I was a man, and she felt like every bad decision I’d ever enjoyed making.

I was beginning to understand that once Lachlan decided something was his responsibility, the cost to himself stopped being part of the equation. Pain, danger, inconvenience—it didn’t seem to matter. He would do what he said he would do and deal with the consequences afterward.

She looked like temptation incarnate—everything I didn’t want to want. I told myself I was a man of logic. But after seeing the show she put on last night, I couldn’t suppress my baser instincts. I’d watched her move, twist, writhe, and command the attention of every man in the room. She didn’t need to fake seduction—it was in her bones.

This girl, who poured coffee and read romance novels by day, was no innocent flower. Within her was a scorching sun of sensuality.

I wanted her. And I didn’t care if she burned me alive.

~Nikolai Volkov, Eyes on You

“Hey, Mr. Captain!” she puffed, weaving through the crowd. “You training for the Reindeer Games or something? Some of us have short legs, you know! Or do you just like dashing through the airport like you’re a one-horse open sleigh?”

~Captain Kol Vinter, Christmas Cancellation

I didn’t want to share.

Didn’t want to let her go.

I wanted Isabella Eliana Duarte in my bed, in my life, and eventually wearing my fucking name.

Selfish?

Absolutely.

I’d worry about that tomorrow.

Tonight, she was mine.

Whatever restraint he’d been holding onto fractured, and those eyes of the unholy turned murderous, setting my blood on fire with equal parts fear and hunger.

~Scarlett Hayes, Eyes of the Unholy

Soulmates, true love, and forever were just fairy tales—but then I met her.

It didn’t make sense. Hell, I’d spent my whole life dodging anything that even hinted at real feelings. I’d always been the guy who kept it light, never letting anyone get close enough to see the cracks beneath the surface. But Angel had fallen into my life—quite literally—and changed everything. When she was brought into the ED, bloody and unconscious, something had shifted inside me. I couldn’t leave her side, not then and not now.

~Conan Thorin, Day Shift

I couldn’t begin to fathom why I’d agreed—no, chosen—to participate in this sexual experiment. Curiosity had gotten the better of me. It wasn’t that I regretted what we’d done—he’d given me the best orgasms I’d ever had—it was that being with him was unthinkable, taboo even. Why had I allowed a man who was essentially my boss, sixteen years my senior, do the things he’d done? I had no answers.

~Samantha Sheridan, Night Shift

There was something profound about returning to your roots, like a tree reaching deep into the earth, drawing strength from the past to grow tall and strong. It could be the best thing for me—a chance to rebuild. This was a place where I didn’t have to be perfect, where people remembered the girl I’d been before life tore me apart. It could be a chance to start over—not somewhere new, but where it all began.

~Noelle Nichols, Christmas Cancellation

A dangerous escape, bullets in the air, and Lachlan still manages to wreck Isabella with two words.

“Good girl.”

Under any other circumstances, those two words would have done terrible things to my concentration.

At the moment, I was mostly trying not to get shot.