Xiao Team

With a shift, I let my dress slip from my shoulders and fall to the floor, revealing the lingerie beneath. Nathan's eyes darkened, as closing the small distance between us, his lips claimed mine in a possessive kiss. His tongue tangled with mine, both hungry and tender. Then, slowly, oh so tantalizingly slowly, he backed me toward the bed, his kisses travelling down my neck, across my collarbone, before they moved lower still… ~~~ FBI Agent Brianna Hart had always wanted Nathan Pierce, her stepbrother, and for several years they had been lovers, but circumstances forced them apart. When Brianna returns to her former job within the FBI, she finds Nathan married. When he once again becomes her team leader, Brianna tries to maintain a professional relationship with Nathan. But after a tragic accident takes the life of Nathan’s wife and unborn child, Nathan seeks solace within Brianna’s arms. Old feelings flare to life between them, and both struggle with the undeniable sexual attraction between them. Brianna's heart is torn over her love and need for the newly widowed Nathan, while he grapples with the loss of his family and his re-awakened feelings for a woman he never quite let go of.

Once upon a time, they were friends. But high school changed everything. Ethan Cole became the untouchable king of the rink: star hockey forward, party legend, and the guy who now treats Mia Harper like trash. Popularity went to his head, and the boy she used to know vanished. Mia, meanwhile, is the quiet overachiever buried in books and AP classes—the virgin nerd who's never even been kissed, let alone anything more. When Ethan's GPA threatens to bench him from the team right before playoffs, desperation forces him to swallow his pride and approach the one person who can help him. The deal is simple: Mia tutors him in exchange for "experience." Kisses. Touches. Lessons in everything she's curious about but too shy to chase on her own. But old memories have a way of thawing even the coldest hearts. Late-night study sessions turn heated and the line between fake intimacy and real vulnerability blurs fast. Can two people who started as enemies rewrite their story... or will the ice between them stay frozen forever? [CONTENT WARNING: This book contains explicit sexual content and is intended for mature readers 18+ only. All characters are consenting adults over the age of 18.]

BLURB “This…this is wrong.” I whispered, shivering as Rowan’s fingers traced along the lines of my slit. “Wrong?” Ellis’ lips brushed my neck, his teeth grazing my skin. “Honey, forbidden is what makes it irresistible.” Noah’s lips grazed my ear, his warm breath fanning my ears as his soft voice slipped in. “And you’ll learn… We take what we want.” ***** Isla North had always followed her brother's rules, until she tasted what it was like to break them. Her brother, Asher North, captain of the college hockey team, made one rule when his sister resumed freshman year: “You can fuck with other girls for all I care, but do not go close to my sister.” They all easily agreed; after all, brotherhood came first. Until three men broke that rule—his best friends. Rowan, the teasing and sinfully hot strategist. Ellis, the calm, gorgeously hot destruction, and Noah, the reckless, untamed, and sexily wild. Between secret locker room encounters, broken rules, and nights ending in trembling submission, Isla discovers that forbidden desire is intoxicating and dangerous. The ice isn’t the only thing Isla is playing on. Power, lust, and obsession blur the lines, and once she surrenders… there’s no going back.

His songs were better when he had a broken heart. That sentence would change my life after my dream job was dished to me on a shiny, silver platter. All I had to do? Hurt Nash Pierce enough to get him writing good music again. The pop icon’s songs were no longer the phenomena they used to be. His team needed another breakthrough album—like the first he’d penned, using his heartbreak as fuel. The plan was simple: I’d go on tour with him as a backup dancer…and make him fall in love with me. I was hired to inspire—to become embedded into every lyric he wrote. Then, I was to set fire to it all—to destroy every feeling we hoped he’d develop for me. It seemed simple enough. Easy, even. I didn’t expect to be consumed myself—to see so much in the man displayed in the tabloids. I didn’t foresee falling for him. It didn’t occur to me that, while attempting to break his heart, I might just shatter my own. Most of all, I never thought I’d fight so hard to hold on to a relationship that had always been founded on goodbye.

Raven is the most wanted criminal in the town of Domsville. Her tainted past taught her how to think, fight, kill and hide. The wildness in her blood is unmatched, and with her team of best friends, or partners in crimes, she could potentially end the world. It's too bad that Raven's only desire is a life without running, with someone she can call her lover. That wish may have been granted when her plan took a turn. She was to play the feelings of a man to gather a series of information that can earn her an impossibly large sum of money, then end him. It's a pity that she fell into her own trap. Now, only one question remains: would the man accept a lover with wildness in her veins and hand-caked blood? -- Jean Luc frowned, "You're impossibly stubborn. Just admit the truth." "I can promise that half the population reacts to movies," Raven raised her voice. "You're built like an alien, so it's no surprise that you don't understand and--" Jean Luc rolled his eyes at her seemingly endless rant, then before he gave himself a chance to reconsider, he shut her up. His lips on hers. It did the trick flawlessly.

Ligaya was a healer-wonderer from the world unknown to the human eye -the Realm of Ibawnon. One day, her realm was put in danger due to the threat that the Malignobons, the evil spirit dwellers, was pushing their way. As her realm's Sole Redeemer, she had the responsibility of protecting everyone from the upcoming danger. But despite having a magnificent amount of zest to counter their enemies, Ligaya could still only do so much without her true zest level. In order to bring her total zest back, she ventured out into the human world to find the one person who's responsible for her incapacity and bring that person with her to their realm to defeat the enemies. That person was Vanness "V" Jalandoni, a rich and famous Engineering student slash basketball team captain of their university. When the two of them finally met, things began to go in shambles. One's intention was different from the other and it all made everything messed up. The human world was so much different from where Ligaya came from and V was making her situation more troublesome. Before she could return to her world, she still needed to convince V to believe her and make him come with her. Would she be able to complete her mission? Or would she just surrender her fight in the human world and go back to her realm before it was too late?

Kai writes the truth no one wants to hear. Especially not about Jax—the untouchable alpha captain who owns the rink and everyone’s attention. Kai’s articles tear Jax apart, call out the ego, the dirty hits, the way he plays like the world owes him. Jax should hate him. Instead, he watches. Remember. Because four years ago, one drunken night at a party locked them in a room, and Kai walked away pretending it never happened. Jax never forgot. Now the pull is back—violent, quiet, impossible to shake. Jax corners him, crowds him, makes him feel it all over again. But Milo’s there too—the steady defenseman who’s loved Kai silently since freshman year, who knows exactly what happened that night and did nothing. One secret could burn the team down. One choice could burn Kai down. In a world where the ice is thin and loyalty fractures, love isn’t clean—it’s a blade. And someone’s going to bleed. ***************** Trigger Warning: ‘Dark romance for mature readers only. Contains dubious consent, captivity, degradation, choking, knife play, violence, blackmail, and heavy emotional trauma. All characters are adults. Purely fictional.”

Our company was having a team building event in the Huka Islands, where every employee would get their own room. As I prepared to check in, my colleague from the same department, Yvonne Caruso, suddenly snatched my ID from my hand. "The rooms are full. The rest of you should find another hotel." I did not say anything much but took my ID back to hand it to the employee working behind the front desk. "One room, please. Thank you." However, Yvonne pushed me away viciously and berated me, "I told you to get lost. Are you deaf?!" I was not prepared for it, and I hit the corner of the front desk hard. I felt a sharp pain in my waist and immediately lost my temper. Yvonne was infuriated when I pushed her back, and she roared at me, "How dare you push me! My dad is the real boss behind this company. He's the Don of the Carusos. Cross me and you won't even see it coming when you die!" I was taken aback and broke out with laughter a second later. The Don of the Carusos, Ian Caruso, was my father. Why did I have no idea that he had another daughter apart from me?

My stepson, Lucas Lincoln, is trapped in a fire. After calling the fire brigade, I quickly ring my husband, Jasper Lincoln. Jasper is the leader of a search-and-rescue team, after all. But to my dismay, Jasper is currently keeping his ex-wife, Yvonne Schmidt, company. Yvonne has won the "Forensic Doctor of the Year" award, and so they are out celebrating it. My phone calls are rejected again and again. Jasper never once calls me back, even after Lucas' cries for help disappear entirely. By the time the fire brigade arrives to quell the flames, Lucas has been burned to a crisp. I tell Jasper what happened to our son, but he only gleefully says, "He was nothing but a troublemaker who'd contribute nothing to society. If he's dead, then so be it. This way, he won't grow up to become a menace. "Yvonne happens to be giving a public talk tomorrow and is still in need of a specimen demonstrating burn injuries. She can use Noah's corpse for her demonstration since it's still fresh." I sneer. So Jasper thinks that my own son, Noah Green, is the one who died in the fire. I immediately send Lucas' blackened corpse to Yvonne's operating room.

A promising position at a high tech dating app company brings Holly out to Colorado. But when she meets the CEO, and would be boss, she decides he can take his attitude, and the job offer, and stuff it. Holly becomes desperate for work and doesn't want to move back home with her mom and recently divorced sister. She decides to give it one last shot and is immediately hired by the COO, who is also the CEO's brother. Her project is to bring the brother's latest dating app update to life. She needs to find any issues with it, which seems to be everything. Rework the backend. And complete a beta test using employees who volunteer to be testers. What could go wrong during the office beta testing? A lot. No one on the leadership team, including Holly, the CEO, & the COO were supposed to sign up for beta testing of their app that allows people to express their desires anonymously via written messages. What happens when Holly starts messaging with her bosses without knowing who they are? Can the Billionaire heirs of Talon Industries, Noah and Adam, figure out how to charm a girl who doesn't seem to be impacted by their usual charms? Can either of them admit that lust has turned into love? Who can crack the ice cold heart of these untrusting alpha men? She can.