing a trail “from enemies to lovers.”

We were enemies to the death—and I refused to let him kill me first…

BULLY YEARS: SIXTH GRADE

TAYLOR

Dear Audrey,

I’m sorry I stuck gum in your hair this week.

I’m also sorry that I ruined your favorite jacket with permanent marker & paint.

I’ll never do these things to you again.

Very very sorry.

Hope you’ll forgive me,

Taylor

If it were truly up to me, I would crumple this letter and throw it right at Audrey’s ugly face, but I have an audience…

And for whatever reason, they seem to have missed the first act of this show and forgotten exactly why Fraudrey Parker deserved far more than some cheap gum in her hair.

She’s not innocent AT ALL.

“Get out of the car and do it now, Taylor,” my mother said as I stared at Audrey’s house. “Then walk home and tell me how everything went.”

“Why can’t you come with me?”

“Because I wasn’t with you when you behaved terribly to that girl.” She leaned over and unbuckled my seatbelt. “Go apologize. Now.”

I rolled my eyes and opened the car door.

“Make sure you apologize to her parents as well,” she said. “Oh, and be sure to look directly into Audrey’s eyes when you speak, too.”

“If I do that, I’ll turn into stone. You know she’s a witch, right?”

“Taylor…”

“Okay, fine.” I stepped out and took my time walking down the long stone path that led to Audrey’s front door.

I looked over my shoulder, hoping my mother had pulled off so I could turn around and run home, but she was still there watching.

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Big Obsession – Single Dads of Big Wood Read Online Hope Ford http://www.readnovels.website/big-obsession-single-dads-of-big-wood-read-online-hope-ford Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:07:21 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/big-obsession-single-dads-of-big-wood-read-online-hope-ford Genre: Alpha Male, Drama, Novella, Virgin Authors: Hope Ford Advertisement

Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 28062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >29

She’s my son’s favorite person.
The curvy, sunshine teacher who never walked away—
even when his mama did.

I should be grateful.
Hell, I am.
But gratitude doesn’t explain why I look forward to seeing her more than anyone else.
Why I notice every blush, every smile, every soft curve.
Why I want her in ways I have no right to.

Because she’s my ex’s best friend.
Because if I screw this up, my son loses the only constant woman in his life.

But she’s here.
In my house.
At my kitchen table.
Laughing with my kid like she belongs here—because deep down, she does.

One kiss and I know I’m already in too deep.
I’ve never been the settling-down type.
But for her? For them?
I’d risk it all.

Single Dads of Big Wood

These four single dads thought they were done with love. But love… isn’t done with them.

They’ve been burned—by divorce, betrayal, heartbreak—and now their lives revolve around playdates, carpools, and bedtime stories. Love? Not happening. Not again.

When unexpected women storm into their carefully controlled worlds—bringing sass, chaos, and the kind of heat they thought they’d locked away for good—these devoted fathers face a new kind of falling for the one person they shouldn’t

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER 1

TUCKER

I’m watching my son run the bases, resisting the urge to clap my hands. Ace just hit a ball over the shortstop’s head, and as he slides into second base and gets up, he’s smiling ear to ear. I want to cheer, but it’s not something you normally do when the team is practicing.

I love seeing him like this. For a long time after his mom walked out of his life, he had me worried. He never laughed, never smiled, and lost interest in almost everything.

I wish I could say I helped him, but it wasn’t me. Dolly, his mom’s best friend, is the one that brought him out of his sadness. Since the moment her friend left Big Wood, Dolly has made it her mission to help my son find happiness again.

I grip my hands together in my lap as a woman puts her hand on my shoulder. “Ace is doing good out there.”

I nod without looking at the single woman sitting next to me. “Thanks,” I mutter.

When I first sat down, I was the only one on the bleachers, but soon afterward, I was surrounded by several of the moms from the team.

I lean forward, not wanting to be rude but also not wanting the woman to touch me. As a matter of fact, the only woman I would want to touch me is the one woman that never would. Dolly. I pull my phone from my pocket and look at it. I expected a text from her because she’s usually here. When she can’t make it, she always messages me so I can make sure to let Ace know why she isn’t here.

She never misses anything that has to do with my son, so the fact that she’s not here yet has me starting to get worried.

“So, Tucker, I hear you’re riding in the charity ride this weekend. I was thinking of going.”

I turn to look at the woman that is staring at me with interest. She’s married, and a pit forms in my stomach, so I make sure to mention her husband and son. “You, Gus, and Troy should come to the arena. They always put on a good show with good food and activities for the kids. It would be a great date night for you and your husband.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Dolly walking through the grass. She has her head down as she goes behind the bleachers to her normal spot down the first base side, toward the outfield. I stand up. “Excuse me, ladies.”

I don’t wait for their response. I follow behind Dolly, and every impure thought I’ve ever had of her comes to mind. I watch her ass shake from side to side as she walks. She has on jeans and a T-shirt, and her hair is in a ponytail, swinging back and forth. I jog to catch up with her. “Hey, you.”

I grab the chair from her arms, and she stops, smiling up at me. “Did you see that hit?”

I reach out and tuck a lock of hair behind her ear just because I want to touch her. “I did see it. I was starting to get worried about you.”

She rolls her eyes. “Last day of school and I had bus duty. I had to load up my car and⁠—”

I interrupt her. “You should have called me. I could have come and helped you.”

She tilts her head to the side. “It’s fine. I only had to make two trips to get it all.”

I put a hand to her shoulder. “I would have been happy to help, Dolly.”

She avoids my gaze. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

I put a finger on her chin and raise it up so she has to look at me. “Honey, you’re always taking care of me and Ace.”

She just blinks up at me. Any time I touch her or try to talk to her one on one, she gets like this. She’s nervous around me, and I’m not sure why that is. When she just stares up at me, I lean down. “Promise me from now on, you’ll call me when you need me.”

“Tucker…” She stops and then pulls back from my hold. “You’re so busy, I’m not going to add my stuff to your list of things to do.”

I put her chair down in the grass and unfold it for her to sit down. She does, setting her tote bag on the ground next to her. At that moment, Ace waves at us, and Dolly makes a big deal of waving back and pumping her hand in the air. She’s letting him know she saw his hit, and my son is practically glowing as he stands on second base.

I lean on the back of Dolly’s chair. “Promise me the next time you need something, you will call me.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >29

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Pucking the Grump – Bad Motherpuckers Read Online Lili Valente http://www.readnovels.website/pucking-the-grump-bad-motherpuckers-read-online-lili-valente Thu, 12 Jun 2025 17:28:23 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/pucking-the-grump-bad-motherpuckers-read-online-lili-valente Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Drama, Sports Authors: Lili Valente Advertisement

Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 74956 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 375(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >80

Three things you should I’m a pro on the ice, a smartass in the locker room, and head-over-skates for the coach’s daughter.

She’s grumpy, gorgeous, and completely off-limits, and not just because her dad is a legendary hardass who will separate my nuts from the rest of me if he finds out about us. Remy is the hardest-working woman in hockey, determined to leave the admin world behind and start a coaching career of her own. She has goals. Rules. Boundaries. Walls around her heart more impenetrable than the glass around the rink.

We’ve been sneaking around for over a year, but after one too many "this can’t happen again" close calls, she’s ready to end things for good.

Problem is, I’m not.

Somewhere between late-night texts, weekend road trips, and falling asleep with my secretly vulnerable girl on my chest, I pucked around and became this woman's biggest fan.

Now, I want everything her rough childhood has her too scared to believe in—teamwork that lasts a lifetime and love that was never part of the plan.

And when the final buzzer sounds, I want this woman next to me. Forever.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter 1

Remy Lauder

Like most Type A overachievers, I have a strict “no sex in the workplace” policy. A policy that Tyler Stone is currently breaking for the third time this month…

With me. On my desk. Again.

I should really stop letting this happen.

And I will.

Any minute now…

“We have to stop,” I whisper as Stone’s lips trail down the side of my neck, his teeth grazing my skin in a way that makes my toes curl. “I mean it. We can’t keep doing this.”

“That’s what you said last time,” he murmurs. “And the time before that.” His hands glide up my thighs, bunching my pencil skirt around my waist as he steps between my legs, pressing his body closer to mine.

Damn, his body…

If only he weren’t built like a Viking lumberjack with zero respect for personal space and a talent for making office furniture groan. With those broad shoulders, strong hands, chiseled abs, and that little smirk that says he knows I’m two seconds from giving in every time I try to push him away—he’s legitimately irresistible.

I’m a lifelong athlete, a coach’s daughter, a coach myself, for fuck’s sake!

I pride myself on discipline, strategy, and keeping my head in the game. But the second this man walks in smelling like fancy soap and bad decisions, my executive function goes right out the window.

Tyler Stone is my kryptonite, which is why we made rules about where and when it was okay to give in to our mutual lust-jones for each other.

It’s also why I keep breaking those rules…

“But this time we got caught, so we should definitely put this off until a later date.” I try to sound firm, but my fingers are already threading through his dirty blond hair.

“We didn’t get caught,” he scoffs, lifting his head from my neck to fix me with those impossibly blue eyes. “We helped two people who were locked in a bathroom get out of the bathroom. Two people I happen to be close friends with, who would never spread gossip about us, even if they suspected we’d been about to fuck when we were so rudely interrupted. But they don’t suspect a thing. So, we’re fine, Bossy. Just fine. I promise. Now, relax and let me get you naked. You’ll feel better when you’re naked.”

His smile is equal parts charm and mischief, the same grin that first got me into trouble eighteen months ago.

But back then, I didn’t know Stone was coming to play for the Badgers, for my team, which shortly thereafter became my father’s team. Sleeping with a player from my own franchise would have been problematic enough, but once my controlling, hyper-protective father became their head coach?

Forget about it.

I ditched Stone immediately, deleted his number, and made plans to pretend I’d never been taken up against a wall by the Portland Badger’s new star forward.

Then Stone showed up at my office door a few weeks after training camp started last year, looking like a wounded puppy. A really sexy wounded puppy who just wanted to make me come my brains out…

My capacity to make logical decisions has been on vacation ever since.

“I’m not getting naked with you,” I maintain.

“Fine, half naked.” He shifts even closer, until the thick ridge of his erection brushes against my thigh. “I can still do bad things to you half-naked. I’m gifted like that.”

I laugh, despite myself. “You’re insane, is what you are.”

“And you love it,” he replies, the humor in his voice giving way to something deeper, more intense.

My breath catches as his fingers tease up the soaked panel of my panties. “Stone, I’m serious this time… I really am…”

“Then tell me to stop like you mean it, and I’ll stop.” His voice drops to that low rumble that makes my pussy throb every bit as much as the thumb gently circling my clit. “I’ll walk out that door right now if you really want me to, Bossy. You know I’m a man of my word.”

That’s the problem. He is a man of his word. Stone is many things—irreverent, cocky, playful, even ridiculous at times—but he’s honest to a fault and has always respected my boundaries. The real ones, anyway.

Which makes it so much harder to say what I should say right now.

If I tell him to go, he will, but I really don’t like the thought of heading home without taking the edge off. Stone is trouble, but he’s also medicine. I wouldn’t be managing the stress of my jam-packed schedule half as well without his regularly and generously administered orgasms.

“Fine, the door,” I manage, breath coming faster as he increases his delicious pressure. “Just double check that it’s locked.”

“Yes, ma’am.” His slow smile is pure victory. He steps back, but not before pressing one more lingering kiss to my lips and giving my clit a pinch that makes me gasp.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >80

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Protecting Little Phoebe – Littles of Rawhide Ranch Read Online Laylah Roberts http://www.readnovels.website/protecting-little-phoebe-littles-of-rawhide-ranch-read-online-laylah-roberts Thu, 12 Jun 2025 17:28:12 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/protecting-little-phoebe-littles-of-rawhide-ranch-read-online-laylah-roberts Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Drama, Erotic Authors: Laylah Roberts Advertisement

Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >47

He wasn’t enough. She’s been told she’s too much. Together, they might just be exactly right…

Left shattered by the revelation that his ex-wife only ever loved his money, Barren Rose heads to Rawhide Ranch in search of the Little girl he’s always wanted.
And leaves disappointed yet again.
Until he spots an adorable woman with blonde pigtails broken down on the side of the road. From the moment he lays eyes on sweet Phoebe, he knows she’s the Little girl he’s dreamed of.
Even knowing he’s twenty years older than her isn’t enough to change his mind once he decides to claim Phoebe as his own.
He just has to be sure she wants him for all the right reasons. So he keeps his wealth a secret, determined that this time will be different.
But Barren isn’t the only one with something to hide. And when his and Phoebe’s worlds collide, and the truth of who they both are finally comes to light, the love they’ve found at Rawhide will be put to the ultimate test…

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PROLOGUE

Smash!

The bottle landed against the wall with a satisfying crash, glass falling on the floor.

Hmm. He should clean that up.

Why? There’s only you here in this huge house.

A house that Barren had spent the last twenty years living in with his wife. Only, she wasn’t his wife anymore. He glanced down at the divorce papers on the coffee table. It was official. They were divorced. He was single.

And that fucking scared him.

Was he going to spend the rest of his life alone? He’d been married to Krystal for twenty years. Did he know how to be on his own anymore?

You’ve been on your own these last ten months since she left you.

Yeah, but a part of him had hoped she would change her mind. That she’d decide that her new, younger man wasn’t right for her and come back to him. He let out a sour laugh. That wasn’t happening. Krystal was gone and his life was falling apart.

Barren glared over toward the front door as someone knocked on it. Who could that be?

Maybe it’s Krystal.

Fuck. What if it was?

He was sitting here on his own, a complete and utter mess. He’d drunk half a bottle of vodka and now moved onto beer. The world definitely tilted as he got to his feet.

Don’t open the door. You can’t let her see you like this. You haven’t showered in days.

Go to her. Beg her to come back to you. You can’t survive on your own.

Fuck.

Opening the door, he stared blurrily at the person standing there. “You’re not Krystal.”

“Nope, I’m not,” replied Eliot grimly. “And you’re a mess. Why didn’t you call me?”

“Was I supposed to?” He didn’t remember that.

Eliot sighed. “Yes, you idiot. When you need me, you’re supposed to call and tell me.”

“I don’t need you.” What was he talking about?

“You don’t?” Eliot asked. “So you’re fine?”

“You got it.” Barren tried to smile, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded. “So, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you at home with your Littles?” Eliot had two Littles, Isla and Marcus. The lucky bastard. Not that he was jealous or anything.

Sure you aren’t. You’re not jealous over the fact that he has two Littles and you have none.

And now you sound bitter.

Eliot deserved to be happy after losing his wife, Anna. They’d been so in love and Barren hadn’t expected his friend to ever find someone else. Let alone two people to love.

“Because I came here to check on you. Melly called and said that the divorce papers came through. And you’ve stopped answering your phone.”

“Melly should mind her own business. I’m her boss, not her friend.”

“Melly cares about you,” Eliot said firmly. “And I dare you to say that to her face.”

Yeah, he wouldn’t be doing that. Melly scared him. “I told you that I’m fine.” He was getting sick of saying it, if he was honest.

“Walk in a straight line and I’ll believe you.”

Barren spun around to do just that. And found the floor coming toward him. How the hell had the floor moved like that?

Suddenly, Eliot wrapped an arm around him, holding him up.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Yep,” Eliot agreed.

“I’m in a bad way.”

“You are. But I’m here now. Let’s get some coffee into you and then tomorrow we can have a chat about what comes next.”

Fun. Talking was the last thing he wanted to do. Yet he knew Eliot was right. He couldn’t continue to drown his sorrows in vodka and beer.

Something had to change.

“What the hell was I thinking?” Barren moaned the next morning as he sat at the kitchen table. His head was thumping and he felt queasy. The smell of food cooking wasn’t helping. Nor was Eliot’s cheerful whistling. He loved the guy, but he needed to shut up.

Now.

Eliot placed a plate of toast in front of him along with a cup of coffee.

Barren took the coffee gratefully. The toast could wait until he knew it wasn’t going to come back up.

“You’re hurting,” Eliot told him. “I get it. I know what it’s like to lose someone you love.”

And now he felt like a complete asshole. Because Eliot’s wife had died. She hadn’t left him for a twenty-something nightclub DJ.

God.

How was this his life?

“I’m sorry,” he told Eliot.

“Why?” Eliot sat across from him with his own cup of coffee.

“For acting like an idiot and causing Melly to get so worried that she called you. Did you bring Isla and Marcus?” He hadn’t met Eliot’s new boyfriend and girlfriend. It was still hard to wrap his head around Eliot being with a man and a woman.

Two Littles.

Lucky bastard.

“Nope. They’re back home.”

“You left them alone?” He raised his eyebrows. He couldn’t imagine ever leaving his Little alone. He had the feeling he’d be so possessive and overprotective that they’d rarely be allowed out of his gaze.

And you’d probably cause them to run from you. Just like Krystal.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >47

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The Woman Left Behind (Misted Pines #4) Read Online Kristen Ashley http://www.readnovels.website/the-woman-left-behind-misted-pines-4-read-online-kristen-ashley Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:19:57 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/the-woman-left-behind-misted-pines-4-read-online-kristen-ashley Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Drama, New Adult, Suspense Authors: Kristen Ashley Series: Misted Pines Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >127

There are two dead bodies in Idaho, and the gun used to kill them has been traced back to a sixteen-year-old robbery in Misted Pines.

Sheriff Harry Moran has a broken heart and a stack of case files on his desk that the corrupt sheriff who came before him might have bungled.

Or he may have framed innocent people.

The first case Harry dives into, the woman left behind lives just a block away from his office.

When Lillian Rainier opens the door to the sheriff, Harry, who’s been a dead man walking since his wife died, comes back to life.

As for Lillian, she’s had a crush on Harry for forever, Harry showing at her door, and how he is when he does only makes her fall deeper.

As Harry and his team dive into these suspicious cases, Harry and Lillian have to figure out what to do with all they feel for each other, how hard it hits them, and how deep it goes.

But as a voice from the past becomes a witness in the present, and Harry and his crew dig deeper, they sense something sinister happened years ago.

As they weave together the threads of a cold case, they realize how messy it is.

Worse, the man behind the mess is desperately cleaning it up …

And no one in Misted Pines is safe.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

GUT

Harry

Shitty police work was one of the ugliest stains on society.

This was the thought Sheriff Harry Moran had as he sat in his ergonomic chair behind his desk at the sheriff’s department.

He was staring at the two files in front of him trying to ignore the email that was up on the monitor of his computer.

Those files were two of fifteen stacked on his desk.

Each of those files had one thing in common: the shoddy, lazy or corrupt investigation overseen by Fret County’s last sheriff, Leland Dern.

Dern was the man who came before Harry.

Which meant Harry was the man who had to clean up Dern’s mess.

Due to recent circumstances—the latest being a double murder that wasn’t properly investigated and an innocent man served prison time—a full and exhaustive, time-consuming and resource-heavy audit of every investigation under Dern’s tenure had been done.

There were shambolic cases they’d had no choice but to file away. The police work hadn’t been up to Harry’s expectations of his department, but there was nothing that pointed to an injustice being done.

Now, he and his team had to go back over those fifteen cases and hope what Harry expected—Dern playing favorites, taking bribes, looking the other way or preferring to go hunting rather than working—wouldn’t land them in lawsuits.

He was starting with these two.

He glanced at his monitor and felt his neck muscles tighten, which meant he again looked to the files and refocused.

They were the two cases that intrigued Harry the most, because the woman who had connections with both lived a block away from his department, only a five-minute walk from where he sat right there at his desk.

Lillian Rainier.

He’d lived in the town of Misted Pines his entire life, and because of his job, he knew or knew of a great many people in all of Fret County, and he’d never heard of her.

But Dern suspected, and investigated, her parents of a robbery sixteen years ago.

The investigation stalled, because Sonny and Avery Rainier had disappeared. And then, the case had simply died. Nothing else had been done. Not an interview, not a single follow-up of a lead.

A year later, Lillian married Willie Zowkower, a man Harry did know well.

Willie was a low-level gentleman dealer and a high-level charming asshole who currently had three outstanding arrest warrants in Fret County.

Recently, Willie had also disappeared.

And Lillian hadn’t reported her parents, or her husband, missing.

Harry’s gut was telling him something was up with Lillian Rainier.

And what was on Harry’s computer monitor was telling him whatever that was, it was something bad.

So, no. His gut wasn’t telling him anything. It was practically screaming at him to get off his ass, walk to her house and have a word.

Since Harry wasn’t lazy, and he thought of law enforcement not as a job but as a calling, he got off his ass in order to walk to her house and have a word.

It would be a good bet Harry had passed Lillian Rainier’s house thousands of times in his life, and he never noticed it.

Standing outside it now, he wondered why.

A small cracker box painted a pale yellow with white trim, sporting a green roof and a shocking-red door, there were profuse plantings of bronze, butterscotch and yellow button mums in appealing but mismatched terracotta pots dotted up the front steps and all over porch. An attractive fall wreath of leaves, berries and pinecones was on the door. A white picket fence rounded the property, and he could see the numerous rose bushes that likely ornamented that fence in the summer had been cut back in preparation for winter.

There were two Adirondack chairs on the porch. They were painted white and had yellow, brown and green plaid lumbar pillows upstanding against the back of the seats, a wooden table with a lantern resting on top between them.

No kitschy Sweater Weather! Or Happy Fall Y’all or Fall in Love! signs marred the neat, well-kept property.

As he opened the gate on the fence and stepped foot on her front walk, that feeling in Harry’s gut intensified.

Something was up.

Something was about to happen.

Something big.

He walked up the steps to that bright-red door.

He knocked.

He stood in his uniform and looked through the box of six square-paned windows at the top of the door, when he sensed movement inside.

And then there she was.

She opened the door.

The instant she did, the moment his eyes caught hers, Harry’s chest caved in, and his stomach curled up.

Yeah.

Something was about to happen.

Something big.

And he wasn’t ready for it.

ONE

Fresh-Cut Flowers

Lillian

I stared up and into the chocolate brown eyes of Sheriff Harry Moran, my heart in my throat, even though, when he’d made the announcement at the town council meeting that they were auditing Leland Dern’s files, I knew this day would come.

I had answers to his questions.

I doubted he had any answers to mine.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >127

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Never Your Girl (Western Wildcats Hockey #7) Read Online Jennifer Sucevic http://www.readnovels.website/never-your-girl-western-wildcats-hockey-7-read-online-jennifer-sucevic Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:13:25 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/never-your-girl-western-wildcats-hockey-7-read-online-jennifer-sucevic Genre: Alpha Male, College, Drama, Erotic, Sports Authors: Jennifer Sucevic Series: Western Wildcats Hockey Series by Jennifer Sucevic
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Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 83550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >84

Can you really blame me for loving the scandalous texts exposing Bridger Sanderson for the jerk he is? As far as I’m concerned, it’s sweet karma for ghosting me after we hooked up two years ago. Cocky, infuriating, and way too gorgeous for his own good, Bridger thinks he’s untouchable.

The best part?

He’s convinced I’m behind the messages.

I wish.

Unfortunately, my life takes a turn for the worst when Bridger uncovers my secret side hustle. Now he’s blackmailing me, forcing me to stick close—we’re talking 24/7—until he figures out who’s airing his dirty laundry on campus.

I should hate him for dragging me into his mess.

And I do…

Mostly.

Except… the more time we spend together, the harder it becomes to ignore how he looks at me. It's almost like he can see straight through the walls I’ve built to protect myself. Or how his own guard slips, revealing the cracks in his armor when he thinks I’m not paying attention.

The only person who’s ever gotten this close is ColdAsIce17, my anonymous confidant on the school chat app. With him, I can totally be myself.

But what happens when the lines blur between the guy I hate and the one I can’t stop thinking about?

What happens when I realize... they might be the same person?

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Western University Chat App

FragileLikeABomb

So, do you message every random profile you come across, or am I just special?

ColdAsIce17

You caught me. I couldn’t resist. The username? Chef’s kiss.

FragileLikeABomb

Fragile and LikeABomb felt on-brand. I’m complicated.

ColdAsIce17

Complicated or dramatic?

FragileLikeABomb

Aren’t they the same thing? What’s your excuse for ColdAsIce?

ColdAsIce17

Thought it sounded cool. Pun intended.

FragileLikeABomb

Did you consider literally any other options?

ColdAsIce17

EmotionallyUnavailable17 was taken.

FragileLikeABomb

That one hits a little too close to home.

ColdAsIce17

Guess that makes us a perfect match.

FragileLikeABomb

Oh no. Absolutely not.

1

Holland

A digital chorus of beeps and dings sweeps through Slap Shotz like a wave as the buzzing of my phone coincides with dozens of others. In the split second before I read the message, I catch the shift in the room. The way conversations die mid-sentence, the collective intake of breath, the sudden tension that crackles through the air like static before a storm.

Anonymous message

Make sure someone sends the hockey ho penicillin in the morning. We all know she’s gonna need at least one dose. Maybe two.

Damn.

Shots fired.

I shouldn’t smile.

I really shouldn’t.

But there’s something darkly satisfying about watching the mighty fall, especially when that fall involves Bridger Sanderson. The same type of texts have been terrorizing him for months now, and no one has been able to trace their source.

Not the tech department.

Not campus security

Not even the chancellor himself.

As far as I’m concerned, Bridger deserves it.

If I didn’t believe in karma before, I certainly do now.

“Oh boy,” my bestie, Willow, mutters from where she’s sitting across from me. “That’s not good.”

“Says who?” I arch a brow, not bothering to hide my amusement.

Willow tips her head in Bridger’s direction. “Probably him.”

Near the bar, I can feel Bridger’s presence like a physical weight. He’s been brooding in the same spot all night, radiating the kind of darkness that makes people give him a wide berth.

Not that I’ve been watching.

Much.

Our eyes meet across the dim space, and that familiar jolt of awareness hits me like a sucker punch. His gray eyes narrow, and I respond with my middle finger, a gesture that feels childish even as I do it.

“Real mature,” Willow says dryly.

“What can I say? I have my moments.”

She flicks a glance at him before refocusing her attention on me. Questions and curiosity swim in her blue depths. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened between you two?”

I take a long sip of my root beer to buy time.

Not deterred in the least by my silence, she lifts a brow, prodding me for an answer. Only then do I grudgingly say, “Nope.”

“Ahhh. Now we’re finally getting somewhere.” She holds her hand up. “Stop. We’re bordering on information overload. Why must you be so dang chatty? It’s such a personality defect.”

I roll my eyes as a smile trembles around the corners of my lips.

I love Willow to pieces, but she doesn’t need to know the gory details of what happened between Bridger and me. Most of the time, I wish I could scrub them from my memory.

I’m saved from further interrogation when my phone chimes with a work reminder. Thirty minutes until my shift starts at a job my best friend doesn’t even know I have.

“I need to head out,” I say, already gathering my things.

“Already?” Willow frowns. “We’ve only been here for an hour.”

“Yeah.” I tuck an errant strand of hair behind my ear. “You know I can only handle being around these guys in small doses. Unfortunately for you, I’ve reached my quota of hockey players and drama for one night.”

“Want company?” she offers. “We could watch a horror movie like we used to. I’ll let you pick the goriest one, even though we both know I’ll have nightmares for weeks.”

The offer makes my chest ache with nostalgia.

I miss those days.

Now that Willow has a boyfriend, everything has changed.

“Nah, you stay here and celebrate with your man.” I force lightness into my tone that I don’t feel. “This week has been exhausting. I probably wouldn’t make it through the first murder. And that’s my favorite part.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say murder?” Maverick McKinnon’s eyebrows shoot up. “Should someone warn Bridger?”

“Please.” I grab my bag, glad for the excuse to shield my expression. “If I were going to murder Bridger Sanderson, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to incriminate myself by talking about it. And you’d never find the body. No body, no murder. Isn’t that how it works?”

“That’s...” Maverick glances at Willow. “Concerning.”

“Don’t worry,” my bestie says, tipping her face toward him with a softness that brings a small, wistful smile to my lips. “We were talking about movies.”

He brushes his lips across hers, whispering something that makes her giggle, and just like that, they’re in their own little world. I watch them for a moment, torn between genuine happiness for my best friend and a loneliness that cuts bone-deep. Willow deserves this—deserves him—after everything she’s been through. But sometimes I miss when it was just us against the world.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >84

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Finding Forever (The Hawthornes #1) Read Online Natasha Anders http://www.readnovels.website/finding-forever-the-hawthornes-1-read-online-natasha-anders Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:13:17 +0000 http://www.readnovels.website/finding-forever-the-hawthornes-1-read-online-natasha-anders Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, Drama, Erotic Authors: Natasha Anders Series: The Hawthornes Series by Natasha Anders
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Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)

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Niall Caden Hawthorne—Cade—lives an exacting, uncompromising life. His only priorities are, and always will be, his family and his business. He’d do anything for them. This includes marrying a colorless, drab moth of a woman who leaves him physically and emotionally cold.

Fern Lambert is everything Cade has never wanted in a woman—timid, sheltered, shockingly inexperienced, and—after a night of uncharacteristically bad choices—pregnant with his baby.
She is also the key to securing an elusive business contract that Cade has been after for nearly a year. Marrying her means giving up three years of his life, it means acknowledging a child that he never planned on having… it means complications and disruptions to his well-ordered life.
But Cade knows it’s the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do. That doesn’t mean he has to like it.

And—inexplicable fascination with her lush upper lip notwithstanding—it certainly doesn’t mean he has to like her

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

In a grand ballroom full of colorful, flamboyant butterflies, she was a small, pale decidedly drab moth. Niall Caden Hawthorne—Cade—shouldn’t have noticed her. He wasn’t sure why his restless gaze had snagged on her, not when she was doing her damnedest to fade into the wallpaper behind the large potted plant in the furthest corner of the massive room.

The huge space was teeming with brash, overconfident people. They were all talking and laughing a little bit too loudly. All putting on a damned good show of having a fabulous time. And why wouldn’t they? Invitations to the Hawthorne Trust Annual Charity Gala were coveted by celebrities, royalty, and powerful politicians the world over. Scoring an invitation to this event represented the pinnacle of making it.

Cade had never seen the appeal, honestly, but as he’d been obligated to attend since he was thirteen, he was hardwired to resent it. Even more so these last few years, when it seemed liked neither of his brothers gave a good goddamn about appearances and familial obligations, while Cade still tried to be the Good Son.

His younger brother Gideon—until recently—had happily skipped the gala and all other family-related events, since his late teens. While Nox, their middle brother, had been MIA for the last eighteen months because he was going through some shit.

That left Cade and his youngest sibling, McKenna, holding the bag. Kenny, of course, lived for this shit. She loved dressing up, partying, and she was the one who picked the recipient charity every year. The gala was her pet project, a responsibility she’d shouldered since their mother’s death eleven years ago when Cade had been twenty-three and Kenny only eighteen. But even Kenny seemed peaked and out of sorts this year. He’d caught a glimpse of her earlier, looking beautiful as always, but also pale, too thin, and definitely not happy.

Cade absently lifted a champagne flute from a passing tray, as his restless gaze left the peculiar little gray moth in the corner to sweep the grand ballroom for his sister. He’d been meaning to corner her and find out what was wrong. He’d never seen her look less than radiant at one of these shindigs but she’d appeared frazzled enough earlier for him to make a mental note to ask her if she was okay.

He didn’t see her. Instead he spotted his youngest brother, Gideon, slow dancing with his wife Elizabeth. The couple had been together for eighteen months now and married for the last six months. The woman was undoubtedly the one who’d encouraged Gideon to come to the gala tonight.

Those two were so wrapped up in each other that, as usual, they appeared oblivious to the rest of the world. Cade rolled his eyes and skimmed over the rest of the glittering, sophisticated crowd before coming to a stop on the fragile moth again.

He supposed—if this were regency England—she would’ve been considered the quintessential wallflower. She was wearing a silvery ball gown. Cade had dated enough wealthy, sophisticated women to recognize that it was clearly an expensive designer dress.

But the silver-gray color washed out her already pale complexion. There was a subtle sheen to the fabric that reminded him of rain-soaked spiderwebs on a crisp winter morning. He snorted in self-derision at the uncharacteristically whimsical thought.

The dress—a long sheath which skimmed over barely-there curves—was almost prudish. Long sheer sleeves, an empire waist, and a modest, elegant boatneck, combined with a floor length skirt in fabric so lightweight it seemed to move with every breath she took.

Her hair, piled atop her head in a complicated series of twists and braids, was blonde. No… blonde was an entirely too simplistic a word for that remarkable silvery moonlight shade of platinum. Cade doubted the color was natural and with the entire mass balanced on top of her head like that, it looked like too much weight for her slender neck to carry.

While her hair was remarkable, the rest of her was decidedly not. She was so pale he wondered if she was anemic. And then also wondered why someone so colorless would choose such a light-toned, monochromatic dress.

As he drifted closer to her lonely corner, he conceded that she wasn’t entirely without color. He noted the faintest blush of pink in her cheeks and on her mouth. The somber soft misty gray—almost the same shade as her dress—of her large wide set eyes. Her long, thick lashes and delicately arched brows were startlingly dark in contrast with the paleness of her skin and hair, adding an intriguing depth and sultriness to her lovely eyes.

She had an appealing mouth, with a full, cupid’s bow upper lip, which overshadowed the less full curve of her lower lip. He’d never seen a mouth quite like it before. Upside-down and interesting, on a quiet, plain face. His eyes drifted up from that captivating mouth, set above a narrow, pointed chin. Then moved on to her small, straight nose, high cheekbones, and back to the big, gray eyes that widened as they made contact with his.

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