Steamycontemporary tagged booklist

Breaking the Captain

by Megan Tate

Luke Callahan runs the first lap on fresh ice every morning. He keeps his hands flat on his thighs when his pulse misbehaves. At twenty-two he's the youngest captain in the league, the golden boy with the clean stat line — and lately he's been jolting awake at five a.m. from a dream about a faceless man, a hand at his throat, a voice telling him to let go. Then the Titans trade for Evan Mercer: same position, dark hair, broken nose, and zero interest in being convenient for anybody after his last team quietly shipped him out for being caught with the wrong person. Evan looks at the captain wound tight across the faceoff dot and figures he's going to crack. He's right. He's just early. A turf war over one roster spot turns into board battles that last a beat too long, a handshake held a second past polite, and a pull Luke has no language for. Evan isn't asking him to come out. He's just standing there — steady, patient, unafraid — holding the door. All Luke has to do is stop running long enough to walk through it. Breaking the Captain is a slow-burn, explicit MM hockey romance and the first in the Lakeview Titans series. If you like rivals-to-lovers with a closeted control freak, an out-and-proud love interest who refuses to shrink, forced proximity in a scrappy minor-league locker room, and a found family with one menace of a best friend — this one's for you. [Read More]

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Almost Criminal

by Lainey Delaroque

I’m not running from my past. It isn’t dark or sordid. Yet that doesn’t stop it from blowing my curated, stable life to smithereens. A letter from my long-dead parents, the sister I haven’t seen in years, and a childhood friend appear all at the same time—and make me remember who I was before I got entangled with a cruel man. Now this man is dead, and I’m accused of his murder. As I wait in the bleak interrogation room for my public defender, I can’t believe it’s Kurt Jericho who walks through the door—and all grown up. As we start working together on my case, I can’t ignore the pull of him. He feels like home… But acting on my feelings might make me a criminal. As criminal as the man who delivered the letter from my parents. He’s a part of Chicago’s hidden underworld, and I know better than to get involved. But he makes me laugh and keeps my panic at bay. Falling for my lawyer and a gangster—not exactly good-girl moves. But before I worry about that, let’s see if I can avoid going to jail… Almost Criminal is a short standalone MFM contemporary romance novel. It contains steamy bedroom scenes, violence, and some dark subject matter. Please venture into these pages at your own discretion. [Read More]

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A Field Beyond Notions

by Atria J. Merian

The scythe meets its match in a paranormal tale of mutual obsession. Humans think I’m a psychopath. I don’t think about them at all. My routines keep me in check. Seven days for a prisoner. Feed off their fear. Dispose. Paperwork. Repeat. But ever since Rosario had stepped into my office for an interview to be my operations manager, I’ve been lovestruck. For the first time in centuries. I watch her sleep. I plan our life together. I hear the bells toll. She may be trying to outrun her past, but she will never outrun her future. Till death do us part is a wonderful notion. Especially since I have no intention of ever dying. [Read More]

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A Shore Thing

by Emily Shacklette

Juliette Matthews has chased light across the globe—from the Andes to North Africa—but nothing throws her off balance quite like being back at her family’s Jersey Shore summer home. Especially when “temporary” starts looking a lot like staying… and Wesley Olson is everywhere she turns. Wesley never left Ocean City—and never forgot the girl next door who wrecked him in the best and worst ways. He’s spent seventeen years building a life that’s safe, steady, and entirely Juliette-free. That is, until, she shows back up on his front porch like the prettiest ghost he’s ever seen. Because one look at her, and suddenly the past isn’t so past. The summer is hotter, the tension thicker, and staying away? Not an option. Not when every shared glance feels like a dare—and every touch reminds them exactly what they lost. This summer, Juliette and Wesley will have to decide—were they destined to be nothing more than a summer fling…or have they always been a shore thing? [Read More]

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The Sicilian Trap: A Grumpy Coach World Cup Spicy Soccer Rom-Com

by Mara J. Ova

He demands absolute control to win the World Cup. She is the sunshine that refuses to bend. Grumpy Meets Sunshine • Forced Proximity • Steamy Soccer Romance • Opposites Attract • Workplace Romance • Protective Hero • World Cup Stakes • Slow-burn With Sparkling Chemistry • Hilarious Banter • Found Family • Italian Vibes Vincenzo Messina is a tactical genius who demands absolute control to win the World Cup, but his new PR director is a walking distraction. Armed with weaponized sunshine, Sofia Hofer threatens his sacred locker room, igniting a fiery clash of wills and sizzling chemistry they both refuse to acknowledge. Arriving at the secluded Base Camp, Sofia's relentless optimism immediately collides with Vincenzo’s dictatorial temper. She treats football as a passionless branding puzzle to protect, while the volcanic coach fiercely shields his squad from the media. Bound by a lucrative Armani sponsorship, they are forced into thirty days of inescapable proximity within a secure compound and high emotion during the matches. As the grueling tournament progresses, their battle lines blur. Sofia discovers the devout heart beneath his melodramatic touchline theatrics, while Vincenzo realizes her efficiency actually protects his players, shattering his defenses. He engineered the perfect tactical trap on the pitch, but her weaponized sunshine cornered his heart. With the championship final looming, they must choose between maintaining their rigid professional boundaries or risking a catastrophic public scandal for a passion they cannot control. The Sicilian Trap is a standalone, fast-paced, steamy soccer romantic comedy by Mara J. Ova featuring grumpy-meets-sunshine and forced proximity tropes. It is a perfect read during the US-hosted World Cup, and the Italian vibes make it an ideal summer escape. Scroll up and look inside to experience the explosive chemistry and high-stakes tension. [Read More]

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Room 002: Devoured and Desired

by Nyx Walker

Emily came to Whispering Hollow for artistic inspiration and ended up with a roommate who howls at the moon. Caleb is gorgeous, guarded, and cursed: a loup-garou bound to the land, he storms out when his wolf threatens to get the better of him. Emily doesn’t flinch—she sketches him, teases him, and maybe stares a little too long. At the Specter Suites, where magic is just part of the décor, Nina—the hotel's owner and resident witch—offers a tea that coaxes truth from the heart. When she proposes a ritual to help Caleb gain control, Emily volunteers. What started as curiosity becomes connection. The ritual forces Caleb to see himself through Emily’s eyes; it forces Emily to decide how much of herself she’s willing to risk. The stakes are personal: a future he chooses, or a curse that keeps choosing for him. Part small-town charm, part dangerous heat, this novella is for those who aren't afraid of the big bad wolf. [Read More]

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Blue Sky Black

by Lea Vale

Zelda never stopped loving Ari. She just got better at pretending she was over him. Then she ran into him again on the last normal morning in America. By the end of the day, he was missing. Now Zelda is searching the wreckage of September 11th for two people: her best friend, Charlie, and the man she thought she'd lost long before the towers fell. *** As teenagers, Zelda and her best friend Charlie had been trying to escape Philadelphia for as long as they could remember. Ari was never part of that plan—until he walked into the pawn shop where Zelda worked and refused to leave her alone. They fell in love too young. They fell apart too fast. Six years later, September 11th puts them face to face on a Manhattan street, hours before the world changes forever. When the towers fall, Zelda survives and realizes Charlie and Ari were both inside and are missing. She has to find them both. Blue Sky Black moves between Zelda's desperate search through the aftermath of September 11th and the years that made her: a lonely, furious girl learning the value of things in a back-room pawn shop, falling in love for the first time, and losing everything she wasn't ready to hold. Perfect for readers who love: - Emotionally devastating love stories - Second chance romance - Slow burn with heat - Dual timeline - Found family - Female ambition Steam: Open door emotionally driven intimacy with explicit detail. Content Warning: Depictions of September 11, 2001, Grief, Loss [Read More]

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Shattered Edges

by Marion Thomas

A contemporary dark romance about forbidden love and ambition in elite competitive figure skating and what happens when survival leaves no safe choices. (warning: contains graphic, explicit language and mature themes) Richard Hale has spent his life on the ice, chasing precision, relevance, and a career that refuses to wait for anyone. When his skating partner walks away he’s left staring down the quiet, humiliating end of everything he’s built. His younger sister Holly faces the same erasure when her partner’s injury ends her season overnight, leaving her suddenly expendable. The solution is obvious, dangerous and unthinkable. Forced to skate together by circumstance and desperation, Richard and Holly form a partnership that some think shouldn’t exist. On the ice, their connection is undeniable. Off it, the pressure fractures restraint, blurring lines they were never meant to cross and leaving them scrutinized by a world eager to judge what it doesn’t understand. As Nationals loom, obsession threatens to eclipse reason, and desire threatens to destroy the very thing they’re fighting to save. [Read More]

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Her Heart's Wish

by Dawn Baca

Can a woman who built her life around everyone else finally choose love? Leila Durand has spent years being exactly who her family needed: a devoted mother, a doting grandmother, and the steady heart of the farm that saved her after loss. But when Yuri Petrova asks her to come to Saint Petersburg, the quiet life she has carefully built begins to feel less like safety and more like a beautiful cage. Yuri has always been a man of stars, students, and solitude—until one unforgettable Frenchwoman makes his orderly world feel suddenly incomplete. From their first meeting at a family wedding, Leila’s warmth, strength, and laughter unsettled him in ways no equation ever could. After three years of calls, letters, and longing, he is ready to stop loving her from a distance. Leila is falling for Yuri, but loving him means facing the grief, guilt, and fear she has buried beneath decades of devotion. Yuri is falling just as hard, but winning Leila’s heart may mean leaving behind the life, career, and country that have defined him. When distance, family ties, and old wounds threaten to keep them apart, Leila must decide whether being wanted is worth the risk of finally being seen. Will she cling to the life that made her feel necessary—or open her heart to the man who makes her feel chosen? Her Heart’s Wish is an emotional later-in-life romance about second chances, found family, healing after grief, and the brave, terrifying joy of beginning again. Perfect for readers who love mature heroines, patient heroes, slow-burn longing, complicated families, European settings, and love stories where the biggest battle is learning to believe happiness is still allowed. Read Her Heart’s Wish today and fall in love with a romance that proves it’s never too late to choose your own happily ever after. [Read More]

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