J.R. Gray

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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?

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?

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.

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?

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.