Brenda Rothert – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Brenda Rothert – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Wed, 20 May 2026 17:50:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Brenda Rothert – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Crimson Shore (Blue Arrow Island #2) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/crimson-shore-blue-arrow-island-2-read-online-brenda-rothert Wed, 20 May 2026 17:50:31 +0000 https://www.books2020.com/crimson-shore-blue-arrow-island-2-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Dark, Suspense Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Blue Arrow Island Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)

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Power. Betrayal. A love that could save them all—or destroy everything.
Briar Hollis made her choice, but Blue Arrow Island doesn't forgive. It doesn't forget. And it sure as hell doesn't let you leave unscathed. The war for control of the brutal island is escalating, and now that Briar has allies at her side, the stakes have never been higher.

A new player has entered the game.
When a new prisoner arrives on the island's blood-soaked shores, the fragile balance of power shatters. The rules have changed. Survival now demands impossible choices. Briar is still learning to wield the power the island gifted her—but time is running out.

He shattered her heart. Now she's all that stands between him and oblivion.
The war between the island's ruthless leaders has turned personal, and Briar stands at the center of a storm whose destruction won't end at the shore. The man who destroyed her—whose lies cut deeper than any blade—harbors a power so volatile it could consume everything. But it's killing him from the inside out.
To defeat the darkness rising from the island's depths, Briar must do the trust the beautiful, broken man who taught her that love and betrayal are two sides of the same coin

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PART ONE

1

“When my brother put his newborn daughter in my arms for the first time, I loved you from that moment. Anything I do to keep you safe is well worth it. You’re all I have left.” - Excerpt from an unsent letter by Virginia Marsden to her niece

Briar

I don’t feel great about punching my best friend in the face so hard she staggers and drops to the ground, but it had to be done.

“Okay,” Amira huffs, quickly rolling to her stomach and getting into a crouch. “I get it.”

She’s a quick learner, but I’m a ruthless teacher. I spent a week coaching her in hand-to-hand combat—now it’s all execution. And her lessons are like the ones my father gave me and my sister. Unfair, but effective.

Your opponents won’t tell you a hit is coming. You’ll be on your feet one second and on your back the next, and before you take another breath, you’ll be dead.

I carry my parents with me. Dad’s combat lessons were grounded in his love for us. He wanted me and Mae to be able to defend ourselves against any opponent. I want the same for Amira.

She gets to her feet, fists up to protect her battered face. The girl can take a punch, but I don’t want her to have to take them from men who are twice her size and much stronger than either of us.

“First strike usually wins,” I remind her. “Don’t hesitate.”

She goes for my knees with a sharp kick. I evade it, grabbing her foot, twisting it, and shoving her back to the ground. Dirt from the training arena clouds into her face when her palms land.

I’m on her, lightly pressing the toe of my boot into her side. “I’m about to fuck up your insides. Move, Amira!”

She groans and starts crawling away.

Zara, watching us while she fletches arrows, tips her chin at me. “Fighting weaker opponents gets you off, doesn’t it?”

“Eat shit.” I shoot her a disgusted glare. “We’re training.”

“You don’t have to injure people to teach them. I never broke a bone learning.”

She’s never letting me live down Amira’s broken finger from a couple weeks ago, even though it was Amira’s fault.

“That’s probably why I’m a better fighter than you,” I fire back.

“You mispronounced arrogant bitch.”

I turn, closing the distance between us. If it’s an ass kicking she wants, I’ll deliver.

Someone grabs a fistful of the back of my T-shirt and pulls me backward.

“Don’t take the bait, Briar.”

I don’t even have to turn. That smoky, deliberate voice belongs to Nova, who never loses her temper the way I sometimes do. Zara knows how to set me off.

Nova’s right. I shake my head and go back over to Amira, who’s on her feet now.

“Zara. Training drills.”

The clipped command forms a fist around my heart. Even after three weeks of us not speaking to each other, Marcus is never far from my mind. And due to both of us working in camp security, he’s usually physically close, too.

Everything is different now. I used to fight my urges to jump into his arms and beg him to take me back to our room for slow, sweaty sex. Now I have to keep myself from punching him in the balls every time I see him.

The knife still feels freshly buried in my heart. Every day of the past few months on Blue Arrow Island has been a battle to survive. Life on the mainland is a struggle under the regime, too, but at least the rules are clear.

The island is a fresh tropical hell where death awaits in many forms. The cutthroats in the Rising Tide tribe. Genetically modified animals. Controlled climate extremes. The ticking time bomb inside all of us from aromium, the experimental compound Marcus helped create.

It almost killed him. The days he spent unconscious, hanging between life and death, were agonizing. I’ve never felt a betrayal as deeply as his, but I didn’t want him to die. He needs to bear witness to the destruction he helped cause.

“So I should go for the knees, or no?”

Dusty, sunbaked dirt is caked into the sweat on Amira’s face, blood from her nose swirled onto her cheek from her wiping her hand over it while we sparred.

“It’s not a definitive yes or no. If they’re protecting their face, you can’t go for the throat. Your goal is always to escape. But if you can’t—like if someone is holding your arms on the ground, knee the groin and bite anywhere you can. If you can get your opponent onto the ground, taking out a knee will keep them from chasing you.”

“Amira,” Marcus calls.

We both look at him, my eyes locking onto his. I used to see caged desire there. A leader first and a man second, the needs of the camp usually trumping what he wanted for himself. There’s still an intensity in his gaze that makes my heart pound wildly, but I don’t know what it means. Is he angry? Sorry? It’s him not even trying to talk to me that I’m the most incensed over.

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Advertisement Crushing on the Coach (Love on the Line #5) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/crushing-on-the-coach-love-on-the-line-5-read-online-brenda-rothert Fri, 03 Apr 2026 23:14:33 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/crushing-on-the-coach-love-on-the-line-5-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Erotic, Forbidden, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Love on the Line Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)

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As a curvy style influencer with half a million followers, I'm used to commanding attention. But Noel Turner—head coach of the Cleveland Crush and the most distractingly hot man I've ever met—won't even look at me.
At forty-seven, twice-divorced, and allergic to complications, he's made it I'm off-limits. When I'm hired as the team's social media coordinator, his icy stare and clipped commands tell me everything I need to know. He thinks I'm a distraction. A liability. Someone who'll disrupt his carefully controlled world.
He's not wrong.
Because every time he brushes past me in the hallway, every time his jaw tightens when I'm laughing with his players, I want him more. I've built a career on confidence and knowing what I want—and I want him to lose that iron control. Just once.
When a travel mishap forces us to share a hotel room, the truth comes Noel has been fighting this pull between us just as hard as I have. One bed. One night. And suddenly every wall he's built comes crashing down.
Falling for him is one thing. Being the woman who costs him everything? That's another. When our secret gets out and he's forced to choose between his team and me, I'll discover if I'm worth the risk—or if I'm just another mistake he'll regret

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Noel

Killing dreams is the worst part of this job. I’ve got nine guys battling for three roster spots, which means six hard conversations soon.

I always get the hard ones out of the way first. And even though I remind them to keep working and earn another call-up, there are sometimes tears. Men I’ve come to know and respect walk into my office with their stomachs in knots, their futures hanging in the balance, and they sometimes walk out trying to compose themselves.

Nick Simmons, for example. He’s on the locker room bench now, his head down and his elbows on his knees, and if it was just a matter of attitude and work ethic, he’d be the first guy I keep. He puts in his all every day, and he takes direction well. Respectful of the veteran players. Works his ass off in the workout room while others are talking and laughing. I saw his awestruck look when we walked into this locker room for our first preseason game, and it’s a no-frills visiting team locker room.

He won’t make the cut, though. It’s his skating. He’s good, but not great. And even though he does everything he can to compensate for it, it’s not enough to keep him here. I want him to have a taste of the big league though. Give him motivation to dig deep and keep grinding.

I scan the locker room, my brows dropping when I see our starting goaltender, Isaac Moss, holding up his phone like he’s taking a selfie. He’s actually taking a video. Our team captain, Carter Stanton, is standing next to him and they’re both grinning. Isaac seems to be interviewing Carter.

“Feeling good, Cap?”

“Feeling outstanding. We put in the work in the offseason, and now it’s time to get back out there.”

“You got any picks for MVP tonight? And don’t say me. You’re always heaping me with praise, it’s just a lot, you know? Give someone else a chance.”

I exhale through my nose, Moss’s energy grating on my nerves. He’s still got two years left in his contract and he’s one of the top tenders in the league, so he knows his roster spot is safe. It’s easy to laugh and joke when that’s the case. Some of the players in this locker room are fighting for their dreams.

Stanton gives Moss a quick side-eye. “I’d say Lundgren. Guy’s a warrior and he’s proven he’s still got it. He’s great at anticipating and intercepting. It’s fun to watch him play.”

Magnus Lundgren will get one of our roster spots, and Stanton knows it. He’s a thirty-one-year-old veteran player who hit some bumps rehabbing from a shoulder injury and got cut by his former team. He’s back at a hundred percent and he fits in well with our team. I’m looking forward to telling him he made our roster.

“Hey, fellas,” I call out as I walk over to them. “Making some TikToks for the Gram?”

Isaac has already stopped filming, and he grins at me. “You’re not that old, Coach. TikTok and the Gram are two different things.”

I cross my arms, about to put my foot in his ass, when Stanton intervenes. “The new PR girl asked us to make short videos when we’re on the road. It’s for the team’s socials.”

Aggravation rises in my chest. “How about we worry about the socials after the game, boys?”

“Yes, Coach,” Isaac says, setting the phone on a bench.

“Leo’s on his period!” someone yells from the other side of the room. “Anyone have a heating pad for his cramps?”

I turn and glare at Anson Hunt, who’s grinning like he’s the first one to tell that joke. Some of my players are younger than my oldest two daughters, and it shows.

Lucien Beaumont flicks a glare at me and puts a hand on Hunt’s shoulder, saying, “Hey, man, let’s stretch.”

Beaumont is dating my daughter, Talia, one of our team trainers. I spent time with them over the summer, including a two-week family trip to the South of France, and his devotion to Talia was obvious. Initially, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of them being together, but I’m warming to it.

One thing I’ll give Beaumont—he has more situational awareness than some of his teammates. He knows this game is important, even if it’s preseason. We made it to the playoffs and then choked last year. I expect everyone to step it up this season.

We’re playing my son-in-law’s team tonight, and I’d love to smoke them. Kyle Macintire is at the top of my shit list, which is saying something since I have two ex-wives who both cheated on me.

I walk into the weight room, where the row of eight bikes is full of players warming up. I approach Levi Johnson, one of our third-line forwards. He has a troubled expression.

“You good?” I ask him.

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Advertisement A Deal with the Defender (Love on the Line #4) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/a-deal-with-the-defender-love-on-the-line-4-read-online-brenda-rothert Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:41:08 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/a-deal-with-the-defender-love-on-the-line-4-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Love on the Line Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 53034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)

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My ex didn't believe in marriage—until he cheated with my sister and put a ring on her finger three months later.
Their wedding is in seven weeks and I refuse to be the pathetic, heartbroken ex everyone pities. I need a date. Not just any date—I need someone who'll make my ex's jaw hit the floor and prove I've moved on to something better.
My perfect solution is Lucien pro hockey's biggest flirt, my ex's fiercest rival, and the last man I should be anywhere near. He's arrogant, infuriating, and has a smile that should be illegal. He's also got his own reasons for wanting revenge on my ex.
The plan is fake a whirlwind romance. Make it look so real, no one questions it.
The problem? The heat between us isn't fake. Every touch that's supposed to be for show sets me on fire. Every whispered promise in front of the cameras makes me forget we're pretending. And when he looks at me like I'm the only woman in the room, I almost believe it myself.
But Lucien's off-limits for one very big my father is his coach. One wrong move, and we both lose everything.
The closer we get to the wedding, the harder it is to remember where the act ends and the truth begins.

_____________

Pro Hockey Romance
Forced Proximity
Opposites Attract
Fake Dating
Found Family
Reverse Grumpy Sunshine
Forbidden Romance

_____________

A Deal With the Defender is the fourth book in the Love on the Line all books are interconnected standalones about a team of professional hockey players and the women they fall hard for. The books don’t need to be read in order, but future characters appear in each book

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Talia

* * *

“Want another one?”

The bartender looks at me expectantly, his gaze moving from my empty glass to my face.

I’d love another whiskey sour, followed by three more. Drinking until I flop face-first on the bar sounds fantastic. But I can’t, because not spiraling into alcoholism is the one and only thing I’ve managed to succeed at in the past five months.

“Just some water, please.”

He nods and walks away, leaving me to play Tetris on my phone in peace. Today has been hard, and the last thing I need is some stranger trying to strike up a conversation before my dad gets here.

Moving in with my dad at age twenty-five. I definitely didn’t have that on my bingo card six months ago. It felt better than I thought it would to sell every piece of furniture I had at my San Francisco apartment, pack up my clothes, and drive to Cleveland.

I never have to look at the leather recliner Kyle used to sit in. Or my bed, where he’d sleep over after we watched Survivor and had perfunctory sex.

And best of all, I’ll never again step foot in the kitchen where he proposed while I was making his favorite dinner—meat loaf and mashed potatoes. Fuck meat loaf. But not mashed potatoes, because they’re delicious.

It was an underwhelming proposal, but did I care? I actually convinced myself it was romantic that my douchebag ex got down on one knee while I was knuckle-deep in two pounds of raw meat, eggs and breadcrumbs. In the video I deleted five months ago, he asked me to turn around, and when I did, both messy hands in the air, he asked me to marry him.

And stupidly, I said yes. If I could go back in time, I’d punch him in the face instead.

“Holy shit, they’re here!” the woman sitting on the barstool next to mine gushes. “I told you they hang out here. How do my boobs look?”

“Amazing. But why are they all wearing suits?” one of her friends asks.

The woman beside me responds. “That’s what they always wear after games. Oh my god, oh my god, I have no chill.”

Games? I narrow my eyes in a glare at my phone screen. It’s just my luck that a bunch of pro hockey players would come into the place my dad wanted to meet up with me.

Maybe they play another sport. Any other sport.

“Who’s the one with the red tie?” someone asks. “Because he can tie my hands up with that any day of the week.”

“That’s Carter Stanton,” the woman next to me says. “He’s married.”

“Ugh. Of course.”

I glance up, irritation coursing through my veins. It’s definitely a group of hockey players. Carter is the captain of the Cleveland Crush, and they had a home game tonight.

If I was feeling nice, I’d warn the woman next to me about the perils of being a puck bunny. Hockey players are users. They change women more often than they change underwear. And screwing them isn’t the status symbol puck bunnies think it is.

I’m not feeling nice, though. My vibe has been the same since September—bitter, pissed off and stabby. I haven’t talked to anyone but my therapist, my parents, and Sergio, the delivery driver who brought groceries to my apartment. The Chinese and pizza places I ordered from had the decency to leave my food outside the door so I didn’t have to talk to them. But Sergio insisted on coming inside to help me unload the groceries. He was the only witness to my steady weight gain, watching the progression from pants with waistbands to stretchy sweatpants.

I’d been living on junk food, only moving from my couch when I absolutely had to. That is, until I ran out of money a few weeks ago.

Dad to the rescue. I would have moved into a homeless shelter before living with my mom. And while my father can be brash and impatient at his job, he’s always had a soft spot for his three daughters.

I promise you this will all make sense one day, Talia. You’ll look back and know Kyle did you a favor.

I crumbled when he said those words to me after the breakup. Then I went for a rage run to a park, where I screamed as loudly as I could until my throat hurt.

Twenty-pounds-lighter Talia was a runner. I ran to manage my moods and my weight, because a love of junk food isn’t a new thing for me.

I don’t care anymore, though. My weight? Fuck it. Mood? Fuck that, too. When my therapist told me I’m depressed, I just shook my head, because yeah, obviously.

“Which one is that?” the woman next to me whisper-hisses to her friends. “He’s looking at his phone so I can’t see his—” She inhales sharply. “It’s Lucien Beaumont. Hot, massive bulge and single. Jackpot.”

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Advertisement Getting the Grinder (Love on the Line #3) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/getting-the-grinder-love-on-the-line-3-read-online-brenda-rothert Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:52:46 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/getting-the-grinder-love-on-the-line-3-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Love on the Line Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)

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Leo Abbott is screwed. His new teammate won't stop trying to set him up with his twin sister—who unfortunately inherited the family unibrow. Desperate to avoid the world's most awkward dinner date, Leo lies about having a girlfriend. Too bad the name he blurts out in a panic is a woman who absolutely despises him.
Mara Torres has zero interest in doing Leo any favors, especially after he proved what a Neanderthal he is. But the chance to make the cocky hockey player squirm? That she can get behind.
Their fake relationship starts as pure revenge, but somewhere between heated arguments and sizzling tension, the line between hate and want gets dangerously blurred. Now they're facing their biggest challenge yet—what happens when enemies become lovers?

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Leo

* * *

“All I’m saying is it would’ve been nice to know the only titties I’d see at this bachelor party are Isaac’s,” my teammate Lucien says as he cracks open a can of beer.

Isaac grins at us from the kitchen of the sprawling Breckenridge cabin we rented for Bash’s last hurrah as a single dude. The main level of the cabin is wide open, the mountain view through the wall of windows in the main living area obstructed this afternoon by a blizzard.

“Wanna motorboat ’em?” Isaac, wearing only a pair of shorts, puckers his lips and circles his nipples with the pads of his index fingers.

“Pass,” Lucien mutters.

Some of the guys have been sitting in the hot tub. When Carter walks into the living area, his hair is damp and a cigar is tucked behind one of his ears. “It’s poker time, boys. I’ll accept IOUs.”

He cleaned all of us out last night, wisely drinking water while the rest of us got loaded. I’m nursing a hell of a hangover today and only drinking water. We have a rare eight-day break in December, and we’re spending the first three nights of it on this getaway. After we fly back home the day after tomorrow, I’m pig sitting Carter’s family pet, Darling, while he and his wife, Suki, take their girls to Fiji for the rest of the break.

“Let’s do whatever Bash wants,” Andrei, another of my teammates, says. “It’s his bachelor party.”

“It’s not like there are many options,” Carter says gruffly. “We’re trapped here because of the storm.”

Bash comes into the room, a beer in hand. “The plan was to stay here anyway. I don’t want to go barhopping. I just want time with you guys.”

I still can’t believe Bash is getting married in June. With our schedules, this was the best time for a bachelor party. His fiancée, Lainey, is having a low-key get-together with her friends at their house. They’re probably baking or something. She didn’t want to get shit-faced in Vegas or anything like that.

“Are we gonna get snowed in?” our newest teammate, Anson, asks from the kitchen. “It’s not letting up out there.”

“Our rentals have four-wheel drive,” Bash says. “We’ll be fine.”

“I’m not missing Fiji,” Carter says. “I’ll walk to the airport if I have to.”

Anson comes into the living area and sits down on the big leather sectional, where I’m sitting with Lucien. He looks at me and grins.

“My sister hearted all the pics I sent of you. I’m sure they’re all in her spank bank now.”

I smile weakly because fuck is it awkward when he tells me his twin sister has a thing for me. He took pictures of me in the hot tub last night and said he was going to send them to her. Even though lots of people have seen me shirtless, both in person and online, it felt weird.

“Ugh.” Isaac cringes. “I don’t want to know who does it for my sister.”

“Addison’s been going on about Leo Abbott for years,” Anson says. “She about had a coronary when I told her I was getting traded to Cleveland.”

Carter catches my wide-eyed look of discomfort and tries to pivot the conversation.

“Who’s in for poker?” he asks. “I’ve got more cigars and a bottle of Macallan.”

“I’m fucking hungry,” Andrei says. “Can we make something to eat first?”

“Hey Leo, have I told you what a great cook Addison is?”

Anson’s question makes me tense up. He’s my teammate and I don’t want to offend him, but he’s a hairy motherfucker with massive shoulders and a unibrow, and unfortunately, his sister looks exactly like him.

Not that it even matters. I’d never date a teammate’s sister, because it would create problems.

“I’m not looking for anyone to cook for me,” I say, shrugging. “No offense to anyone who wants to settle down, but I’m not there yet.”

“Wait ’til you try Addison’s meatballs. You’ll break out a ring.”

“I thought she wanted to try his meatballs,” Bash quips.

I flash a murderous glare at him. He and Carter are my closest friends; they know how uncomfortable I am about Anson’s attempts to set me up with his sister.

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Advertisement Blue Arrow Island (Blue Arrow Island #1) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/blue-arrow-island-blue-arrow-island-1-read-online-brenda-rothert Sat, 30 Aug 2025 08:42:20 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/blue-arrow-island-blue-arrow-island-1-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Blue Arrow Island Series by Brenda Rothert
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)

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A deadly island. A brutal regime. A forbidden attraction that could destroy them both.

Briar Hollis would rather die fighting than live kneeling—and New America's brutal regime is about to grant her wish. Condemned for refusing to breed the next generation of their twisted society, she's given an execution or exile to Blue Arrow Island, where survival is measured in heartbeats and mercy is a luxury no one can afford.

The island doesn't just break prisoners—it devours them.

Blue Arrow isn't just a prison; it's a savage paradise where predators lurk and the laws of science don’t apply. Here, mercenaries rule through blood and brutality, and every shadow hides a new threat. But Briar didn't come here to surrender.

Then she meets him.

Dark, lethal, and infuriatingly magnetic, he commands the island's most feared faction with an iron fist and secrets that could either save her life or end it. Their chemistry is a live wire—explosive, consuming, and absolutely forbidden. He's everything she should avoid, yet she finds herself drawn to the dangerous game they're playing, where one wrong move could mean death... or something far more dangerous.

Love.

As the island's mysteries unravel and prisoners lose their grip on sanity, Briar discovers she holds the key to destroying the twisted new world order. But it will require her to trust the one man who could betray her, navigate deadly alliances, and survive a power struggle that will test every limit she thought she had.
In a world where trust is a death sentence and love is the ultimate rebellion, how far will she go to burn it all down?

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

PART ONE

1

There’s a cost to what I do. It’s too heavy at times. But I’ve brought that cost on others, so I suppose the least I can do is bear it, even if it eventually crushes me.

Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Randall McClain

I’m alive. At least, I think so. Surely the afterlife doesn’t smell like diesel fumes and salt water. It’s been a long time since I breathed in anything but the musty decay of a prison cell.

I shift and raise my fingertips to my cracked lips, a bolt of pain zinging through one of my shoulders. When I open my eyes, overpowering light makes me squeeze them shut again. I’ve been in the dark for weeks; my eyes can’t handle the brightness.

Something nudges my leg. I ignore it, gently running my fingers over my wrists. I’m not tied up anymore. The welts left behind by the binds ache, but it’s nothing compared to my raging headache.

“Wake up,” someone whispers urgently, nudging my leg again.

I squint against the sunlight that floods my eyes, getting into a sitting position. A gust of thick, humid air blasts my ripe, unwashed scent straight into my nostrils.

I’m on the dingy white fiberglass deck of a boat, one of about two dozen people. Some of them are still sleeping.

No, not sleeping. The last thing I remember is guzzling the jug of water guards brought to my cell. My painful, swollen lips and intense thirst tell me I haven’t had water in a long time, and I’m groggy. I was unconscious. And the other people lying on the deck are too.

“We’re here,” the person who nudged me whispers.

I turn to look at the woman sitting next to me, my eyes starting to adjust. Her black, shoulder-length hair has dried blood crusted in it and I can feel the dread in her golden-brown eyes. She glances down at my wrists, and I assume she’s looking at my rope burns.

Then I see them in clear light for the first time—the thick black X tattoos that stretch from knuckles to wrist on the backs of both of my hands. It’s been several weeks since I was branded with the marks, but I couldn’t see them in the darkness. It’s like I’m looking at someone else’s hands, the skin familiar but the ink foreign.

She holds out her wrist, bearing the same tattoo. “I’m Amira.”

“Briar.”

“They’re taking us to an island.”

I fight to swallow against the dryness in my throat. I had no choice really, between exile and death for my so-called crime, but I thought exile meant a remote prison where I could plan an escape. How the hell will I escape from an island?

“Get up!” a deep male voice booms. “You shit sacks are jumping off this rig in about two minutes. Stand up so we can get a good look at you.”

I count the guards, all men wearing dark uniforms with the New America flag emblazoned on a large patch on the shoulder. The flag’s stripes are vertical now, the resemblance to a cell a fitting metaphor. The guards are a motley mixture of big and small, shaven and unshaven, fastidious and disheveled, because there are only two qualifications to serve in President Soren Whitman’s rapidly growing empire: be male and believe in Whitman’s brutal reshaping of society to serve his twisted biblical agenda.

There are eight of them, all strapped with multiple weapons. One of them, a bulky man with his finger casually resting on the hilt of a dagger sheathed at his waist, studies several of us and calls out, “I’ll do a hundred credits on the biter.”

I force myself to look down and appear demure, though it’s a little late for that. He’s talking about me—I bit the thumb of one of the guards so hard he had to get it stitched up. He was trying to carry a girl out of our cell, and there’s only one reason guards come alone to cells late at night.

I’m sure that same guard, or maybe a different one, got that girl another time. But not that night. That night, she was safe.

“Fifty on that little Hispanic one,” another guard says, leering at Amira.

“I’m fucking Egyptian,” she says under her breath.

“Don’t,” I caution her.

Whitman’s soldiers take extra glee in being cruel to women, and we can’t give them a reason to quietly cut our throats out here, where no one will ever know.

While one guard finishes taking bets, another walks around, kicking the people still lying motionless. Two of them groan and move. Six don’t. He kicks them again, pulling his foot back farther this time to inflict more pain.

“Six dead,” he says flatly. “You want us to throw them over?”

Why are six prisoners dead? What the hell did they do to us?

“Yeah, I’m not burying those fucks,” another guard says. “Toss ‘em.”

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Advertisement Wanting the Winger (Love on the Line #2) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/wanting-the-winger-love-on-the-line-2-read-online-brenda-rothert Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:15:11 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/wanting-the-winger-love-on-the-line-2-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Love on the Line Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 52975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 265(@200wpm)___ 212(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >54

Sebastian Stone has a wedding to stop. His best friend’s sister is planning to make an epic mistake in six months, but no one else seems to get it.

So when Lainey Morris needs a place to stay in Cleveland for a four-month long research project, Bash offers her his house. As a pro hockey player, he’s on the road a lot, but when he’s home, he makes his case against her marrying Shane—or anyone else.

She’s stubborn and often has her head in a book, but Lainey is also beautiful, funny and sweet. Plenty of men would like to lock her down, but she needs to focus on herself. Take her time. Wait until she’s at least thirty.

Bash plans to use logic and reason to persuade Lainey to stay single, but everything falls apart when he finally figures out the he’s in love with her. But is it too late to hope she might feel the same?

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Bash

* * *

“Damn, bro. The resemblance between you and your son is uncanny.”

My teammate Carter cuts a glare at me. “Stop calling Darling my son.”

I can’t help smirking as I check out the photo he just showed me after we finished a six-mile run. Even though it’s August, his wife Suki already had family photos done for their holiday cards this year, and they include the family pet, a pig named Darling.

“The girls call him their brother and Suki calls him her son. Why you gotta be so cold?”

“He’s a two-hundred-and-eighty-two-pound pig and he ate one of my hockey sticks the other day. He’s lucky I even let him live in the house.”

Our teammate Leo shoves his shoulder. “I know you’re not fat-shaming my nephew. I’ll fucking fight you.”

Carter shrugs and pulls off his sweat-soaked T-shirt. “You’re both uninvited from fondue night.”

“The fuck we are,” I say. “Let me ask your boss about that.”

Harry, one of Suki’s best friends, is a chef. Once a month, he helps Suki host a fondue party for their family and close friends. It always has a huge spread of perfectly seasoned and cooked steak, chicken, vegetables and potatoes for the cheese fondue and assorted fruits and sweets for the chocolate fondue. It’s my favorite meal of every month.

“Remind my boss who really wears the pants in our relationship,” Carter says lightly. “I’m the man and I make the rules.”

I scoff and reach for my phone. “I’ll let her know.”

He frowns. “No, don’t.”

“That’s what I thought.” I glance at my phone screen, finding messages waiting.

One is from Jana, who delivers my groceries.

Jana: They didn’t have broccolini but they had broccoli so I got that. And they didn’t have Junior Mints so I got mint M&Ms.

I roll my eyes and thumbs-up her message. It’s fine on the broccoli, but not the candy. I’ll have to stop on my way home later to find Junior Mints for my new roommate.

She’s the one who sent the other message waiting for me.

Lainey: Running late. Can’t fit everything in my car so I’m unpacking and trying again. It’s not as fun as Tetris.

My jaw tenses. Why the fuck isn’t Shane, her fiancé, packing his car up with her shit and driving her here?

Because he’s a piece of shit. I already knew that, but I seem to be the only one. Lainey was cozied up to his side during their engagement party two months ago in Columbus, my hometown. And her brother Eric, who’s been one of my best friends since we were kids, thinks Shane’s good enough for his sister.

Not even close. When Lainey, who recently finished her master’s degree in microbiology, got a chance to do a semester-long research project with a professor at Cleveland State University, I told her she was staying with me. The house I bought after signing with the Cleveland Comets three years ago has five bedrooms, so I have plenty of room for her.

And this will give me a chance to convince her to dump Shane’s ass. She’s only twenty-four—way too young to be getting married.

If her own brother won’t talk some sense into her, I will. I’ve known her since she was a kindergartener with bright-red pigtails, and I’m not letting her make the biggest mistake of her life. I don’t have to report to training camp for another month, so I’ve got lots of free time.

Carter pats my belly. “You’re looking better than you were before last season started, Fatman.”

“I look fucking great, douchebag. And I did last year, too.”

That’s not entirely true. I have a distinctive voice—it’s deep and gravelly. Since high school, people have gotten a kick out of asking me to say, “I’m Batman” because I’ve got the voice for it. Knowing that, when I picked up fifteen pounds in the last offseason from slacking on my workouts and hiring an Italian chef, they hung up pictures of a heavyset cartoon Batman all over the locker room. And not just our locker room—visiting ones, too. Every time I walked into a room, they’d say, “I’m Fatman.”

So I lost the weight and the joke died—mostly. I didn’t drop the pounds for those fuckers, though, but because I was so much slower. I can’t let myself get out of shape again. Me, Leo and Carter have been running five days a week and lifting with our team trainers this offseason.

“Those are abs, by the way,” I tell Carter. “You probably don’t remember having those since you’re a lazy married guy now.”

A wrinkle forms between his brows as he looks down at his stomach. “I still have abs.”

“Those are called flabs.”

I take off my T-shirt, pointing at my own well-defined eight-pack. I’ve been on a high-protein Mediterranean diet for ten months now, and I’m in better shape than ever. The Fatman shit was a wake-up call. I have to stay in great shape, or I’m risking my career.

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Advertisement Changed by You (Minnesota Mammoths #3) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/changed-read-online-you-minnesota-mammoths-3-read-online-brenda-rothert Mon, 21 Apr 2025 22:20:41 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/changed-read-online-you-minnesota-mammoths-3-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Erotic, Insta-Love Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Minnesota Mammoths Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 41935 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 210(@200wpm)___ 168(@250wpm)___ 140(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >43

I have one job during my hockey go on a reality dating show and create buzz for my team by having a romance with a beautiful actress who checks all my boxes.

Farrah Reed is an stunning, confident and poised. Even though this show isn’t as real as the producers want viewers to think, I move into the Malibu beach house hoping to leave with a famous fiancée I’m genuinely in love with.

But then I get to know Farrah’s assistant Alice. Alice is everything her demanding boss isn’ sweet, shy and humble. The more time I spend with her, the more I want her—and only her. But the producers and Farrah want an ending for the show that doesn’t include Alice. I’m left with two go along with what my team expects of me and hurt Alice, or risk everything for the woman I burn night and day for.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

one

Alice

“Are you serious? This room is the size of my closet at my beach house. And my closet has more windows,” my boss Farrah, says cringing dramatically as she looks around the space.

It’s a beautiful room decorated in white with pops of pale yellow. The queen bed is layered with pillows and a crisp, bright-white duvet. A few framed vintage travel posters for coastal California are perfectly lined up on the walls.

“Check out that view, though.” I walk over and open the doors that lead onto a small balcony with two chairs and a tiny table, letting in the sound of the crashing waves.

She sighs, unimpressed. “Yeah, it’s nice. And I guess I won’t be in here much, anyway. I’ll be too busy with JP.”

“Exactly.” I side-eye the room’s small closet. “Which clothes are most important for the next few days? I’ll unpack what you’ll need and store the rest of the luggage in my room.”

Not that I have any extra space. The producers of Celebrity Love Malibu, the show Farrah is about to start filming here, balked when her agent told them she’d need a room for her personal assistant. The other fifteen celebrities on the show will all manage the five-week stay here without someone to bring them Starbucks and puree fresh fruit face masks, but not Farrah. And since it’s a sixteen-bedroom house and there are sixteen contestants, the producers had to squeeze me into the house’s staff quarters by moving a chef’s assistant to a hotel. My room is roughly the size of a postage stamp and it smells like fish.

“I don’t know yet.” Farrah shrugs. “The producers said they want their wardrobe people to dress me, but I’m thinking no. I’ll probably need Cara.”

My brows fly up in alarm. “Cara? Have you talked to her about it?”

Farrah laughs. “Of course not, that’s your job.”

I suppress a sigh and start typing out a text to Cara, a boutique owner who has been helping choose and order clothes for Farrah for more than a year. She’s in demand and her schedule is always booked, but Farrah expects her to be available anytime.

This is my own fault. I know how Farrah is about clothes. I should have asked her about it when she signed the contract to do the show.

“I’m starving,” Farrah says, sitting down on the bed to look at her phone. “Can you get me some tuna sushi? And a lavender water?”

“Of course. I’ll go right now.” I duck out of the room as quickly as I can, eager for a break.

Some people think actors hardly work, but the ones at the top of their game, like Farrah, work very hard. She starts her days at sunrise with yoga and meditation, which she insists I do with her. Then, a small breakfast and a ninety-minute workout. Those things are nonnegotiable unless she’s filming and the director can’t accommodate it.

When she’s not filming, her schedule is still full. She’s developing a line of cosmetics, and she has meetings for that and all sorts of other things, lunches and dinners with friends, and parties.

So freaking many parties. I’m an introvert and I hate everything about them. The cackling. The frivolity. The phoniness. Farrah rarely asks me to go to those with her because she doesn’t want to seem high maintenance.

Those are the evenings I recharge in bed with a book or catch up on her emails. Working for Farrah is demanding. We tried splitting it into two jobs--both of which were still a lot--but she complained so much about the other assistants that after going through several, she offered to triple my salary to work for her basically around the clock.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. When she’s filming, she’s sometimes occupied for sixteen hours a day or more, and I can pretty much do what I want as long as she can reach me by text. And it’s worth it to make the money I do at age twenty-six.

“Hey...Farrah’s assistant, right?” A middle-aged man with a baseball hat and a beard stops me as I’m about to walk out the beach house’s front door.

“Alice. Yes.”

“Can you ask her to meet us in the library for a production meeting at two?”

The what? Did he just say there’s a library here? Is this heaven masquerading as a beach house?

“Sure can.” I smile and wave at him, texting Farrah on my walk to the car.

Occasionally Farrah likes to ride places with me, even though she has a driver. She needs to wear a hat and glasses to disguise herself when we go, but she still likes to get out. That’s why I always get a rental she’d enjoy, and this time, I went with a white convertible Bronco.

I had to park more than a quarter of a mile from the house because of the show’s filming and security zones, but the walk to the car is nice on this bright June day.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >43

Advertisement Falling for the Forward (Love on the Line #1) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/falling-for-the-forward-love-on-the-line-1-read-online-brenda-rothert Wed, 12 Feb 2025 07:22:07 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/falling-for-the-forward-love-on-the-line-1-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Love on the Line Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 53238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 266(@200wpm)___ 213(@250wpm)___ 177(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >55

Suki Brennan is broke. After she co-signed several hefty loans for her ex’s business, he fled the country and left her working two jobs to pay his bills.

So when her new boss, a sulky pro hockey player who recently became the guardian of his three nieces, proposes a deal to help him secure permanent custody of the girls, she agrees.

If Suki fake marries Carter Stanton for one year, and pretends to be his doting wife, she’ll get half a million dollars and a clean divorce at the end. Not only will the money pay off all her debts, she’ll be able to help the girls she already adores settle fully into their new lives.

It’s a foolproof plan. At least, it seems like it. As Suki grows closer to Carter and his nieces, though, her feelings for them become very real. But does her brooding boss feel the same?

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Suki

I open my apartment door, groaning when I see a massive box addressed to “Naughty by Nature” sitting on the ground. After closing the door, I sigh and hang my head, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“More dildos?” my best friend Mara asks absently from the couch.

I sigh heavily and press my back to the door. “I just wanted a relaxing day off. I need to do laundry and I wanted to catch up on Survivor. Now we have to haul another superheavy box to the storage place and I’ll be thinking about how much I hate Tyler the entire time.”

“You do have impeccably bad taste in men.” She closes the law textbook she’s reading and takes off her glasses. “Let’s just get it done. We can pick up Starbies on the way home.”

I nod, knowing not even a vanilla bean Frap with extra caramel and whipped cream will lessen my urge to hunt down my ex-boyfriend. He left the country almost three months ago, ditching not only me but also his debts. That means I--the naive girlfriend who cosigned on a massive loan for his new adult toy business--lost my life savings and now have creditors after me.

Mara helps me drag the box into the apartment. When she pulls a box cutter out of her pocket, I pinch my brows together in a disgruntled look.

“Why waste time opening it? We know it’s yet another one of Tyler’s obnoxious organic sex toys that I’ll spend the rest of my life paying for.”

She shrugs. “We’re going to have to sell this stuff at some point to help get you out of debt. We need to know what we’ve got.”

I flop onto my favorite worn-out recliner, waiting for Mara’s one-woman comedy routine to start. She’s been my greatest ally since I split with Tyler, but sometimes I’m not in the mood to laugh about Naughty by Nature. Today is one of those days.

“Holy hell, that’s a lot of butt plugs!” She reaches into the box and pulls out a large neon-green plug.

“The Alien Invader,” I murmur. “The company told Tyler the materials were on back order and it would take a long time to fulfill it.”

She bursts out laughing. “The Alien Invader? I don’t care what it’s made of, no one wants their bunghole invaded.”

“I told him that.”

She’s still laughing. Mara even does the little snort thing she always does when she’s laughing so hard she’s about to pee.

“Did he seriously think people care whether their dildos and butt plus are nontoxic and BPA-free? It’s not something I’ve ever cared about.”

I don’t respond because we’ve had this conversation several times. I thought Tyler’s Stanford business degree meant he had good business sense. He sold me on his all-natural adult toy business over dinner at a tapas place one night, telling me it had the potential to make us seven figures a year within five years.

Us. That was what really did me in. I’m twenty-six, and when my boyfriend of more than three years started mentioning us and the future, I got heart eyes and lost all sense of reason.

What a fool I was. I can’t even bring myself to tell anyone but Mara about the financial grave I dug for myself. Not even my family knows. I’m working two jobs to keep up with the loan payments and not starve, and even though I’m broke as hell, I’ll keep doing it as long as I have to.

Anything to spare me the humiliation of admitting I didn’t just get dumped by a man I thought was in love with me. But I’m also going to be paying off his debts for the next twenty years while he’s probably wining and dining his next victim.

“So you’re still liking the new job?” Mara asks on the drive home from my rented storage bay, where we dumped off the box of Alien Invaders.

“I love it. The girls keep me so busy that ten hours a day feels like about three. And they’ve gotten used to me, I think.” I’m in my third week as a nanny for Carter Stanton, a pro hockey player for the Cleveland Crush. When I signed up at the nanny agency a month ago because I hated my boring office job, I never imagined I’d be hired the next week to take care of three little girls who lost their mother unexpectedly last month.

“Has your boss gotten any friendlier?”

I laugh because “friendly” isn’t a word I’d ever use to describe Carter. He’s gruff, relaying the essential information I’ll need every day before leaving for practice or a game with barely even a goodbye to the girls.

“No, but I don’t see much of him. I just leave when he gets home, like I do when the weekend nanny gets there.”

I usually waitress at a local sports bar on the weekends, but the bar is closed for the owner’s vacation, so I have a rare weekend off.

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >55

Advertisement Coyotes Ever After (Colorado Coyotes #7) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/coyotes-ever-after-colorado-coyotes-7-read-online-brenda-rothert Fri, 06 Dec 2024 20:23:46 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/coyotes-ever-after-colorado-coyotes-7-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Insta-Love, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 24377 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >25

The Colorado Coyotes series has come to an end...or has it?
Follow the Coyotes players and the women they love as they navigate life over the decade following the end of The Fall. The twelve main characters from the series each check in with a chapter from their point of view.
Through the highs and lows of marriage, family, hockey and life, the teammates’ bond only gets stronger with time.
Who got traded to a new team? Which couple has five children? Did Mila ever mellow out?
Get all the answers you didn’t know you needed in this heartwarming conclusion to the Colorado Coyotes series.

Please note that Coyotes Ever After is not a full-length novel. This novella is about half the length of the novels in the series.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

THREE YEARS AFTER THE END OF THE FALL

Stella

“Ahhhh!” I hike my leg up onto the back seat of Mila’s Range Rover. “Is it crowning? It has to be because this hurts like fuuuuuck!”

She gapes at me, her uniformed driver giving me an alarmed look in the rearview mirror as he presses his foot down on the gas pedal, speeding toward the hospital like a racecar driver.

“What? I’m not checking if that’s what you’re thinking.” She gives me her patented look that’s somehow a combination of disgust and indifference. “Just keep breathing. We’ll be at the hospital soon.”

On the one hand, I’m elated. Ben and I tried for almost a year to get pregnant the first time, and I lost the pregnancy at eight weeks. After I recovered, it took thirteen anxiety-inducing months to get pregnant again, and at thirty-nine weeks, it’s now safe for me to deliver our baby.

But I didn’t imagine it like this, with Ben in Tampa for a road trip, all flights out of the city grounded by a hurricane. When I realized I was in labor and frantically messaged the group chat for the Coyotes players and spouses, only Mila responded that she was on her way.

No Ben. No Cam. No Tess or Shelby. It’s just me and the team’s hotheaded Russian owner. Well, and her driver, Carl, who seems like a nice person but was not part of my carefully-designed birth plan.

“Look at my vagina!” I scream at Mila, frantic. “You have to guide the baby out if it’s crowning!”

She lowers her brows, scowling. “For fuck’s sake, Stella, it’s not crowning. This is your first baby and your contractions are still five minutes apart. I was in labor for nineteen hours with Anastasia and thirteen with Irina.”

I yell out a long, single syllable, about to lose my shit. This is the worst. Ben didn’t want to go on the road trip with me this pregnant, but he had no choice. So now contractions are ripping through my body and I don’t have my birth partner. Cam is my back up, and she’s trying to secure a babysitter so she can get to the hospital.

Angry tears spill from my eyes. “Mila, I swear to God, if you don’t look at my vagina right now, I will never forgive you! I’ve waited a long time for this baby and I’m scared.”

She shakes her head, her glare softening. “Fine. I’ll look. But I’m not touching your underwear.”

There’s a low, electric humming sound as Carl raises up the dark partition that separates the front and back seats of the car.

At least I’m not alone. Mila isn’t an outwardly warm person to anyone but her family. Her love language with everyone else involves writing checks, and she’s generous. She always tells her players to put family first, and she backs them up when they do.

I put my foot back on the car floor. My maternity pants have a loose elastic waistband, so I grab it and my underwear at the same time, grunting as I arch my hips up off the car seat to slide my clothes down.

“I’ll just...donate this car to charity or something,” Mila says crisply.

I’m in no mood.

“Fuck you, Mila,” I snap. “You’re the one who offered to take me to the...oh fuck! It’s another contraction! Get down there; you might need to deliver the baby!”

“Breathe, Stella.”

She helps me get my clothes from around my ankles. Moving one foot back up to the car seat, I pant and moan my way through a rising contraction as Mila gets to her knees on the floor.

“Jesus, I’ve never been this close to another woman’s vagina,” she mutters. “And I was right, the baby isn’t crowning. You’ll make it to the hospital just fine.”

“Oh God! It’s like someone’s stabbing me in the stomach with a machete!”

Mila moves back into her seat, answering her phone. “Hey...yeah, I’m taking her to the hospital.”

She moves her mouth away from the phone to talk to me. “Colby says Ben borrowed a car from a Tampa player and he’s driving to Atlanta to get a flight to Denver.”

“Ben,” I say frantically. “Can I talk to him?”

“Colby’s not with him, but he’s on his way.”

She goes back to the call. “Call Quentin and tell him to arrange a chartered flight for Ben...yeah, tell him to get a pilot on standby...thanks, love...okay, I will. Bye.”

I take a deep breath as the contraction winds down. “I have a birth plan. It’s in the planner in my bag.”

She laughs, genuinely amused. “I don’t get birth plans. You’re going to deliver a baby. What is there to plan?”

“Who will be in the room with me, whether I want an epidural, whether my pubic hair is shaved.”

She scoffs. “Did you read a birth planning book from the 1980s? They don’t shave women’s pubes anymore.”

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >25

Advertisement The Fall (Colorado Coyotes #6) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.books2020.com/the-fall-colorado-coyotes-6-read-online-brenda-rothert Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:05:01 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-fall-colorado-coyotes-6-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >49

My timing on the ice might be great, but when I asked Cameron Ellis out almost a year ago, it was weeks after she’d sworn off men for a year. I understand why she did it. Her past choices in men have been...well, awful, and she’s a single mom who wants to show her sons she doesn’t need a man to be happy.
So when I finally get her to agree to go out with me, I’m all in. Then my timing fails me again and I crash and burn on the date, blowing my chances with her.
I’m built for fun. Life taught me that loving people is just a set up for inevitable heartbreak. Problem is, my heart’s not doing so great now that Cam put me in the friend zone.
I have to win her back. She’s everything I never realized I not only want, but need. Showing her I’m not like every man who’s ever let her down will take more than just good timing. It’s going to take everything I’ve got.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Cam

“Where do you want this one?” Dom asks me, holding a box so tall I can’t see his face.

“Wherever the label says,” I murmur absently for at least the thirtieth time since moving day started this morning.

“It says Assorted Dildos, but I wasn’t sure if you liked to diddle yourself exclusively in your bedroom.”

“What?” I lunge toward the box, my cheeks warm with embarrassment.

Who wrote that on one of the moving boxes? My twin sons are smart and they love playing tricks on me, but surely they don’t know what a dildo is and how to spell it. They’re nine. That would be a huge mom fail.

I inspect the box, my future brother-in-law waiting patiently. There’s nothing written on it.

“Why are you like this?” I roll my eyes and shove his shoulder.

“If the box had a label that said which room it goes in, I’d put it there. I do have a few brain cells to work with.”

“You’re basically my third child. Put it in the kitchen.”

In the year my boys and I lived with Dom, my sister Tess and her two kids in Dom’s luxurious Denver house, I got to know Dom a lot better. Even when he annoys me, I love him to death. He’s so good to Tess. He’s good to all of us, but her especially.

“Hey,” Tess says as she walks through the front door. “Unpacking all this will take forever, you know. It’s not too late for us to just move it all back and forget this whole thing.”

I smile at her as she passes me a sandwich wrapped in white paper, having just returned from taking my boys Sam and Tate and my niece Hannah out for a late lunch. Tess has fought me every step of the way on moving out of Dom’s house. Even Dom said we should stay another year so I could save more money. He never charged me any rent to stay at his house, and being there while I finished my degree and started my new job took a lot of financial pressure off of me.

It was time, though. Dom and Tess have only been together for a little over a year, and my nephew Zane will be seventeen soon. With him leaving soon for college, I want them to have time to become a foursome.

As much as I love my sister, who is my best friend, my goal, as we both struggled to get by while I went to school part time, was to be financially secure and independent. To show my sons that their mom can and always will take care of them.

“It’s a solid idea, but I think we’ll stay,” I tell Tess.

She sighs dramatically. “I guess the rest of us will have to move in here, then.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

My new home is a neat three-bedroom ranch. It doesn’t compare to Dom’s, but it’s mine, and I’m able to give my boys something they’ve always wanted but never had—their own bedrooms.

“Seriously, you okay?” Tess asks me.

I meet her gaze and smile. She knows me better than anyone, so she knows that while this move is a good thing overall, I’m still haunted by memories of the reason we moved into Dom’s house in the first place. A guy I dated for a couple of months, Jake, stalked me. It was the most terrifying and helpless-feeling experience of my life.

Jake is in prison now, but it’s still scary to be moving out of Dom’s house, which has a top-notch security system. And also...Dom. Even though, as a pro hockey player, he’s on the road a lot, he was the one who caught Jake when Jake was prowling around his house.

I shove aside the unwanted thoughts, reminding myself I’ve moved on.

“Hey, pass me that one.”

My heart beats faster at the sound of the deep male voice as Dom’s teammates Rowan and Beck walk through the open front doorway.

Tess squeaks and practically runs toward the kitchen. She knows I have a thing for Rowan and she wants to give us a chance to talk alone.

“Come on, Boni, let’s go play in my room,” my son Sam says as he leads Dom’s Great Dane into the house. The twins adore Boni, and Dom told them Boni could spend the first night in our new house with them.

“You’re supposed to be unpacking your room,” I remind my son.

“I will.”

Rowan approaches me with a smile, carrying several stacked pizza boxes. “Hey, are you hungry?”

The chastising look I mean to give him probably looks more like an adoring gaze. “You didn’t have to do that. I was going to get pizza for you guys.”

“Beat you to it.” He winks. “You should take a break; you’ve been on your feet all day.”

“I’m going to.” I scan the dozens of packed moving boxes stacked in the living room, feeling overwhelmed. “Soon.”

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