J.R. Gray

With the legal trouble behind them, Daniel Caplin and Rafael Argon are ready to settle into a low-key D/s relationship, but life is unrelenting, when blackmail shatters their illusion of happily ever after. Pictures from one of the Rafael’s public scenes instill fear into his new submissive, Daniel, acting as a wedge driving the new couple apart. The building peril in George’s community weighs heavy on his shoulders as he struggles to find the culprit—all while hiding his feelings for his new house guest. Jesse is torn between ending his marriage, picking up a rebound he should have left fifteen years in the past, and the dangling carrot of a possible relationship with a man. He is forced to fight for what he wants most, a leap he may be too chicken to take. In the sequel to Legally Bound, George battles to take down an unknown enemy, while watching helplessly as those he cares for are broken beyond repair. Can Rafael and Daniel rebuild their trust after it's broken with lies? Can George hold it together as Jesse is ripped from his life?

Noah has one goal before he finishes art school: sleep with a teacher. His chosen conquest isn’t just anyone. Professor Gates is a blond god with a Russian accent who doesn’t seem to like anyone, but damn the man is talented, and he teaches the most exclusive art conservatory in the country. Gates assumes Noah only wants to get close to him to get into his conservatory, but Noah has no interest in painting. He only wants Gates’ attention, and he’ll do anything for it. After Noah poses nude for one of Gates’ classes and still can’t get close to him, he decides Gates is a lost cause...until he gets invited to the conservatory he didn’t apply for. When Noah confronts Gates, he gets more than he bargained for. Gates is not only a dominant, but he also likes to play with his art.

I survive on avoidance. Physical pain to avoid the mental. Disposable flesh to avoid relationships. Work to avoid attachment. My club became my empire of avoidance. Inside the ring millions are won and lost. The fight is confined to breaths, actions and reactions, fists and pain. Rules don’t exist. Only my opponent exists. I’d been avoiding my needs for far too long when Remi stumbles into the Inferno and I’m hungry. The promise of a submissive with no attachment is far too tempting. I can’t resist him. He was only supposed to be a distraction, but I know I'll never get over him. There isn't a chance in this clouded hell.

Their world is crumbling on the King’s shoulders. Elliot is gone. George has failed, and his demons are threatening to swallow him whole. Jesse’s life is slipping through his fingers. He feels like he’s losing George, whom he has just gotten back. The search for Elliot is taking its toll on the pair of them, and the strain shows the cracks in their trust. Zac is doing everything he can, but he's been plagued with flashbacks of a life he can't remember. Even his iron constitution must break sometime, and the search for Elliot can’t wait. Each minute could be the difference between life and death. Can they get it together to save themselves or Elliot?

Love is for peasants, nobles marry for power. These are the rules Jocelynn has lived by. She is expected to be the poised and perfect vision of relentless power. Set to inherit the House of Akillies she was bred to rule. Men have never turned her head, until now Madden achieved the impossible, the first in over a century to escape the life of hard labor and earn a place among the elite. With the chance for a fresh start, he has to stay focused, not damn himself by falling for the one girl forbidden to him. Madden was an experiment in freedom, and she didn’t mean to fall. But now she can't live without him. Some choices are easier than others, while some aren’t choices at all. He’s worth running from everything she’s ever known. Jocelynn turns to a formidable group of rebels to escape her fate. But with a war to be won, the rebels have their own agenda. Drowning in a game of power and politics, Madden and Jocelynn can’t trust anyone if they want make it out alive.

Carnivale is a time for decadence, for revelry, and for mischief. A time when we shed the figurative masks we wear in everyday life in favor of new ones… ones that allow us to be a little bolder, a little more adventurous, and perhaps a little truer to ourselves. Follow Me Into Darkness is a compilation of original tales of queer romance by five of the premier authors of contemporary romance. Hurricane by Santino Hassell Interesting things never happened to Zay. He was the wallflower everyone forgot about as soon as the booze began to flow, and Mardi Gras had never been an exception. But after a chance encounter with a devil-may-care grifter, this year's celebration brings adventure and whirlwind romance. If We Be Friends by J.C. Lillis Seventeen-year-old Ven should be flying high—he's playing the title role in a new TV drama about Hamlet's teen years, and tonight they're having a Mardi Gras cast party in a possibly-haunted castle. But Ven's lost all his mirth since his boyfriend suggested they "take a break," so he plans to skip the bash and brood in his trailer all night. Then the exasperating guy who plays Horatio challenges him to a Shakespearean soliloquy-off, and Ven knows his actorly honor is at stake. He says yes to the duel, trudges off to the the party to meet his fate--and finds that more awaits him onstage than a battle of wits and words. Masked by J.R. Gray Blistering heat and half-naked masked men as far as the eye can see, but Heath runs into the one face it’s taken him fifteen years to forget. Javier is plagued with a life of regret, but when a second chance confronts him, can he let go of his hang-ups and seize the moment? The Queen’s Reflection by Kris Ripper Isah plays the role everyone malleable and cautious, a true queen. But what others see as a queen’s appropriate modesty is really just a disguise for what Isah has never told anyone, the thing no one can ever know. This body, dressed in the queen’s gowns, is a lie. Once a year, at carnival, Isah dons someone else’s clothes and becomes them for a night. A young cook in stained whites, or a stableboy in worn breeches. As long as no one gets too close the pretense holds. Until two strangers look past all the characters and Isah finally exposes the person behind the mask. Touched by Roan Parrish Sometimes when he touches people Philippe Rondeau sees their future. It’s erratic and inconvenient, but mostly he’s learned to deal with it. Sure he hasn’t found true love yet, but he has friends and lovers, and is kept busy running his family’s jazz club in Prohibition-era New Orleans. But now it’s Mardi Gras and all bets are off. In the space of one night, Philippe falls under the spell of jazz musician Claude and learns a terrible secret about his powers. If Philippe is certain of anything it’s that the future can be tricky, but the chance at love makes it all seem worthwhile.

Titus had lived and breathed religion his entire life, tucked away from the rest of the world in a compound in northern Wyoming. He’s destined to be the next leader of the church, deemed so by the Prophet.  God spoke and with His word He created. But God made a mistake. Titus isn’t worthy. He was born sick and it’s solidified when he rescues the most beautiful man he’s ever seen.  Torn between fidelity to his faith or his soul, Titus must reconcile the two parts of himself before he’s discovered hiding among the chosen.

I’m living the dream, playing summer festivals to massive crowds. My band is on fire, my best friend by my side and we’re on top of the world. I fell for him in the heat of the summer. I fell for the stars in his eyes. The way he said my name. I’ll never love anyone the same. But our story ended when it was just beginning. Fame gave me more than I could ever imagine, but I’ll forever suffer the cost. The summer of love and loss would forever be a stain on my heart. I used to think life didn’t come with second chances, until we’re reunited for a world tour as dual headliners. Only he thinks I’m happily married, when in reality, my life is crumbling. My team won’t let me announce my divorce, leaving him to believe I’m off limits. We gave up on forever and I’d give anything for another shot at love.

The Christmas season is fast approaching. Jesse and George try to keep their connection alive with stolen late night dinners and secret meetings, which never seem to be enough. Zac doesn’t take no for an answer, and has set his sights on George’s slave Elliot as his newest conquest. Determined to see Elliot and bring him some holiday spirit, Zac starts a battle of wits with George. But Will George be able to outsmart Zac, and keep him away from Elliot, for long?

Avoiding sleeping with women was my specialty, an art form even. As the future King of England I couldn’t be caught sleeping with men. My whole life played out in front of the paparazzi, and they didn’t miss a thing. I had a carefully crafted womanizing persona to maintain. My life came with rules, all of which I broke when I couldn’t resist a one night stand with the enemy: A beautiful paparazzo with a heart of gold. He may be the only person who doesn’t want me for my title, and he can never be anything more than my secret. But secrets have a way of coming out and not only will they scare him away, but they’ll lose me the crown.

The last thing Daniel, a hard-working public defender, expected to see the morning after a one night stand was his hook-up staring back at him from the wrong side of the law. Assigned to work his case, Daniel vows to keep things professional with Rafael but has a hard time controlling his craving for dominance, the control, and the connection they shared. Rafael, a paid Dominant in the Chicago underworld, has been dealing with a cop problem for far too long. Used to sex with no emotion, he’s entranced with Daniel’s submission, his innocence, and…could there be something more? Can Daniel clear Rafael's name, keeping him out of jail and in his life, with the odds, a cop, and the mounting evidence against them?

I hate Jasper Marshal. Hate is a visceral and terrible word, but it's the right one. This guy is everything I’m not. Jock. Sports ball obsessed. Testosterone fueled. Jacked up. He's also sexy as hell with a submissive side I discovered by accident. Definitely an accident. If you want to call him on his knees in my kitchen an accident. He pushes all my buttons good and bad. And to top it off, he’s my best friend Sam's brother. I’d become really good at avoiding Jasper since high school, but then Sam asked us both to be the best men at his wedding. Now, not only do I have to work with him to plan a bachelor party in Vegas, we need to survive a destination wedding…in Hawaii. It's hard enough to be civil so we don't ruin the wedding, but on top of that, I have to resist the urge to drag Jasper into every back room I can find and show him how much I hate him, all while trying not to get into a fist fight. One of us isn’t going to survive this, so may the best man win. May the Best Man Win is an enemies to lovers romance with the promise of pineapple bushes, tit-glitter (whatever that means), and one definitely unfixable bed.

Finding out the guy I hooked up with is on my team isn’t the way I saw my first week of coaching going. My name is Anthony Hawke, and I used to be a rising star in the NHL until someone purposefully tore my ACL, ending my career. I went from the top of my life to nothing in a matter of months. I take a coaching job a thousand miles away as a fresh start, only to ruin it before I start. Three months ago, I met him in a bar. Sexy and funny and built like a God—no names, just the best night of my life. I never thought I’d see him again, but jokes on me, he’s a freshman on my team. Not only is he an insufferable playboy, but his father is the one who ruined my career. I can’t lose this coaching job by sleeping with a player, but he won’t let it go. And if his father finds out, forget working anywhere in hockey again.

I worshiped at the altar of pain, surviving on avoidance, physical to avoid the mental, anything to forget what I’d lost. When Remi walked through the door, I felt like I’d paid my price for the passage through hell and been granted a taste of Eden. Remi was my oasis and I was going to drown myself in him. But life takes with no remorse and everything was a mirage. The past won’t stay dead and a cruel phantom comes to destroy our happiness. The more we need each other the further apart our lives drive us. I’m torn between my perfect past and the hope of an oasis, and either choice demands I cut out part of my soul.

Iris' Story

Caspian Locke I don’t think we even begin to understand love until we’ve lost the one we thought we’d spend the rest of our life with. I don’t think we begin to understand ourselves until we realize that it’s most likely our fault. And I don’t think we begin to understand life until we understand it comes in so many shades of gray. You can be a good person and still do irrevocable harm. Life is messy, so fucking messy. I hate it. Or maybe I hate myself. I thought for a long time I hated him. But I can’t hate Iris. No matter how much he hurts, I still carry this little fucking wish in the depths of my soul that one day he’ll forgive me and admit he still loves me. Part of life is living with the burden of what I’ve done and waiting for a day that will never come. This is that life. And we all come out Pretty F*cked.

Emory Ker Who makes out with a random guy at a club while someone else is giving him head? Not me—that's who. I'd never even hooked up with a stranger. Welp, now I had. If you could call what I'd done hooking up. But it was so much more intimate than a hook-up. I'd tasted his lips as someone else made him come. He'd gasped into my mouth. Now I was sitting in front of him and he was asking me to kiss him again. River Wade We became famous overnight. One day I was a twenty-four-year-old drummer slinging pizzas to make ends meet and the next, I was a member of the most popular alternative band ever. Despite being world-famous, there was no connection in it. I'd lost touch with reality. With intimacy. I couldn't find a place to be normal. I'd lived my entire life straight-edged while watching obsession destroy my best friend. Obsession terrified me. That is until I met him. The first taste left me intoxicated. The rockstar obsessed with the writer—rather funny if you think about it. After a night with him, he vanishes into thin air, and all the money in the world can't help me find him. I have to track him down and convince him there might be millions of people who would do anything to get a chance to sleep with me, but I only had eyes for him. Convince this beautiful boy I'm pretty obsessed. Pretty Obsessed is an out-for-you romance, with a dirty-talking, obsessive rockstar who falls for a cinnamon roll writer. This is book one in The Pretty Broken series. All books follow a different couple.

Saint Vincent I might be the best-selling solo artist in the world, but my personal life is a disaster. For every number one album, there's a sea of my worsts, all documented in photos. Bad break-ups. Destroyed hotel rooms. Fights. Drugs. And just as many rumors. Every headline reaffirms the walls I’ve built around myself. Fame destroys everything it touches and I can’t let anyone close. The only exception is my best friend— Lowe Wilder. But I’ve fucked that one up too. It’s all about him. Every song, every lyric. Every piece of music I’ve ever written. I planned to carry that secret to my grave. He’s straight. Another break-up, another call to Lowe. I can’t bear to have another scandal splashed across the tabloids. At my absolute worst he’s here to pick up the pieces, and I ruined it all with a kiss. Lowe Wilder I’m the least famous member of the most famous band in the world. I’ve sat in the background while we toured the world and tore each other apart. I wouldn’t have made it through any of this without Saint. He came into my life like a nuclear bomb. Unapologetic and with about as much destruction, but he’s kept me sane from across the world. Nothing could come between us. Until he kissed me and shattered my world. Pretty Toxic can be read on its own or enjoyed part of the Pretty Broken Series.

Alister Fox The pretty boy. The loner. Old Hollywood. I had all kinds of names as the least known member of the most famous band in the world. Behind all the hype and masks, I'm just a Pretty Wreck. No one knows the disaster I am, my secrets hidden behind style and a smile. I've been running for as long as I can remember, but I can't get away from the gilded cage of fame. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep it together. I'm forced to go back on tour to play the summer concert circuit, and so is the guy I've avoided for two years. Ten years older than me, he's the bassist for the hottest punk band. He beds a different girl every night, but while the rest of the world slept, he'd crawl into my bed. He's the only person who has ever felt safe, but he's straight, so I ran from him, too. Now I have to face him and it's all unraveling. I'm afraid I'll be the first to break, bringing our fame crashing down. Kingsley Cole My words have gotten me in trouble for as long as I can remember. They got me suspended from eighth grade and banned from online forums, but they also made us famous beyond our wildest dreams. Poetry and scorn. My deepest thoughts, raw and exposed for the fans to consume. They spawned rumors and ruin, and they’re about to do worse. He hasn’t spoken to me in years. But our secret keeps bleeding into my songs. My next album is a ticking time bomb and when it hits, it will be the end of us. What will be left but a pretty wreck?

Movie star 102: The headlines are never what they seem.   Quellcrist wasn’t new to fame or the effect it had on a relationship. He’d been married in the spotlight for as long as he’d been famous. But that was before Hale. He knew it was going to test him but even he hadn’t known the toll that months apart would take on his fledgling relationship.   Long days of shooting, different time zones, calls every day dwindled to days without calls, and rumors were all over the rags. Through it all Quell had to battle his own worst enemy but he didn’t know how to win against something inside him. Depression ate him whole and pain took over.   There was so much more at stake than losing his boyfriend, he was losing his best friend. His lifeline, the love of his life. Was there any way to come back from the damage done?   Can they rewrite their ending?

Charles holds the key to salvation, but James has to say yes. James failed. He tried to be what they wanted. He tried to deny it. He tried to be a good Catholic boy…but it’s become too much. He craves pain, submission. He’s denied himself far too long, and it’s eating him alive. Charles thrives off the exchange of power. He knows the world revolves around control. It’s given and taken like currency, in business and in pleasure. He won’t get attached, though, or so he tells himself, until James turns his world upside down. He’s defiant and snarky, but Charles can taste the submission on him. All James has to do is say one little word.

Special Agent Nolan Hudson At seventeen, I ran. I joined the military and planned to never step foot in my home town again. Nothing could make me return to that hellhole and the pain I buried there, or so I thought— until I found myself on a plane to that very place. Almost two decades later, I’m forced home to help find a missing nine year old. As a member of the most elite K9 special unit in the country, it was my job and you can’t exactly say no to the FBI. It should be easy, and I won’t have to face what I ran from. However, the case is anything but simple and to make matters worse, I’m faced with the last person I ever wanted to see again: Officer Callum Stone— the sheriff’s son and the town’s golden boy. Only he’s not anymore—he’s a ruin of what he once was. It’s Callum’s kid who’s missing, and all the feelings I’d spent almost twenty years running from rise to the surface. As secrets come to light, we realize our small town is hiding a lot more than we thought, and we’ll have to follow the trail of deception to get justice and maybe a second chance at love. Scapegoat is a second chance MM romantic suspense, featuring a small town, some FBI K9 fun, and hurt/comfort vibes. It is the first book in J.R. Gray's Working Dogs series, which will be packed with action, suspense, and humor.

I hadn’t admitted to myself that my life was going nowhere until I first had him. Living back in my small mountain town, in my childhood home, with my older brother, working at the library wasn’t as exciting as I imagined. That was until a stranger came to the library one night and turned my world around. Night after night, month after month, I waited for him after dark. He never let me see his face but he always showed me how well he knew me. No one had ever read my needs so well or pushed me so far and I was in too deep before I even knew who he was. I just called him Daddy. ****Secret Daddy is a Holiday MM romance featuring a small town, a librarian, a park ranger, and some kinky forced proximity.

Moving from FBI Forensics to the K9 unit wasn’t my best idea. My partner hates me and he’ll hate me even more if he finds out the secret I’m keeping. I’ve spent weeks winning his respect, and as an added bonus, the sexual tension built on the foundation of his hate is so arousing I almost forget we’re just fucking with each other. Only we don’t have time to process, because we’re thrown into the middle of a raging forest fire, trying to find a missing hiker before it’s too late. At the worst possible time, I figure out the case, but if I tell Hayes he’ll hate me. If I don’t tell him, we might die in the woods. How to tell your partner you nearly killed his last partner when you want to keep fucking him, while dodging bullets, was not covered in FBI training.

Weston doesn’t believe in voodoo but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t believe in him. His life and family were steeped in the stuff and it was fine, until voodoo took everything from him, ripped his life from his grasp. And when it swallowed whole the person he loved most he had to escape. But there were consequences. His voodoo goddess wasn’t going to let go of him so easily, and her revenge was the pinnacle of evil. He could have dealt with something like impotence or boils, but this was purely depraved. She came for him and hit him where it hurts. She might as well have taken his guns. Weston found himself unable to lie. A hitman who can’t lie. What a joke. When his handler throws him a bone, a job that requires no interaction only observation, Weston takes it. He should be able to do this in his sleep, but he’s off his game. He gets way too close. Nothing is as it seems, and someone else, maybe someone worse than him, is stalking his mark. But he can’t leave the kid high and dry. Not when Eli is all he can think about.

Have you ever loathed a person so intensely the sight of them made you contemplate homicide? First day of college, everyone is settling into their rooms, and in walks Jeff Woods—the blond bastard. He's arrogant and smart and an elite swimmer and worst of all everyone loves him. Only he's insufferable and flirty, and a sex god. He pushes every button I never knew I had, all with an air of indifference, like he doesn't know the affect it has on me. Did I mention he's the hottest guy I've ever laid eyes on? I'm just some closeted red-neck from the south who's more comfortable on a horse and in a pair of boots than trying to figure out this Ivy League stuff. There's no way a guy like him would ever look at me twice. Hate is the only equation. The Animosity Equation is a standalone enemies to lovers, roommates, forced proximity, wild ride of teasing, lust, and so much more.

My father's the president and my brother's the golden boy which leaves me the black sheep. The son who never wanted to be here at all. The white house my gilded cage, and the secret service my prison guards. I'm nearly twenty-one and nothing about my life is normal. The only thing giving me life and any motivation to get out of bed is the way he looks at me. The stolen glances across the West Wing. Heated gaze in the private dining room. He's my father's best friend, which isn't even the worst part, he's also the vice president. Utterly off limits and I can't bring myself to care. Can't bring myself to stop encouraging his flirting, dreaming, and hoping he won't be able to resist me forever.

I never thought I’d go to college a virgin, but unless something changes, and fast, that’s what’s going to happen. In comes Harden Hart, my All American boy-next-door best friend with an offer to help in a way I’d never imagined. The boy who turned everything he touched to gold had a filthy side to him I’d never seen. Oh, and did I mention he’s straight? We could keep this fun but we had to hide it from both our fathers. We could smile for the cameras, focus on winning the state swimming championship and maintain Harden’s image. Easy enough, right? Only Harden didn’t want to hide. His addiction to our not-so-private hook-ups put everything at risk with his father’s planned presidential run, and I risked losing my best friend if anyone found out. But the biggest risk of all—the risk of breaking my own heart by falling for someone who was never mine to begin with. Maybe love just isn't in the equation. ***The Friendship Equation is a childhood best-friends-to-lovers, bi for you, forbidden sports romance standalone, featuring a dirty-talking boy next door and his sweet virginal best friend.

My soul mate is my natural enemy. Or close enough. He’s a vampire and I’m a wolf. Our kinds are at war. A centuries old blood war. I can’t stay away from him. I hate him, but I want him. Our love is a standoff. For every inch I take, he pushes a mile. The world is against us. But I’m so tired of fighting the ties between us. For every wolf that dies at the hands of a vampire, I feel more guilty. Yet I go to him over and over and we use each other just enough until next time. I can’t stop. We both swear it’ll be the last time, but here we are again. The cycle never ends. But this time it has to. I must either choose him and betray my people or walk away for good.

Movie star 101: A smile hides all pain. Quellcrist King has been playing a part his entire life. The more famous he becomes, the more he hides. The only person he ever let see the real him rose with him from nothing to the very top. They were the king and queen of Hollywood— and then she wanted a divorce. The only way to survive his depression is to bury himself in work. If he can be a character, maybe he won’t have to remember himself. A gay role can’t be any different than playing a straight one, can it? But instead of finding solace in the character, he finds it in his costar. Hale becomes his best friend, his lifeline, the light in his darkness. Quell is forced to examine everything he thought he knew about himself while filming intimate scenes with Hale that feel more real than anything ever has before. He’s lived his entire life following the script. What would life be like unscripted?

Success was lonely. I should have been on top of the world but I felt trapped, suffocated by fame. My life wasn’t my own. I belonged to the fans and the media. Too famous to leave my house without attracting a crowd. Like a prince in a palace of glass watching life pass me by. I’d almost resigned myself to the impossibility of a relationship in the time of hook-up apps made more impossible as an actor. I was almost okay with my inability to date, until I met the only person forbidden to me: My director. The most beautiful guy I’d laid eyes on, twenty years older than me, and seemingly interested too. Now I had four months of working side by side while trying to keep my hands to myself, or one of us would lose our job. The temptation was going to kill me. Unwritten is a slow burn, May-December with low angst and a dog that’s in charge. This book can be read as a standalone.

Welcome to Black Diamond Resort and Spa… and my exile… A guy in a skirt wouldn’t turn a straight guy on, right? I spent the last decade performing next to him. I’ve never looked at him as more—until I walked in on him in a skirt. He’s as broken as I am. We survived our childhood together. And when he’s finally trying to embrace the parts his father tried to beat out of him, I can’t handle it. He’s taunting me with smeared eye-liner and a filthy smile, singing to a sold-out crowd, and it’s getting too hot under these stage lights. I can’t look him in the eyes. I can’t be with him—not like that—but I can’t stop thinking about him. He's pushing me over the edge. Now we’re banished to this forsaken celebrity timeout—to play emotional chicken—and he’s determined to make sure I lose. He’ll push every button I possess until I give in.