The hotly anticipated sequel to Losing Control.

I thought I needed only one thing in my life–the money and power to crush one man. But the moment I laid eyes on Victoria Corielli, my thirst for revenge was replaced by my craving for her.

No rule would keep me away; no obstacle too large to overcome. Not her will, not our differing social positions, not my infamous past. When she lost everything, I helped her pick up the pieces. When she trusted me with everything, she sealed her fate.

I’ve convinced Victoria she can put her heart in my hands. Now I have to protect it–from her shady stepfather and my business rivals, from enemies known and hidden. I’ll do anything to keep her. And I might have to prove it, because now Victoria’s risking more than her heart to be with me; she’s risking her life.

“What are we making?”

“Pasta and shrimp cooked in lemon and white wine sauce. Why don’t you go over and get some bread? Maybe sourdough rolls, and I’ll meet you at the seafood place.” She points down a ways.

I kiss her again and leave to do her bidding. Inside the bakery, I find dozens of different loaves of bread and rolls. On the advice of a helpful clerk, I buy something called a Tuscan log sourdough, which is shaped like a log roll with short, stubby branches. I figure what we don’t eat, we can use to feed the ducks this weekend in Connecticut. Although I don’t know that we have ducks up there. I might have to buy some.

When I catch up with her at the seafood counter, there’s a man—make that an asshole—chatting her up. He has an arm braced against the glass case, and his eyes are taking off her clothes piece by piece

“Hey, Ian,” she says when I approach.

“Hi, bunny.” I put my hand on her neck and kiss her on the forehead. I need to get a ring on this woman right away. “Are you having problems deciding which fish to buy?”

He smirks. “Just making conversation.”

I run my tongue over my teeth wondering how mad Tiny would be if I punched this guy out. Pretty mad, I guess, so I lean down and kiss her again—only this time on the lips. Hard.

She rolls her eyes. “I’m waiting for our shrimp.”

The guy still doesn’t leave. He hovers, like a stupid dumb cow, on my right as if Tiny is just going to peel away from me and give him her number.

“Check out is over there,” I gesture toward the registers.

“I’m not ready,” he says, confused.

“Oh you are.” I stare at him steadily, and he’s not as dumb as I thought because he finally walks away.

“A pound of prawns.” A tatted, bald-headed man offers Tiny a white parchment-wrapped package. “Where’s the guy who wanted the scallops?” He looks around.

“We’ll take those too,” Tiny says hastily.

We pay, and she waits until we’re in the hallway before questioning me.

“You looked like you were going to punch that guy out.”

“Nah,” I lie.

“Then why is the bread loaf crushed in your hand?”

I look down and the Tuscan log is indeed bent in half as if a sharp wind has sheared off part of the limb. “Looked like it was too soft. Just testing out the wheat-to-oat ratio.”

“Seriously? That is what you are going with?” She laughs. “You know you sound like a caveman.”

“That’s advanced evolution. I thought for sure I wasn’t much past the Neanderthal stage.”

“Ape,” she teases.

“Knuckle dragging when it comes to you, bunny.” I wrap an arm around her waist and usher her into the bakery to buy a loaf of bread.

Losing Control (Kerr Chronicles) Book One

I’d do anything to keep my mother alive.

Anything, including ask Ian Kerr for help. I don’t know much about him, except that he has more money than some small countries. And he’s willing to spend it on me. Just one catch: there’s a string attached attached, and not just the one I feel pulling me into his arms and his bed. There’s also the plan for revenge he wants my help with.

Every time he says my name, it makes my body shiver and my heart stutter. I know he’s going to wreck me, know there won’t be anything left of me but lust and sensation by the time he’s done with me, but even though I can see the heartbreak coming towards me like a train, ready to crash into me, I can’t get out of the way. I want what he makes me feel. Want what he’s offering.

This may have started out as something to save my mother, but now…now it’s about what he makes me feel. I’m in danger of losing everything that’s important. Worse? Ian’s whispered words and hot caresses are making me

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“Let me be perfectly frank with you, Victoria. There are lots of things that I’d like you to do for me. Some of them involve you on your knees. Others require you bent over a table. All of them require me to be between your legs. But I don’t pay for that.”

“No, I wouldn’t think you would,” I say faintly. No one has ever spoken to me in such a graphic and frank manner and I don’t know how to respond—at least not verbally. My body is reacting by getting hot and tight.

He nods then in confirmation that I’ve heard him. “I don’t dip my pen in the company ink. Nothing good comes of that. So let me ask you again. Are you certain you wouldn’t rather let me take you out to dinner and then home, where I would make you come so hard that you wouldn’t be able to remember your own name let alone that you have money troubles?”

I’m finding it difficult to breathe normally and it’s hard to remember exactly why I’m resisting him so hard. His hand has moved from my waist to my hip and his fingers are curling around my ass and pulling me close as possible despite the bike frame between us. I can even feel his erection against my hip. “The money troubles will still be there, regardless of my memory,” I manage to choke out.

His eyes narrow because he doesn’t like my rejections. “You should know that when small prey runs away, it only whets the appetite of a predator. Someday, Victoria Corielli, I’m going to get you to say yes.”

He pushes the bike frame upright and my body reluctantly follows.

“I’ll be in touch,” he says and then turns and walks away. I stare after him like a dumbass for at least five minutes.”

Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog.  She’s been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at jensfrederick@gmail.com.

Sometimes, you have to get lost to find yourself…

When her rock star boyfriend breaks things off out of the blue, Alyssa applies to hit reality TV show Deserted and to her shock she gets through. Abandoned on a remote island with a bunch of strangers and none of the luxuries she’s become accustomed to, it’s not long before an undeniable attraction to the mysterious Joshua starts complicating things even further.

Joshua’s different to everyone she’s ever known – a traveller, a man with no plan, a world away from the celebrity life she’s left behind. As a series of challenges test their wits and weaknesses, things start heating up in paradise, but in a game designed to break people down, it soon becomes clear that Joshua is hiding a painful secret – one he won’t risk anyone finding out.

Struggling to know where she belongs, Alyssa will have to choose – a life she once loved that wants her back, or a brand new reality that heartbreakingly may just have its limits.

˃˃˃ “Becky does it again, delivering a searingly hot, emotionally intense and brilliantly written book. I loved it.” – Sarah Alderson (author of Hunting Lila, Fated, The Sound)

***Warning: this book contains graphic language, sex, and mature situations. Not intended for young adult readers.***

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So, what’s Tarzan like in the bedroom?’

‘Shan!’

‘Oh come on, I’m bored!’

‘I’d tell you if we had one,’ I say and he whacks my arm and tugs at my hair. ‘Ow! It was just a stupid fling, it’s over, you know that.’

‘So you say, slutty-pants,’

‘I’m serious,’ I laugh.

Shan tuts and goes back to his braiding. I do feel guilty because I don’t want to keep anything from Shan. I’ve almost told him about the immunity charm too, numerous times, but I haven’t. So far no one’s wanted to vote me out, as far as I know. There’s been no more talk of voting Joshua out either, mainly because since the rains came, no one else has had the balls to try and spear for fish or climb for coconuts. But I know things can change in a heartbeat.

Since that night in the cave, Joshua and I have made a conscious effort not to let the others see that we’re involved. I feel like I’m playing a game within a game. I’m pretty sure they all know something’s up, but in daylight hours in a world of cameras, we’re not giving anyone any added reasons to turn against us, or turn us into some trashy commercial break teaser for Deserted. We never touch or conspire; we spend hours apart. We never go anywhere alone. Instead we wait for the night, when everyone else is sleeping. The nights are ours.

‘You say it’s over, but you never talk about Sebastian Moreno,’ Shan says now.

‘Nothing here has anything to do with Sebastian,’ I reply. ‘And anyway, that life isn’t real while we’re here.’

‘Pfft, you tell yourself that, D.G. Just ‘cause you close your eyes doesn’t mean nobody can see you. You’re on the cover of The National Enquirer with your boobies all censored, you know it.’

I cringe. ‘No I’m not!’

‘You’ll make a fortune on celebrity endorsements,’ he carries on, ignoring me. ‘Bikini modeling, book deals, couch store openings… oooh, oooh!’ he pulls on my hair excitedly, ‘you should come on the cruise with me! They’d love you – especially Marty. He’d like… adopt you. He has half a tattoo on his face; the other half got infected, long story, but he’s super nice…’

Shan rambles on about his ‘besticle’ Marty, but my thoughts drift over the past two weeks, waking up at the crack of dawn to run down to the waterfall. When it’s not raining, there’s a space behind the falls on ground level; a turquoise pool with a loud, moving wall of water that drowns out our conversation, and all of what we call ‘our tribal sounds.’ I feel my face flush, just thinking about it. No cameras can reach us there.

‘I love it when you scream for me, Jane,’ Joshua said one morning, gripping my hips from behind as I flattened my hands to the wall, bringing him into me in the water. Just the words coming from his mouth made me tremble in his hands and scream even louder, pressing my face to the rocks, feeling his power consume me. It’s addictive, that feeling. It’s like nothing else!

There’s something about Joshua that’s part of this island, like he belongs here, somehow. When we have sex in the water, on top of leaves, on the sand, sometimes I don’t even feel like myself. It’s weird but I feel like I’m part of him and the universe and nature… like we’ve both turned into animals. I can’t even imagine us on a bed, with pillows and a comforter. I can barely imagine us wearing proper clothes. It’s so weird but I’ve never felt so close to anyone so quickly. But then, I’ve also never met anyone like him. 

Nadia Conrad has big dreams, and she’s determined to make them come true. But between maintaining her college scholarship and working at the local day care to support herself, dating’s the last thing on her mind. Then she moves into a new apartment and meets the taciturn yet irresistible guy in 1B….

Daniel Tyler has grown up too fast. Becoming a single dad at twenty turned his life upside down—and brought him heartache he can’t risk again. Now, as he raises his four-year-old son while balancing a full-time construction management job and night classes, the last thing he wants is noisy students living in the apartment upstairs. But one night, Nadia’s and Ty’s paths cross, and soon they can’t stay away from each other.

The timing is all wrong—but love happens when it happens. And you can’t know what you truly need until you stand to lose it.

“A tender, sweet, and sexy story about how life—and falling in love—can never be planned.”

—Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wait for You