Marie Johnston

Have you ever gotten married without telling anyone? I did. Not telling anyone was the easy part. I had moved to a big city, had no friends, and wasn't speaking to my family.I tried the whole "fake it 'til you make it" thing. I was the "fake" part and my husband, Archer, was concerned only with the "making it" part. When I got a call about a family emergency, I walked out on my hot-in-a-suit ambitious husband and my superficial life and ran back home to the family ranch. And I stayed, ignoring my husband's attempts to reach me-and I still didn't tell anyone I was married.Then a year and a half later, I found Archer standing on my property, looking like a titanium rod in a pile of rusty nails. He came to end things but ended up staying to learn who he really married-the shy corporate woman with a perfect blowout or the sarcastic country girl with mud on her boots.The longer he's around, the more I see I wasn't the only one who was disingenuous. The suit is gone, and my city slicker spouse is fixing fence, diving into muddy stock ponds to save calves, and calling in favors to get the cattle enough hay for the winter.Yet none of that changes that my family needs me, and I'm not abandoning them again. It doesn't change the fact that the career Archer worked so hard to build is over a thousand miles away in Texas. Or that the life I want is exactly what he's run from. The only thing we're doing is making it harder to sign the divorce papers.

Being ghosted by my best friend's brother was easier to get over than the pink positive sign I got six weeks later.With our ten-year age difference, I didn't think I was more to Stetson Barron than his little sister's quirky best friend, the one with store-bought hair color and thrifted clothing. Until one hot summer night at his cousin's wedding when I climbed him like a water tower. And then he didn't talk to me for weeks afterward.A pink plus sign and a panic attack later, the trailer house I share with my mom burns down. Stetson shows up at the ER like a country knight on a diesel-powered steed, arranges a place for my mom to stay, and takes me home with him.The weeks of radio silence after our hookup have left me wary. Being with Stetson should be a fantasy come to life, but I'm waiting for my prince to ride away. I'm not the type of woman his parents want him to be with, and they'd rather pretend there's no baby than welcome me to the family. My mom was in the same situation once, and I've learned her lesson-alone is better than abandoned. When Stetson is forced to choose between his new family unit and old family expectations, will he prove to be the man of my dreams? Or am I in for a heart-breaking wake-up call?

DATING IS MY LAST PRIORITY when I move my kids to a small town after a sudden divorce. It'll be easier to be a single, working mom of four, and I won't have to watch my ex with my former coworker. So when I get away for a night to throw myself a nice little pity party in a neighboring small town, I don't expect to get hit on by the tastiest guy I've ever seen.We talk about everything but the important stuff. I live a little and steam up his back seat windows. I'll never see him again, so why not? But I forgot what a small world Coal Haven can be.I DON'T LIKE MY REPUTATION of being a commitment-phobe, but I earned it. So why can't I forget the woman who slipped out of the back seat of my pickup-and my life-in the most effortless way possible? I barely got her first name.When my cousin coerces me into coaching an elementary school football team, I give in. But I come face-to-face with my hookup...and she's my worst nightmare wrapped in all my wildest fantasies. A single mom with no time for me or my BS. Maybe it's time to get more than her first name.

I had a perfect life. Schoolteacher. Married to my high school sweetheart. Little starter house that we called charming but was really just old. All I needed was the two-point-five kids and I'd be living my perfect dream. Then my husband died.After the funeral, I had a breakdown that lasted for a month...or twelve. But now I'm reemerging, healing, finding my way. It's time to learn who I am now, and whether or not I can fix a leaky sink. And by my side, the entire time, is my husband's best friend, Liam. The single dad knows a thing or two about personal struggles, and about how to replace faucets.With Liam, I feel alive again. Confident. Capable. Liam has become my best friend too. Except if my parents, my in-laws, and the rest of the town had any say, I'd stay far away from him and his bad boy reputation.How do I admit to them what's so hard to admit to myself? That I'm starting to look at him like he's more than a friend. That the heat in his eyes when he looks at me is far beyond friendly. That like it or not, Liam makes me feel whole again.

Being ghosted by my best friend's brother was easier to get over than the pink positive sign I got six weeks later.With our ten-year age difference, I didn't think I was more to Stetson Barron than his little sister's quirky best friend, the one with store-bought hair color and thrifted clothing. Until one hot summer night at his cousin's wedding when I climbed him like a water tower. And then he didn't talk to me for weeks afterward.A pink plus sign and a panic attack later, the trailer house I share with my mom burns down. Stetson shows up at the ER like a country knight on a diesel-powered steed, arranges a place for my mom to stay, and takes me home with him.The weeks of radio silence after our hookup have left me wary. Being with Stetson should be a fantasy come to life, but I'm waiting for my prince to ride away. I'm not the type of woman his parents want him to be with, and they'd rather pretend there's no baby than welcome me to the family. My mom was in the same situation once, and I've learned her lesson-alone is better than abandoned. When Stetson is forced to choose between his new family unit and old family expectations, will he prove to be the man of my dreams? Or am I in for a heart-breaking wake-up call?

RonanThe next time my brother says "Hey, I've got an idea," I need to run, not walk away. I might be from a dragon shifter ruling family, but I'm not demanding a female mate with me. Yet taking my time and winning her over is going nowhere. So far, I've punched my card as the older neighbor who's way too nosy about the young female next door. Then I hear about what she's got planned. And I'm faced with giving her what she needs and letting her walk away, even at the cost of the useless beating organ in my chest.BrightonMate Ronan Jade, they said. It'll be a good match, they said. The older shifter is a walking poster of smoldering, hardworking male. He swings a hammer all day and at night... Well, that thought dominates my mind more than I'd like. The problem is that he's a great match. Superb. And I'm an inexperienced female trying to rule my clan. It'd be too easy to let him in. To let him take over. To allow him to dominate. So I try to find another mate instead. Only Ronan finds me first.

DATING IS MY LAST PRIORITY when I move my kids to a small town after a sudden divorce. It'll be easier to be a single, working mom of four, and I won't have to watch my ex with my former coworker. So when I get away for a night to throw myself a nice little pity party in a neighboring small town, I don't expect to get hit on by the tastiest guy I've ever seen.We talk about everything but the important stuff. I live a little and steam up his back seat windows. I'll never see him again, so why not? But I forgot what a small world Coal Haven can be.I DON'T LIKE MY REPUTATION of being a commitment-phobe, but I earned it. So why can't I forget the woman who slipped out of the back seat of my pickup-and my life-in the most effortless way possible? I barely got her first name.When my cousin coerces me into coaching an elementary school football team, I give in. But I come face-to-face with my hookup...and she's my worst nightmare wrapped in all my wildest fantasies. A single mom with no time for me or my BS. Maybe it's time to get more than her first name.

PennThe only female I ever wanted was promised to my brother. But he found a woman, fell in love, and Venus is back on the market. Only she doesn't want someone like me. A self-professed nerd, but worse, a male ten years younger than her. She's stubborn, but I'm determined to win her over. Until she leaves.VenusThe cost is high for a dragon shifter who's single after a certain age. For a girl who grew up the laughingstock of her clan, mating Penn is the best way for history to repeat itself. So I flee to live my last days in peace. Only the persistent and devastatingly handsome male finds me. And when I start to melt, another female stakes her claim. And I have to decide if shifter politics are worth losing my life and my guy over.

SteelWhen my brother was busy trying to win the mate of his dreams, I may have indulged a time or twenty in the voluptuous curves of a human woman. I fell hard and when I asked her for more, she turned me down flat. She would never move to the small shifter town I lived in and I could never leave. Message received. So I walked away before I told her what I was. Then I find out she's pregnant with my young.AvrilI moved to a big city after high school and I've been savoring the anonymity ever since. Then Steel shows up and destroys the tidy but exhausting life I've built for myself. I'm not allowed to raise a dragon shifter kid away from the clan, and since I know Steel's shifter secret, I have to mate him. So, basically, I'm losing everything I worked for. But I refuse to lose my heart, no matter what.

DeaconIn hindsight, demanding a human woman swear herself to me in exchange for the life of her father wasn't my best idea. But I saw her and I wanted her, and I needed a mate. After shouldering the responsibility of all shifter-kind for so long, I acted selfishly. I knew what breaking her word would cost her. Ava is the one who made an oath to me, but I might sacrifice everything to save her from it.AvaI'm supposed to hate Deacon, and I shouldn't believe his story about dragon shifters blending in the human world, but the longer I'm around him, the harder it is not to fall under his spell. I humor the oath I made and try to get to know him, but I've got one foot out the door. I've been duped by false promises and handsome faces before, and I'm not giving up everything for a man again. Only Deacon isn't just a man. And he has secrets that could threaten more than my heart.

One minute the angel Tosca is a respected enforcer having a drink with someone she considers an ally. The next minute she wakes up beside a dead body, red-handed and blackballed.Now enforcers she used to call friends are calling her a murderer. When they dredge up the past she's so carefully buried, she'll only look guiltier. Her only hope for clearing her name is escaping to Earth-and seeking refuge in the one place she vowed never to set foot in again.One minute the angel Bronx is a frustrated warrior railing at the corruption that keeps him from doing his job. The next minute he's got free rein to hunt the bane of his existence.The cute but infuriating enforcer has been questioning his every move and tattling to her crooked senator friends. But now that Tosca is on the run, there's nowhere on Earth he won't follow-even if it takes him smack into a nest of forgotten angels and unchecked demons who will do anything to stay that way.Except once he finds Tosca, he doesn't know what to do with her. His gut tells him she's innocent, but he'll have to gain her trust to learn who framed her and why. Yet Tosca has no intention of letting any male dictate her fate again, even one who stars nightly in her dreams. Together they could root out the corruption bedeviling their realm-but divided they will fall prey to a determined enemy adept at killing enforcers and warriors alike.

Have you ever gotten married without telling anyone? I did. Not telling anyone was the easy part. I had moved to a big city, had no friends, and wasn't speaking to my family.I tried the whole "fake it 'til you make it" thing. I was the "fake" part and my husband, Archer, was concerned only with the "making it" part. When I got a call about a family emergency, I walked out on my hot-in-a-suit ambitious husband and my superficial life and ran back home to the family ranch. And I stayed, ignoring my husband's attempts to reach me-and I still didn't tell anyone I was married.Then a year and a half later, I found Archer standing on my property, looking like a titanium rod in a pile of rusty nails. He came to end things but ended up staying to learn who he really married-the shy corporate woman with a perfect blowout or the sarcastic country girl with mud on her boots.The longer he's around, the more I see I wasn't the only one who was disingenuous. The suit is gone, and my city slicker spouse is fixing fence, diving into muddy stock ponds to save calves, and calling in favors to get the cattle enough hay for the winter.Yet none of that changes that my family needs me, and I'm not abandoning them again. It doesn't change the fact that the career Archer worked so hard to build is over a thousand miles away in Texas. Or that the life I want is exactly what he's run from. The only thing we're doing is making it harder to sign the divorce papers.

I had a perfect life. Schoolteacher. Married to my high school sweetheart. Little starter house that we called charming but was really just old. All I needed was the two-point-five kids and I'd be living my perfect dream. Then my husband died. After the funeral, I had a breakdown that lasted for a month...or twelve. But now I'm reemerging, healing, finding my way. It's time to learn who I am now, and whether or not I can fix a leaky sink. And by my side, the entire time, is my husband's best friend, Liam. The single dad knows a thing or two about personal struggles, and about how to replace faucets. With Liam, I feel alive again. Confident. Capable. Liam has become my best friend too. Except if my parents, my in-laws, and the rest of the town had any say, I'd stay far away from him and his bad boy reputation. How do I admit to them what's so hard to admit to myself? That I'm starting to look at him like he's more than a friend. That the heat in his eyes when he looks at me is far beyond friendly. That like it or not, Liam makes me feel whole again.

Sandeen's a demon that did the impossible. He busted out of the underworld in his own form and roams the earth. His black wings and curved obsidian horns make it hard to blend in, but he hasn't survived this long without being crafty. Just so happens, he knows about an empty cabin in the middle of Montana. Solitude. Peace. No need to worry about getting shanked as he sleeps. Until a persistent angel warrior hunts him down.Harlowe's world has turned upside down. Her best friend lost her wings because of a mind-blowing secret. Then a hauntingly handsome demon got away from her. All she can do is throw herself into her job and that involves hunting down the demon. Sandeen can't hide. Forget his downy soft wings and the horns her palms itch to caress, his looks and inability to stay out of trouble will put him back on her radar.Finding Sandeen was supposed to be the mission. Getting captured by him is an unplanned complication. Softening toward him could cost her everything. Sandeen risks his hard-earned freedom by keeping Harlowe alive, and it's not long before they learn they have more problems than the growing attraction between them. Harlowe's not the only one hunting Sandeen.

Broke, jobless, and stranded in Las Vegas on Valentine's Day, I am forced to call my parents for a bailout. Again. A pampered princess and wannabe environmentalist, I know I'm a clich and would do anything to change it. So when I meet Xander, a struggling photojournalist with absolutely nothing in common with my domineering, millionaire parents, I know just where to go next: A wedding chapel.But when I wake up the next day, my matrimonial rebellion comes with an unpleasant surprise. My husband is no penniless globetrotter-Xander King is the son of a billionaire oil tycoon, and my parents couldn't approve of the match more. Now the only thing that could shock them would be a quickie divorce...except my new husband has a proposition for me.***I take one look at Savvy and know I could spend the rest of my life with her. The feeling is mutual...until she figures out who I am. I didn't mean to hide my identity, and I thought a desire to get out from under the weight of familial baggage was something we had in common. But with Savvy just moments from proposing divorce, I offer her the one thing I'd been ready to walk away from: A trust fund worth millions.All Savvy has to do is stay married to me for a year and then she'll get half-except I have no intention of letting her go after 365 days. I've spent a decade running from my father's disapproval and my brothers' successes. Now I'm willing to spend a lifetime convincing the woman I love to stay put by my side.

I've been the wicked witch of King's Creek since I was eight years old, from my angry red hair down to my ball-busting boots. With a mean drunk for a daddy who left nothing but insults and unpaid bills in his wake, was there ever any other fate? Now his passing has left me one bad turn from losing my land to the neighbors my family's been feuding with for generations.So of course it's Dawson King who comes to my rescue in the middle of a snowstorm. But I don't care how good he looks in a pair of Wranglers, or how much he spoils my horse, or how great of a cook he is. The Kings already have everything-money, looks, and charm. Dawson's not getting my heart too.***I'm living my dream, I admit it. I took over the family ranch from my dad and grew it into the envy of Montana. I have the best views, the best employees, and the respect of the entire town. The only thing I don't have is someone to share my dream with. So when my neighbor breaks her leg and nearly freezes to death, I all but kidnap her back to my place to recover.We grew up less than a mile apart, but we couldn't be in more different places now. Bristol's had nothing but pride for so long, it's hard to get close to her-and I want to get very close. I don't care if the whole town loves me, I'm only interested in earning the love of one woman. But for a guy who's got the world at his feet, Bristol's heart might be out of my reach.

When Aiden King asked me out four years ago, I went from mousy librarian to wife of the most wanted bachelor in Montana in four months flat. No longer the nerdy girl from the wrong side of the tracks, I was a CFO's wife in a mansion by the river-and my husband was the man of my dreams. I almost couldn't believe my good fortune.Turns out, I shouldn't have believed it. After years of rattling around that mansion alone while Aiden put in long hours at the office, I learned his secret: he'd needed to marry someone, anyone, to fulfill his trust requirements, and the nerdy girl from the wrong side of the tracks had been an easy target.I never thought I'd be the girl asking a handsome millionaire for a divorce. Now, my pride and I just want to limp back to my family and start over. But to do that, I'll have to swallow one question. If the trust only required him to be married for a year, why has it been four years since we said I do?

AFTER LOSING MY JOB and my home in the same day, I need a miracle. And that miracle is coming in the form of an interview with the son of a local oil baron, Gentry King. The catch? I have to hop on a private jet with said gorgeous oil baron to get to the interview.Except, I miss the interview when we get waylaid by a snowstorm. Now I'm stranded with Mr. King. In the same hotel room. With only one bed.I'VE MADE A PROMISE TO MYSELF-no more women. It's not like I'm a love 'em and leave 'em kind of guy. They all know the score, and they're all looking for the same thing I am. But I have to set a better example for my grown sons, who seem to be making all the wrong decisions when it comes to their relationships.The last thing I need is to be stranded in a snowstorm with Kendall, twenty years my junior and unintentionally sexy. We're stuck in very close quarters. With no electricity. And no heat other than what we can generate...

When revenge turns into a fake engagement...It was supposed to be a simple case of revenge: get to know King Tech owner and CEO Beckett King, learn his secrets, and ruin his life like he ruined my brother's. But Beckett King offers me a deal I can't refuse.Not only does he want me to pretend to be engaged to him, he needs to marry me to get his grandmother off his back. And at the end of the year, we can go our separate ways, only I'll be a whole lot richer.I won't fall for his irresistible good looks, or that aw, shucks country-boy charm he still possesses from growing up on a ranch. I'm smarter than that. He has a lesson to learn and I'm the best one to teach him.But that's the tricky thing with revenge. It doesn't always go as planned.

She betrayed her kind and was exiled from her realm. When Sierra is dumped in a snowy forest before an impending blizzard, that should be the end of the newly fallen angel. Boone wanted isolation. He wanted peace. He wanted to be left the hell alone. But a last-minute trip before he's stormed in for days turns up more than spare wood and a rabbit in his snare. He finds an unconscious and bloody woman. Sierra's realm might have erased her existence, but that doesn't mean she's been forgotten by those who want to use her for their own means. Demons have found her, and sticking around puts Boone at risk, the one man who makes her think she might deserve more than shame.Boone's not going to let his fallen angel go. But going on the run with Sierra means discovering a terrifying new world, one with monsters who aren't much different than the ones who killed his family. He barely survived then. Will this time end up killing them both?