Palm Beach County Library Jupiter Novels & Stories

Blurb: When the university’s golden-boy hockey captain needs to pass Advanced Statistics or kiss his NHL dreams goodbye, the last person he expects to hold his future in his hands is Nathan Tanner. Brilliant, uptight, and utterly unimpressed by Maverick Rockwell’s charm. Nathan wants one thing: his glowing recommendation letter for the elite SiporaTech internship. Instead, he’s blackmailed into tutoring the arrogant, distractingly hot jock who represents everything he despises. But as their private sessions move from the library to Nathan’s couch, Maverick’s casual touches linger too long, his teasing grins turn wicked, and his “straight” confidence starts cracking under the heat of Nathan’s icy control. Maverick thought seducing the nerd would be easy revenge. He never expected the quiet intensity in Nathan’s glare to set his blood on fire… or how addictive it would feel to make the perfect tutor lose his composure. With only two weeks until finals, the stakes couldn’t be higher. One wrong move could destroy both their futures. But the forbidden tension simmering between them might just burn everything down first. Starting with their clothes. A deliciously steamy MM romance full of power plays, reluctant desire, and the kind of slow, scorching surrender that leaves you breathless.

After her fiancé publicly humiliates her during a viral Instagram Live breakup, 27 year old interior designer Lila Moreau escapes to a secluded Caribbean island, desperate to reclaim her confidence and outrun the heartbreak that shattered her sense of worth. What she doesn’t expect is a single night that will alter the course of her life. Julian Cruz, a 31 year old billionaire real estate mogul and founder of Cruz Developments, arrives on the same island to finalize a discreet, multi-million-dollar deal. Hardened by betrayal and a painful past, Julian has sworn off love entirely, believing ambition and success are the only things that never abandon him. A chance meeting at a beach bar ignites an undeniable attraction neither of them planned for nor wanted. One reckless, unforgettable night follows, free of names, promises, or expectations. At dawn, Lila disappears, leaving behind only a silver anklet and memories Julian cannot erase. Months later, fate intervenes again when Julian commissions an interior designer for his newly purchased Chicago mansion to the woman who never truly left his mind. Forced into close proximity, suppressed emotions resurface amid late night meetings, simmering tension, and unresolved desire. But their growing bond is threatened by lingering betrayals, unresolved pasts, and fears neither is ready to confront. As secrets resurface and old wounds reopen, Lila and Julian must decide whether love is worth the risk of being broken again.

On the last day of the deadline for the loan repayment, I went to Liam Sommer's stepsister, Christine Sommer, to ask for the 300,000 dollars I had lent her. The next day, Liam threw a ledger I had never seen before in front of me. Liam said, "On your birthday last year, I transferred 8,100 dollars to you. On our tenth anniversary, I transferred 108,000 dollars to you. Also, at the beginning of every month, I transfer 20,000 dollars to you for your living expenses. You must pay me back by the end of today." I froze, but Liam smiled without a hint of warmth. "What’s wrong? You can't afford to repay me? Evelyn Lancaster, you shouldn't have given Christy trouble. This is my lesson to you. If you don't pay me back today, let's not meet for the next three years, and don't come looking for me." Over the next three years, I never saw Liam again, nor did I go looking for him. While he and Christine traveled around the world and wore couple rings, I married my childhood friend in front of our family and friends. While he and Christine walked along the beach and kissed, I moved into a new house with my husband, our cat, and our dog. Everything was moving along smoothly, but why was Liam standing under the window of my house in the middle of the night, crying and saying that he was unhappy?

The things we want are so very rarely the things we need. Clifton Heights, a modest Adirondack town, offers many unique attractions. Arcane Delights sells both paperbacks and hard-to-find limited editions. The Skylark Diner serves the best home-cooked meals around, with friendly service and a smile. Every August, Mr. Jingo’s County Fair visits, to the delight of children and adults. In essence, Clifton Heights is the quintessential small American town. Everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is treated like family. It is quiet, simple, and peaceful. But shadows linger here. Flitting in dark corners, from the corner of the eye. If you walk down Main Street after dark, the slight scrape of shoes on asphalt whispers you're not alone, but when you look over your shoulder, no one is there. The moon shines high and bright in the night sky, but instead of throwing light, it only seems to make the shadows lengthen. Children disappear. Teens run away. Hunters get lost in the woods with frightening regularity. Husbands go mad, and wives vanish in the dead of night. And still, when the sun rises in the morning, you are greeted by townspeople with warm waves and friendly smiles, and the shivers pass as everything seems fresh and new... Until night falls once more. Handy's Pawn and Thrift sits several blocks down from Arcane Delights. Like any thrift store, its wares range from the mundane to the bizarre. By daylight, it seems just another slice of small town Americana. But in its window hangs a sign which reads: We Have Things You Need. And when a lonely traveling salesman comes looking for something he desperately wants, after normal visiting hours, after night has fallen, he will face a harsh truth among the shelves of Handy’s Pawn and Thrift: the things we want are rarely the things we need. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

When Jason Morrison married Bella, it was nothing more than a promise made to a dying mother. A contract. Nothing else. For three years Bella loved him quietly and completely, asking for nothing in return. Then his first love came back and everything changed. He grew cold. Distant. And when he finally looked at his wife, all he saw was someone in the way. So Bella left. She walked out with a suitcase, a secret she would never tell him, and two heartbeats growing inside her that only she knew about. She was done being invisible. Done being the woman standing quietly in the background of someone else's love story. What Jason didn't know was that the woman he had dismissed as pathetic was never who he thought she was. She was the girl from the orphanage. The one he had pressed a silver ring into the palm of and promised to come back for. And she was the missing heiress that one of the most powerful families in the country had been searching for over twenty years. And by the time Jason Morrison finally remembers everything, Bella has already become someone he was never worthy of losing. The question is whether she will give him the chance to prove he is worthy of getting her back.

I was the top bounty thief in the organization. The best they had. After turning in my final score, I announced on the spot that I was done for good. Then, I stood in my studio, blending paint. A single photograph was pinned to the wall before me. Black Viper filled the doorway, the light behind him casting his face in shadow. "What's it like," he asked quietly, "pretending to be an artist?" He stepped further inside. "Does paint smell better than blood?" I placed the palette knife down and wiped my hands slowly. "I'm done. I walked away." "Old Fox didn't approve of it." "That's not my concern." Black Viper crossed the room and tapped the old photograph on the wall. "Are you certain?" I did not want to look. I told myself not to. However, my gaze shifted anyway. A young boy stared back from the photo. "The blind kid?" I had spent ten years searching for him. "Where is he?" I moved toward the wall, reaching to rip the picture down. "One last job," Black Viper said, pressing his palm against the photo. My hand stopped in midair. "What's the target?" "The final lot at next month's auction that the Gilbert Group will be holding. "It's called Mermaid's Tear."

“Show me,” he said, voice low and rough, “how good you're willing to serve me.” I should’ve spat in his face. Except, I nodded…because outside that tent, his men waited. The ones who’d tear me apart piece by piece if I said no. The ones I’d be handed to. I slid my palm between my thighs, breath hitching at my own touch, just a warning stroke and to stay alive. But when I brushed again, deeper this time, I gasped. “Keep going,” Malrik said, leaning back, watching like I was the most fascinating sin he’d ever seen. So I did. With shame thick in my throat and my heart pounding against cracked ribs. I did it for my sister, for survival, for him. *** Kaelith thought being rejected by her mate was the worst thing that could happen but she was wrong. Sold to a rogue warlord as leverage, branded like cattle, and forced into a savage camp where women are broken for sport and pleasure, Kaelith expects to die or worse. But she ends up in the mercy of Malrik Dren, the warlord himself. What happens when a broken girl becomes a weapon, and the monster meant to break her starts to fall?

  "There is no escape for you. I have waited a long time for you,mate. I will not let you go this time." I gasped and placed my palm over my heart, doubling over. I felt it. Strong and unbreakable, a cord that connected our bodies, minds and souls to each other's. It reached out, connecting me to him, over time, over space, over realms. I felt his power fuse with mine and cuddle around my ice, making me warm. Fire to my ice. Ice to his fire. I didn't need to see him to know it was him. My dragon growled again with mixed emotions coursing through her. I joined in with a snarl and lifted my head, anger of a woman and beast merging into something cataclysmic.      I thrummed my fingers in the air and I raised my head. Our eyes met and I resisted the urge to double over at the sensation in my chest. With Fae vision, he looked even more gorgeous than any being should be. So sensual. So dark. So powerful. My mate. I searched his turquoise depths for answers, hoping I was wrong, but they said it all. He was my mate. And he'd hurt me. I'll kill him.

Rowan Nightshade slapped me in front of his friends, his guards, and the girl he had been protecting for months. The room went dead silent. Then someone whispered, “She deserved it.” For nine years, I had loved Rowan like he was my fate. I endured his coldness, his broken promises, and every time he left me standing alone because another girl needed him more. I kept telling myself it would get better. Rowan was my promised mate. Sooner or later, he would choose me first. But when his palm landed across my face, something inside me finally broke. Rowan thought I would cry, apologize, and forgive him like I always did. Instead, I walked out of the hall, deleted every way to contact him, and told both our packs the promised-mate agreement was over before sunrise. No one believed I would really leave. Until Rowan came to my dorm that night, his eyes red and his voice shaking. “Why, Serena? Just because of one slap?” I looked at the boy I had loved since childhood. Then I smiled. “Yes,” I said. “Because of that slap.”

His hands feel cold against my hot skin and it won’t be wrong to say that he is doing his best to trace my wrists sensually while he removes the handcuff from my right hand. I hold my breath back when his teasing fingers touch my palm in a slow motion. Heat shoots down to my core, making me press my thighs together as he closes the distance between us and whispers in my left ear. “ Why are you squirming, hot lips?” ******** When Valentina Morgan joined hands with the enemy to take down the Mafia of her own boyfriend, little did she know she will be facing the biggest manipulator in all history, Matteo Vitali. He is every bit of the type of controlling men she hates but the six feet four, sex on legs man, can attract even the dead. And soon she falls in line of the people wondering if they should let go of everything and enjoy the nights of passion in the arms of the biggest manipulator_____Matteo Vitali wanted Valentina Morgan, the moment he laid his eyes on her pouty pink lips and when she is in his hands, he will be damned to give up this chance to bend her at his will even if he has a secret which can break her beyong repair, because he admits. “ She's mine ”