Showing results by narrator "Shirl Rae" in All Categories

One drunken night turned a joke into a life-changing moment. He warned me not to fall for him, and I should've listened. He intoxicated me. He made me crave him. He ruined me. In the end, I'll never be the same.

Once upon a cold, dark night, a Russian killer stole me from an alley. I’m dangerous, but he is lethal. I escaped once. He won’t let me do it twice. The revenge is his. The betrayal is mine. But so are the lies to protect the ones I love. We’re cut from the same twisted cloth. Both merciless. Both damaged. In his embrace, I find hell and heaven, his cruelly tender touch destroying and uplifting me at once. They say a cat has nine lives, but an assassin has just one. And Yan Ivanov now owns mine.

There is a love so fierce it cannot be measured. A heart so strong it will never slow. There is a promise so sure it can never lie. He promised me that love forever. Even when it wasn't enough. Forever. Everlasting. Eternal. There is no measure of time. No sounds of the ticking of a clock. Just the rising and falling of the sun and our own sense of forever. But our forever isn't always.

Have you ever felt like you were living your life for a future that was predetermined? Like there was some bigger picture you just prayed you would someday see clearly? That picture has been crystal clear to me since I was old enough to recognize it for just what it was. Or, I should say, recognize him for who he was.

Army combat veteran and registered nurse Erin Olszewski's most deeply held values were put to the test when she arrived as a travel nurse at Elmhurst Hospital in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. After serving in Iraq, she was back on the front lines - and this time, she found, the situation was even worse. Rooms were filthy, nurses were lax with sanitation measures, and hospital-acquired cases of COVID-19 were spreading like wildfire.

I have three cardinal rules: Never mix business with pleasure. Never let a woman spend the night. Never date a woman with kids. Kids freak me out. God only knows how many this baby daddy has. Man, what was I thinking when I was in college? Me, Drake Hanson. Aka Donor 5262. It was a piece of cake and $1,500 a month for my deposits (in sperm bank speak) came in handy. I just didn't think about the consequences. One day, some kid is going to call me Daddy, and I'm going to get hit up for child support.

He was just a hookup. I wasn't supposed to see him again. He wasn't supposed to be my boss. Or Dad's new business partner. We weren't supposed to keep doing this, night after sheet-clenching, heart-pounding, lip-biting night.   

Madeleine Becker's parents died when she was ten years old. Ripped from her home and everything that she has ever loved, she is forced to start all over again. The only way for her to move on is to build walls around her heart and keep everyone at a safe distance. Her logic: she can't get hurt if she doesn't fall in love.That theory is blown to pieces when she meets Reid Connely during her freshman year at college. He is gorgeous and darkly mysterious.

Maddy and Reid have seen their fair share of trials and tribulations, of love and loss. Facing down the biggest challenges of their young lives, they managed to survive and endure. With the future stretching out before them, they must learn to navigate new and unfamiliar paths.

Putting away his notorious reputation as the wild guy with a womanizing past, Dylan Blackard is now on a new path, wanting to be the good guy his brother can stop worrying over. As long as he gives up his old vices - including women - he can keep himself on the straight and narrow and finally live up to everyone's expectations. However, obsessing about his lack of self-control is making Dylan one humorless, cranky hermit. That all changes, though, when his brother hires a new employee, the stunning Emma Keller.

Jessica Channing's big-city life should be more exciting than 60-hour work weeks and popcorn nights with her girlfriends. She has worked hard fulfilling her role as a child prodigy and graduating college years before her peers. She's the good girl, the brilliant girl. She is also dateless. Jess's rigid, predictable life upends when she visits a small town to deal with a relative's death. Long-lost memories come crashing down on Jess's world when two men, the Blackard brothers, seem to lure her in.

If you're lucky, you'll fall in love-truly, madly, and deeply in love. Maddy and Reid had that kind of love-the all-encompassing, Earth-shattering, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love. Then life happened. Old wounds that were thought to be long healed and scabbed over are ripped opened, and they are forced to face the possibility that maybe they are not strong enough to fight their demons and embrace the light.

Imogene Walsh has always been unapologetically confident and ruthlessly opinionated with people, particularly men. No one is spared from her unfiltered mouth, but it hasn't seemed to deter Cooper MacKenzie. Although he is not the clean-cut, businessman type she's always thought she should pursue, Imogene is drawn to the sexy outsider who is the fantasy heartthrob women love to speculate about.

London Stallone hasn't always had the perfect life, but she did have the perfect older brother. He did everything for her. He took care of her when no one else would. He'd always been the shoulder she could lean on, but when he ends up murdered, things take a turn for the worse. London soon demands answers, and the first person she runs to is her brother's coworker and good friend, Donovan "Ace" Crow. Ace isn't an ordinary guy. He doesn't come equipped with flowers and chocolate. He's strict and only about business.

She writes me back. I didn't expect that. She tells me she's a lover of chicken pizza and video games, a hot sorority girl with the nickname Sloth. She wants to know something about me in return. She says I owe her. This is how she saves my life. She doesn't even know it.

Three long, brutal years have passed, and Ace Crow swears he will find London Stallone one day. He'll do everything he can to get her back. She knows his word is true because he's back. Ace is everything London is not: ruthless, deadly, risky. And she's the last piece to his puzzle. But he's mistaken about one thing: Getting her back is not going to be easy. There are always consequences. There are always hidden truths. There is always betrayal. But things aren't so simple any more.

Pain. Hurt. Regret. All of these are results of broken promises. Love. Joy. Happiness. All of these are results of finding someone's way. Love has two paths: happiness and heartbreak. Sometimes those paths intertwine. Sometimes we choose the wrong path. And sometimes we're given the second chance to pick the right path. Which path will Walker and Taylor go down? Only time will tell.

It should have been simple. Easy come, easy go, and in between, atonement. She was not who I would have chosen. Gwen was delicate and lovely: a former model with a ruined life, living loudly in the quiet of the Smoky Mountains, healing injured bears. When she laid her hands on me, she healed me too. That's how it began. That's where it went wrong. I knew she could never be mine. But I sinned. I sinned.

A difficult year filled with loss and heartache leaves Allison Scott withdrawn and emotionally disconnected. When she is finally ready to move forward with her life, she embarks on a getaway vacation to Miami, determined to find healing from the painful memories in her past. Damien Wales also has a tragic past that has left him a cold and distant person. However, the moment he sees Allison, he is inexplicably drawn to her, and Damien is a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

Engaged and happily in love, Allison Scott and Damien Wales are looking forward to joining their lives together as one. Coming from a mournful year after losing her parents, Allison is ready to heal and move on to the next chapter with the love of her life. But Damien's past continues to threaten their future. A man once obsessed with Damien's sister is now after his one and only love, Allison. The woman who came before Allison is determined to captivate Damien's heart.