Author K. A. Linde presents One Cruel Night, a prequel to the Cruel series.

Gavin King is not boyfriend material. And neither am I. That’s how our friendship works. We flirt and tease and joke, but at the end of the day, playing wingman is preferable to risking my heart.

He’s too hot for this small town. Too polished for this seedy bar. And a hundred percent my type. Our connection is immediate. The desire is blatant. I’ve never felt anything like it. Then, I make the mistake of a lifetime: I let him walk out. I’m still kicking myself when I show up to my best friend’s Wright family pool party. I walk outside and stop dead. He’s here. And he’s a Wright cousin. My best friend’s brothers are off limits, but she never said anything about her cousin.

I shouldn’t have hooked up with my one-night stand...again. To be fair, I was having the worst day of my life. I was sure that nothing else could go wrong. Then in walks Jordan Wright. We have a heated history, and I’ve been avoiding him. Not least of all because he’s a hundred percent my type with those big brown eyes, a ripped body, and his blisteringly broody charm. I said I’d never go near him again. But he’s there for me when I need him. And well, old habits die hard.

I should have known I was in trouble when I backed my old, beat-up truck into the shiny Range Rover. The driver looked like a gorgeous fallen angel–one who’d been booted right out of paradise for being a giant prick. Good thing I’ll never have to see him again.

Lila James is my best friend’s little sister, and I’ve always looked out for her. She's five years younger than me, and when she left for college, she was just a kid. But now she’s home for the summer—and she’s definitely not a kid anymore.

Once I saw Marnie Long, a sassy, sultry, charismatic older woman in a bar, I couldn’t peel my eyes off her. I wanted her. At least, for one night. I’m way too busy with my career these days for anything more. As it turned out, after recently getting burned, Marnie was on the same page as me—all she wanted was one night of fun. I was happy to be of service. What I didn’t expect during our night together, however, was how deeply we connected. And how much I was dying to see her again the next morning.

Rule number one for having a one-night stand: Don’t fall for the girl. After a lengthy dating slump, I finally met someone who sparked my interest. Well, first the sparks flew when we argued. Later in the evening those sparks ignited into something more. I was drawn to Devyn, in a way I hadn’t felt in a really long time. Needless to say, I was disappointed when she abruptly left after our amazing night together. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. But she hadn’t even given me her number. In a city with eight-million people, I figured I’d never see Devyn again.

It was supposed to be the best day of my life. But the second I got up, things started to fall apart. The kitchen just caught on fire. Flowers were from a funeral. My bride-to-be just had an allergic reaction, leaving by ambulance. Oh, and my ex-girlfriend just walked into the church. They say you have to see the signs when they are right in front of you. Maybe she was just mine to have.

When my grandmother found out she didn’t have long to live, she embarked on a crazy trip—jumping out of airplanes and scuba diving with sharks. After I repeatedly voiced my concern, Gram blocked me—her own grandson—on text and social media, leaving me only her travel companion Eleanor’s number.

When I discover my boyfriend is cheating on me, I move out right away taking what I love most – my dog. As I fly out the door, I make sure to swipe the thing my ex loves best–the VIP tickets he won to a hockey game, complete with the chance to spend an evening with the city’s two biggest NHL stars. I can’t wait to snap selfies with my ex’s idols and rub it in his face.

It all started with an unexpected phone call. Two years after my fiancé passed away in an accident, his father died suddenly, leaving Brad’s adult special-needs brother with no one to care for him. The next thing I knew, I was on a cross-country drive to New Hampshire where I’d be moving in to look after Scottie until I could get him into a group home. The last thing I ever expected? I wouldn’t be taking care of him alone.

They say when it rains, it pours, but this is some serious BS. It doesn’t help that Bennett was the man I had my last one night stand with. It definitely doesn’t help that he seems to want me just as much as I want him. The issue is, he won’t do anything about it, but then we’re forced to attend a tech conference in Vegas, and I think it may just be what I need to turn this thing around.

Working as Ruslan Oryolov’s personal assistant is the job from hell. After a long day spent tending to the billionaire’s every whim, I need some stress relief. So when I get home that night, that’s exactly what I do. Problem is, my thoughts are still stuck on the bosshole, who’s ruining my life. That’s fine—because of all Ruslan’s many sins, being gorgeous might be the most dangerous.

A single mother. An up-and-coming drummer with a sordid past. Their paths never should have crossed. But when a senseless crime rocks Mia West's entire world, she agrees to spend the summer hiding out at her rock-star brother's mansion in Savannah until the storm blows over. What she never expected was the gorgeous, brooding drummer living in the guest house. His darkness a lure. His gaze a trap. She knows better than to go after what will hurt her most.

When Liz Dougherty’s first reporting assignment for her North Carolina college newspaper finds her covering a state senator’s impromptu press conference, she has no idea how drastically her life is about to change. Senator Brady Maxwell may look the part with his devastating good looks and impeccable style, but his politics rub Liz the wrong way, and she’s not going to let him off easy. Liz’s hardball question catches Brady off guard and shows her editor, Hayden Lane, that she’s headed places as journalist. But to Liz’s surprise, she’s also headed for a secret, high-stakes romance with Brady Maxwell.

I’m the type of girl who’s given up on fairy tales. So when Beck – the hot new busboy at work - starts flirting with me, I know better than to get my hopes up. Happily ever afters aren’t for the average. I learned that the hard way. But how can I be expected to resist a man who can quote Austen, loves making me laugh, and seems to be everything hot and good in this world? Only there’s so much more to him than that. Billionaire playboy? Check. Troubled soul? Check.

It was supposed to be a simple weekend away to forget the heartache caused by my cheating husband. But the man sitting next to me in 1B has different plans. Cash’s whiskey-colored eyes and easy smile beg me to dance beneath the stars, kiss in the moonlight, and walk hand in hand down the streets of Boston. Unfortunately, life has other plans because I’m still married, and Cash James is the billionaire playboy standing between me and my dream promotion.

Princess Pilar is tired of playing by the rules. She’s sick of the spotlight and being seen as the uptight goody-too-shoes the media has cast her to be. She’s especially tired of the fact that her brothers are allowed to run off and do whatever they want while she sits inside watching the world pass her by. That’s why she decides that while her older brothers are off on their usual summer holidays, she’s going to quietly pack her things and travel to the one place her parents have always forbidden her to step foot on - Ibiza.

Tia Monroe was smart, sassy, and successful. Sure, she could get a little crazy at times - life around Tia was never boring - but that was part of her appeal. And while she didn't see herself as classically beautiful, she had no shortage of options in the boyfriend department. She just hadn't found one who held her interest. Until she laid eyes on Eric Larsson, and then it was lust at first sight. He packed the perfect mix of smoldering sexy and unapologetic cool into his blond-haired, blue-eyed, ridiculously hot six-foot-four frame.

What happens when you’re forced to seduce the one person you vowed never to love? You get screwed...in more than one way. I walked out of Tucker Middleton’s bedroom seven years ago, leaving him hurt and angry. Now I need his help; the only way I can get it is to make him think I want him back. The only problem is we have silently vowed to hate one another for the rest of our lives. In order to get Tucker to help me - I have to seduce him. Easy right? Hell yes! I’m the CEO of CMI Consulting. If I set my mind to something, I make it happen.

Tessa O'Connell is a girl as ordinary as they come - or so she thinks. Her aim for senior year is to keep her head down yet somehow manage to convince her childhood love, Jay Stone, to love her back. What she isn't prepared for is for Jay's brother, Cole, to return to town and change the life she's always been seemingly content to live. Tall, gorgeous as all hell, and a bad boy with ocean blue eyes and the perfect edge of adorability, he was her greatest tormentor, her number one enemy.

He says they can both love me. Protect me. Be the men I need. Can I possibly believe them? Every one of my relationships—from hookups to business partners—begins and ends with an NDA. Hell, I’ve never even been on a real date. That’s what happens when your famous, secretly gay parents go to extremes to protect their kids from the media’s unrelenting spotlight.

Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career - and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules: nude pics are by invitation only; if someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice; protect your heart. Only there aren't any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night...and disappears.

After an unfortunate incident and a forced leave of absence from the Secret Service, Arden Ryan is moving back to Chicago where she can get over her failures in the comfort of her childhood home.

As the owner of Licked, an eclectic ice creamery and bar, Ryleigh Phillips doesn't have time for that love stuff. Serving up Nibble My Nuts sundaes and Drunken Sailor boozy shakes are as close to an orgasmic affair as she's had in months thanks to her expanding empire - until the night of her 10-year high-school reunion. When Ryleigh's crush, gorgeous ex-football god Cameron Mathis, comes streaking into her life (literally - streaking), she begins to wonder if she really can have it all. Enter Hunter Morgan, the contractor in charge of Licked's renovations....

We have reputations for a reason. His? Spencer Beckett: Princeton Charming. Ivy League Playboy. Rich AF. Hers? Charlotte Hayes: Campus sweetheart. Virgin. Working her booty off to get through this last semester. When a bet pushes these two together, it's fire and ice...and Charlotte is melting. Fast. But Charlotte has a chip on her shoulder. She doesn't believe that fairy tales exist in the real world.

How did I go from being insulted by Charlee Cox to hiring her to be my assistant? How is it that she’s chaos in color - making me crazy and my life better at the same time? I never thought I would be staring down at her bright blue eyes begging me to go along with the ridiculous scheme I suggested. Yes, I suggested it. Like the idiot I am, I thought hey, why not start an HR nightmare and have my assistant ask me to marry her? Confused? Don’t worry, so am I.

In a moment of restlessness, Tate Grayson sold his multimillion-dollar company and spun his love of sports into a radio talk show. Life, and love, is too short to take seriously - a fact he enjoys rubbing in uptight radio host Noelle Butler's face. After the death of her parents, a tragedy she blamed on herself, Noelle vowed to live a controlled, focused life. Now a psychologist, she channels her need for connection into her radio show.

I've always regretted not being confident enough to talk to my college crush. When he shows up during my friend's bachelorette party, I refuse to let my second chance slip through my fingers.

Author K. A. Linde presents One Cruel Night, a prequel to the Cruel series.

He’s too hot for this small town. Too polished for this seedy bar. And a hundred percent my type. Our connection is immediate. The desire is blatant. I’ve never felt anything like it. Then, I make the mistake of a lifetime: I let him walk out. I’m still kicking myself when I show up to my best friend’s Wright family pool party. I walk outside and stop dead. He’s here. And he’s a Wright cousin. My best friend’s brothers are off limits, but she never said anything about her cousin.

For Reyna Carpenter, giving up her body isn't a choice. It's survival. In a civilization laid to waste by poverty and desperation, Reyna accepts a high-paying position with the wealthy and hungry vampire elite. Her new job is as the live-in blood escort for the intimidating, demanding, and devilishly handsome Beckham Anderson. He's everything she expected from a vampire, except for one thing - he won't feed off her. Reyna soon discovers that behind Beckham's brooding, wicked façade lies a unique and complex man.

Bryna feels his eyes on her. Hot, seductive, enticing. He's at least 10 years older than her 17 years, and he knows exactly what he's doing to her with that look. Walking away would be the smart thing to do...but she can't. Not that first night when he takes her home and claims her body. Not when he shows up in her life again with expensive gifts to win her trust. Not even when she's falling for him, and everything else is falling apart....

After Serena's boyfriend of six years abruptly leaves her, she indulges in mountains of chocolate. When that doesn't mend her broken heart, her friends convince her that a night out is just what the doctor ordered. That night she meets James. The encounter is breathtaking. Electrifying. And best not repeated. James is a man who has amassed a fortune by taking risks. He's charming, seductive, and looking for fun. He's the exact opposite of Serena. But sometimes opposites attract. Sometimes they give in to burning passion. But are they meant for each other?

Gavin King is not boyfriend material. And neither am I. That’s how our friendship works. We flirt and tease and joke, but at the end of the day, playing wingman is preferable to risking my heart.

I'm in love with two men. But I can only marry one. And today is my wedding day. The bridesmaids button my wedding dress. They titter excitedly as the music begins. My groom is waiting for me. I walk down the aisle prepared to say I do. All according to plan.

The public labels me a Mafia monster, a man without a soul, and one hated by many. They're not wrong, and I'm not sorry for it. When my father orders me to marry a longtime enemy's daughter to settle a score between our families, she did what any smart woman with a beating heart would do. She ran. So, I hunted her down. She tries to negotiate for her freedom, but despite being inexplicably drawn to the deviant woman, I refuse her pitiful bribes with pleasure. I'll promise her freedom to get the answers I need, but I'll burn this city to the ground before I let her go.

Lorenzo Gambini is bored. So f--king bored. Most people either annoy him or avoid him, afraid to face him. Figuratively. Literally. With his face partially disfigured, scarred, he looks every bit the monster the stories make him out to be: the notorious Scar. They say he's a sociopath. Maybe he's a psychopath. Whatever path he's on, people tend to stay far away from it. Until one day, a young woman bumps right into him - a woman just as fed up with life, but for much different reasons.

Billionaire Hayes Rivers came into my life like a hurricane. Heir to an oil empire, he was sexy and seductive, controlling and scorching hot. I craved every touch, every filthy promise that fell from his beautiful mouth, knowing he could break me. My past had left me battered and bruised, with scars he was determined to heal.