Elise Faber

I'd fallen for him the first time he smiled at me. My heart was his the moment he'd complimented me on my explosives skills. As members of KTS, a secret military group who was tasked with saving the world from the biggest and baddest of the criminal underworld, we went the places other people couldn't, put our lives on the line when others wouldn't. But being a KTS agent was hell on a woman's love life, especially when they looked like me-not petite and slender or wonderfully curved. For women like me, broad-shouldered, normal-looking, love seemed to always pass us by. Knowing that, I put my unrequited crush of Leo aside, switched teams, and got on with my life, content in my part in taking out the bad guys. But then Leo came back. Then he saw me. And I wondered if perhaps love for a "woman like me" might not be a fantasy after all.

He was forty years old. He was single. He had his dream job as GM of the Baltimore Breakers hockey franchise, and he was happy. Lie. Because the woman he was in love with was married. To a perfectly nice man who loved her and cared for her and treated her like the queen she was. But then Lexi showed up at his house, tears in her eyes, Caleb out of the picture, and he finally had a shot. A real shot. At love. The trouble was that Luc had spent almost the entirety of his adult life running from love. He didn't do relationships, not any longer. But . . . Lexi was hurt, absolutely devastated, and she needed care and gentleness and deserved all of the romance in the world. So he needed to man up and find a way to convince her to give him that shot.

I didn't know what I was doing in a bar at midnight. On a weeknight. Certainly not sleeping, even though I had to work the next day. Definitely not open to talking with anyone, or trying to pick up a date. Surely . . . not paying the least bit of attention to the beautiful bartender with gorgeous hazel eyes and a body built for sin. He'd flash a smile and the women around him melted. He'd chuckle and even I wasn't immune to the silken way it slid down my spine. And I was singular. I didn't pay attention to men (and yes, I said that as a filthy, four-letter word). I existed by myself. For myself. It was safer that way. Then . . . he talked to me. Then . . . he flashed that smile my way. Then he made me want a stranger more than I wanted my careful distance. Oh. Hell.

Shy. God, she was so painfully, awkwardly shy. Blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time? Check. Puking in front of the class when she'd needed to give a speech? Double check. Critically, embarrassingly unable to summon any semblance of a rational thought when in the presence of an attractive man? Triple check. And she was surrounded by gorgeous, sexy men on a daily basis. As video coach for the San Francisco Gold hockey franchise, Dani spent her days wrapped in a technological bubble. She studied tape, prepared clips for the players, and generally avoided other people. Until Ethan. She'd thought he was going to ask her to fix his computer. Instead, he'd asked her out. On a date. A date That didn't compute. It couldn't be right. No one asked her out-Ethan had. And suddenly, Dani thought it might be possible to leave her shy, awkward days behind her.

Bad DateBlind dates were the absolute worst. Awkward, filled to the brim with small talk, and they never, ever worked out. Kay knew all that. Yet for some reason, she still had agreed to let Heather set her up. Okay, because it was Kay had serious pushover tendencies. But when the date came, Kay found herself alone at a table for almost an hour before she called it quits. She'd been stood up. Yup, that was just perfect. Her night was shot, she was behind on her word count, but then . . . she quite literally ran into tall, dark, and handsome outside the restaurant. One look at him and Kay thought that perhaps her night might be salvaged after all. Until she discovered tall, dark, and handsome was a jerk. Until she discovered that jerk was her missing blind date-her rude and insufferable date who blew right by her as if she didn't exist. What. The. Hell? Bad TextIt came in the middle of the night. Totally her fault, as she should have had her phone on Do Not Disturb. But she hadn't, and that buzz-buzz had woken her. Then she'd seen the picture and . . . wow. She couldn't let that pass her by. She'd just had to respond and then had stayed up texting back and forth with the man who'd had the great abs and the spectacular di-Cough. Sense of humor. She meant the spectacular sense of humor. But as the sun had risen and as she'd had to force her bleary self out of bed, she'd set the text chain aside and gotten on with her day. Until she'd walked out of her apartment, turned toward the elevator, and saw . . . Him. Bad MarriageAbby and Jordan were blissfully married. Or supposed to be anyway. But three kids, copious poopy diapers, and minimal sleep meant that she and Jordan were well past the honeymoon stage. And she didn't know how to get that bliss back. Luckily, Jordan had a plan.

I saved him. Well, maybe he saved me. Or perhaps we saved each other. All I knew was that one second, I was bickering with the man I pretended to despise-a man I secretly wanted more than my next meal-and the next the world was exploding around us. KTS, the secret military agency I worked for, was under attack by a former agent turned traitor and everything we thought we knew about being the good guys was getting more complicated by the minute. As was my relationship with Linc. I'd asked him out once, bared my feelings for him, and . . . he'd turned me down. Not gently, either. But now we were fighting for our lives, and I discovered that perhaps his rejection wasn't quite so simple. Maybe he'd pushed me away because once I was in his heart, there was no letting me go. Ever.

Rob was single. That hadn't been the plan. But his wife was gone, had been gone long enough for him to risk dipping his toe back into the dating world. The only problem was that dating was a lot different now. He wasn't good at apps and profiles, his banter skills were rusty, and his flirting was...not good. Then came high, high heels. Then came a sharp voice with an impressive repertoire of curse words. Then came a woman who was definitely not his wife...but who might be the possibility of something more.

Healer Suz was known for her cool head, steady presence, and impeccable composure under pressure-a pressure that included magical attacks against her people, the Rengalla, and her on the front lines, healing any injuries they sustained. But her position at the Colony was more than that. If someone twisted their ankle, she repaired the tendons and ligaments. If a baby was being born, she was there, welcoming them into the world. If an idiot soldier got hurt doing idiot soldier things, she yelled at them . . . then healed whatever injury had brought them her way. She took care of people. The need was engrained in her heart and soul. Along with . . . loneliness. She wanted someone of her own she could take care of. The trouble was she wanted a particular someone. And Graham hadn't ever bothered to give her the time of day.