Veiled Innocence

Layla Robinson is not crazy. She is suffering from unrequited love. But it's time to move on. No more stalking, no more obsessive calling. What she needs is a distraction. The blue-eyed guy she keeps seeing around campus could be a great one - only he is the new poetry professor - the married poetry professor.

Remington Stringer has never been like most girls. She's outspoken and brazen and wants nothing more than to escape the Nevadan hell hole she calls home. On the brink of 18, with a deceased mother and a well-meaning, yet absent father, she's been forced to fend for herself. The only person she's ever been able to depend on is her borderline obsessive stepbrother. But even that anchor is quickly becoming a loose cannon. So when she gets the opportunity to attend the best private school in the state during her senior year of high school, she jumps at the chance.

The first time I met Hudson Rothschild was at a wedding. I’d received an unexpected invitation to one of the swankiest venues in the city. Hudson was a groomsman and quite possibly the most gorgeous man I’d ever laid eyes on. He asked me to dance, and our chemistry was off the charts. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with him, considering the wedding I was at. But our connection was intense, and I was having a great time. Though the fun came to a screeching halt when Hudson figured out I wasn’t who I’d said I was.

Tiernan de Haas doesn’t care about anything anymore. The only child of a film producer and his starlet wife, she’s grown up with wealth and privilege but not love or guidance. And when they suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But has anything really changed? She’s always been alone, hasn’t she? Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan who is still two months shy of 18. She's sent to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the mountains of Colorado.

In fifth grade my teacher set us up with pen pals from a different school. Thinking I was a girl, with a name like Misha, the other teacher paired me up with her student Ryen. My teacher, believing Ryen was a boy like me, agreed. It didn't take long for us to figure out the mistake. And in no time at all, we were arguing about everything. The best take-out pizza. Android vs. iPhone. Whether or not Eminem is the greatest rapper ever. For the next seven years, it was us. She's the only one who keeps me on track, talks me down, and accepts everything I am.

Stefan Sabbioni showed up uninvited in my bedroom on my 16th birthday. He stood in the shadows, smelling of whiskey and death and wrapped a broken, blood-crusted necklace around my neck. I thought he’d strangle me with it. That night, he left a message for my father. He said he’d be back to take something precious. I never delivered that message, though. I wonder if things would be different if I had because now, two years later, he’s back. And he’s not hiding in any shadows.

Terminated for inappropriate behavior. I couldn’t believe the letter in my hands. Nine years. Nine damn years I’d worked my butt off for one of the largest companies in America, and I was fired with a form letter when I returned home from a week in Aruba. All because of a video taken when I was on vacation with my friends - a private video made on my private time. Or so I thought.... I cracked open a bottle of wine and wrote my own letter to the gazillionaire CEO telling him what I thought of his company. I didn’t think he’d actually respond.

It was easy to call us forbidden and harder to call us soul mates. Yet I believed we were both. Forbidden soul mates. When I arrived in Edgewood, Wisconsin, I didn't plan to find him. I didn't plan to stumble into Joe's bar and have Daniel's music stir up my emotions. I had no clue that his voice would make my hurts forget their own sorrow. I had no idea that my happiness would remember its own bliss.

With a famous NHL player for a stepbrother, Violet Hall is well acquainted with the playboy reputation of many a hockey star. So of course she isn't interested in legendary team captain Alex Waters or his pretty, beat-up face and rock-hard six-pack abs. But when Alex inadvertently obliterates Violet's misapprehension regarding the inferior intellect of hockey players, he becomes much more than just a hot body with the face to match.

Willow Taylor lives in a castle with large walls and iron fences. But this is no ordinary castle. It’s called Heartstone Psychiatric Hospital and it houses 40 other patients. It has nurses with mean faces and techs with permanent frowns. It has a man, as well. A man who is cold and distant. Whose voice drips with authority. And whose piercing gray eyes hide secrets, and maybe linger on her face a second too long. Willow isn’t supposed to look deep into those eyes. She isn’t supposed to try to read his tightly-leashed emotions.

He wants things from me. Dirty things, nasty things, forbidden things. And I have to give in. His attention is completely inappropriate, but I can't say no. The way he looks at me...the way he watches me through my bedroom window...the way he drags me deeper and deeper into his completely forbidden fantasy just...turns me on. He knows it turns me on. He holds all the power. He holds all the cards. He holds my entire future in his hands. I have to give in. Because Mr. Alesci is my teacher. And I need everything he's offering.

At age 20, Molly Shakespeare knows a lot. She knows Descartes and Kant. She knows academia and Oxford. She knows that the people who love you leave you. She knows how to be alone. But when Molly leaves England's gray skies behind to start a new life at the University of Alabama, she finds that she has a lot to learn - she didn't know a summer could be so hot, she didn't know students could be so intimidating, and she certainly didn't know just how much the folks of Alabama love their football.

Dandelion Meadows is cursed. Horrible name. Horrible luck. At 18, she should be headed off to college, all smiles and naivety. Instead, a victim of a school shooting, she’s starting her senior year in a new city and living with her brother. Nightmares of that terrible day haunt her, affecting her daily life and the relationships around her. Forced to meet with the school counselor, Dani finds him chipping away at the walls she’s built around herself, and even her heart. 

Sex. Logan Mitchell loves it, and ever since he realized his raw sexual appeal at a young age, he has had no problem using it to his advantage. Men and women alike fall into his bed - after all, Logan is not one to discriminate. He lives by one motto - if something interests you, why not just take a chance and try? And he wants to try Tate Morrison.

Strike One: My mother named me Theodore after her favorite chipmunk. Not cool, Mom. I‘ve spent most of my life answering to Teddy because I couldn’t make Theo work. Except for here. College. The place where all bets are off, and I’ve managed to redeem myself. There’s only one problem, my new roommate, Troy, is football royalty and looks like he stepped off the set of an Abercrombie shoot. Doesn’t matter, I cook a mean breakfast for his panty parade, and we get along well. And anyway, this year I got the girl. And she’s perfect. Everything's perfect...until Troy sees her.