Rom Angst

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most. Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place. As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

I didn’t know he was forbidden until after our one night stand… I met Milo Corti during his self-destructive era, and he met me at the beginning of mine. That night when we crossed paths at a college party, we only had one to feel good during our hell storms. After we parted ways, I’d planned never to see him again. That was until I showed up for my first day as a student-teacher and found him sitting right there before me. Now I was forced to cross paths with the person meant to be nothing more than a fading memory. The more time we spent together, the more drawn I felt toward him. When his world shifted for the worst, I couldn’t help but to lean in closer. I’d always done the right thing. For the first time ever, I wanted to do something very wrong. I wanted to fall in love with the one person who was off-limits. The problem with falling for something forbidden? Once you began to descend, you were destined to crash and burn.

“These kisses of his...they're demanding and possessive. They're hungry and deep. They're the kisses of a man who wants more of a woman—who wants everything—and isn't going to stop until he gets it." Author Olivia Rossi hasn’t been able to write a word since tragedy struck two years ago and ripped her world apart. Heartbroken and still haunted by the past, she accepts an offer to spend the summer at a friend’s apartment in Paris in search of healing and her lost muse. What she finds instead is James, an enigmatic stranger who ignites in her an unexpected and all-consuming passion. Agreeing to tell each other nothing more than their first names, Olivia and James embark on a torrid affair. But the more time they spend together, the more Olivia begins to realize her summer fling is turning into a powerful connection…and that the magnetic man she’s falling in love with might not be what he seems at all. Author's Note: This is a work of literary fiction, not a romance. Readers looking for a traditional happy ending should look elsewhere.