Maggie Rawdon

I have two goals when I head up to the mountain house with my older brother and his friends: get his best friend Xander to see me as something more than my brother’s little sister and lose my V-card before I leave on gap year. The more those two goals align, the better. So when I end up stuck sharing a room with the wrong best friend, I use it to my advantage. After all, who better to give me the tips and tricks I need? But after a few late nights, I’m forgetting the list I made and realizing that even the best laid plans can end up in chaos. Especially when the wrong guy starts feeling like the right one… Before the Chaos is the novella length prequel to Madison & Quentin’s full length story in Rival Hearts.

The infamous playboy and star wide receiver for the Seattle Phantom is the last person on earth I would ever expect to come to my rescue. Tobias Westfield and I can’t see eye-to-eye on anything. But when my date goes to hell and I end up stranded in the pouring rain on my birthday, he’s there—holding my hand and playing the adoring boyfriend. I might have had him all wrong. Until a leaked video and a motorcycle accident turn everything upside down. When he struggles in the aftermath, walling himself off from the rest of the world, our friends volunteer my help—whether he wants it or not. So we’re stuck together while my job is in limbo and he fights to save his career. But every door I open and every day we spend together has me wondering if we're really all that different...

Pro football might see me as their favorite underdog, but Madison Westfield would rather see me six feet under. My ex-best friend’s little sister has every reason to hate me. I took her boyfriend’s spot on this team, her brother might lose his too, and our short-lived engagement years ago is part of the reason our families are locked in a grudge match that has the whole league on edge. Ruining me would fix most of her problems, but she's stuck trying to work a PR miracle with my career instead. Making my way through her build-a-better-image checklist is the kind of torture I'll gladly sign up for, especially if I get to help her prove everyone wrong. But it means we're spending a lot of time alone together, and when it comes to Madison, I'll take any chance she gives me. Even if it means there's hell to pay—on and off the field.

Still married. Those words change everything. Now my should-be ex-husband, Ramsey Stockton, the former pro football star turned felon and hero who left this town—and me—behind years ago, is at my door offering me a deal with the devil. If I let him stay and play his wife again for ninety days, he’ll give me a quiet divorce and his family ranch—the one my inn is on. When I scoff at the idea, he offers a million-dollar bonus to help my business float through this rough patch, but only if I’m his. Then he’ll walk away, and I can walk down the aisle with my fiancé. Or I can say no and watch everything I’ve worked so hard for fall apart. There’s only one answer I can afford to give him. But he knows everything about me—every hurt, every secret, and every single weakness I have, including him. And while Ramsey might want me, his brothers want him back in the family business. If there's one universal truth in this town, it's that Stockton men stop at nothing to get what they want.

What’s worse than playing a fake girlfriend to the all-pro defensive end for the Seattle Phantom? When the same infamous playboy is my ex-husband’s best friend. I’m normally great at keeping my distance from him—pretending like he doesn’t get under my skin. But after he punches a teammate over me, we’re stuck faking a relationship to save his career and mine. If we play the game well, we could both get out ahead. I just have to remember everything about this is for show, including the reformed player act. A few blurred lines and crossed boundaries won’t change things. Because falling for your ex’s best friend is wrong, right?

She might not like me, but she wants me. I'm used to being worshipped like a football god. Everyone on campus loves me, except her. Which is why when her ex breaks her heart and her friends plot revenge, I volunteer to be her fake boyfriend. She hates the plan, almost as much as she hates me. We can barely speak without tearing each other to shreds. But sometimes when we fight, she looks at me like she might not hate all of me. Any advantage on the field is a good one, right? But then she asks me for a favor I don’t know if I can deliver on. And I make a confession that could have this whole game falling apart.

Violet He’s the star wide receiver and the most wanted player on campus. He has it all—the body, the voice, the charm and the dimples. Plus he flirts constantly and cooks dinner shirtless in my kitchen. There’s just one problem—he’s my best friend’s younger brother. She sent him to live with me so I can help him get his life back in order. Which makes him off limits in every way possible. But now we share a wall and secrets. Like the confession he makes when he accidentally walks in on me one night. Ben I’m usually so good with women that my teammates come to me for advice. But they don’t know my secret. They don’t know about her. The one woman I want—the one I can’t stop thinking about—barely knows I exist. Until everything goes wrong, and I land on her doorstep. The worst day of my life might just turn out to be my luckiest. Because she’s fresh off a broken engagement—single for the first time in forever. And she can’t keep her eyes off of me. I just need to convince her I’m worth breaking the rules.

“I’m her dirty little secret, the one she loves to hate.” She knows just what to say to cut deep, and I know how to press every single button she has. We hate each other, until one night after I lose the biggest football game of the year. When she offers the kind of mercy I need. It changes everything… until the next morning. Now I’m her dirty little secret, and she’s avoiding me like the plague. Which makes it difficult when we get partnered on a project and we’re stuck on a couple’s trip with our friends. The tension between us is sky high. So I propose a way to lower it: enemies with benefits. One hotel room. A few days. A chance to let our little “hateship” run its course. Except when it’s unexpectedly cut short, I’m not ready to give her up. And I think I might be a bad habit she can’t quit, despite how smart she is. But we have bigger problems, and both of our post-college careers are on the line. I’m about to find out if I can win this game or fumble the two most important plays of my life.

"She wants lessons to end her wallflower era, but the only thing I want to teach her is how to be mine." Olivia is my best friend and the one person who was there for me when I wanted to quit football freshman year. We’re just friends. A fact I have to remind myself of every time I see another guy flirt with her. She thinks I’m a nice guy. A good friend. Her grumpy protective “bestie”. But what I really want? It would make her blush. So when she tells me she’s tired of blending into the background and asks me to tutor her, I can’t say no. Even though I should, because my past means she’s the last person on earth I should touch. And with everything on the line right now—championships, the draft and our final year—I need her more than ever. So when it all catches up with me in the worst possible way, I have to face an impossible choice—or risk dragging her down with me. And this game is one I can't afford to lose.

Blurb coming soon.

I was a good girl all year long. Would have made it to the top of Santa’s list. But when three men in masks offer to team up to steal the same rare paintings I need to save my brother, I’m desperate enough to risk it all. Did I mention they’re also the hockey team’s infamous star players—feared across campus and ready to raise hell this holiday season against some of the same people I am? Christmas might be coming early for me. The only problem is—the team captain and I? We hate each other. And pulling off this little holiday heist means we all have to cozy up under the same roof. But if getting everything I ever wished for this year means a little teamwork with a few masked men, can you really blame me for signing up for a stocking stuffed full of coal?

I only have room for two things in my life: football and my daughter. At least until my brother's ex-girlfriend shows up at my team's stadium needing a white knight. When I find out she's also got a secret summer checklist that I'm uniquely qualified for? I've forgotten all the reasons she should be off limits, and I'm signing up to be more than just her part-time bodyguard. But when the threats she's receiving escalate and the danger is at our doorstep, we have to decide if more than one summer is worth fighting for—whatever the cost.

Grant Stockton is the devil incarnate. The cowboy turned casino-owning crime boss has been the bane of my existence for as long as I can remember—first as my older brother’s best friend, then as my guardian when my brother died at his side, and now as the rival bar owner and landlord running me into the red. He might be the head of The Quiet Horsemen, the man everyone else in this town fears, but I’m not about to cede a single inch of ground to him. If I have to lie, cheat, and steal to keep him from finding out my bar’s underwater—well, that’s exactly what I’ll do. At least until he breaks into my apartment and discovers my secret. One that gives him all the leverage he needs to control my fate. My only reprieve is that The Horsemen are in the middle of a war, one that’s been spilling blood for the better part of a decade, and his enemies are closing in on our small mountain town. Which is why I’m taken off guard by the demand he makes in exchange for keeping my secret. Apparently there are benefits to being at the mercy of the devil…

Colton St. George is the league’s star quarterback, the most eligible bachelor in the country, and the poster boy for “nice guy”. Everyone wants a piece of him. Including me—because I need him in front of my camera to raise money for charity. There’s just one problem. Before he was famous, I took his already broken heart and shattered it. So he only agrees to do the photos on one condition—I go first. In his home, at his discretion. And in private? He isn’t quite the good guy I remember. Before I know what's happening we're unraveling in a game of favors and bets. One I’m not sure either of us can win