Let’s do a calendar, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.

Well, they—i.e. Kilgore Police Department’s public relations specialists—were wrong.

Now, every time Dax Tremaine walks around a corner, the women of Kilgore, Texas can’t help calling him Mr. January.

Mr. January, can you fix my flat tire? Mr. January, can you cuff me? Mr. January, can you sign my boob?

It goes from bad to worse when even on a SWAT call, the women won’t stay away.

* * *

It was the worst time of her life. Rowen Roberts had finally admitted to herself that the man she loved would never love her back. She was just fired from her job for violating client confidentiality, and to make matters worse, she’s held up at gunpoint in a convenience store where she only wanted some ice cream to help mask the pain.

The moment the gun is pressed to her forehead, she knows she has a decision to make. Follow the rules and maybe possibly live, or go down swinging where at least she can salvage just a little bit of her dignity.

And when Mr. January himself tells her to do what the gunman says, she’s had enough. Rowen has never really been a girl that does what she’s told. Mr. January won’t have to save her. She can dang well save herself.

Note: Rowen is from Center Mass (Luke & Reese). Dax is from Another One Bites the Dust (Max & Peyton).

His Wranglers fit him like a glove. A really tight, leaving nothing to the imagination, glove. Codie wants nothing more than to shove that Wrangler-covered butt straight into the mud.

Ace Valentine has a smart mouth, a devil-may-care attitude, and those wicked eyes aimed directly at her.

She doesn’t know what to do with that kind of attention. Especially not from the sweet-talking man that has no problem charming every woman that enters his orbit—everyone but her, at least.

Ace isn’t sure why Codie Spears had her panties in a twist when it comes to him, but every snub and insult she hurls his way brings him closer and closer to falling for her.

He’s not sure what it is about the town’s bad girl that draws his attention, but every encounter they have leaves him wanting her until there’s nothing else left to do but have her.

The only thing is, she’s been convinced by everyone around her that she’s not good enough. Tell a person that she’s a piece of trash enough times, and eventually she’ll start to believe it. It’s going to take a lot of smooth-talking and gentling on his part to get her to see that she’s worth it. And once he has her where he wants her? Well, she’ll make a mighty fine rancher’s wife.

Sometimes people come into a person’s life and make their heart skip a beat.

Those people are called cops.

Well, one cop in particular.

A SWAT officer for the Kilgore Police Department, to be specific.

The first time Avery Flynn saw Derek Roberts, she was photographing him for the first annual Kilgore Police Department SWAT calendar. He was leaned back in his squad car, shirtless, and giving her a smile that was completely between them. A smile that hinted at what he wanted to do to her later.

When she scrounges up the courage to ask him out after the photoshoot, he laughs in her face.

Well, screw you, too, Mr. February.

* * *

Derek Roberts never really paid attention to the photographer.

She was a mousy girl who dressed like a twelve-year-old girl. Her tight leggings, extra baggy Star Trek t-shirt denoting her a Klingon captain, and her surprisingly clean Chucks didn’t leave much of an impression.

Now, the outfit that she was in weeks after he rebuffed her? Yeah, now that caught his attention.

Too bad that happens when he’s trying to save her from what’s sure to be death thanks to an unhinged native Texan who’s convinced she was the reason he lost his last chance at a million dollars.

When he tries to save her, she tells him she’d rather take a cattle prod to the forehead than go anywhere with him.

Challenge. Accepted.

Note: Derek is from Center Mass (Luke & Reese). Avery is new.

I fell in love with his rope skills. I stayed because somehow he took hold of my heart and made it his.

Callum Valentine didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Then again? When a man is calling a woman fat right in front of your table, it’s kind of hard not to intervene. Especially when the town’s most beautiful creature ever is the one being called fat.

Desi just wants to be left alone. After an ugly divorce, she thinks she’s in the clear. Then her ex takes it upon himself to continue to make her life miserable, giving Desi no choice but to take it or leave.

In fact, her bags were nearly all the way packed when Callum poked his nose into the most embarrassing spectacle the town of Kilgore has ever witnessed. The moment he declares her his and off limits, everything changes—and definitely not for the better.

As if things couldn’t get worse than being called a pitiful, fat heifer in front of the hottest man she’s ever seen, Callum has to go and say that she’s his, and they have to play a game that she’s not quite sure she wants to be playing.

But before her eyes, things change. And suddenly the rules of the game aren’t clear. And they’re crossing boundaries neither one of them see coming.

Ford Spurlock has known Ashe Trammel since they were babies.

He’s also done his level best to stay away from her because every time he gets to within five feet of her, they’re fighting like cats and dogs.

Ashe is the apple of her father’s eye. The motorcycle club princess that was never to be harmed in any way—or touched for that matter. And he’s always resented the fact that she could get away with things that he couldn’t. Things that she then blames on him and he always gets punished for.

Fast forward to adulthood, and Ashe is still off limits. Still driving him insane. Still…beautiful.

She never misses an opportunity to give him hell, either.

That has to be why he agrees to do a photoshoot for KPD SWAT that’ll benefit her charity even when he’d rather shoot himself in the foot with his duty weapon.

* * *

Ashe never thought he’d agree.

Honestly, she thought she’d ask him, he’d say no, and that’d be the end of it.

She never realized that she’d leave his photo up in her cubicle, and it’d be the last thing that she saw every night as she locked her office door.

When they were kids, Ford used to be that boy that threw dirt at her and pulled her hair.

Now, he’s the same Ford Spurlock, only a whole lot sexier. And a lot harder to say no to.

When he challenges her to one date, she has no other recourse but to agree.

What she didn’t agree to was falling in love with Mr. March. Or wanting to give him everything she had to give.

Note: Ford is from Kevlar to My Vest (Trance &Viddy) and Ashe is from Charge to My Line (Torren & Tru).

Candy Ray Sunshine—Yes, that is my real name, thank you very much, Mom and Dad—knew two things.

One, she was going to work her butt off and open her very own coffee shop, even if she had to die doing it.

Two, Banks Valentine was the world’s worst ex-boyfriend in the history of ex-boyfriends. Even if they were only boyfriend and girlfriend for one evening. She wouldn’t sneeze on him even if he was on fire.

* * *

Banks Valentine also knew two things.

One, he was an immature jerk when he was in high school, and Candy Ray Sunshine probably could open a coffee shop if she put her mind to it. But he still thinks that she should shoot a little higher, anything that gets her the heck out of Kilgore, Texas.

Two, he likes riding bulls. It’s a dangerous job, and when he gets on the back of one of those thousand-pound death machines, he can finally feel his head clear enough that he can think.

* * *

Candy and Banks would never get along. Not after what he said, and definitely not after what she did.
Then again, neither one of them expected that night to end the way it did, either—the night that both of them refused to talk about the next morning.

Ares saw him for the first time at a Kilgore Police Department benefit dinner. She’d gone with her dad as his plus one. Hayes Greer had gone by himself and brooded silently across the same table as her, drinking whiskey and not saying a word.

It only took that one time for her to become interested.

The next time she saw him, he was doing another benefit—but this one requiring a whole lot fewer clothes. And that was when she knew. She wanted him. Badly. But the morose Hayes was too busy thinking about his sins to see what was right in front of his face—Ares.

* * *

Hayes Greer knew the moment that he saw the feisty Ares Downy again that he should’ve stayed away. Maybe if he hadn’t done the stupid calendar, he wouldn’t be questioning every single woman’s intentions.

Maybe if he’d listened to that niggling feeling telling him to stay away, he would’ve been able to do his job a little better. But seeing her with a knife to her throat, in the middle of a building set to blow, made his usually well-wired brain start to malfunction.

Because nobody was allowed to touch her like that—only him. Nobody was allowed to scare her, either. Not and live to tell the tale.

Darby has always been ‘that’ guy.

The guy that no man, woman, or child wants around their loved one.

See, a long time ago he made some bad decisions. Those bad decisions have haunted him ever since. No matter what he does, people still see him as the town’s screw up. The boy that sold his soul to the Devil.

Years later, he’s turned himself around. Made amends and ultimately turned into a generally good guy. Only, it’s hard to act like a good guy when people still treat you like the old you, and not the new you.

Enter Waylynn Jennings.

Waylynn has watched Darby Valentine from afar for a very long time.

She’s witnessed the changes in him and knows the only reason he’s so mean is to protect the man that lies within. A battered, injured soul that deserves more than what he’s received. Even his own family takes him for granted.

She’s made it her new mission in life to prove to everyone that Darby isn’t the bad guy. That he’s a kind-hearted, sweet soul that’s just looking for a place to fit in.

Only, Darby is fairly sure that Waylynn is out to kill him, not help him. How else do you explain all the fights he’s having to break up on her behalf, or all the times he has to come to her rescue when she’s managed to put her cute little butt right in the middle of something where it shouldn’t be?

There’s obviously only one solution. He has to make her his. Then everyone will know not to mess with her. Darby Valentine protects what’s his. No matter what the cost.

This is for charity. This is for fun. You are a professional. You can do it.

Those are the words that Calloway Alvarez chants to herself as she watches all the large men gather into the small room where she’ll be doing the interviews for her employer—Hero Magazine.

Honestly, she’s convinced herself that she can’t accomplish the task at hand.

That is until she hears his voice, and her head turns to see him standing there.

Louis Spurlock. Greek god. SWAT officer. Keeper of her secrets. Ultimate fantasy. Man who will break her heart.

* * *

Louis Spurlock has been playing nice.

He’s been biding his time, giving Calloway the space she thinks she needs.

But then he sees her taking photos of his friends in all states of undress, talking to them all as if they’re best friends, and that little thread of control he’d been managing to hold onto unravels.

Let’s change it up, she says. And the moment the words are out of her mouth, he’s stripping to his skivvies, and throwing out a challenge while he’s at it.

Calloway won’t know what hit her when he’s through playing.

But he does know one thing for sure. When it ends, she’ll be his.

Booth Pena definitely didn’t make the smartest of decisions when he was a teenager.

At eighteen, he knocked a girl up and signed up for the military all in the same day—signing his life away in more ways than one. Fast forward six weeks and he’s in bootcamp learning that he’s going to be a father while also learning that not only is he going to be deployed, but it’s going to stay that way for a year.

There weren’t a lot of things that the baby’s mother and he saw eye to eye on after that. He honestly wasn’t sure why he even slept with her in the first place.

Okay, that last part is a lie. He knows exactly why he slept with her. Because the real woman he’s in love with, her twin sister, Dillan, won’t give him the time of day.

Five years later, and he still wants her.

Now he’s home for good, being the best father and police officer that he can be, and still he’s not good enough.

* * *

Dillan Davidsdottir hated Booth Pena. Immensely.

She hated him because he slept with her sister, then left. Granted, she knew that he hadn’t meant to leave like he did, unknowingly and unconsciously leaving his daughter behind, but that didn’t change the fact that he had.

Five years later, and she still dislikes him just as much now as she did when he chose the wrong sister to take to his bed.

Maybe if he’d chosen her, her heart wouldn’t be broken, and his wouldn’t be untouchable.

But when a SWAT officer sees his life flash before his eyes, and decides that enough is enough, what’s a girl to do?

Give in, that’s what.

There are a few lessons one has to learn for themselves. Then there are the lessons that most people don’t have to learn because it’s just not done.

For instance, most people know instinctively that they shouldn’t crave the mother of their brother’s child.

Bourne Pena isn’t most men.

Bourne does everything he can to fight the attraction he feels for Delanie, but in the end, his refusal to go there almost ends up costing him his life.

* * *

Delanie Davidsdottir just wanted to forget. One night, she wanted to feel like a normal human being.

That one night changes her life and gives her a daughter that becomes her heart and soul. From that point forward, she does her level best to keep her head on straight and not make any more mistakes.

And falling for her child’s father’s twin brother—say that three times fast— would be a mistake. Not only is he Trouble with a capital T, he’s also a SWAT officer that puts his life on the line every single day.

She can’t take another loss like the one she suffered once before.

Then again, Delanie never encountered a man like Bourne Pena before, either.

Amelia loves her good friend, Avery. So much so that she agrees to do the stupidest thing ever.

A stranger photo shoot.

You know the type. The photographer takes photos of two individuals. Two individuals that, until that day, have never met in their life.

The moment she shows up at the photo shoot, she knows that she made a terrible decision.

Why? Because the total stranger about to be in an intimate photo shoot with her is the hottest thing that’s ever walked the streets of Kilgore, Texas. If not the entire US of A.

* * *

Adam wasn’t sure why the hell he agreed to something so stupid.

Call it temporary lapse of sanity.

When the photographer who shot his photo for the Kilgore Police Department’s benefit calendar asked him for a favor, he couldn’t say no. Not without looking like a jerk seeing as it was benefiting the Fallen Officer Foundation that he played a rather large part in.

Whatever it was that made him agree, he quickly realizes that it’s not worth it. Not when he walks into the studio and sees the massive bed with blood-red sheets dominating the middle of the room.

So uncomfortable he is at the sight, he’s about to head straight out the door and not look back when she walks in.
Amelia steals his breath away with just one glance, and all of a sudden, getting this stranger into his arms with his mouth on hers sounds like the best idea ever.

He should’ve never left his house. He should’ve stayed at home. He has a legitimate excuse—he’s running a fever and he’s fairly sure he’s developing pneumonia. He should have called in sick…but he doesn’t.

He goes to work, because his team is relying on him.

First, he has to sign about eight thousand calendars—all from women who purchased said calendars to benefit the Fallen Officer fundraiser. And when he’s done with that, he has to endure a television interview along with the rest of the SWAT team seeing as they made national news with their ‘Hot SWAT’ calendar that’s sold a million copies to women all over the world.

Needless to say, when Samuel Adams walks into the pharmacy hours later, he only has one thing on his mind. Ibuprofen.
Sadly, he never gets to the Ibuprofen. Mostly because before he gets there, he finds a junkie waving a gun around threatening to kill anybody that moves.

He’s running a fever. That has to be the reason that the girl in the corner begins cursing up a storm and drawing the junkie’s attention. Has to be.

* * *

Stop it, stop it, stop it!

She tells herself to take a deep breath. Tells herself that she needs to calm down. Tells herself that if she doesn’t get her act under control, things are going to get ugly.

And, of course, that’s when the curse words start flying.

The more nervous she gets, the worse her Tourette’s becomes. Which is, of course, why she stands up and gives the man a perfect target.

Thank God that the coughing giant in the corner makes the same move and saves her life.

And how does she repay him? By calling him every awful word in the dictionary.

Thank you, Tourette’s.

Going from a professional baseball player to a SWAT officer should’ve been seamless. Should have been.

But it wasn’t.

All it took was one single calendar shoot for word to spread that Nathan Cox was not only no longer playing professional baseball, but he was also the man behind saving the life of Reggie Morton, the City of Kilgore’s princess.

* * *

Reggie didn’t know that by agreeing to provide the expertise and the know-how for the Police Officer’s Ball that she would be required to actually attend the function.

What she also didn’t expect was needing to be saved—again—by the same man that had saved her life a year ago when she hosted her debut event.

This time in a not-nearly-as-spectacular way. The moment she falls into his arms like a modern-day Cinderella and takes him in in all his three-piece suited glory, she realizes that she’s been fighting the impossible.

Nathan Cox owns her. Body and soul.