Her intelligence is what draws him …
and what makes him so wrong for her

From the start Detective Ronan Cafferty knows Tiff Carson is too good for him. But the sexy professor’s passion for her work and undeniable beauty brings him back to her again and again.

As his notorious ability to hide his emotions crumbles, Tiff shows him he might be the right match for her after all.

But when her sharp eye gets them a lead they desperately need to catch a brutal serial killer, Tiff winds up in the sights of a damaged man bent on destroying everyone who’s wronged him.

NOTE:
Lori Ryan is continuing her Sutton Capital On the Line series with a new book coming January 4, 2022! She’s writing with T.E. Evans on this one!
T.E. Evans is the super-secret pen name of my co-author on this book. She’s a fabulous author who is helping me take this idea from plot to paper and I’m so glad she is! Hopefully you are, too. She and I hope to keep writing in the On the Line world. There are a whole lot more sexy cops in this world looking for their happy ending!

Once again, I am starting a series at the latest book instead of the first, I have the others I just haven’t read them yet. I’ll have to get on that.

This book opens as Detective Ronan Cafferty and his partner Zach Reynolds are called to a particularly gruesome murder scene. After the initial they are heading back to the station to await identification when their Captain calls. He unfortunately has an ID for them which means it’s going to be a high-profile case with pressure to solve it quickly.

With the ID they start further investigation into the victim Noah Barrett. As they are doing that Zach’s girlfriend and state trooper Shauna O’Rourke arrives with a friend in tow. Introduced as Tiff Carson a professor doing research on a closed serial killer.

Tiff wants to interview them about the case as much as they can reveal since some things are entwined with a case that is still in the courts. They agree to cooperate, but with their latest case will have to make time at a later date. Now Ronan was interested in maybe getting to know Tiff better until he finds out she’s a teacher, a professor no less. He doesn’t date teachers.

As they investigate, they find couple of cases with the same MO in Massachusetts. It’s possible they have a killer going across state lines.

It’s once Ronan sets up a murder board and Tiff comes to the station to meet up with him that a break is made. Tiff remembers the names on the board from here dissertation case.

This is a favorite scene.

“Any new developments?” Tiff glanced at the board behind him.“If by new developments you mean new problems, then yes.” He stepped closer to her, hands still itching to reach out to her. “The father of our victim went missing this morning. We don’t know if his disappearance is related, or if the poor man just got confused and wandered off somewhere. His grandkids said he was already in a frail state, and the news of his son dying certainly didn’t help matters.”

“Oh geez. I’m sorry,” Tiff said, then squinted as she looked closely at the board with a furrowed brow.

Ronan moved to step in front of it. He shouldn’t be letting her examine their work on an active case so carefully, but before he could, her face cleared and she looked to him, eyes round.

“Oh, wow…” She looked back to the board, a light bulb clearly going off in her head.

Ronan studied her. “What is it?”

“These names.” She looked at him again and put her hand to his chest to move him aside. “Are these people all linked to your case?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “They’re all related to the Howell case!”

“The who?” Zach came up behind them, returning with pages he’d printed from their social media search of Marcus Jones and Yasmine Bray.

Ronan searched his memory for the name ‘Howell’ but came up blank.

Tiff met his gaze and spoke excitedly. “The Addie and Teddy Howell case happened forty years ago. I researched the case as part of my dissertation when I got my doctorate. They were teenaged siblings from Springfield, Massachusetts. Addie was sixteen and Teddy was fourteen. On the outside, theirs was a picture-perfect middle-class family. But in 1981, they murdered their parents in their sleep.”

Ronan’s jaw tightened knowing there was a lot more to that picture-perfect family. “What was going on behind closed doors?”

Zach set down his papers and circled to stand beside Ronan as Tiff relayed details.

“Nothing good, as you can imagine. Addie claimed her father had been raping her from the age of eleven. Even worse, her mother allegedly knew about it but didn’t intervene, pretending it wasn’t happening. Addie and Teddy had two younger siblings, one of them a girl who had just turned ten. The teens’ story was that Addie worried their father would turn to the younger girl and they were determined to make sure that never happened. Addie and Teddy slit their parents’ throats in their sleep.”

Throats slit. An image of Noah Barrett’s dead body flashed into Ronan’s mind. “Teenagers did that?” Ronan asked, trying to wrap his mind around the kind of rage and pain that would have taken.

Tiff nodded, seemingly understanding his skepticism. “Addie hit their father in the head with a hammer several times to keep him down while Teddy cut the mom’s throat and then later the father’s, though Tiff’s beating had already taken his life.”

Zach looked at the names on their murder board. “And what do these names have to do with that case.”

There was now a small gathering of other detectives around them and the energy buzzing around them said they all knew they were about to move forward on this case in a huge way.

Tiff pointed at the board. “Noah Barrett was their neighbor back then. He was sixteen at the time. The police interviewed him, and he said Addie and Teddy had an unusual brother-sister relationship. Said they were a little too close.”

Ronan turned his gaze to the board, staring at Noah Barrett’s name. Could this all really go back to a case that happened when Barrett was a kid?

“Noah’s father, Luis Barrett,” Tiff continued, “represented the kids in court.”

Ronan blinked, shocked. “Really? That kind of thing wouldn’t fly nowadays if his son had given the investigators information.”

Tiff pointed at him with an approving nod and he could picture her doing the same with a student in her class.

“True. But things were different back then. Luis Barrett volunteered to represent the kids, and since no one objected, the court allowed it. Anyway, it’s not widely known that Noah Barrett made any statements to the police. I only found that out when I met with someone who’d been around during the initial investigation. Noah never testified because he didn’t have anything truly significant to add to the already overwhelming evidence.”

“Did you ever publish your findings?”

Tiff shook her head. “I was going to but changed my mind. It wasn’t right for the piece I was working on at the time, so I just filed it away, planning to use it for something later. The information is out there though if you look hard enough.”

“What about the others?” Ronan asked, gesturing to the Massachusetts victims. “Gretchen Meyer was a caseworker in the 1980s. She was assigned to look into allegations Addie made against her father to one of her teachers. She closed the case though, after interviewing the Howell family and their neighbors. She didn’t believe Addie’s claims were credible and referred her for counseling. She left social work after the Howells killed their parents.”

“She went to work in a doctor’s office, so we didn’t find a connection between her and Acavedo.” Zach looked grim as he relayed the information.

“You couldn’t know,” Tiff said. “She was never called to testify or even interviewed in the case. I found her years later when I looked into the allegation Addie had made.”

“The kids’ attorney didn’t call her to testify in their defense?” Ronan was shocked. A good defense attorney should have been raising exigent circumstances and making sure the sexual abuse came out.

Tiff shook her head, her expression saying it all. She thought the case had been botched as well.

She pointed to the other name on the board. “William Acavedo was the prosecutor. Even though Addie was only sixteen, Acavedo tried her as an adult and made her out to be the leader in planning the murders. Teddy was deemed to be just following her orders and he was tried separately as a juvenile. When it was all said and done, Addie was sent to prison, where she died in a knife fight at the age of nineteen.”

Ronan almost shuddered. Addie’s case was so tragic, he wondered why he hadn’t heard of it before. He shook his head. “And what happened to the other siblings?”

“The two younger siblings were placed into foster care. Teddy was sentenced to juvenile detention until he was eighteen. There are records of him getting arrested several times after that though, for things like burglary and assault. The last record I found showed he was released after serving two years on an assault charge in 2000. After that, he just kind of fell off the grid.”

Ronan’s mind worked to fit the latest puzzle pieces together. It wasn’t completely clear just yet, but it looked like their killer was getting revenge against anyone involved in the Howell case.
Lori Ryan; T.E. Evans. Wicked Justice (Kindle Locations 1583-1637). Brighton, Parker, Rose, LLC.

Not only do things heat up in the case, but the relationship between Ronan and Tiff becomes more personal as well.

Tiff apparently has a younger brother with the same issues Ronan has and when he realizes she’s not putting him down or calling him stupid he lets her get under his blocks.

Suspense, intrigue and twists and turns abound as Ronan and Zach race the clock to solve these murders. There’s also romance with just the right amount of sizzle!

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over. Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

He can’t trust the people who should have his back…

Pressured by his boss to connect with his new team, the last thing Kaeden O’Shea needs is a woman in the way—one who clearly has something to hide. But his instincts have him on high alert and he can’t shake the idea that he needs to ride to her rescue.

Running, hiding, and planting misleading clues means Joy Wilson doesn’t dare let anyone get close. Not even the man who tempts her at every turn…because there’s too much at stake. Too much she has to protect.

Two missions collide, and all bets are off.

Steamy romance meets heart-stopping suspense in the Sutton Billionaires Series.

NOTE:
This is the sixth book in the series but it can be read as a standalone story with no cliffhangers. If you’d rather start at book one, grab The Billionaire Deal by Lori Ryan. This book was previously released as part of the Sutton Capital Series under the name According to Plan.

Kaeden tends to micro-manage everything he doesn’t do himself. Now his boss hands him the planning of the company retreat and team-building. On the line is the promotion he wants and Jack needs to see him delegate to the team the hotel put together. Nothing had been planned except the first night dinner and now Kaeden is in charge of planning the rest. He has an on site liaison and two Hospitality interns to handle things but control is something Kaeden seems to need more than anything. What could possibly go wrong?

Joy is his liaison with the hotel and she gets a kick out of his micromanaging. Kaeden doesn’t handle any twists or changes well and a few things start to go awry. Fortunately for him the interns and Joy has things under control. In spite of her adding some twists to his scheduled events Joy manages to get under his skin.

This is a favorite scene with one of those little twists.

Joy watched the group unload outside Crepes a la Carte and was glad when none of them looked put out by the long line that was already halfway down the block. The place was actually a cart not a restaurant, though they did have a small store front option on the other side of the street. She’d already told some of them they might want to cut through the alley that led to the storefront to see if there was a shorter line there, but they all seemed happy to get into line at the cart.

She saw Mia who she’d met earlier that morning talking to a woman she hadn’t met yet but thought was named Sarah if she went by process of elimination and the list of people she’d been given by her boss.

She was beginning to learn which kids went with which parents but it wasn’t easy. They all seemed like they parented each other’s kids as easily as they did their own, making it all the more confusing.

Jack’s auburn-haired wife, Kelly, smiled at Kaeden. “Crepes were a great idea. You’re not bad at this trip planning thing.”

Joy stifled a laugh as Kaeden glanced her way before brushing off the compliment and telling Kelly it had been Joy’s suggestion.

Kelly beamed her way. “Any fan of crepes is a friend of mine.”

Jack, Andrew, and Chad came up to the group just then and Joy’s recollection of Jack being Kelly’s husband was confirmed when he kissed her temple.

“Kel, it looks like there’s a small park a couple of blocks down the street. We’re going to take the kids down there while you guys wait in line. If you don’t mind waiting?”

Kelly sent him a look that said he was crazy. “Do I mind getting to hang with my girlfriends in line while you take the kids off our hands?”

Jack laughed and squeezed her close for a minute, dropping another kiss to her cheek before he and the others began herding the kids toward the park.

Kaeden watched them go. “Don’t you need to get their orders?”

Now Kelly directed her look toward him. “The kids will take anything sweet and the men will take anything so long as it’s food. Besides, crepes. There’s no way to go wrong with them. At all.”

Joy had to try to cover her mouth with her hand in a half-assed casual way to suppress her laugh now. Kaeden just didn’t get crepes, but clearly the women in front of him did. There was the blonde Joy thought was Jill and another blonde she thought was Jennie, but it was entirely possible she was switching the two. She had only met them that morning.

“Tell me you’ve had crepes.” That was maybe-Jill talking, hands on her hips as she looked at Kaeden.

Maybe-Jennie joined in. “Crepes are ah-may-zing. Gooey and light and perfect. The reviews for this place say they’re incredible.” She put a hand on her stomach as they inched forward in the line. “My stomach is going to revolt if I don’t give it one soon.”

Samantha walked up to the group and nudged maybe-Jill. “Men never get the draw of a good crepe until they’ve had one. It’s just above their heads.”

Kaeden snorted and all the women swung their heads comically in his direction. Joy lost the ability to hold in her laughter. She couldn’t help it.

He pointed in her direction. “No I-told-you-sos. I get it. They like crepes.”

“Love,” the women said in unison.

Kelly said, “Like luuuuv love.”

The women ended up chatting together while they all moved up in line and Kaeden and Joy were left paired together while the line crept forward.

She tried to ignore the fact that to keep half the sidewalk clear for pedestrians he was standing close enough to her that their arms were almost brushing. Close enough to feel that heat of anticipation at the almost contact.

“You look like you’re not going to hold it in.”

Joy shook her head. “What? The I-told-you-so? It’s staying in me just fine.” She could only grin at him as he scowled at her and Joy realized how good it felt to laugh, to be playful. And how surprising it was that it was happening with this man.

She hadn’t had this kind of laughter in a while and she wouldn’t have it again for a long time. Not when she had to move on soon. There would be nothing but strain and unease and the insecurity of trying to find a new situation for at least a month or two. She remembered when she thought her job at a tech firm was stressful. It was nothing compared to living in a car or a seedy motel and wondering if you’d be safe through the night.

None of the places she’d holed up in the last two years had been like this and she doubted wherever she went to next would be either.

Kaeden cut into her bleak thoughts. “So what kind should I get?”

They were getting closer to the front of the line now and Joy looked at the sign with the list of options. “The monte cristo and the lemon souffle are my favorites. Strawberry shortcake is really good too, though. But the women were right. You can’t go wrong with any of them.”

Samantha shouted back an “amen” to Joy before stepping up to place her order.

Kaeden laughed but he nodded. “Alright, I’ll get those ones.”

“What do you mean, those ones? I was giving you choices not a list. You can’t eat three crepes.”

His brows went up. “I thought these things were gold. Why wouldn’t I eat three of them?”

“They’re big.”

“And?”

Twenty minutes later Joy was still shaking her head at him but now it was because she was watching him take the last bite of his third crepe.

“So you liked them?” she asked.

“I think the word you’re looking for is luuuuuuv,” he said drawing the word out like Kelly had.
Lori Ryan. Falling for the Billionaire’s Daughter (Kindle Locations 345-398). Kindle Edition.

As things heat up between Kaeden and Joy, he also realizes she has a secret, one that bothers her.

Gaining her trust enough to let him help her is not easy. When it finally happens things are about to get seriously dangerous for both Joy and her mother.

It’s as Kaeden gets Samantha involved he realizes that Jack, Logan and Chad really do have his back. Something he never let himself see before.

This book is full of laughter, fun, suspense, romance and sizzle with just a bit of action to spice things up.

I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

A man struggling
to leave the battlefield behind,
a woman powerful enough
to help him all the way home.

Logan Stone should be happy. More than happy, in fact. He’s Sutton Capital’s newest executive, no longer a Navy SEAL in the line of fire, fighting for his country and his brothers-in-arms. Now he spends his days working side-by-side with Samantha Page, the sexy, brilliant woman of his dreams.

But Logan is fighting a different kind of battle; one no one realizes he’s in. While he’s focused on managing his PTSI, something much more sinister enters his world and he must battle to save Samantha’s life and their growing love.

When her life is threatened, he spirals downward. If he succumbs to the PTSI clawing at him, she’ll be left to fend for herself against threats neither of them could see coming.

Steamy romance meets heart-stopping suspense in the Sutton Billionaires Series. This is the fifth book in the series but it can be read as a standalone story with no cliffhangers. If you’d rather start at book one, grab The Billionaire Deal by Lori Ryan. A shorter version of this book was previously released as part of the Sutton Capital Series.

Logan Stone is the newest addition to Sutton Capitol, even though he still has some PTSI issues he’s come a long way since the nightmares have stopped.

He was really early his first day and Jack questions him on it. He covers with he wanted an early start. Jack takes him to his office to give him some files he would later be reviewing with Samantha. Now as they are leaving the office they overhear a conversation between Samantha, Jennie and Tanya.

I have to say it was hysterical, and was one of my favorite scenes.

Jennie had been trying to convince Sam to hire a personal trainer. Sam’s budget could definitely afford it, but frankly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to pay someone to hound her to exercise. There would be no wheedling out of it if she wasn’t in the mood, which, most of the time, she wasn’t.

“And, tell me again why you have to divorce your gym?” Jennie emphasized the divorce part of the question, as if to stress how unusual it was to talk about divorcing a fitness center. Yeah, okay, so maybe that had been the wrong choice of words.

“It’s got bad juju,” Sam explained. “It’s cursed. You can’t deny the evidence. First, someone stole my wallet in the locker room the one time I forgot to bring my lock, then I ended up with a flat tire a week later, and yesterday someone sideswiped my car in the parking lot. They don’t have cameras in the lot, so I’m screwed. I can get her repaired, but she’ll never be the same.”

Jennie nodded and sipped her drink. Everyone knew Sam’s Jaguar was her baby. She didn’t splurge on things often, but that car had been her one great splurge and she babied it. Coming out and seeing the scrapes and dents all along one side of Dahlia had made Sam want to cry. Or hit something. Or throw things. She’d actually done all of those things. And, stomped her feet.

“That is some bad juju. Maybe you could join another gym. Mine doesn’t have an ice cream shop nearby, but there’s a donut place.”

“Ooooooo. Donuts could work.” Her grin was wide, but the reason for her and Jennie’s early arrival in the office walked through the door, distracting her from thoughts of food and workouts.

Three men and one woman followed the office’s human resources director into the room.

The men looked like they belonged in a magazine or on the pages of a calendar. One of those calendars. And the woman looked to be five feet one or two inches of size-zero gorgeousness, designed to make other women feel inconsequential, at best.

“You have got to be freaking kidding me!” Samantha said, probably a little louder than she’d planned to.

She heard Jennie sputter and cough over a mouthful of latte and had to admit to a bit of chagrin when Jennie turned amused eyes on her.

“What?” Sam said defensively. “You’re telling me you expected that for our new science and technology department? We should have gotten geeks and nerds, not underwear models and a woman who could easily pose for … for … for whatever the biggest fashion magazine is,” Sam said with a glance to her own outfit.

Sam would have no fashionable clothes if it weren’t for Jennie. When Sam’s online game took off and she started earning more money than she knew what to do with, Jennie helped Sam trade in boxy business suits for cute skirts and blouses that accentuated Sam’s curves. It had taken some talking to get Sam to see that, when showcased properly, her curves were beautiful.

And now Sam had a personal shopper who brought her clothes each month to choose from. She let Sam have her own unique style, as evidenced by the purple blouse and matching purple boots she wore today, which Sam loved.

Still, even with the personal shopper and help from her friends, Sam wasn’t what one would consider a fashionista. Hence, her lack of knowledge about the titles of the latest and greatest fashion magazines.

Her friend shushed her and laughed as they watched the HR director continue her tour, the underwear models in question following her as the group made their way across the room.

“I’m just not sure I understand your issue with it, Sam. If I was going to be in charge of getting those guys settled into the company, I’m pretty sure I’d be psyched, not complaining. I mean, if I didn’t have Chad, that is,” Jennie said with a sly grin.

Jennie was happily married to Chad Thompson, head of Sutton Capital’s security division and part owner in the company. Chad was also Jack’s cousin and best friends with Andrew Weston, Sutton’s Chief Financial Officer.

Chad, incidentally, was model-worthy himself. It didn’t surprise Samantha that Jennie was married to such a good-looking man, since Jennie could also easily have landed the cover of Vogue or some swimsuit or underwear spread.

Samantha, on the other hand, was a normal person. She was one of those “average” females you heard about, who wore more than thimble-sized clothing. She was taller than the average woman at five foot eleven. Oh, Jennie told her differently.

Jennie said she was voluptuous and sexy, and Sam saw that to some extent. But she also faced reality. If she were a model, she’d be showing off sweatshirts and galoshes, not underwear.

“Why am I not happy about this?” Sam gestured to the men who stood in a loose circle across the room, each with the kind of easy confidence born of above-average looks and a physical fitness level that can only come from years of honing and driven attention to exercise. “Because we need some normal people around here.”

Another coworker approached on Sam’s side as she finished her sentence.

“Damn right we do,” Tanya, the newcomer, said with a nod. Tanya worked in the finance department of Sutton and often had lunch with Jennie and Samantha.

“See, she gets it,” Samantha said to Jennie, as she bumped her hip in solidarity against Tanya’s, earning a smile from the other woman. “We’re surrounded by above-average overachievers who look like they were crafted in the Ken and Barbie doll factory instead of a womb. We need average guys around here for those of us that weren’t graced with those kind of genes,” Sam said, casting a glance at Jennie. “No offense.”

“Um, none taken. I think,” Jennie answered with a huff of a laugh. “So you were hoping for ugly?”

“Not ugly. Just . . . normal. They’re science geeks. I mean, come on. These people are supposed to be walking computers on everything from nanotech and biochemistry, to immunotherapy and whatever the hell else they do. They should, at the very least, be a little pale from being indoors too long, not tanned and glowing and all . . . all . . .”

“Godlike,” Tanya finished for Sam.

“Yeah.” Sam nodded. “Godlike. You’d think Jack would have given the teeniest bit of consideration to us mere mortals when he hired them. It’s just selfish, is what it is. Selfish and inconsiderate. Just because Jack’s all walking, talking sex-on-a-stick doesn’t mean he shouldn’t think of the rest of us once in a while. The guy could at least throw us a bone for once. Is that too much to ask?”

Sam looked at Tanya and grinned, expecting to find her co-worker grinning back. Instead, Tanya looked past Sam and Jennie, her face a pale, pasty color—somewhat like the flour-and-water glue Samantha’s mother used to make for her dioramas. In fact, she looked a bit like she might be sick.

Sam turned her head slowly, flinching the second she caught sight of her boss, the sex-on-a-stick man, in the flesh. Jack Sutton stood in the doorway of the office next to hers, another man next to him, both wearing expressions that clearly told her they’d heard every word she’d said.

Jennie only laughed, but given who her husband was, she could do that.

Sam heard Tanya squeak and mumble something about paperwork piling up. Sam knew if she turned, she’d see Tanya slinking back to her cubicle, where she’d no doubt crawl under her desk and hide.

But she didn’t turn to check on Tanya. She was rooted to the spot, trying to figure out how to get her foot to either come back up her throat or go down smoothly. Her size nine, chunky-heeled, purple boot that she thought had looked so cute this morning was going nowhere. It was firmly lodged in her throat as a weird, choked sound eked out past it.

Before she could come up with words to try to cover her mortification, Jack grinned and gracefully let her off the hook.

“Jennie, Sam, have you met Logan Stone?”

Sigh. Had she met Logan Stone? No. She hadn’t met him. She’d seen him, though. And drooled over him from across the room at her friend’s wedding three months ago. And she’d dreamed about him.

She’d lusted after his dark eyes and the five o’clock shadow that graced a chiseled jaw and outlined a mouth she wanted to bite. Hair so dark it was almost black. Thick hair she wanted to pull as he, um … so, yes, she’d dreamed about him. Hot, sweaty dreams that she’d prayed never to wake up from. In her dreams, they’d done a lot more than meet, going well past “hello, how are you” to “let me stick my tongue down your throat while we get started on our first-born child.”

Somewhere in the back of Sam’s mind, she knew running her gaze up and down the man’s body was rude, but who could stop themselves?

He stood there all dark and scruffy in dark slacks and a charcoal sweater that hugged his biceps and chest. He looked photoshoot ready, and Sam had a hard time not being grateful that he wasn’t covering himself up with a suit jacket.

She guessed going from BDUs and a flak jacket, or whatever it was SEALs wore, to a business suit was too much. She liked his choice of compromise just fine. She wondered briefly if spinning her finger in the air to indicate he should turn so she could see his backside would be too much.

Probably. But maybe?

“Hi, Logan. It’s so good to see you again,” Jennie said smoothly, next to Samantha, putting her hand out to shake the man’s. Samantha continued to stare.

Close your mouth.

Well, at least the voice in her head wasn’t dumbstruck. That was always a positive.

On the negative side of the scale was the fact that Logan Stone had just heard her tirade against her boss’s taste in men.

“And, this is Samantha Page,” Jack said, gesturing to Sam as she forced her mouth to close. “She was going to be showing you guys the ropes and getting you settled in, but I think she’s got some complaints to lodge with HR over your qualifications,” Jack quipped and Sam found her mouth falling open once again.

He was joking about this? She’d called him sex-on-a-stick and he was joking?

Samantha closed her mouth and cleared her throat. “I’m good, Jack. No complaints here. I’ll just, um, I’ll get, um ….”

Oh, my hell. Stop babbling and say something—anything—moderately intelligible. Or burst into flames. Developing the ability to go up in flames right now would be handy.

“Hi,” the man of her dreams intoned, his deep voice washing over every atom of her body, stroking her in a way she’d felt only in her dreams. “It’s nice to meet you, Samantha.” He said the words, but kept his hands shoved in his pockets.

And, with that, in front of Jennie, her boss, and the man whose kids she hoped to have one day, Samantha Page opened her mouth and said, “Gah.”
Lori Ryan. The Billionaire’s Navy SEAL (Kindle Locations 92-181). Kindle Edition.

Jack and Samantha have been attracted to each other since his friend Zach’s wedding. They had never been introduced until today and I have to say a lot of there interactions had me giggling. Samantha has no filter at all and sometimes she actually says what she thinks is only a silent thought.

Logan doesn’t mind this at all and is trying to be professional when he really doesn’t want to be at all.

A phone call from a former teammate, has him on guard but it doesn’t concern his employment.

Samantha discovers some of Logan’s PTSI problems on the way to lunch one day and then starts bringing him lunch when she gets her own.

Then things start happening with Samantha, that don’t seem to be coincidences.

Plenty laughter and tears in this page-turning, suspenseful, steamy, romantic, action-packed book.

I really can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

5 Contented Purrs for Lori.

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

With her secrets about to come out and her career on the brink of disaster, she turns to the one man who might understand.

Pop star PJ Cantrell’s life and career are threatened when an angry blackmailer uncovers the truth about her hidden past. PJ knows it has to be someone close, someone she trusts. That makes the betrayal hurt all the more.

She turns to long-time friend Gabe Sawyer for help but finds more than she bargained for. As she quickly discovers she wants more from him than friendship and support, she has to wonder what he’ll think of her when he finally learns the truth about her past.

Gabe Sawyer is ready for a change. He’s built an empire in the hotel industry, but it’s time for him to find something to bring back the passion he once felt for his work. He’s tired of living in hotel suites, no matter how swanky the surroundings might be.

When PJ Cantrell shows up on his doorstep, she brings the wrong kind of passion his way. He’s left trying to bury the attraction he’s long felt for her because giving in to that is the last thing PJ needs.

NOTE:
Steamy romance meets heart-stopping suspense in the Sutton Billionaires Series. This is the fourth book in the series but it can be read as a standalone story with no cliffhangers. If you’d rather start at book one, grab The Billionaire Deal by Lori Ryan. A shorter version of this book was previously released as part of the Sutton Capital Series.

PJ Cantrell has a very successful singing career, and has been touring since she was no more than a child. Now much older and she thought wiser, she is devastated to find her journal has been leaked to the press. As she leaves her car at the hotel she is swarmed by the press.

Gabe Sawyer has decided he’s done with his hotel chain and tells his friend Jack Sutton to put out feelers for a buyer. He’s not sure what he’s going to do next but he plans on going home for a while first. It’s not a coincidence that he’s at the hotel P.J. Cantrell is staying in when all hell breaks loose with Paparazzi. Gabe just happened to look down at the entrance from his terrace when it all starts to go down.

This is a favorite scene.

Gabe looked down on the front entrance of the hotel. The paparazzi were hawking the door. It was expected tonight with PJ arriving, but he hadn’t thought they’d see quite the number jockeying for position on the sidewalk outside the hotel.

What the hell? Three more of the vulture-like paps had just walked up.

Gabe grabbed his iPhone and punched PJ’s name into a search engine then scanned the top headlines…. He bit back a curse when the news flashed on the small screen and didn’t have to watch much of the video to know why the scumbags waited at the hotel entrance to get at her tonight.

Gabe couldn’t imagine why a man would be willing to walk away from PJ Cantrell. An asshat like Kurt Tolleson had never deserved her in the first place.

When Gabe asked PJ about it shortly after the breakup appeared in the news, she’d been good and ticked off. But this? Having the public see her humiliation…. She had to be reeling from this.

Movement on the street below pulled Gabe’s attention back to the front entrance and he watched as PJ’s car pulled up to the curb. The driver stayed in the car while one bodyguard stepped from the front of the car and opened the back door. Where the hell was her other bodyguard?

Gabe hoped to see him appear from the back, but no. Only PJ stepped out.

He couldn’t make out her face, but he knew it was her. Her coppery red mane of hair and petite body would register with him anywhere. Register and make him hard as a rock in an instant, though he’d learned how to control that reaction around her. They were friends and nothing more.

Gabe growled and went back inside, picking up the hotel phone that sat on a side table near the balcony doors. Whenever he stayed in one of his suites, his line was directly routed to the general manager of that location or to the manager-on-duty when the GM was out. He didn’t know who picked up and at the moment, he didn’t care.

“Get more security out front. PJ just arrived and she only has one bodyguard with her. Get our guys out there now,” he ordered before hanging up and going back outside.

He wanted to run down to her himself and stand between her and the world, but he wouldn’t make it down there in time.

As he watched, someone with a camera reached right past the useless man in a suit trying to block access to PJ. The camera man yanked PJ around as he held his camera up in her face, snapping off shots the whole time. It took her bodyguard too damn long to get the guy off her.

Gabe watched as his staff poured out the front doors and surrounded PJ, whisking her into the lobby and away from the crowd.

In only minutes PJ would step into the elevator. He hoped she remembered his invitation and headed to his tower instead of going up to her suite.

Two years ago, he’d told her if she was looking for privacy or a friend to talk to, she could come up to his penthouse when he was at the hotel at the same time she was—which was often. Over time, they talked more and more frequently because they were both night owls.

He hoped on a night like this, when she had to be feeling angry and hurt by the betrayal of her privacy, she’d come to him.

Shoving his keycard in his back pocket, he drew a shirt over his head before stepping out to the private elevator entrance. He knew within minutes she was on her way up. Only he, his secretary, and PJ had the key fob that would allow them to enter the penthouse elevator.

Gabe paced until the elevator chimed her arrival, and smiled slightly when PJ’s gaze fell on him immediately.

“Pru,” he breathed out, using her first name rather than the initials the world used to address her. She always laughed at him for that, but he liked her full name. Prudence Jane. No one other than her family used it any longer. When she’d been ‘discovered’ she had been using the nickname PJ and that was part of her branding to the world.

She blinked those long, sexy eyelashes his way and he saw she was fighting back tears.

“You saw?” she asked. He didn’t know if she was asking about the video or what had happened with the photographers down below, but he nodded.

“You holding up?” he asked, but he wanted to kick himself. He knew she’d say yes, even when it was clear she wasn’t okay.

“I’m okay,” she said but her teeth caught her bottom lip and he knew she was anything but okay.

He wanted to reach out and hold her, comfort her. But they’d never had that kind of relationship, though at times he felt so close to her it stunned him.

They had spent hours talking on the rooftops of his hotels, and it hadn’t been that long ago that Gabe had started to feel a lot more than friendship toward her. But Pru, so much younger than him, had never indicated she wanted more from him.

For whatever reason, Gabe Sawyer—a man who routinely dated models and actresses and other people in the spotlight—froze up a little when he got around Pru Cantrell. He was sure he came across as some stiff CEO, and he didn’t blame her for thinking that.

He was ten years older than her and was usually wearing a suit or a tux when he saw her. He glanced down at his jeans and bare feet and cringed. Well…until today.

“I just wasn’t really up to going to bed,” she said with a little laugh, and Gabe’s mind immediately filled with images of her in his bed. He pushed them aside as he always did when he was with her.

“Come inside?” Gabe asked, gesturing over his shoulder to the stairs that led to his suite. He’d never invited her in before. Would she think he was trying to take advantage? Or would she understand he just wanted to be there for her after the night she’d had? Gabe felt his heart kick as she nodded yes and followed him up the stairs.
Lori Ryan. ARC The Billionaire Rocks (Kindle Locations 155-203). Kindle Edition.

There is a slow build to this relationship as Gabe invites her to his home in Connecticut and enlists the help of the Sutton’s Security Team to solve the issue of the missing journal.

A very emotional tale unfolds as the heat builds in more ways than one. There is laughter and tears, leading to some sizzling romance.

I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

A broken heart that never mended
and a man who would give anything
for the woman he loves—
even if it means suffering his own heartache.

Jennie Evans’ heart broke when she lost her high school sweetheart and husband just after college graduation. She’s found some semblance of a new life with good friends and a job she loves at Sutton Capital, but she knows she’ll never love again. That part of her died with Kyle.

Chad Thompson sees the heartache Jennie hides from the world. Despite the chemistry he and Jennie always fight against, he vows to keep their relationship friendly. Anything more would hurt Jennie, and Chad can’t bring himself to cause her more pain.

When their well-meaning friends throw Jennie and Chad together in a plot designed to push their comfort zone, she ends up in more danger than anyone could have foreseen. Chad knows he can protect her, but he isn’t able to protect his own heart in the process.

Steamy romance meets heart-stopping suspense in the Sutton Billionaires Series. This is the third book in the series but it can be read as a standalone story with no cliffhangers. If you’d rather start at book one, grab The Billionaire Deal by Lori Ryan. A shorter version of this book was previously released as part of the Sutton Capital Series.

There is a definite attraction between Jennie and her boss Chad. He uses the excuse that she’s his employee as a boundary. One he would like to cross, but he’d seen the consequences of doing so.

His partners had also noticed this attraction. When one of Jack’s friends asks them to check out a couples resort before he makes the purchase, Jack and Andrew come up the perfect way to nudge this relationship.

A true test of will for Chad. This is a favorite scene.

Actually, if he thought about it, he could guess why she’d noticed the kayaks. Their bright colors. Jennie surrounded herself with bright, happy colors.

The outside of her house was a light cheerful yellow. He hadn’t been inside her house, though he’d dropped her off or picked her up a few times. But he would guess the inside would be filled with color as well. The kayaks were bright red and orange. She would like those colors.

“Come on,” Chad grinned at her. She looked adorable with goggles covering almost half her face. “Let’s go see some fish.”

They jumped in the water and lowered masked faces into the bay.

Before Chad knew what hit him, he heard a shriek and had an armful of sputtering Jennie. She quite literally climbed up him and was clinging to his shoulders, legs and arms clamped around him as high up as she could go. It would be funny to anyone watching.

Chad grinned, trying to ignore his body’s immediate response to her. He refused to acknowledge the fact that at that moment, the string bikini she wore was giving him access to parts of Jennie’s body he’d only ever dreamed of touching. His arms were under her ass, holding her up. The sensations produced by their wet skin were wreaking havoc on his senses, but she didn’t seem to be aware of that at all.

“Problem, Jen?”

She bit her lip and nodded her head.

“And that would be…?” Damn, she’s cute. On any other woman, this would seem like a coy ploy for his attention. With Jennie, it was real. She was well and truly freaked by something and he was more than happy to be her knight in shining armor. Especially when she wrapped her body around that armor.

“The fish,” Jennie said, eyes wide. “A fish touched my legs. It went right between my legs!”

He let a slow smile form. “I need to protect you from the fish?”

She nodded. “They’re huge. And scary. And kind of gross.”

They were pretty big. Some of them were one-and-a-half feet long and about as wide around the middle as Chad’s forearm. He had expected smaller fish, too. But seeing her so freaked out was pretty damned cute.

And holding her was pretty sexy. Really, really damned sexy, as a matter of fact. Chad lifted her up to the dock, then let his hands skim down to her thighs—pretending to be Jennie’s concerned husband did have its perks.

“Want me to hold you in the water and see if that makes you feel better?” Say yes. No, say no. This is a bad idea… But, please say yes.

Before Jennie could answer, a fish jumped out of the water and splashed back in. Chad assumed it was trying to catch a bug skimming the surface of the water. Jennie must have assumed it was an attempt to eat her, because she was up and running off the dock in a heartbeat. So much for Jack’s theory that Jennie Evans wasn’t afraid of anything.

Chad pulled himself out onto the dock, trying not to laugh too hard—and losing that battle. He scooped up their beach bag and towels. The items quickly became crucial parts of Chad’s ensemble as he followed Jennie back to the villa.

Watching the sway of her sweet ass as she hightailed it through the resort had his dick harder than he’d care to share with the other guests. With their belongings held casually in front of him to hide his predicament, he let himself enjoy the show. He’d have to shower with ice water when he got back to the villa, but it was worth it.
Jennie had the sexiest ass Chad had ever seen. That ass in a bikini?

Deadly.
Lori Ryan. The Billionaire Op ARC (Kindle Locations 773-802). Kindle Edition.

The two of them enjoy themselves immensely as they gather information. Only one thing doesn’t add up and this becomes a problem rather quickly.

Very emotional with suspense, hold your breath scenes, sexual tension, romance and so much more!

I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

A woman who doesn’t trust love,
a man who doesn’t trust women.

Chief Financial Officer Andrew Weston and photographer Jill Walsh are the two most unlikely people to fall in love.

When Jill’s first husband left her, she knew she’d never again trust that love can last. The pain you go through when love dies isn’t something she’s willing to go through again.

After Andrew’s first love betrayed him in the most brutal way possible, he knows he might fall in love again someday, but there’s no way he’ll ever make himself vulnerable to another woman by confessing those feelings.

When Andrew discovers his love for Jill, he knows the only way to get her to stay with him forever is to offer her an iron clad penalty clause in a prenuptial agreement. He contracts to stay with her forever or he loses everything he owns. The millions he’s worked for, his property, his cars, everything. Now he just needs to hope that’s enough to hold onto Jill forever.

Note:
Steamy romance meets heart-stopping suspense in the Sutton Billionaires Series. This is the second book in the series but it can be read as a standalone story with no cliffhangers. If you’d rather start at book one, grab The Billionaire Deal by Lori Ryan. A shorter version of this book was previously released as part of the Sutton Capital Series.

Andrew Weston doesn’t hesitate to run to his grandmother’s side when she’s hospitalized with a broken him.  Both Nora, his grandmother and her housekeeper and friend Lydia are getting up in age and now Andrew feels guilty. He feels he should have insisted on more help for her. With that in mind, he moves into the guest house on the property to oversee some changes and her rehab.

Jill Walsh has just gone through a divorce, her now ex cheated on her and wanted out of the marriage. Yet he is still calling, coming over and in general being a nuisance. Jill is moving into her grandparents home until she figures out where her life is heading now.

Once Andrew’s grandmother is home, that little tidbit of information that Jillie as he once called her, is now their neighbor sparks an interest. Andrew had a crush on her when he was younger, but she was a bit older than him and barely gave him a second glance.

He really does need to welcome her back to the neighborhood if for nothing other than to satisfy his curiosity about her.

This is a favorite scene.

The snow had just dusted the ground and was already melting away in the mid-morning sun. Andrew was treated to another sight that was more welcoming than snow.

Jill Walsh was back in her grandparents’ backyard. He watched as she stretched up toward a tree limb. She hung what looked like a saltlick in a small metal frame mounted on the tree. Jill’s dog ran in circles around her as she walked across the huge backyard toward another tree. Andrew could make out one of the metal frames on that tree as well.

He laughed to himself as he watched her. Most people thought of the deer as pests that ate the flowers and shrubs. Jill was encouraging them to come visit her.

What the hell? Might as well go say hey to pretty Jillie Walsh.

He drew a pair of threadbare jeans up over his hips and tossed a well-worn Yale sweatshirt over his t-shirt. Shoved his feet into a pair of duck boots and trotted downstairs without bothering to tie the laces of the boots. His grandmother’s yard connected with the Walsh’s by a fence in the main areas, but toward the back, where the yards became more wooded, the fence ended and the two yards were open to one another. Andrew trotted around the back end of the fence and headed toward Jill.

Before he reached her, he was greeted by Jill’s dog, who ran up to Andrew as if the two of them were old friends. The dog jumped up with both paws on Andrew’s chest to land kisses on his face.

“Hey, boy,” Andrew said. He buried his hands in the curly fur to give the dog a good scratch before heading toward Jill.

Jill was headed back toward the house so Andrew called out to her as he fell into an easy jog. “Jill! Welcome back.”

He watched as she turned toward him and squinted against the glare of the morning sun. She hesitated before returning his greeting. The dog ran back and forth between Jill and Andrew, bouncing as if he couldn’t wait for them to meet up in the middle.

“Andrew? Wow, is that really you?”

“Yeah. I heard you were back in town. Saw you out here and thought I’d say hi before breakfast,” Andrew explained as he approached her.

Jill let out a laugh. “Breakfast? It’s almost ten thirty. You’re just having breakfast?”

Andrew shrugged. “I’ve been sleeping in lately.” He had no problem getting up at six o’clock on days he went to the office, but easily reverted to sleeping later on weekends and vacations when he felt like it.

Jill tilted her head and studied him. “You’re living at your grandmother’s?”

“Uh, just for a while,” he said vaguely, not sure if Nora would want him to mention her hip. Nora was proud and might not want everyone to know how much help she needed right now. “I’m taking a leave of absence from work for a while.”

“Um, I was just going to make some hot chocolate.” She gestured over her shoulder toward the house. “Do you want some?”

“Sure.”

Andrew eyed Jill sideways as they walked toward the house together. He couldn’t believe how incredible she looked with her cheeks all red from the cold and her hair tangled up around the collar of her coat. Andrew was dying to see what she looked like when all the layers of winter clothing were stripped off.

Most of the women he dated wore ridiculously tiny coats and gloves made for fashion, not warmth. Jill was bundled up in an old, bulky ski jacket and still looked better than any of those women.

She had very little makeup on, but her eyes sparkled and Andrew found he couldn’t look away from them as the two of them talked. Jill Walsh still had the same appeal, and he still responded. More so now as a man who’d experienced women than he had as a fifteen-year-old boy with only his imagination to fuel him.

He shook off his thoughts. She was his grandmother’s neighbor and Andrew knew his grandmother was still friends with Jill’s grandparents. In his book, that meant she was off limits. He didn’t date women that close to home.

Jill opened the door and stomped the snow off her boots. He watched with interest as she stripped off her coat and crossed to the stove to turn on a burner. Yup. Incredible body, just like he figured. Damn, what a waste. Why did the woman who was so strictly off limits have to be so damn gorgeous?

“Nora said you’re a photographer now,” Andrew’s voice was husky. He tried to control his response and pulled his boots off before grabbing a stool at the kitchen island.

“Mmm hmm. It started out as mostly a hobby but now I’m trying to make it work fulltime.”

“What do you photograph? Do you do portraits and things or…?” His voice trailed off and his gaze moved to Jill’s slender fingers as she added marshmallows to a mug of steaming hot chocolate and handed it to him.

How the hell can fingers be sexy?
Lori Ryan. Reuniting with the Billionaire ARC (Kindle Locations 268-308). Kindle Edition.

This is a fun read that takes us through a courtship that wasn’t supposed to happen.

There’s also an interesting twist or two that develops from Andrew’s office and of course there’s Jillie’s ex.

I can’t wait to read the next book in this series, apparently this is one I started then somehow skipped to the middle. I’m glad I’m reading the new extended versions of these books.

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

He needed a wife on paper,
she needed a way to pay for school.
Neither bargained for the danger
their marriage-of-convenience brought on.

CEO Jack Sutton isn’t about to be backed into a corner by the stipulations of his mother’s will. She might have wanted to be sure he was married by the time he was thirty, but that doesn’t mean he needs to give in. As the head of a powerful venture capital firm, there’s one thing he’s learned. There’s always a way around anything standing in his way. This marriage clause is no exception.

Kelly Bradley got into the law school of her dreams, but the financial aid she was counting on didn’t come through. When she finds out Jack Sutton is looking for a wife in name only, she propositions him to get the funding she needs. What could be the harm in linking herself to a well-respected businessman for a year? It’s not like he’s hard to look at or tough to be around.

But will her fix end up costing a whole lot more than either she or Jack had bargained for? When her life is on the line, Jack finds himself racing to save the woman he’s fast losing his heart to.

Steamy romance meets heart-stopping suspense in the Sutton Billionaires Series. This is the first book in the series but it can be read as a standalone story with no cliffhangers. A shorter version of this book was previously released as Legal Ease, part of the Sutton Capital Series.

Lori Ryan is redoing the beginning of the Sutton Capitol Series adding more to a book and a series I love.

This first book is Jack Sutton, he’s a control freak about to lose his empire because of a stipulation in his mother’s will. He needs to be married by his thirty fifth birthday or he loses control of his company to his aunt.

An overheard conversation leads to a solution, but Jack has no idea it’s about to happen, the ensuing meeting with his aunt, cousin Cole and his ‘fiancé’ blindsides him and had me giggling the whole time.

This is a favorite scene.

Kelly arrived at Jack Sutton’s office a few minutes before three o’clock as she and Jennie had planned. She had run home to print up the marriage license application from the New Haven Office of Vital Statistics website, shower, and dress in black wool slacks and a fitted ivory cashmere sweater.

She left her hair down drying it with a roller brush so it lay in soft waves on her shoulders and went with light makeup she hoped like hell looked classy. Jack Sutton was probably used to classy.

The butterflies in her stomach seemed like they were dancing some sort of coordinated Macarena dance or something. It wasn’t pretty.

When Jennie saw Kelly step off the elevator her jaw dropped. “I can’t believe you’re going through with this. By the time I got back to the office, I was sure you’d chicken out.”

Kelly squared her shoulders and stood up to her full height. Not that she was tall at five four, but it made her feel better. “I’m not going to second-guess myself on this. If I keep moving without stopping too long to think about it, I can go through with it, so get me in there.”

Jennie raised an eyebrow and Kelly knew she’d owe her friend big time. The scene about to play out would essentially put Jennie’s job on the line. By getting Kelly in there, she’d be revealing she had spied on Jack. She had a week left in the temporary placement. With this move, she would most likely lose not only this placement, but any chance of getting a new placement through the temp agency as well.

So yeah, Kelly was going to owe her and then some. But Jennie had told her she was okay with that and Kelly believed her. Jennie got bored staying in one job for too long. She’d bounce back.

“Well, you may be off your rocker, but at least you look good. Jack’s Aunt Mabry and his cousin Chad are already in the office. They’ve only been in there for a minute, though,” said Jennie.

“Here goes nothing.” She took a deep breath and waited for Jennie to announce her.

With a huge grin on her face, Jennie pushed the intercom button on her phone and calmly spoke into the speaker. “Sir, your fiancée has arrived. Shall I show her in?”

Jack sat in his office with his aunt and cousin and wondered how the hell to explain that there was no fiancée. Andrew had sent a text at two o’clock saying he hadn’t found out anything more, but he was working on something. He just didn’t say what, so Jack had no idea if he should stall or just come clean.

He had actually been desperate enough to start calling some of the women he’d dated in the last year or so. He wasn’t exactly a ruthless player, although the tabloids tried to make it look like he was. Sure, he got around, had a few dates a month and slept with some of them, but those women all seemed shallow and fake to Jack.

Two of them didn’t answer the phone, one was gushing about her new husband and another had moved to London when she was offered a modeling deal with a European agency. That was as far as he got in his little black book before his aunt arrived— twenty minutes early. It seemed Chad had been with Mabry this morning because they arrived together and now they both sat, mother and son, looking expectantly at him.

“We’re here to meet Jack’s fiancée,” a smug-looking Mabry announced to Chad. Jack watched a bemused expression come over his cousin’s face.

Chad had to be wondering what the hell was going on. He and Jack were close. They were more like brothers than cousins, so if he were getting married, Chad would have been the first to know.

I’m never gonna’ hear the end of this from him.

So there they sat, waiting for an introduction to a fiancée that Jack had never mentioned; a fiancée Chad had never set eyes on.

Jack leaned forward in his chair, took a deep breath and prepared to tell his aunt there was no fiancée.

Or maybe he should see if he could get Chad out of the room first so he didn’t have to have this confrontation in front of his cousin.

Just then his secretary’s voice cut in, and he could swear he heard her say his fiancée was here.

Jack’s experience in business had taught him to school his expressions and hide his thoughts from those around him, and though he wanted to whip around and grab the phone, he didn’t. He quickly hid all emotion from his face as he listened to his secretary.

“Sir, did you hear me? Mr. Sutton? Your fiancée has arrived. Shall I show her in?” Jennie spoke again.

Andrew. Andrew must have sent him a fiancée. How in the hell had Andrew found him a fiancée? Really, how does one go about that, Jack thought.

Oh hell. He scrubbed his hand over his face as a possibility hit him. What if Andrew sent him a prostitute?

Jack stood and went to his desk, hitting the button on his phone to engage the intercom. “Uh, yes, send her in, please.” Jack forced the words out as his mind raced through the possible scenarios.

Jennie opened the door to his office and stepped aside and a dark-haired woman swept into the room as if she owned the place. She glided over to him, brushed a light kiss on his cheek, and casually handed him a stack of papers.

The soft scent of some kind of flower threw him off his game.

“Hello, sweetheart,” the stranger said to Jack before turning to his aunt and Chad. “You must be Jack’s Aunt Mabry and his cousin. He’s told me so much about you. I’m Kelly Bradley.”

She took the hand of a very stunned looking Aunt Mabry and pumped it before she turned to Chad, whose amusement had turned to confused surprise. Kelly shook his hand as well.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Chad said, but it came out more as a question than a statement. “I don’t know where Jack’s been hiding you,” Chad said with a huge grin on his face.

Jack was too busy trying to figure out who had just walked into his office… and what she was doing, to respond to Chad’s dig. This Kelly person had walked in as though she belonged there. As though she and Jack had the kind of intimate, close relationship that lets a woman waltz into a private family meeting and announce herself rather than wait to be invited and introduced.

Whoever she was, she was beautiful. Her hair was a deep chestnut color, and it fell down her back in loose waves over the soft ivory cashmere of her sweater. She had incredible, bright blue eyes and a light complexion with a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her snug sweater showed off a soft, curvy figure that begged to be held.

Wherever Andrew had found her, he had done well. She was exquisite.

Jack tore his eyes off her and skimmed the papers in his hand while she stood chatting with his aunt and cousin as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

The papers appeared to be an application for a marriage license for the State of Connecticut. There was a yellow sticky note on the top page that said: One year of marriage for $ 154,000.

He quickly tucked the note in his pocket as his mind flew over possibilities.

Andrew had found him a wife for $ 154,000.

What the hell?

Had Andrew hired a woman from a call girl service? Asked some girl off the street?

As he did in all of his deals, Jack quickly scanned all potential scenarios in his head. He assessed and evaluated the merits or drawbacks of each. Obviously, if she were a call girl, the drawbacks were significant.

He was woefully uninformed, and that wasn’t a position he was used to being in.

What the hell should he do? He had no idea who this woman was, but he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to continue to head up the company his father had built. The company Jack had expanded and come to love. Now, he stood stiffly in his office as his head reeled from the sudden proposition in front of him…

Reason kicked in; he had to trust that Andrew wouldn’t have sent a hooker or someone he didn’t know. Could Andrew have found a willing friend of his? Or maybe an ex-girlfriend? How much would that suck? To marry one of his best friend’s exes and pay her to do it on top of that?

Jack hadn’t felt so off balance in his life. He suddenly realized that his supposed fiancée was talking to him.

“Jack? Honey, I need to know if you can make it to the courthouse to apply for the marriage license tomorrow? We both have to be there to get it. Does that work for you?” Kelly asked, indicating the papers in his hand.

“Uh, yes. Yeah, that works for me.”

Jack spit the words out through the haze in his head and turned to smile at his aunt and cousin. No matter what Chad’s relationship with Bryan Barton was, it looked as if Jack had just committed himself to a year of marriage with a stranger.
Lori Ryan. The Billionaire Deal: The Sutton Billionaire Series, Book 1 (Kindle Locations 384-455).

Oh the tangled web that entwines these two.

Kelly just wants law school paid for, and Jack needs a wife. Neither of them expect to fall in love.

This is an enthralling tale with plenty of suspense, drama, laughs, tears and sizzle.

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

He can’t trust the people who should have his back…

Pressured by his boss to connect with his new team, the last thing Kaeden O’Shea needs is a woman in the way—one who clearly has something to hide. But his instincts have him on high alert and he can’t shake the idea that he needs to ride to her rescue.

Running, hiding, and planting misleading clues means Joy Wilson doesn’t dare let anyone get close. Not even the man who tempts her at every turn…because there’s too much at stake. Too much she has to protect.

Two missions collide, and all bets are off.

Kaeden tends to micro-manage everything he doesn’t do himself. Now his boss hands him the planning of the company retreat and team-building. Most of the work has already been done, but he has an on site liaison and two Hospitality interns to handle the running. Of course he thinks he has everything covered.

Joy is his liaison with the hotel and she gets a kick out of his trying to run the show. Kaeden doesn’t handle any twists or changes well, but somehow Joy manages to get under his skin. She has secrets and he wants to help her, but first he has to gain her trust.

I loved this book, Kaeden goes through so much growth and the relationship he starts with Joy is both sizzling and sweet.

Lots of giggles, plenty of fun, some action plus a sizzling romance.

The excerpt below is a favorite scene, don’t forget to read it.

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Joy watched the group unload outside Crepes a la Carte and was glad when none of them looked put out by the long line that was already halfway down the block. The place was actually a cart not a restaurant, though they did have a small store front option on the other side of the street. She’d already told some of them they might want to cut through the alley that led to the storefront to see if there was a shorter line there, but they all seemed happy to get into line at the cart.

She saw Mia who she’d met earlier that morning talking to a woman she hadn’t met yet but thought was named Sarah if she went by process of elimination and the list of people she’d been given by her boss.

She was beginning to learn which kids went with which parents but it wasn’t easy. They all seemed like they parented each other’s kids as easily as they did their own, making it all the more confusing.

Jack’s auburn-haired wife, Kelly, smiled at Kaeden. “Crepes were a great idea. You’re not bad at this trip planning thing.”

Joy stifled a laugh as Kaeden glanced her way before brushing off the compliment and telling Kelly it had been Joy’s suggestion.

Kelly beamed her way. “Any fan of crepes is a friend of mine.”

Jack, Andrew, and Chad came up to the group just then and Joy’s recollection of Jack being Kelly’s husband was confirmed when he kissed her temple.

“Kel, it looks like there’s a small park a couple of blocks down the street. We’re going to take the kids down there while you guys wait in line. If you don’t mind waiting?”

Kelly sent him a look that said he was crazy. “Do I mind getting to hang with my girlfriends in line while you take the kids off our hands?”

Jack laughed and squeezed her close for a minute, dropping another kiss to her cheek before he and the others began herding the kids toward the park.

Kaeden watched them go. “Don’t you need to get their orders?”

Now Kelly directed her look toward him. “The kids will take anything sweet and the men will take anything so long as it’s food. Besides, crepes. There’s no way to go wrong with them. At all.”

Joy had to try to cover her mouth with her hand in a half-assed casual way to suppress her laugh now. Kaeden just didn’t get crepes, but clearly the women in front of him did. There was the blonde Joy thought was Jill and another blonde she thought was Jennie, but it was entirely possible she was switching the two. She had only met them that morning.

“Tell me you’ve had crepes.” That was maybe-Jill talking, hands on her hips as she looked at Kaeden.

Maybe-Jennie joined in. “Crepes are ah-may-zing. Gooey and light and perfect. The reviews for this place say they’re incredible.” She put a hand on her stomach as they inched forward in the line. “My stomach is going to revolt if I don’t give it one soon.”

Samantha walked up to the group and nudged maybe-Jill. “Men never get the draw of a good crepe until they’ve had one. It’s just above their heads.”

Kaeden snorted and all the women swung their heads comically in his direction. Joy lost the ability to hold in her laughter. She couldn’t help it.

He pointed in her direction. “No I-told-you-sos. I get it. They like crepes.”

“Love,” the women said in unison.

Kelly said, “Like luuuuv love.”

The women ended up chatting together while they all moved up in line and Kaeden and Joy were left paired together while the line crept forward.

She tried to ignore the fact that to keep half the sidewalk clear for pedestrians he was standing close enough to her that their arms were almost brushing. Close enough to feel that heat of anticipation at the almost contact.

“You look like you’re not going to hold it in.”

Joy shook her head. “What? The I-told-you-so? It’s staying in me just fine.” She could only grin at him as he scowled at her and Joy realized how good it felt to laugh, to be playful. And how surprising it was that it was happening with this man.

She hadn’t had this kind of laughter in a while and she wouldn’t have it again for a long time. Not when she had to move on soon. There would be nothing but strain and unease and the insecurity of trying to find a new situation for at least a month or two. She remembered when she thought her job at a tech firm was stressful. It was nothing compared to living in a car or a seedy motel and wondering if you’d be safe through the night.

None of the places she’d holed up in the last two years had been like this and she doubted wherever she went to next would be either.

Kaeden cut into her bleak thoughts. “So what kind should I get?”

They were getting closer to the front of the line now and Joy looked at the sign with the list of options. “The monte cristo and the lemon souffle are my favorites. Strawberry shortcake is really good too, though. But the women were right. You can’t go wrong with any of them.”

Samantha shouted back an “amen” to Joy before stepping up to place her order.

Kaeden laughed but he nodded. “Alright, I’ll get those ones.”

“What do you mean, those ones? I was giving you choices not a list. You can’t eat three crepes.”

His brows went up. “I thought these things were gold. Why wouldn’t I eat three of them?”

“They’re big.”

“And?”

Twenty minutes later Joy was still shaking her head at him but now it was because she was watching him take the last bite of his third crepe.

“So you liked them?” she asked.

“I think the word you’re looking for is luuuuuuv,” he said drawing the word out like Kelly had.

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.

After two of his teammates fall prey to the curse, Gage Collier realizes he’s got worse things to worry about than the power of the curse alone. He’s got his mother to fear, and the woman is on a mission. When a columnist spills the beans that the curse is in play and there’s only one victim left to be had, Gage’s mother spins a web designed to trap him into being its third victim and give her the grandbabies she’s been wanting. Though the bait she sets is tempting, Gage has no interest in falling in love. With his mother strategizing against him, Gage probably doesn’t stand a chance, but he’ll go down fighting before he takes this hit.

The Triple Play Curse has taken down two players, they are happily committed and in love. No one wants to be the next to fall, but Gage’s mother has other ideas.

She comes up with an ingenious scheme to set up Gage, I have to admit it was the perfect setup. Her friend Lucia cleans houses for a living and has a daughter who fills in for her from time to time.

The idea is for Lucia to get the job cleaning her son’s home, then pretend an injury so her daughter will fill in.

Getting the job was easy since all the other interviews were with twenty-somethings that only want a chance at snagging Gage. Since Lucia is an older woman, Gage took that bait, hook, line and sinker.

This is a favorite scene when Lucia’s daughter Talia takes over.

Gage finished his last lap and pulled himself up and out of the pool before toweling off. He’d always looked forward to the end of his morning workouts, but never more than he did nowadays.

Four days a week, he could walk to his kitchen and find breakfast ready and waiting for him when he got there. He hadn’t asked for it. Lucia just seemed to pick up on his needs. Within a day or two, she had figured out he always finished working out at ten thirty, and she had a scrambled egg white omelet ready for him. She would always throw in a different mixture of vegetables and top it with her homemade salsa. She’d also have a big plate of fresh cut fruit for him.

But, what he loved the most, was the way his house smelled when she was there. She would cook a big meal for him every morning that he’d devour when he got home later that night from the baseball field.

The mouthwatering smell of some kind of mixture of chicken and rice or enchiladas wafted through the condo to him now, drawing him to the kitchen before he’d even thrown a t-shirt t-shirt on. Hell, she’d outdone herself today. He didn’t know what he’d find on the stove, but he did know he’d have a hard time resisting the temptation to dig into it now instead of after the game. It wasn’t unusual for Lucia to have to beat him back from the stove with one of the wooden spoons she’d stocked his kitchen with when she discovered how little he had in the way of pots and pans and utensils.

Gage looped his towel around his neck and called out to Lucia.

“Hey, beautiful, what are you trying to do to me? Make me gain twenty pounds this season? I won’t be able to move if you keep this up.”

But it wasn’t Lucia who came out of his bedroom with his dirty laundry in her arms. It was a … hell, he didn’t know what she was. A goddess, at the very least. Her laugh matched Lucia’s to a tee, and her long black hair and fiery eyes were almost identical as well. But, she was younger and had a body that screamed out to him. Gage took a step back as she came into the kitchen. His hands felt like magnets, just pulling him in, begging him to take ahold of those round hips of hers and yank her body in close, tight against his.

She just smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with humor, seemingly unaware of the effect she had on him.

“You call my mother beautiful?” She put the laundry basket down on one of the counters and cocked her head at him.

“Your mother?” he echoed, stupidly. She raised a brow, then laughed again.

“My mother. Lucia?”

“Your mother?” he asked, yet again, not because he didn’t understand by now that this woman was Lucia’s daughter, but because his mind seemed to be stuck on repeat. Like a skipping record.

She was laughing as she shook her head, and reached for the plate with his omelet and fruit to hand to him, but he didn’t miss the puzzled look she gave him.

“You’re Talia?” he asked, finally, breaking loose of the hold she’d had on him and reaching for the plate. Lucia hadn’t told him much about Talia. She was Lucia’s only daughter, that much he knew. That was about the extent of it.

“You can’t be here,” he said now, still not touching his omelet.

That stopped her smile. “What?”

“Your mom is supposed to be here. Where is she?”

Now suspicion clouded her gaze and he felt like a jerk. Again. No, not again. Still. It hadn’t stopped. Because he’d been a jerk from the minute he’d seen Talia. She wore a long skirt that flowed loosely down around her ankles, taunting him. It seemed to dare him to find out what was hidden underneath. Her snug fitting shirt accentuated her full breasts, the only thing that had drawn his eyes away from those magical hips as they spoke.

“She hurt her back,” she said, cold now, all trace of her previous humor gone. “I’ll be filling in for her for the next couple of weeks. The doctor said she needs to take it easy for two weeks, or she might end up needing surgery and physical therapy.”

And, now he felt lower than low. “Is she okay? What happened? Was she in an accident?”

He thought he saw a flicker of softness cross her face again, but then she erased it, as though she wasn’t quite ready to forgive him yet. He didn’t blame her.

“Does she need anything?” Gage asked.

“No. My stepfather is taking care of her. She just needs to rest, so you’re stuck with me for two weeks.”

And, with that, she spun on her foot, balancing the laundry basket on her hip again, and exited the room.

Gage was left drooling, and wondering how in the heck he would get through the next two weeks without giving in to the walking, talking spitfire of temptation that was Talia Aguilar.
Lori Ryan. Game Clincher: A Triple Play Curse Novella, Book 3 (Kindle Locations 126-163).

In spite of all their best intentions, these two fall hard and fast for each other. So much so that they both retreat.

Lots of fun, laughter and a few tears as the curse comes to fruition.

5 Contented Purrs for Lori!

Lori Ryan

Lori Ryan is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance with steamy love scenes and characters you won’t want to leave in the pages when the story is over.Lori published her first novel in April of 2013 and ​has fallen in love with writing.

​She is the author of the Sutton Capital Series; the Heroes of Evers, Texas; and the Triple Play Curse Novellas, a set of novellas with sexy baseball players at their core as part of Bella Andre’s Game For Love Kindle World. She has also published in Melanie Shawn’s Hope Falls Kindle World and in Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Kindle World.

She lives with an extremely understanding husband, three wonderful children, and two mostly well-behaved dogs in Austin, Texas. It’s a bit of a zoo, but she wouldn’t change a thing. She loves to connect with her readers. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter or subscribe to her blog.