Some secrets are meant to stay that way.
My life is full of secrets. Some I keep from my mom and dad. Some I keep from my best friend. Others I keep from everyone. But every waking moment is a reminder of one or another of my secrets. It’s all I can do to get up, go to work, care for my patients, and try to manage the best I can.
No one tells you that hiding the truth will eat you up from the inside out almost as bad as a horrible cancer. Don’t worry about me, I cope. Sometimes I shop. Okay, I shop a lot. Sometimes I get comfort of another kind. From men. Mostly strangers in bars. Only a couple of times a year, though when things get really hard.
But I made a big mistake. Too much rum at a luau and next thing I knew, I was waking up next to my co-worker, the very uptight New England to California transplant, Dr. Lucas Tucker.
Suddenly going to work is just another place where I have to keep more secrets. Unfortunately, Lucas isn’t built like me. He wants to know me and all my secrets. He says he’ll love me no matter what. I want to believe that. But if he finds out what I’ve done, he’ll think I betrayed him and I’ll have lost the one person who accepts me as I am.
It’s never too late to make the right choice.
No matter how hard she tries, Hannah Morrison Keesling can’t get life right. She’s hopped from one career to the next, but fears she will never live up to the fame and success of her parents. Hannah’s also jumped from one relationship to the next, but couldn’t get that right either. In the end, she settled for a marriage with financier Michael Keesling. Because he loved her. Because he wouldn’t leave.
Somewhere along the way between leaving New York and moving to Southern California, Michael changed. Or maybe he’d always been the cold and casually cruel man she’d come to dread waking up to every morning.
Either way, Hannah is full of regret and ready to remake her life. Off she goes with her dog to the black sand beaches of Shelter Cove along California’s Lost Coast.
Once there she realizes that settling for a ‘good enough’ husband isn’t the way she wants to live the rest of her life. When Hannah meets veterinarian Ben Cooper, she wants nothing more than to make the right decision the second time around. But will Ben choose to carve out a future with…someone else’s wife?
From the author of crazy, beautiful, love stories, Jolie Moore, comes a big city second chance romance.
For more years than she can count, Yesenia Morales has tried her best to please everyone. Help her sister out of trouble. Help her immigrant mother navigate Los Angeles. So it was no wonder that her husband Cameron Becker found himself far down on life’s priority list.
She’d tried and failed and is ready to move on. If only Cameron will sign the divorce papers and they can both get on with their lives.
Cameron refuses to fail at anything. He’s worked hard to succeed at his job even when Yesenia sabotaged it for the sake of her own career. Now that Yesenia’s ready to end them forever, he can’t put his name on the dotted line. She has to give them one last chance. The opportunity comes in the form of an earthquake.
When she’s trapped, Cameron comes to her rescue. Now all he has to do is convince her to give them one last chance. But will her family still come first and derail any attempt at reconciliation?
From the author of crazy, beautiful, love stories, Jolie Moore, comes a secret baby romance.
There is no silver lining to put on the gloomy cloud that has always hovered over Holly Prentice’s life. She is as she’d almost always been—alone. Her parents left, then orphaned her. Grandparents who’d raised and loved her—died. The husband who’d vowed until death do us part had picked his career over her.
Fresh from divorce, Holly is ready to live life on her own terms. And if that means starting a friends with benefits situationship with a younger guy, then that’s what she’s going to do.
After all, Nick Andreis is sex on a stick. He’s every salacious fantasy Holly’s ever had…come to life. There’s not a single thing holding her back from indulging in paint-peeling, toe-curling shenanigans except for one tiny thing…Nick refuses to commit to casual.
Holly knows this was never meant to be love. But when a tiny baby starts to grow inside her, she either has to turn to Nick and risk being left…again or forge a solitary path to single motherhood.
From the author of crazy, beautiful, love stories, Jolie Moore, comes an opposites-attract romance.
After growing up under her father’s thumb, bubble wrapped in a Pasadena mansion, Sophie Reid escaped. Now she’s in Los Angeles living the life she’s always wanted, artist and resident wild child. Her blue blood family may look down at the fourteen-hour days as a union worker on television shows, but it’s Sophie’s bliss.
Then her carefully calibrated life is turned upside down by a tiny dog. The little red-brown ball of fur stops traffic on the Hollywood freeway and stops Sophie’s heart. She gets out of her car to save the dog and nearly misses, but attorney Ryan Becker joins the chase and saves the day. How does he want to celebrate? A single kiss upon Sophie’s lips.
From that first moment, Ryan wants more. When Sophie looks him up and down, she can’t help but be attracted to the well-built handsome man. But when he asks her out, she turns him down flat. Ryan’s all suited up in pinstripes like her father. She escaped once. Never again will she live under the thumb of a man whose sole job in life is to argue. Will Sophie buckle to Ryan’s eleven-point plan of persuasion to get her?
From the author of crazy, beautiful, love stories, Jolie Moore, comes a story about shattered lives and second chances.
Legend says a sex tape can make a Hollywood career. It killed Gemma Hart’s. She was a child actress who didn’t fail miserably after puberty. She didn’t do drugs, rob a bank, or join a cult. In fact, Gemma was the youngest actress to ever win an Academy Award. She was on the verge of a great career until one stupid night—caught on tape—brought it all crashing down. All she wants is to be left alone with her dog…but she can’t keep her eyes or hands off the builder…
Adonis Andreis’ dad gave him the name of a Greek God. He’s never been able to live up to it. He messed up his life and his sister’s life by doing the unthinkable. Now Adonis’ one and only client, reclusive mega star Gemma Hart wants him to take her to bed. To keep his only job and his reputation, Adonis knows he should refuse…but…he’s tempted.
From the author of crazy, beautiful, love stories, Jolie Moore, comes a story about the true meaning of home.
Confident and quirky cartoonist, Zoe Andreis must put her life on hold and fly back to the States to care for her ailing father. Spending her post-college years traveling and gallivanting all over Europe while rehashing her adventures in comic form, Zoe grapples with the notion of being shackled to one city and haunted by her past.
When she encounters, Max Kiss, Zoe's true adventures begin. Although Max would love to branch out and take carefree and crazy chances of his own, he too is tied to L.A., tending to his aging and deteriorating father. Stirred and enamored by Zoe's zest for life, Max longs for a future full of love and spontaneity.
While they struggle to find balance caring for their parents and living a life of their own, Zoe and Max form a strong and sensual bond. But when the tough challenges surface, Zoe and Max search for a way to have the lives they want without feeling the burdens of guilt.
From up here on stage, I can see her. Even with her First Lady hair and Sunday school shoes, I can't take my eyes off of her.
The music starts. I swing my hips to the thumping bass. Oh, so slowly I slip one button through a hole, then another, then another. I ease the black silk from my shoulders and toss it right toward her.
I watch her pale glossy lips form a big 'O' before she catches it like a major league baller. The flashing lights blind me. Between beats, I can see her blue eyes zeroed in below my waist.
I know what she wants. I give it to her. With a zip and a tug, the leather pants join the rest of my clothes. In my skin tight briefs, I dance just for her. With the last chord of the song, the stage goes dark.
I know when the lights come up again, another guy will be dancing in my place because this is my last time. I'm not doing this ever again. It's too bad I didn't get her name. I really liked that shirt. But not enough to go back and claim it.
If she wants me bad enough, she'll have to find me.
