Happily Ever After: A Romance Collection Read online

  Happily Ever After

  A Free Romance Collection

  Annika Martin

  Iris Morland

  Tia Louise

  Claudia Burgoa

  Piper Rayne

  Jessie Evans

  Willow Winters

  Amelia Wilde

  Nicole French

  Skye Warren

  Adriana Anders

  Charlotte Byrd

  Nana Malone

  M. Malone

  Theresa Leigh

  Contents

  HAPPILY EVER AFTER

  Annika Martin

  THE HOSTAGE BARGAIN

  Iris Morland

  TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE

  TIA LOUISE

  THE PRINCE & THE PLAYER

  Claudia Burgoa

  UNTIL I FALL

  Piper Rayne

  CHARMED BY THE BARTENDER

  Jessie Evans

  BETTING ON YOU

  W. Winters

  A KISS TO TELL

  Amelia Wilde

  COLD BREW

  Nicole French

  LEGALLY YOURS

  Skye Warren

  SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST

  Adriana Anders

  SAVED BY THE MOUNTAIN MAN

  Charlotte Byrd

  BLACK EDGE

  Nana Malone & M. Malone

  SHAMELESS

  Theresa Leigh

  SWEET CRAZY SONG

  HAPPILY EVER AFTER

  Three words: Happily. Ever. After.

  Love is everywhere in this swoony, combustible boxed set. You'll find it in small seaside towns and sprawling cities. In rich men's skyscrapers and on dark streets. In the fiery burn from enemy to lover and the sweet surrender into a second chance.

  Fall head over heels for billionaires, get swept away by a SEAL, and go home with a rockstar in this limited-time set from fifteen queens of romance!

  Looking for something over-the-top kinky and laugh-out-loud funny? Start with THE HOSTAGE BARGAIN by Annika Martin.

  If hometown heroes are more your speed, skip ahead to TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE by Iris Morland for some small-town steam!

  Or perhaps a playboy prince will strike your fancy. In that case, THE PRINCE & THE PLAYER by Tia Louise is for you!

  If you need a military hero in your life, do not miss UNTIL I FALL by Claudia Burgoa.

  Take a seat at the bar and fall for the sexy bartender in CHARMED BY THE BARTENDER by Piper Rayne!

  BETTING ON YOU by Jessie Evans has it all: small-town gossip, a best friend’s wedding, and one hot second chance…

  Fall for the forbidden in the suspenseful, sexy A KISS TO TELL by W. Winters…

  Dueling coffee shop owners can’t resist the spark between them in COLD BREW by Amelia Wilde—but it’ll take more than chemistry to turn these enemies to lovers!

  Take a bad boy billionaire up on his offer in LEGALLY YOURS by Nicole French!

  SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST is a twisty, dangerous romance from Skye Warren. Two billionaires. One winner…

  Get snowed in with the mountain man in SAVED BY THE MOUNTAIN MAN by Adriana Anders and see if you ever want to come out!

  An auction changes everything in the steamy BLACK EDGE by Charlotte Byrd—everything.

  Laugh-out-loud SHAMELESS by Nana Malone & M. Malone features a former assassin in what can only be called a romantic misadventure!

  Or head home with the rock star in SWEET CRAZY SONG by Theresa Leigh.

  We’re all so happy to introduce you to our heroes & heroines! Enjoy! <3

  THE HOSTAGE BARGAIN

  Annika Martin

  The Hostage Bargain

  Annika Martin

  I was a small town girl trapped in a desperate situation...until three hunky bank robbers took me hostage!

  True, I'd always dreamed of escaping that place, but not quite like that.

  Then I found out about their rules. These guys have more rules than a grammar class! But unlike grammar class, their rules are hot. And kinky. And super exciting to memorize.

  Except I'm never supposed to ask their real names. Or where they're from, or why they lead this life.

  And we can never, ever think about tomorrow.

  Here's a secret: I'm starting to suspect my tough-as-nails outlaws might have tender-as-taffy hearts.

  And every night I go to sleep wishing this didn't have to end.

  PRAISE FOR THE HOSTAGE BARGAIN

  "So dirty and omfg so funny! I wanted it to last forever!" ~Night Reader Reviews

  1

  I was looking super busy at my First City National Bank teller window one day, which means I was scowling at Facebook like it was an important banking spreadsheet, and now and then I’d hit random keys on my adding machine.

  That’s when the three bank robbers burst in.

  They wore zombie masks and yelled lots of loud commands all at once, like they were really angry. One of them smashed a glass display kiosk with his gun, and it made a loud crash.

  My jaw dropped. My heart pounded. You can’t even imagine how bad I wanted to Instagram it.

  But then one of them said, “Put your hands where we can see them!” And you know they weren’t imagining those hands holding phones on record.

  In addition to the masks, they wore business suits and leather gloves, and they moved with military precision. There were only three of them, but it seemed like they were everywhere, the way they took the place over.

  Customers and co-workers cowered. People cried. I felt so bad for them, and I had this urge to get in front of them and protect them. I so didn’t want anybody hurt!

  But at the same time, I secretly approved of the way these robbers were trashing the bank.

  Because any enemy of First City National Bank was a friend of mine. A BFF bestie.

  Hank Vernon and his evil bank had destroyed my family. Relentlessly, cruelly, methodically destroyed us.

  So yeah.

  The one robber broke another glass thing and then he looked at me like he wanted me to be scared, and all I could think was, dude, you are acting out my deepest fantasy.

  He had green eyes, and he stood in this menacing way that melted something deep in my belly. It was surprisingly hot.

  They commanded all seven of us tellers to keep our hands up—so we wouldn’t push any silent alarm or panic buttons, I guess.

  Yeah.

  What they didn’t know was every single one of us tellers at First City National Bank of Baylortown, Wisconsin, FCN for short, hated bank owner Hank Vernon with a passion—a seething, lava-like passion churning deep in our bank teller hearts.

  Any one of us would’ve loved to see his bank go down in flames, hopefully taking all of the greedy, predatory Vernon family with it.

  I was the queen of the Bring-Down-Hank-Vernon Brigade, being that I had more Vernon-inflicted wounds than all of my co-workers put together.

  The green-eyed robber ordered the other tellers to throw down their phones and march around and join the customers on the floor, but he pointed at me and said, “You! All the money. In the sack.”

  I nodded, taking the sack from him, wondering how I could get the maximum amount of Hank’s money into it, and also, in the sack? Did he mean that sexy?

  “Touch anything else and you’re dead,” he said.

  “Don’t worry, dude. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  Did tha
t sound sexy?

  His gaze intensified.

  Excitement shivered across my skin.

  Yes, it sounded sexy. We both thought it—of that I was sure.

  It was official: a zombie-mask-wearing bank robber and I were having a moment.

  Adrenaline pumped through my veins, one of my favorite feelings in the world. It reminded me of being on top of a ski jump. The delicious point where you take off and you’re careening out of control.

  He gestured at the sack with his gun and I started grabbing money.

  More yelling out on the floor. “Down! Fingers knit or I blow your heads off!” As if to emphasize his point, one of the robbers kicked the coin counting machine over onto a glass table, making an insanely loud crash. Somebody whimpered. I frowned. These poor people didn’t deserve to be frightened.

  “Send us off with tracking devices or exploding dye and you’re dead,” my guy growled at me. “We’ll come back and mess you up.” Then he grabbed the flowers out of the little vase at my station and ripped them up and threw them on the floor.

  Okay, then!

  I moved to the next drawer. “I’m telling you, don’t worry. I’m into it. Tell Scary Spice out there not to shoot anyone and we’re good.”

  His green eyes blazed. Was the ’80s reference a little too obscure? “I make the rules here. Not you,” he growled.

  My belly tightened; that was a little bit hot, the way he said it. Did he know? Was he being hot on purpose?

  “Ten-four,” I said, finishing the job, cleaning out drawer after drawer.

  My breath sped as I gave him back the bag; his leather glove brushed against my bare skin and his eyes locked on mine. I had this feeling that he was looking right through me, that he recognized me. Not personally—I’d have known those green eyes anywhere—but like he knew how excited I felt.

  And I really, really liked the feel of his glove on my skin.

  This robbery was working for me!

  Years ago, my mom showed me an article that talked about how thrill-seeking people like me are missing a brain chemical, and that we make up for it by taking risks. She showed it to me hoping I’d stop taking so many risks, but all the article did was to make me feel glad to be missing the brain chemical. I can’t imagine going through life without leaping from the cliff over Mucklanaho River, or racing down the abandoned ski slide, or getting excited about green-eyed criminals with their competence porn commands and sexy gloves.

  “The safe.” His gaze glowed behind his mask. “Who can get us in?”

  “Oh, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” I said. “It’s open.” Hank had left for the day, and the rest of us weren’t exactly conscientious when he was gone.

  “Thor!” He waved his gun at one of the other two robbers.

  A guy in a blue zombie mask jumped over the counter with startling athletic grace and said, “Three minutes twenty.”

  “Thor? As in the Norse god?” I asked.

  That pair of green eyes bored fiercely into mine.

  Gulp.

  “Lead us back.”

  I turned and led them back, straight into the walk-in, and pulled open the money safe. My big, green-eyed robber ripped the camera from the wall and tossed it to the floor like it was nothing. Then he pulled bundles of money off the shelves with fast, efficient movements while Thor held the bag. These men had done this before. It was so badass. My stranger sex fantasies would never be the same.

  “Three-five.” Thor pressed a finger to his headset.

  “What?” the big green-eyed one asked.

  “Nothing. Traffic,” he said, probably listening to the police scanner.

  Suddenly I came to my senses—I was missing a couple of major destroy-Hank-Vernon opportunities here.

  I caught Thor’s eye. I held up a hand—stop—and put my finger to my lips—shhh— then I pointed to the listening device on the shelf. Hank planted it there to catch employee grumbling. We all knew about it.

  “Zeus.” Thor pointed to it.

  Zeus.

  “Please don’t shoot me,” I warbled in my best fake-scared voice. “Please.” I pointed to a section of bills—fifties. I ripped off the seal, displaying the trackers for them to see, and I pointed to all the bundles that had trackers. They had little red marks and we were supposed to leave them there in case of a robbery. I felt like a lady on the shopping channel demonstrating the features of a new product. If they had a shopping channel for badass robbers in zombie masks who named themselves for gods.

  Thor and Zeus exchanged glances. I expected them to throw the trackers onto the ground, but my green-eyed Zeus pocketed them. Clever. He was getting sexier by the second. I also liked that these guys had named themselves after gods. It demonstrated confidence.

  And I had something more to show them.

  The Vernons had started investing in gemstones as a hedge against the economy; Hank and his sister had recently acquired a collection of loose diamonds at an auction, and they were supposed to bring them to one of the branches with safety deposit boxes, but if there was one thing you could count on, it was Hank’s laziness. My gaze fell on the strongbox shoved way back on the floor. Could the stones still be in there?

  I hesitated—if I showed them the diamonds out of the blue, the Vernons would know I’d gone out of my way to help the robbers. Yet, I so wanted the robbers to have them. This was the Vernons’ private property and wouldn’t be FDIC insured.

  I cleared my throat and, imitating a man best I could, I barked, “What else is in here?” The two of them looked at me like I was crazy. I winked. Then, in my regular voice, I said, “What do you mean what else? There’s nothing else!” I knelt and pulled out the strongbox, opened it. A mound of velvet bags sat inside. Yes! The diamonds. Still there.

  I let out a cry. “Ow! Please! What more do you want? What do you want from me?” Of course they weren’t hurting me, I just wanted it to sound that way for the recording. No doubt I seemed totally crazy, like I had a split personality, one half threatening the other, but hey, you don’t get that many chances to screw the Vernons.

  I yanked out one of the bags. Zeus gestured with his gun and I emptied it into my hand, then looked up in mock surprise. Diamonds.

  Thor eyed Zeus, then turned to me and said, “You show us everything there is to see now or we’ll kill you! Now! Everything!”

  I nodded. Thor was into it.

  Zeus pocketed the diamonds while Thor yelled at me some more. “What’s in that box? You fuckin’ show me!”

  “I don’t want to die,” I said in my most weepy way. I felt like part of the gang.

  They grabbed up every last diamond.

  Thor stiffened, put his finger to his ear. “Suspicious activity, this address.”

  The third robber burst in. “Guy out there dropped a dime.”

  “Fuck,” Zeus said.

  I felt it was a bit petty to worry about a dime; had they not just gotten money and diamonds?

  Then I realized it was slang for made a phone call.

  Also I realized the three of them were looking at me.

  It was like they’d all gotten the same inspiration at the same time, or a group communication from the mothership.

  “We don’t take hostages,” Zeus said.

  What? Hostages?

  “No choice,” the scary third one said.

  “Agreed.” Roughly, Thor grabbed my arm.

  Hostages? Shit! I tried to think of what happened to hostages in various movies I’ve seen, if they usually got killed or not. Then I remembered—they’re movies. Anyway, I was on their side. Surely they understood that.

  “Odin!” Zeus threw a bag to the scary one, then another.

  Odin. Another god.

  Thor grabbed my arm and put a gun to my head, and we ran out of the safe and down the back hall; they seemed to know the layout as well as I did.

  The gun freaked me out. “You don’t have to be so…you know…”

  “Yes, I do,” Thor said as
we burst out the door. He practically dragged me across the parking lot.

  Odin had something in his hand, like a video game control. He punched a button, and just like that, an earth-shaking boom ripped through the air.

  Flames blazed from a car in the parking lot.

  Another explosion came from the other side of the lot. Flashes. Smoke gushed into the air from all directions.

  “Hey!” I said. “Be careful—that bank’s full of innocent people!”

  “Nobody’s getting hurt,” Thor said, pushing me along. “Just some fireworks.”

  I nodded, feeling a little sad that they thought exploding cars were fireworks. Had their parents never taken them to Fourth of July celebrations?

  Under the cover of smoke, we headed into the alley, toward a white van with Romano’s Catering emblazoned on the side. Romano’s was an actual restaurant a few towns over, but I doubted these guys were from Romano’s.

  Somebody slid a door open. Thor pulled me into the back seat. “Eyes shut! Now!” he commanded.

  I shut my eyes. Doors were slammed and we were off. I heard a sound like ripping fabric.

  “I’m going to blindfold you,” he said softly. Five little words that had me blushing like crazy. How was he doing this to me? “We can’t have you seeing our faces, or we’ll have to kill you.”

  I nodded obediently. I told myself I should be scared, but it still felt thrilling.

  It wasn’t about sex; I assumed that Odin and Zeus were up front, and had probably taken off their masks. Two men in zombie masks driving a van didn’t exactly project the image of innocence they were likely going for.