Showing results by author "S.J. Tilly" in All Categories

I'm a dangerous man. A man who has spent the last two decades removing so many souls from this earth that it's a miracle my hands aren't permanently stained red. I'm a man who belongs in the shadows. I certainly don't belong in my pretty little neighbor's bedroom when she's not home, touching her things and inhaling her scent. I shouldn't follow her. Shouldn't watch her. No number of cookies on my doorstep will change the fact that love isn't an option for me. The only option left for me is violence.

I have a new house. Well, new to me. Just like living in my own place on the top of a mountain, rather than in a city apartment, is new to me. But it’s mine now because my Great Uncle Jack passed away, and he left me his freaking house. In Colorado. On the border of Lonely Peak State Park. But that’s not all he did. He also left a series of letters. A scavenger hunt of clues that leads me back to Vegas. To his lawyer’s office. To the reading of his will. Where I learn I must marry in order to keep my sudden inheritance out of the greedy hands of my family.

I have a nice life—living in my hometown and owning the coffee shop I’ve worked at since I was 16. It’s comfortable on paper, but I’m tired of doing everything by myself. Tired of being in charge of every decision in my life. I want someone to lean on, someone to spend time with, sit with, hug. And I really don’t want to go to my best friend’s wedding alone. So, I signed up for a dating app and agreed to meet with the first guy that messaged me. Now here I am, at the bar. Only it’s not my date that just sat down in the chair across from me. It’s his dad.

Moving into my dad’s house at age 32 because my roommate scammed me out of my rent…not exactly what I’d call winning at life. So on my drive to Colorado, I decide I need one more night of freedom, and the cute motel on the side of the road is the perfect place to stop. Bonus that it has a bar. Extra bonus when I spot him sitting at the end of the bar.

I’m so sick of watching the world spin by, of letting people think I’m plain and boring, too afraid to just be myself. Then I see him—John. He’s strength, and fury, and unapologetic. He’s everything I want. And everything I wish I was. He won’t want me, but that doesn’t matter. The sight of him is all the inspiration I need to finally shatter this glass house I’ve built around myself. Only he does want me. And when our worlds collide, details we can’t see become tangled, twisting together, ensnaring us in an invisible trap.

Maddox Lovelace. The captivating football player I met in college. The one I only knew for a week. A week that was...life-changing. Until my phone rang, and I had no choice but to go home. I left Maddox a letter, putting my feelings on paper, giving him my number, hoping he'd call. But he didn't call. He never called. He got drafted into the professional league and lived like a king while I stayed home and struggled to stay afloat.

I fell in love with Beckett when I was 7. He broke my heart when I was 15. When I was 18, I promised myself I’d forget about him. And I did. For a dozen years. But now he’s back home. Here. In Darling Lake. And I don’t know if I should give in to the temptation swirling between us or run the other way.

I caught her staring at me from across the quad, eyes fixed on the football jersey stretched across my wide chest. And if I flexed my muscles, showing off the strength of a defensive tackle, it was just to see her blush. And then she did, and I couldn’t get her out of my mind. Her wide eyes. The freckles on her cheeks. I needed to know her. The girl who scampered away every time we bumped into each other—by accident and by design.

It started with tragedy. And secrets. Hidden truths that refused to stay buried have come out to chase me. Now I’m on the run, living under a blanket of constant fear, pretending to be someone I’m not. And if I’m not really me, how am I supposed to know what’s real?

There are a few things that life doesn’t prepare you for. Like what to do when a super-hot guy catches you sneaking around in his basement, or what to do when a mysterious package shows up with tickets to a hockey game (because, apparently, he’s a professional athlete). Nor how to handle it when you get to the game and realize he’s freaking famous, since half of the 20,000 people in the stands are wearing his jersey.

My trip to Mexico for my cousin's wedding was only supposed to be a few days of obligation and oceanside. I wasn't expecting Luke. Wasn't expecting the hot hockey player, with the smirks and the tattoos, who kept bumping into me. And I certainly wasn't expecting to spend a night on the beach, under the stars, underneath him. It was magical, but I thought it would end there. Instead, we exchanged numbers and stayed in touch. So when Luke invited me to watch him play in Vegas, I went. And it was great. Until we woke up the next morning and found the wedding certificate in my pocket.

I'm starting to think I've been doing this for too long. The screaming fans. The constant media attention. The fat paychecks. None of it brings me the happiness I yearn for. Yet here I am. Another year. Another holiday special. Another Christmas spent alone in a hotel room. But then the lights go up. And I see her.