When architect Tess Abbot's house catches on fire during renovation, she blames building contractor Roman St. John for the blaze. A man of his word, Roman honors a boast Tess had goaded him into making, that if the job wasn't done on time she could move into his house. As bad an idea as moving in with a hot man who has marriage material written all over him, the stubborn Tess is hell bent on holding him to his word. But escalating sexual tension and close quarters confound her determination to keep her hands off the one man who could reduce her to the "June Cleaver" status her father has planned for her. While Tess adds the spark to Roman's life, Roman tames Tess with the magic words. "Don't need me. Want me" in this modern day Taming of the Shrew story.

When life handed Dixie Rae Carrington lemons, she made lemonade. Widowed in her mid-twenties, her husband's life insurance depleted by a custody battle with her father-in-law over her son, and the mortgage on her dream restaurant more than she can handle, she starts over with a defunct farm alongside a rural Michigan highway. She turns the first floor of her grandmother's farmhouse into a restaurant, the upstairs spare room into a rental, and the empty barnyard into a haven for cast-off animals. When life handed Sam Ryan lemons, he ran. But, after running away from his problems and obligations all his adult life, Sam's uncle offers him a means back into the good graces of his family. Unfortunately, what the family patriarch wants Sam to do is vilify his son's widow, Dixie. But Sam quickly realizes there is no dirt to dig up and the family he really wants is Dixie's. Now he just has to hope she doesn't find out what's really brought him into her life before he can win her heart.

Kelly Jackson always said heroes were just ordinary people who did extraordinary things. Unfortunately, she didn't believe there was any man out there who would do anything extraordinary for her. Not that she was looking for a mate. She was a woman focused on proving herself as a Conservation Officer to the world and her father. Then Dane St. John showed up in her little corner of Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the looks, the ego, and the charm to take him to the top as an up and coming movie action hero. He paid attention to her. He made her feel like a woman. He was the perfect fantasy tryst. Too bad he turned out to be a whole lot more substantial than some airhead hunk and Kelly fell in love. Too bad because, in spite of his strong family values, his idea of having a family fell into the someday category; and history had taught Kelly, when a man isn't ready for a family, he can't be counted on. So, when she discovers their affair produced a baby, she doesn't tell him because there are no heroes…not for her.

Bliss O'Hara poured all her love into raising her orphaned brother and the romance novels she wrote. Now that her brother's an adult and gone, why isn't she looking for Mr. Right? Because the perfect man for her might just be a creation of her imagination, the hero she penned to life in her crossover action-adventure series. He's not real…until the flesh and blood image of her fictional hero strides off the pages of her novel and onto a television talk show set during an interview. Former Navy SEAL Jake St. John, the eldest of the St. John siblings, runs a high risk security firm out of Mexico. He's livid someone is putting him and his men at risk by detailing their missions in a novel. Searching out the author leads him to Bliss O'Hara. Turns out the source of Bliss' research has been her brother…who is Jake's computer geek. But now he's missing. Naturally Bliss wants to find her brother. Jake has his own reasons to hunt down the kid. As the security firm's computer guru, the kid knows way too much about Saint Security. But it isn't a simple case of missing persons. Her brother is mixed up in something that endangers them all. To solve the mystery Jake must work with Bliss. And working with Bliss forces Jake to face he's more than the weapon SEAL training has made of him.