When Rome Pierce moved to Bear Bottom, Texas, it was his intention to lay low. To find a way to heal his body and soul - as well as his son's. Nobody would know by looking at him that he used to play professional football. Not with the Bear Bottom MC cut covering his back. Nobody knows what drove him to leave the game he loved - nobody but her. She's the one person who has helped him make it through the dark days and even darker nights. She's the bright and shining star in his pitch-black sky. And he doesn't even know her name.

Sometimes you need to crash a funeral to experience happiness. At least Kissimmee Singh, aerial artist for Singh Circus, the most sought-after traveling circus of all time, keeps telling herself that’s why she crashes funerals. In reality, she’s lost and confused. Sometimes it’s nice to experience other people’s grief and be reminded that life isn’t as bad as it could be.

Evander Lennox doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do. At least, that is, until he's sent to prison. The four years he's incarcerated, he's had no choice but to do the things he's asked to do. And now, if he doesn't, it will mean a one-way ticket straight back to hell. Once he's free, it takes him 24 hours to get his old job back, his dog at home where he belongs, and an understanding that people aren't as forgiving as he once thought them to be. He's just about given up hope of ever integrating back into society when a woman slams into his heart, literally and figuratively.

She’s in a white dress that dances around her ankles, and her hair tumbles in a long sheet of curls down her back. A veil covers her beautiful eyes, and she smiles directly at him. Janie is everything Rafe’s ever imagined she would be on her wedding day. Breathtaking. Gorgeous. Perfect. The moment he sees her walking down the aisle toward him, he knows that she’s the one. Then, she passes him, making her way to the man she’s to marry.

"I’m kind of a lady, but definitely more of a weirdo." Hearing the woman at the table behind him say that to her friend should’ve turned Logan Gibbs off. It doesn’t. In all honesty, it only makes him listen harder. He’s had enough weird in his life to last a lifetime. The last thing his complicated life needs is a woman in it who has no clue what color you get when you mix yellow and blue together. Yet, her obvious blonde moments aren’t enough to deter him. Nor is her lack of finger-painting skills.

Luke Roberts came to the small, lazy town of Kilgore, Texas, with one thing on his mind: forgetting. He wanted to forget why he left. Forget those emerald green eyes that haunted his dreams. And forget how it felt to have his heart ripped out of his chest by a woman who didn't like the fact that he had a child. It was something he'd been doing a damn fine job of doing, too. Until Reese smashed through every one of his defenses and made him feel again.

Her: I wanted to have a pity party of one when I went for that beer. I never imagined I would meet a dark and dangerous man. That man took me on the wildest ride of my life. Literally and figuratively. He quickly became my entire world. Him: I didn't know I was looking for her. I saw her warming that bar stool and knew she would be mine. A man like me doesn't deserve the likes of her. But damned if I didn't take it. Her: When we met for the first time we didn't know that we already had a connection.

Six Ines Broussard walks right into the middle of hell. And at the center of it? Lynnwood Thatcher. The mayor. The man that she took one glance at on the night of his inauguration and dismissed as boring. A total stick in the mud. Only, he’s not so boring shirtless, in the middle of nowhere, doing things that are very illegal. At first, she’s appalled. Then her interest gets piqued. Stuck-up suit is hot! And he has tattoos. Then, he goes and kidnaps her...and she soon realizes, nobody is quite as hot as you thought they were when they’re holding you hostage.

Taima, a.k.a. Tai, is the last person people come to for help. He’s the fuck up...the bad boy...the guy that only looks out for himself. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s fought hard to become the man he is today. He’s a hero in the public’s eye. A firefighter that the young all the way to the old turn to for help at the lowest point in their lives. What people don’t know, though, is that he’s no hero. He’s the reason his sister is dead, and he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to right that wrong.

The problem with Wake was that he was understandable. He was the type of villain who literally scared the absolute shit out of you because you knew that under the right circumstances, you could end up exactly like him.

After a horrible marriage, Haggard has zero plans of ever finding a woman again. One-night stands not counting, he adores his life as a single man. There are no expectations. No "where are yous" and "are you coming homes". The life he chooses to live is a simple one. Until he makes a huge mistake, and he steps over that line between "daughter’s best friend" and "a woman he desperately wants". Before long, he can’t stop thinking about her. Can’t stop wanting her. Can’t stop feeling things for her that a man 20 years her senior should never feel for a girl he watched grow up.

Taos was tired. Tired of everything that came with living. Not to the point where he was suicidal or anything, but tired enough that he just didn’t give a crap anymore. He’d seen all the ugliness this world had to offer due to his job as a police officer for way too many damn years of his less than stellar life.

It started out like any normal day. Then the fender bender happened. The guy I collided with drove an expensive car and was drop-dead gorgeous. Too bad he was also a total jerk. We argued over whose fault it was and any other thing that came out of his condescending mouth. Eventually, the police came and we went our separate ways. The insurance companies would have to figure things out. I had a job interview to get to anyway - one I was excited about. Though that excitement changed to disappointment the moment the person interviewing me walked in. The guy from the accident.

Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal. At 12, he asked me to be his girlfriend. At 13, he gave me my first kiss. By 16, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon. Love never fails, right? But for Ramsey, it did. I failed him. The entire world failed him. At 17, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me. "Move on", he wrote in his first and only letter from prison. There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine - then, now, and forever.

"Do you want some Goldfish crackers, Bliss?" Those were the last words my brother said to me before he was shot execution style. A childhood code only he and I knew, and one that had a single, clear meaning behind it.

When Rome Pierce moved to Bear Bottom, Texas, it was his intention to lay low. To find a way to heal his body and soul - as well as his son's. Nobody would know by looking at him that he used to play professional football. Not with the Bear Bottom MC cut covering his back. Nobody knows what drove him to leave the game he loved - nobody but her. She's the one person who has helped him make it through the dark days and even darker nights. She's the bright and shining star in his pitch-black sky. And he doesn't even know her name.

Kettle had it all. Until he didn't. He lost it all in a moment. One heart stopping, soul shattering moment, and there wasn't a single thing he could do about it. From that day forward, he stayed away from relationships. Then he responded to a possible fire and there she was, rocking his world when he didn't want it to be rocked. Adeline was just a schoolteacher. She lived a boring life. Until she stole something. And it didn't have anything to do with the sexy firefighter's heart. Oh, she stole that, too, even if he didn't want it to be stolen.

Evander Lennox doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do. At least, that is, until he's sent to prison. The four years he's incarcerated, he's had no choice but to do the things he's asked to do. And now, if he doesn't, it will mean a one-way ticket straight back to hell. Once he's free, it takes him 24 hours to get his old job back, his dog at home where he belongs, and an understanding that people aren't as forgiving as he once thought them to be. He's just about given up hope of ever integrating back into society when a woman slams into his heart, literally and figuratively.

Imogen is a smart girl. A girl who doesn't always make the best decisions. Her heart is in the right place when she walks into that prison, but it doesn't take long for her to realize that her heart shouldn't have had any say so in the matter. Especially when one wrong move lands her in the arms of a scarred man that looks frightening enough to scare any sane woman away.

Luke Roberts came to the small, lazy town of Kilgore, Texas, with one thing on his mind: forgetting. He wanted to forget why he left. Forget those emerald green eyes that haunted his dreams. And forget how it felt to have his heart ripped out of his chest by a woman who didn't like the fact that he had a child. It was something he'd been doing a damn fine job of doing, too. Until Reese smashed through every one of his defenses and made him feel again.

Baseball is life - the rest is just details. Everyone who's played the game has heard those words a time or two. But Hancock has heard them his entire life from his parents. His family has lived and breathed baseball even before he started little league. Hancock "Parts" Peters has a name that inspires grins across many faces, but the moment those faces get their first look at him, those grins slide away. Hancock is gruff, filterless, and doesn't give a crap who he offends. He is the only man in baseball who doesn't care if he gets an endorsement or not. He's there to play the game.

"I’m kind of a lady, but definitely more of a weirdo." Hearing the woman at the table behind him say that to her friend should’ve turned Logan Gibbs off. It doesn’t. In all honesty, it only makes him listen harder. He’s had enough weird in his life to last a lifetime. The last thing his complicated life needs is a woman in it who has no clue what color you get when you mix yellow and blue together. Yet, her obvious blonde moments aren’t enough to deter him. Nor is her lack of finger-painting skills.

She’s in a white dress that dances around her ankles, and her hair tumbles in a long sheet of curls down her back. A veil covers her beautiful eyes, and she smiles directly at him. Janie is everything Rafe’s ever imagined she would be on her wedding day. Breathtaking. Gorgeous. Perfect. The moment he sees her walking down the aisle toward him, he knows that she’s the one. Then, she passes him, making her way to the man she’s to marry.

They call me Ghost for a reason. Silent and in the shadows, I don't make my move until I am absolutely sure of everything. Four years ago I was sure about Jenna. My best friend's kid sister had grown up into a spitfire I couldn't resist. One night we stopped resisting. We promised we'd keep it a secret. It was a one-time mistake, but we'd put it behind us. Jenna tried to get out of our corrupt town, but it pulled her back in again. Now she needs help. I'll do all of that for her, if she'll just shut the hell up and let me. She can even keep all of her secrets, except for one.

When Mr. January himself tells Rowen to do what a gunman says, she’s had enough. Rowen has never really been a girl that does what she’s told. Mr. January won’t have to save her. She can dang well save herself.