I left my family and tiny Texas hometown 15 years ago to escape small-town gossips and to give my mom and sister the chance at a better life. But when a phone call from an attorney back home informs me that my sister passed away, leaving me custody of her newborn baby, I'm shocked out of the steady life I've built for myself running a tattoo shop in San Francisco. The thing is: I don't do babies. And I don't do small towns. Or commitment. And I especially don't do family.

I don't need anyone's protection. I'm fine. But to appease my sister after a home invasion, I agree to take self-defense lessons. They just so happen to be with a big, muscled former navy SEAL who may or may not be everything I've always daydreamed about but never thought I could have. And he's dead set on looking out for me even when things in my life suddenly get complicated. Between the increasing threats against me and pressure from my wealthy family to be someone I'm not, I'm having a hard time keeping it together.

Conor: It starts with a drunken text pic. The kind I would normally never send. Only, instead of it going to the flirty hotel bartender, it goes to some random stranger who actually responds. Wells: The first thing I notice about Conor Newell when he sits down in my high-rise conference room is how delightfully nervous he is. Then I see his tie. The same geeky tie that’s held hostage on my phone. The one that belongs to my anonymous late-night texter. And it changes everything.

Jane Cobalt is an American princess. The loyal and painfully curious 23-year-old has inherited immense pressure to preserve the Cobalt legacy. But for Jane, sex, love, and life have been a series of royal failures. After a friends-with-benefits ended in disaster, she's sworn to a "no sex" hiatus for, well, eternity - and she has no intention of letting anyone in her bed and definitely not her heart.

If there's one thing I know, it's how to play the game...both on and off the field. If it hadn't been for that one teenage slipup where I kissed Beau Campbell, I'd be able to keep fooling myself. Football is the one thing I use to distract myself from the truth, and when I screw-up and lose the game I love, I find myself right back in Fever Falls. And right back face-to-face with Cranky Campbell, who hates me even more than he did when we were kids. But whatever magic he held over me then is still there.

Bennett Fox walked into my life on one hell of a crappy Monday morning. I was late for the first day at my new job - a job I’d now have to compete for, even though I’d already worked eight years to earn it, because of an unexpected merger. While I lugged my belongings up to my new office, a meter maid wrote me a parking summons. She’d ticketed a long line of cars - except for the Audi parked in front of me, which happened to be the same make and model as mine. Annoyed, I decided to regift my ticket to the car that had evaded a fine.

"Cody Davis is gonna make a sinner out of me." Yes, I know exactly who he is. The wounded soldier at the end of Willow Street. Intimidating. Devastatingly handsome. Muscular body chiseled from stone. Deep dark eyes that dare you to come near. Attitude for days. And I just became his caregiver. Everyone warned me to stay away from him - including my father, the respected minister of our small town of Spruce. But clearly, I'm too stubborn to heed good advice, especially when Cody Davis is as frustratingly attractive - and persistent - as they come.

Malcolm Rodgers loses everything in one week. The quarterback is benched with an injury the same week his fiancée breaks off their engagement. Lost, hurting, and stuck on the sidelines, Malcolm must spend his days in physical therapy with the one person who refuses to let him get back in the game: cocky Vance Coberly. Vance is out and proud in the macho world of pro football. As the top physical therapist in his field, flirting with football players is strictly out of bounds. But the rules of play all change when Vance meets Malcolm.

Mack Garrett loves the rolling hills surrounding his Northern California dude ranch. Leading vacationers on horse trails with his two best friends is enough - romance is definitely not in the cards. When a sexy tourist shows up at Clean Slate, he's as far from Mack's type as can be. So why is the handsome city slicker so far under his skin in less than a day?

At 34 years old, ex-DEA agent Memphis Wheland has lived, loved, and lost...everything. The ultimate betrayal by the man he gave everything to has left Memphis with no family, no career, and a bone-deep bitterness that refuses to release him from its icy grip. His work with an underground vigilante organization is the only light in his otherwise bleak existence. That and the occasional no-strings hookup with men whose only focus in that moment, and for as long as Memphis wants them, is him and only him. No clingy exes, no unrequited love, no relationship drama. Period.  

He promised to never leave me. But when I needed him the most, that was exactly what he did. Wilderness guide Xander Reed has spent fifteen years trying to forget the night he turned to his best friend in his darkest hour, only to find the young man who'd sworn to always have his back was turning his on Xander instead. Two thousand miles and fifteen years of building a new life in the quiet backcountry of the Rocky Mountains should have been enough to put the memory of Bennett Crawford out of his mind.

Kelly Cannon is satisfied with his life. He has friends, a wonderful family, and a great job. But his love life has reached a new level of pitiful. Why? Well, his heart decided to break all the rules. Don't fall in love with a straight guy. And definitely don't fall in love with your best friend. NFL standout Britton "Blue" Montgomery has pressure coming at him from all sides. When Kelly admits he's in love with Blue, bonds are tested, and Blue has to decide what's really important.

Maddox - The reason I rarely go home is three simple words: I'm a liar. When the pressure to marry my childhood sweetheart became too much, I told her I was gay and then fled to New York like my ass was on fire. Now, five years later and after a drunken encounter, I find myself invited to her wedding. And I have to bring my boyfriend-the boyfriend who doesn't exist because I'm straight. At least, I think I am. Meeting the guy I'm bribing to be my boyfriend for the weekend makes me question everything about myself.   

Talon Valdez knew when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced were viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency. Years later he gets a chance to set up a task force of enhanced to serve in the FBI, but with one proviso: each enhanced must partner with a regular human.

I've never messed around with a guy before. Not that I haven't been attracted to guys. The opportunity just never came up. I stand at the front door, naked. My bro's roomie, Scott, is pissed about how much noise I made with the girl I just escorted out of their apartment, but I figured we were alone, and I couldn't help that she liked to scream out to let me know she was enjoying herself.