Jubilee

They were supposed to be on the same team. Santos Khyle arrived in Seattle as the Soul Reapers' most anticipated rookie in years, a natural-born scorer with something to prove and a chip on his shoulder the size of a regulation puck. Gunner Jäger had been tearing up the ice as the team's feared enforcer for two seasons, and he had zero interest in sharing his spotlight with some orange-haired twenty-one year old who looked at him like he was a problem to be managed. From the moment they met, it was war. On the ice, they were a disaster. Off it, they were worse. Screaming matches in corridors. Fists through locker room walls. A live on-air brawl that made every highlight reel in North America and earned them both a suspension, a lecture from their furious coach, and the undivided attention of the entire hockey world. Nobody could stand to watch them together. Nobody could look away either. Because underneath the fury and the bruises and the months of spectacular mutual destruction, something else was building. Something neither of them had language for yet. Something that felt uncomfortably like the only fight either of them was actually afraid to lose. The Soul Reapers are one playoff run away from everything. Gunner and Khyle are one honest conversation away from falling apart completely. Or maybe, just maybe, from finally figuring out what they are to each other. Pucking Up the Ice is a slow burn MM romance set in the brutal and beautiful world of professional hockey. It contains explicit language, on-ice violence, emotional gut punches, two men who are absolutely terrible at feelings, and a love story that had to break everything before it could build something worth keeping.

He proposed the morning of graduation. She called him a nobody and walked away. By midnight, the whole world knew his name. Chase Sterling is the heir to an empire she never knew existed, and Vivian Ashford is the actress who rejected him before the fortune ever came. Now she is building her career under the bright lights of Hollywood, and he is dismantling everything in his path from a New York boardroom. They should be strangers. They should be over. But something is pulling them back together, and it is darker than desire. Chase is not the man Vivian fell for in college. He is colder now, crueler, and every time he gets close to her, something inside him turns. He does not understand why he needs to hurt what he loves. She does not understand why she keeps coming back. Neither of them knows about the curse written into the Sterling bloodline, or that the stronger their love grows, the more violently he will be driven to destroy her. His mother is watching from the shadows. Her best friend is seeing visions drenched in blood. And the man offering Vivian the career of her dreams has his own reasons for keeping her close. Some curses cannot be broken. Some loves refuse to die. And some obsessions were never meant to end.

Phoenix’s life takes a disastrous turn when she wakes up in a grimy hotel room just two days before her mating ceremony. Her life is ruined, and she didn’t need a soothsayer to tell her because not only is their a lingering smell on the sheet, which indicates that she has been unfaithful, Dylan is in the hotel room yelling profanities at her. By her unexplained actions, she has become disgraced, banished, and may have sparked a war between her pack and Dylan’s. Werewolves mate for a life, and a broken mating arrangement is an unforgivable sin. At 16, Phoenix was promised to Dylan as a way to unify their packs after years of rivalry. An alliance now broken by her infidelity. Although she would have preferred to wait for her chosen mate, she has long accepted that being Dylan’s chosen mate and Luna of his pack is a fate she can endure. Now branded as a disgrace and banished, Phoenix has been replaced by her half sister as Dylan’s mate. Exiled from the home she has always known, Phoenix is left to wander the forests as a rogue. Her central thought is to survive and navigate life alone whilst looking for a pack that will take her in, but she must face all her fears one at a time. Her life in exile takes an unexpected twist when she finds her true mate in the most unexpected way. How does she keep the secret of being the fated golden wolf? How does she stay away from her chosen mate to keep her secret? Will she learn to harness her powers and save her kind from a looming war with the hunters? Like her name, will she rise from the ashes?

"Sheltered her entire life, Jubilee Thornton yearns to spread her wings and fly after a childhood marked by illness. Her first goal? To attract the attention of the handsome schoolteacher she’s had a crush on for years, Heath DiMarco. One fateful night, Jubilee throws caution to the wind and kisses Heath—until he pushes her away and tells her they can never be together. Heartbroken, Jubilee vows to forget Heath and live the life she’s always wanted. In a fit of inspiration, she creates a list of resolutions: to go skinny-dipping, to go on dates, and to finally lose her virginity. Heath DiMarco moved to the small town of Fair Haven seven years ago to escape the memories of his past. Now a well-respected elementary school teacher, he can’t afford to have a dalliance with the youngest sister of his best friend, no matter how much that single kiss on Halloween night shook his world. That is until Heath finds Jubilee’s list of risqué resolutions. He can’t bear the thought of her with any man but him. Yet he knows he can’t have her himself. Instead, Heath decides he’ll vet the men Jubilee wants to date. Jubilee agrees, but only if he teaches her how to flirt—and how to kiss. He knows he should tell her no, but he can’t resist the temptation she presents. As desire heats to a roaring flame between them, secrets threaten everything they both hold dear. Unless they untangle themselves from a dangerous web of lies, they will face heartbreak—or be transformed by a passionate love."

At the dinner celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary, I held the pregnancy test report in my pocket, planning to surprise my CEO husband. However, the moment the doors opened, I froze. A stunning woman stood there with her arm intimately linked through my husband's. She clung to Charles Lawrence with the ease and confidence of someone who clearly belonged at his side, carrying herself like the lady of the house. Neither Charles nor the guests found it strange. If anything, they seemed entertained. Someone even joked, "Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Cooper aren't just ideal partners at work. Their chemistry is something to admire as well. I've personally reserved the presidential suite at Jubilee City's finest resort for Mr. Lawrence tonight. You can be sure no one will disturb you." Fiona blushed and slipped shyly into Charles's arms. He lowered his head and kissed her hard. They fit together so naturally, so intimately, that the sight was unbearably glaring. My thoughts flashed back to the night before, when Charles had pressed me into the bed. In that moment, I had caught sight of a strange message sent by someone named Fiona: [Everyone in the company thinks we've slept together.] Charles had explained that Fiona was only his assistant, a forty-year-old woman, and that the message was nothing more than a punishment from a lost game, a foolish dare. That explanation had dissolved my suspicion and anger. Then, I finally saw the truth. I was the one who had lost everything. Inside my pocket, the pregnancy report was crushed into a tight ball. I forced the tears back, stepped away, and opened the invitation from the National Aerospace Research Institute on my phone. Without hesitation, I tapped Accept. Three days later, I would vanish completely from Charles's world.

She was a destitute woman whose life was dependent on others. She was forced to be a scapegoat and traded herself, which resulted in her pregnancy. He considered that she was the ultimate embodiment of evil as she was greed and deceitful. She tried all her efforts to win his heart but failed. Her departure made him so furious that he searched through the ends of the world and managed to recapture her. The whole city knew that she would be shredded into a million pieces. She asked him in desperation, “I left our marriage with nothing, so why won’t you let me go?”In a domineering tone, he answered, “You’ve stolen my heart and given birth to my child, and you wish to escape from me?”