Jewelry heiress Lucienne Peery needs a husband in order to take full control of her company and arranges for a mutually beneficial marriage. When she catches her fiancé in bed with her sister, she demands to marry his older brother instead. And his family agrees to avoid handing over 30% of their own company for breaking the marriage contract.
She only plans to stay married until her control is firmly established. But she does the unthinkable and falls in love with her husband…
When the ruthless and iron-willed Sebastian Lasker is forced to marry a woman fully as scandalous as his embarrassing, disreputable father, he vows revenge. Nobody manipulates him and gets away with it. He’s going to strip her of what she wants from the marriage and get rid of her.
But pride and fortune aren’t the only things at stake as he realizes he can’t let her go…
Contractually Yours is full of a yummy arranged marriage, dislike-to-love, forced proximity, my wife moments, man-grovel and a happy ending.
My ex gives me a once-over and smirks. “Oh, I get it. Looking for a husband.”
I try not to snort. He doesn’t watch the news—thinks it’s boring—and his family apparently hasn’t updated him about my new status. Maybe they disowned him. Wouldn’t that be great?
He continues, “I don’t know why you waste your time like this. Look, I’m happy to let it go if you’ll just see the light and change your mind about our—”
“Don’t hold your breath.” He’s dumber than I thought, bringing up the engagement when I still can’t find enough mind bleach to erase seeing him with my sister.
“There you are,” comes Sebastian’s voice from behind me. “Oh, hello, Preston.”
When he stops next to me, I put my arm around his waist. “What perfect timing.” I smile up at him.
He gives me a mildly curious look, but wraps an arm around my shoulders.
See? This is what you get when you’re with a smart man. He knows the role you’d like him to play without your having to spell it out. The fact that he’s willing to play along without some prior commitment to reciprocate warms my heart. So many people want something first before doing anything for me.
Preston’s brow knits as he takes in the tableau. “You guys are together?”
I triple the wattage of my smile. “Preston, have you met my husband, Sebastian Lasker?”
“What?” His shout rings in the wide-open space. “You can’t marry him!”
“I can’t? Oh, that’s too bad.” I tighten my hold on Sebastian, pressing my side against his. “’Cause I kinda already did.” I extend my left hand, so Preston can see my gorgeous Toi et Moi ring and the wedding band.
Sebastian flashes his as well. Man, we make a great team.
Preston blinks rapidly, his eyes fixed on our hardware. Finally, he jerks his head up, his face blotchy. “Why would you want him when you could have me?”
“Seriously? Are you blind?” I ask.
“I can see well enough to know those diamonds are tiny compared to the one I was going to give you!” He points at my finger.
I drop my gaze to his crotch for a second before lifting it back up. “His is both bigger and better than yours.”
Preston looks like he just got punched in the face by Mike Tyson. Sebastian shakes against me in silent laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Preston snarls.
“You.” Sebastian lets the laugh out. “You’re third-rate comedy, but at least you’re entertaining.” He wipes tears from his eyes.
Preston turns to me. “You bitch! It’s all your fault he’s mocking me!”
Sebastian steps forward, pulling away from my arm around his waist, as the mirth melts from his face. “Watch your tone if you want to keep your teeth. Nobody talks to my wife with disrespect.”
I pat his back a few times, to let him know it isn’t necessary for him to react like this. Part of me is flattered and moved that he’s defending me, but another part feels a bit unworthy of his protection because… Well, I did force him to marry me.
Preston slashes the air with his arm. “She’s my fiancée!”
“She was. You call my wife your fiancée again, and I’ll break your face.”
AUTHOR BIO
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Nadia Lee writes sexy, emotional contemporary romance. Born with a love for excellent food, travel and adventure, she has lived in four different countries, kissed stingrays, been bitten by a shark, ridden an elephant and petted tigers.
Currently, she shares a condo overlooking a small river and sakura trees in Japan with her husband and son. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading books by her favorite authors or planning another trip.
Title: Naughty & Nice A Man of the Month Sycamore Mountain Series Novella Author: LM Fox
Genre: Contemporary Romance Tropes: Grumpy/Sunshine, Small Town Release Date: September 15, 2022
BLURB
Trevor
I came to Sycamore Mountain to start over. Focus on my career, not little miss sunshine. The brotherhood of firefighters is the only relationship I want. Trust me. This tart is the last thing I need.
I’ve been down that road. Beautiful girl who can have any man she wants.
Well Addie Briggs can focus on someone else. No sultry siren is worth going through that heartache again, no matter how naughty I think she could be.
Addison
Of all the men to fall for, I have to pick a grumpy hero.
He’s the hottest thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on, throw on his fireman turnout gear and I’d do almost anything he asked.
But this guy is jaded and scarred. He fights me at every turn. Yet, I can tell there’s a softness under his tough exterior. I’m going all in. Because I’m not ready to give up on Mr. Nice guy.
“What the fuck, Ashley?” “Trevor. What are you doing here?” “Last I checked, I live here,” I shouted as the burley naked jock before me hastily reached for his pants. He looked like a linebacker. The thought had barely left me before I noticed his shirt. The big W insignia confirmed he was most likely on the Washington football team. While visiting the training camp in Richmond had long been on my bucket list, I now wanted to kick that fucking pail down the road. “I thought you’d be at work.” “Obviously. How long has this been going on?” All thoughts of grabbing my assignment for my IT class were gone. “I was going to tell─” “Trev, we’ve got a call,” Jamie yelled through the door. I turned to notice he’d paused briefly to verify what he was seeing. “When I get here in the morning, I want your stuff gone,” I’d spat.
That painful memory is charred into my brain. The betrayal made worse when Jamie later confirmed her lover was NFL player Martin North. He was 250 pounds of raw muscle. Nosey neighbors confided later he’d been visiting my home for months. I wondered why she wouldn’t have broken it off with me instead of sneaking around with a baller worth millions. Until Jamie’s continued investigation revealed, the player was just that. A married celebrity who was having an affair with my girl.
Since then, he’s left his wife and children, and he and Ashley have been on the local tabloid circuit. I couldn’t turn on the television or open a local magazine without seeing the two of them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ashley’s face was plastered on every billboard in town. If she wasn’t modeling jewelry for anyone traveling the interstate to see, she was painted on restaurant murals and large airport advertisements. She was fucking everywhere.
I’m aware I was partially to blame. I dove in headfirst. But there was never a moment I didn’t think both of us were all in. She’d wax poetic about our future, travel, and eventually having kids. But I guess it’s hard to compete with a larger-than-life superstar with a bank account to match.
I hadn’t had many serious relationships prior to Ashley. My plate had been full, beginning my career with the fire department and looking out for my mother. My dad had fought a hard battle with melanoma. They discovered it too late to offer much hope of recovery. Cancer instantly decimated our flawless life. We’d gone from a tight family focused on Sunday dinners and the arrival of Noah’s kids to heartbroken in the blink of an eye.
My mother was tough as nails, but I knew it was a façade. Noah’s wife, Becca, would try to bring the boys over to distract her grief-ridden thoughts, but I imagined the lonely, depressing time between visits was suffocating. Unable to bear the thought of her hurting alone, I decided to move back home, convincing my mother I wanted to save money with plans to pursue my graduate degree. Hell, there’s no faster way to kill your sex life than living with your parents. But I slept better at night, knowing it was the right thing to do. I’ll always treasure that time with my mom.
Caring for her as we mourned my father, we grew even closer. We’d always had a tight relationship, but you don’t truly appreciate your parents until life throws you a curveball. I’d been blessed with a happy, loving cohesive family and knew I’d never settle for anything less if I chose to marry. Moving to Sycamore Mountain would be hard on both of us. In hindsight, it’s clear I was merely mesmerized by Ashley’s physical splendor. Visits with my nephews hadn’t brought out her maternal side. However, like me, I figured she was at a different stage of life. She was focused on her modeling career. I’m not making this mistake twice. Getting caught up with some superficial bitch who’d leave the moment someone with a better reputation or bank account came along.
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t realize what good time I’d been making. My eyes land on the bright green highway sign. ‘Welcome to Sycamore Mountain.’ Exiting the interstate, I quickly determine this is a one-horse town. As I approach the light at the end of the off-ramp, there’s a lone gas station, and I spot a fast-food restaurant across from a bait and tackle shop. Luckily, according to the GPS, the realtor’s office is only about ten minutes away. Miles of desolate farmland interspersed with clusters of evergreen trees engulf the windows of my vehicle. Occasional picturesque hay bails are dotted amongst the tall grass, but otherwise, the scenic area is enchanting. Unspoiled by the strip malls and housing developments of Hanover. There’s not a billboard in sight. This thought briefly brings a relieved smile to my face until it dawns on me that I probably stand a better chance of meeting a bear in this town than a beautiful woman. I might’ve had a better chance of getting laid living with Mom than here.
As I continue down the road, I stand corrected. There’s at least one female under sixty here. I spot a woman out for a walk with her baby along the grassy edge of the highway. Looking about, it seems an odd place to meander. While wearing yoga pants and a hoodie, I’m surprised at my fixation on her. I’m not usually into MILF’s. I’m in no way ready to settle down with a girl with a kid. But she’s got a fucking phenomenal ass. It’d be a crime not to look. As I grow closer, my eyes are drawn to the face of the child looking back at me. That’s either the ugliest kid on the planet or… Is that a chicken?
AUTHOR BIO
Born and raised in Virginia, LM Fox currently lives in a suburb of Richmond with her husband, three kids, and a chocolate lab.
Her pastimes are traveling to new and favorite places, trying new foods, a swoony book with either a good cup of tea or coffee, margaritas on special occasions, and watching her kids participate in a variety of sports.
She has spent the majority of her adult life working in emergency medicine and her books are written in this setting. Her main characters are typically in the medical field, EMS, fire, and/or law enforcement. She enjoys writing angsty, contemporary romance starring headstrong, independent heroines you can’t help but love and the hot alpha men who fall hard for them.
GEM: A PRIVATELY-FUNDED ORGANIZATION OPERATING INDEPENDENTLY IN THE SEARCH FOR—AND THE RESCUE AND RECOVERY OF—MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN. ALTHOUGH, AT TIMES WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT, GEM AIMS TO ENSURE THE VICTIMS RECEIVE JUSTICE…BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY. ____
GEM Operator Opal; multifaceted, versatile, a chameleon.
She hides in plain sight, adapts, and infiltrates.
When Opal goes undercover in a youth center several teenagers have disappeared from, she’s shocked to find a ghost of her own traumatic past at the helm. However, her worry for the missing kids is greater than her concern being recognized and she risks her own safety to discover the truth.
To complicate matters, a familiar FBI agent shows up conducting his own investigation and almost blows the whistle on her. It takes some doing to convince him to join forces with her but as it turns out, they work well together.
In the course of uncovering an organized group of child molesters, they find themselves falling—for each other.
BLP REVIEW – Tracy
I love Freya’s books and I was excited to hear she had a new series coming out.
I think one of the things I liked the most was that while the book still had a small town feel, great well written and rounded characters and an engaging story line (as always!!) the story arc was a bit different from what we’ve read from Ms B before.
Reading about Opal and the other ladies of GEM made my heart hurt. Partly because of the narrative from Freya but also because the things they experienced are things we are aware go on in the world around us…. That blast of reality made me more invested in the read than ever and I had a knot in my chest more than once.
Opal had strength of character and a determination to save others from the same trauma she herself and her friends had lived through. I loved her determination, her focus and – while she had that little streak of what Mitch (and I) probably considered reckless – I totally understood why she did some of the things she did.
Mitch. I really liked him. He felt switched on and aware of what could be going on around him, but as the story passed you felt that his life had worn him down a bit. It took a while for this pair to work out their feelings and it wasn’t without problem, angst or a need by my to knock their heads together at least a few times…. He was juggling work and home life, dealing with a daughter and a piece of work ex.
Maybe I’ve read Freya so much that I felt sore I knew at least one of the plot lines before it happened but even then I couldn’t wait to see what happened….
There’s some mystery round the ladies ‘boss’. I’m intrigued about who he is, how he knows their history and just what his motives are….
Interesting characters and at least one match up that’s gonna be coming are gonna make for fun reading.
I can’t wait to read more about Pearl and Onyx.
If you’re a reader of Freya’s your gonna enjoy this new series. If you’re new to one of my go-to authors this is a pretty good place to start!!!!!
5 GEM encrusted stars.
Author bio:
USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
With forty-plus books already published, she continues to create characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy.
Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, and Finalist for the 2020 Kindle Book Award with “When Hope Ends”, Freya spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
Carrie Ann Ryan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary, paranormal, and young adult romance. Her works include the Montgomery Ink, Talon Pack, Promise Me, and Elements of Five series, which have sold millions of books worldwide. She’s the winner of a RT Book of the Year and a Prism Award in her genres. She started writing while in graduate school for her advanced degree in chemistry and hasn’t stopped since. Carrie Ann has written over one hundred novels and novellas with more in the works. When she’s not losing herself in her emotional and action-packed worlds, she’s reading as much as she can while wrangling her clowder of cats who have more followers than she does.
Book Loving Pixies 