Showing results by author "Claire Contreras" in All Categories

My reputation at Fairview University preceded me. I was the projected number-one pick in the NHL draft and the fan favorite at the rink. People wanted to be me or be with me. Except for Lyla James Marichal.

Finneas Alexander Barlow is a walking thirst trap. Tall, hot, and broody. Tousled brown hair, chiseled jaw, alluring green eyes, perfect teeth, well-groomed beard, broad shoulders, and lips good enough to bite. He’d look like a Disney prince if the prince was a broody ahole. Four years ago, a fated meeting led to an inevitable hook-up. Just one. It’s his rule. One-time hook-ups, no information exchanges, and no repeats. I knew that even before he established his boundaries, and he kept his promise. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since.

If you had any ties to Marbella, it was impossible for you not to have heard the stories about Prince Elias and his debauchery. Every summer he arrived with his security detail and friends in tow and rented out a row of cottages near the water. Cottages that belonged to my family. Each of those summers, my parents sent me away - summer camp and later, boarding school. Anything to keep me away from the royals and their partying. I hadn’t been home in years, but when I finally come back for the summer, I see that not much has changed.

You’ve heard of these groups - the secretive ones that only the crème de la crème are invited into, the ones outsiders speculate about for centuries - I’m the second in my family invited to attend, but to them, I’m fresh meat. New blood. New money, too. They think they’ll elbow past me, that I’m here for their amusement, for them to walk all over, they’ll find out soon enough that I’m not.

One minute I'm mourning the sudden death of my father, and the next, I'm getting calls from a lawyer saying they need to read me my father's will. As far as I know, my father didn't have much to leave. Or so I thought. Everything topples down at once, the inheritance I'm left with and the truth about what my father did, but the biggest shock of all was finding out he'd married me off to a complete stranger without my consent. By the time I show up at my supposed husband's nightclub, I'm determined to leave with divorce papers signed, but nothing can prepare me for the man awaiting me.

When my sister asked me to take a course for her while she went out of town for work, I reluctantly agreed. I wasn't expecting to step into a university auditorium filled with overactive libidos lusting after the professor. And I certainly wasn't expecting to become one of those women myself, but there's something about Lorenzo Costello that makes him irresistible. He's the kind of man mothers warn their daughters about - mysterious, gorgeous, experienced, wild - and for some crazy reason he wants me.

I'm naturally gifted on the field and between the sheets. With flashy cars and enough media attention to put the royal family to shame, I'm the definition of most eligible bachelor. Every man wants to be me, and every woman wants to tame me. Until Camila. The moment I lay eyes on her, I know I have to have her. She wants to keep me at arm's length. I want her naked in my bed. She says I'm bad news. I have three weeks to prove her wrong.

Love and the right timing were two things I didn't believe in. Love is about walking to the edge of the cliff and taking the leap together. Timing was never on our side. My first mistake was hooking up with my best friend. My second came years later, when we met again, and I fell for her. My third was letting her go, because I had to. Because a love like this wasn't built to withstand the winds coming in our direction. Love and timing. I didn't believe in either. Then there was you....

I'm naturally gifted on the field and between the sheets. With flashy cars and enough media attention to put the Royal Family to shame, I’m the definition of Most Eligible Bachelor. Every man wants to be me and every woman wants to tame me. Until Camila. The moment I lay eyes on her, I know I have to have her. She wants to keep me at arm's length. I want her naked in my bed. She thinks our worlds are too different. All I want her to think about is screaming my name. She says I’m bad news. I have three weeks to prove her wrong.

The first question the cops asked me was if anything out of the ordinary happened to me lately. When I woke up this morning in the room of a mental institution I couldn’t remember a thing - not my name nor how I got there. Not how I left or how I ended up in that interrogation room. The only thing I knew came from the contents inside my bag. A wallet, a student ID, a key that opened an unknown door, and two notebooks. They tell me my name. It matches my IDs. They tell me my story. I shut my eyes and try to piece it together, but can’t.

When my ex-boyfriend’s brother waltzed into the nightclub where I was bartending, looking like he'd just stepped out of the pages of GQ magazine: Wall Street Edition, it felt like fate. Later, when he breaks into my apartment in the middle of the night, demanding to know how I got the bruises around my neck and promising to protect me, it feels a little too much the way things used to. I remind myself that I escaped that life and I'm not the person he once knew, but deep down, I want his help.

You’ve heard of these groups–the secretive ones that only the crème de la crème are invited into, the ones outsiders speculate about for centuries–I’m the second in my family invited to attend, but to them, I’m fresh meat. New blood. New money, too. They think they’ll elbow past me, that I’m here for their amusement, for them to walk all over, they’ll find out soon enough that I’m not. I may look like one of them, with my designer bags and clothes straight from the Parisian runways, but I’m not.

In two weeks, I'm supposed to become the perfect wife. I don't know or like the man my father chose to marry me off to but I have no say in the matter. That's why when I see Rocco Marchetti, the man I've had a crush on my entire life, I decide he'll be my first. We keep stealing glances and hiding smiles, but I want more. I want one night with him. So what if I'm the daughter of the most feared man in organized crime?

Maverick Cruz and I started off as pen pals and became besties when we went to the same sports camp at age 12. He rooted for me at my soccer games. I cheered for him at his hockey tournaments. Through heartbreaks, new relationships, and failed friendships, we knew we could always count on each other.

I've always been a good girl. The perfect daughter. The perfect sister. And, in two weeks, I'm supposed to become the perfect wife. I don't know or like the man my father chose to marry me off to but I have no say in the matter.

In the past, I've always been given everything I've wanted, but nothing that I truly needed. I've experienced a lot of things in my 25 years - everything except the one thing I want. It's the one thing that can't be bought. It can't even be taken; it has to be given. And nobody has ever given it to me - not really anyway. Not until him.

They say you never forget your first. Jagger Cruz, the popular, gorgeous, athletic heartbreaker, was my introduction to college flings. Over the years, I’ve tried to pay no attention to every wicked rumor I heard about him, even though deep down I knew they weren’t just rumors. Unable to face the consequences of what we’d done, if we were ever in close quarters, I ran in the other direction. If we were coincidentally put in the same class, I dropped it. Avoidance was the name of the game and so far I was winning. That is, until we’re assigned the same apartment.

When River Caliban, my sworn enemy, called out my name, I shouldn’t have turned around. I should have run the other way when he flashed that sinful smile of his, but instead, I walked toward him. I went against all reason, against all warning, and attended the gala of the year. His gala.

I lost her. No. I threw her away. She was my best friend. I was never supposed to fall in love with her. I was careless. She was heartbroken. I thought I was doing fine. But here she is, years later, forced to work with me, reminding me why I fell in love with her in the first place. And this time I'm going to do everything in my power to never let her go.

Blake Brennan's past is cloudy at best, but when she decides to uncover what happened when she was a child, she finds herself getting pulled deeper into a web of lies. When her loved ones are threatened, she must decide if finding the truth about her family is worth losing the ones who have always been there for her.