My innocence was ripped from me one fateful night under the starless sky. Resulting in an unwanted teenage pregnancy and a secret the Camorra must bury. My father decided to hand me off to the highest bidder. The lucky winner? Tiernan Callaghan, psychopath extraordinaire. The Irish mafia prince wants me for all the wrong reasons. Alliance. Money. Prestige. War. I am but a pawn in his twisted game. The man who sits on a throne of his enemies' skulls thinks I'm a weakling. Little does he know, in this chess game, the underdog wins. Because the thing about bad bishops? They protect good pawns.

Cecilia "CeCe" Ashby is finally escaping the toxic relationship that has consumed her entire adult life. She's returning to her hometown of Laurel Creek, Kentucky, and her family's equestrian ranch, unsure of what the future holds. Nash Carter, the newly retired superstar of the Dallas Stars, is Laurel Creek's hometown hero, local business owner, and notorious bachelor. He's also the unofficial fourth sibling in the Ashby clan. It's been years since his days of tormenting CeCe with her older brothers Wade and Cole. So, when CeCe needs a job, he feels drawn to help her.

Carter Beckett is the NHL’s resident bad boy, top player both on the ice and in the bedroom, and quite possibly the sexiest man to ever grace my field of vision. But worst of all? He knows it. He’s arrogant, self-centered, and the man doesn’t seem to know what a filter is, let alone how to use one. He’s had everything served to him on a silver platter, including endless strings of women, and apparently, I’m up next. I have the solution to all my sexual frustrations in a drawer at home, and it’s far less complicated than Carter Beckett.

We're not free to give into this. She's 19, and I'm 38. And I'm her boyfriend's father. Unfortunately, they both just moved into my house.

The night I catch my husband cheating is the night I stop pretending. I don't cry. I don't scream. I don't get mad—I get even. So I bring home another man—a stranger with wicked eyes and a smile sharp enough to carve me open. I let him have me in the house I share with a liar. A moment of weakness? Maybe. A moment of revenge? Definitely. But he saw me—the darkness, the hunger, the parts my husband hated—and he wanted more.