Showing results by author "Maya McKenna" in All Categories

I came home to make money. I didn't expect to fall for the single dad I crushed on at seventeen. Everett Stone was the older, unattainable rancher's son who never looked twice at me. Now he's a single dad with a wild toddler and desperation in his eyes, and he's offering me more money than I can refuse to spend the summer chasing his kid around his ranch. I told myself I'd keep it professional. Then his son said my name for the first time, and Everett looked at me like I'd hung the moon. He's still older. Still intense. Still completely off-limits. But now he's looking at me like he sees me...

When Freya's car breaks down at 2 AM in the middle of nowhere, she doesn't expect to be rescued by six feet of protective mountain muscle. Ryan Hawthorne is everything she's running from—stable, commanding, and dangerously capable of seeing through her carefully built walls. He's also 38 to her 23, with calloused hands and a voice that makes her shiver every time he calls her sweetheart. "You're safe with me now," he promises when her past threatens to drag her back into darkness. "I protect what's mine." Freya came to Thunder Creek to disappear. She never expected to find sanctuary in ...

She’s stranded with a broken heart. He’s the man who knows how to fix both. When Faith Novak’s car dies on the snowy road to Aspen Grove, it feels like the final insult. Her Christmas wedding is off, her ex ran off with her cousin, and all she has left is a gown in the backseat and tears freezing on her cheeks. Then Diesel Kane shows up—a tattooed, grease-stained mechanic with a bad-boy grin and a soft spot he’d die before admitting. With every hotel booked for the holidays, he offers her his apartment above the garage “just for the night.” But one night turns into laughter, ...

I came to his ranch to escape my life. He's decided I'm never leaving. Burned out and desperate for peace, I rent a cabin on a Montana cattle ranch. I'm not looking for anything but silence and sleep. I'm definitely not looking for the gruff, silver-templed rancher who keeps showing up at my door with firewood I didn't ask for and that intense look in his eyes. Colton Slade hasn't let anyone close in five years. But when a storm kills my power, he carries me to his house like I weigh nothing and tells me I'm staying. Not asks. Tells. He's grumpy. Possessive. Looks at my curves like I'm the ...

He's supposed to be dead. Instead, he's keeping me captive in paradise. Wildlife biologist Gemma Pierce discovers billionaire tech CEO Thorne Ashford bleeding in the wilderness—except the world thinks he died eighteen months ago. When she saves his life, he makes her an offer she's too broke to refuse: stay the winter in his hidden bunker, and he'll pay her more than her failed research grant. Thorne can't let her leave. Not when assassins are still hunting him. Not when she's the first real thing in his world of lies. Not when her curves and awkward brilliance have become his obsession. ...

He trains wild horses. I didn't realize I was next. My grandmother left me a horse I can't ride and a grief I can't shake. Braveheart is wild, stubborn, and only responds to one man--a quiet horse trainer with patient hands and eyes that see too much. Ezra Vance doesn't push. He just says, "We'll go slow," and teaches me to breathe, to trust, to stop being afraid. His calm voice steadies the horse. His steady presence undoes me. I came to Silver Spur planning to sell the mare and run. But somewhere between the riding lessons and the sunset conversations, I realize he hasn't just been ...

He hired me to take care of his daughters. He didn't expect me to take care of him, too. I came to Bear Hollow to escape my past. The job listing said, "Live-in nanny needed immediately.” Jonah Crewe is exhausted, grieving, and barely holding it together. His twin daughters haven't smiled in months. And he looks at me like I'm the first good thing to walk through his door in years. I'm supposed to maintain professional boundaries. I'm supposed to remember that he's my boss and this is just a job. But when his daughter falls asleep in my arms, and he whispers, "Stay. Please. We need you," ...

I'm being hunted. But the most dangerous predator just claimed me as his. Investigative journalist Piper Thornton went undercover to expose an illegal hunting ring—and walked straight into a trap. Now she's running through the mountains with killers on her trail, and the man tracking her through his rifle scope isn't who she thinks. Boone Savage stopped guiding trophy hunters years ago, sickened by the cruelty. Now he hunts the hunters—tracking poachers across his private reserve, documenting their crimes. When he realizes the blonde running through his forest is prey, not predator, ...

Five cowboys. Five women who weren't looking for love. One ranch where it all begins. Welcome to Silver Spur Ranch, where the men work hard, love harder, and don't let go once they've claimed what's theirs. These men weren't looking for love. But when five curvy women arrive at Silver Spur, everything changes. Because cowboys don't ask. They claim. This collection includes five steamy instalove romances with possessive cowboys, curvy heroines, and guaranteed happily-ever-afters. No cliffhangers, no cheating, just big men with bigger hearts finding the women they'll love forever. Tropes: ...

His daughter found me first. Then he came to claim me. I rented a cabin in Cold Creek to finish illustrating my book. I didn't expect to befriend an eight-year-old at the general store, or for her father to show up during the blizzard and carry me home. Nash Brody is the fire chief, the single dad, the man everyone in town relies on. He's steady and strong and looks at me like I'm something he didn't know he needed. When the power goes out and I end up drawing by his fireplace with his daughter in my lap, I realize I'm not just weathering a storm. I'm falling into a family. And when ...

Four ruthless mountain men. Four women running from danger. And one remote wilderness where captivity feels a lot like devotion. In the Heartland Heroes Collection, survival is never simple, and protection comes with a price. A tech billionaire presumed dead hides in a fortified bunker. A former Special Forces medic refuses to release the woman he saved. A reclusive hunter stalks the criminals preying on his land. A scarred rancher steals women from the horrors chasing them. Each heroine arrives in the mountains hunted, broken, or desperate. Each hero steps in without asking permission. ...

When city girl, Brielle’s, car crashes during a Montana blizzard, she doesn't expect to be rescued by six feet of pure masculine mountain man. Dr. Declan Morrison is everything she's not—rugged, confident, and completely at home in the wilderness. He's also 38 to her 26, with gentle hands and an intensity that makes her heart race every time he calls her sweetheart. "You're mine now," he growls against her ear when the storm traps them together in his cozy cabin. "I'm not letting anything happen to you." Brielle came to Montana to scout corporate retreat locations. She never expected to...

He saved my life. Now he won't let me go. ER nurse Sloane Winters is running for her life when she crashes in the mountains, bleeding from a bullet wound. She begs the massive stranger who finds her not to take her to a hospital—they'll kill her there. So ex-Special Forces medic Cade Wolfe does the only thing his training allows: he kidnaps her. She wakes up three days later, stitched up and handcuffed to his bed. Cade knows she's in danger. Hit teams are searching the mountain roads, and she's too weak to run. So he keeps her—changing her bandages, feeding her, protecting her—even ...

I crashed into his fence. He caught me before I fell apart. I was supposed to be coordinating a wedding four hours away. Instead, I'm stranded on a cowboy's ranch in the middle of a blizzard, crying over a car I can't drive and a job I'm going to lose. Cade Sullivan doesn't let me spiral. He just pulls me out of the snow, wraps his coat around me, and says, "Someone else can handle it." No one's ever said that to me before. He makes me sit. Makes me eat. Makes me stop apologizing for existing. And when I finally let go of the panic, I realize he's been holding me the whole time. The storm ...

He's twice my size and looks at me like I'm made of glass. I came to Cold Creek to audit the lumber mill's books. I didn't expect the owner to show up at my cabin in a blizzard, take one look at me, and announce I was staying with him. Holt Jennings is enormous. Bearded. Quiet. His hands could crush me, but he touches me like I'm precious. When I ask why he's still single, he looks away and says, "Never found anyone who wanted to be held by hands like these." I want to be held by those hands. I want to be held down. I want to show him that everything about him is exactly what I've been ...

When my BMW skids up a gravel mountain road, I don’t expect to end the day stranded in a storm and falling hard for the man I came to destroy. As a high-powered environmental lawyer, I’m used to wielding cease-and-desist orders like weapons. This trip to Colorado was supposed to be quick and bloodless: serve papers to Cruz Construction, shut them down, and catch my flight back to the city. Then I meet Dane Cruz. Six-foot-four of raw muscle, golden skin, and work-roughened hands that know how to build more than just homes. He’s supposed to be the villain in my legal brief, but he sees ...

When the town’s fire chief shows up for an inspection, she doesn’t expect him to reignite an old flame… After a messy divorce, Lila Morgan is back in Cedar Falls, knee-deep in corn silk and tangled extension cords as she helps her brother prepare the family’s haunted maze. The last thing she needs is Sawyer Grant—her brother’s best friend, first crush, and the man she’s spent a decade trying to forget—walking back into her life in full fire chief uniform. Sawyer has three priorities: protect his town, protect his crew, and never touch the one woman he’s wanted for ten ...

I got lost in the mountains. He found me. One wrong turn. That's all it took. Now my car is buried in snow, my phone is dead, and the only shelter for miles belongs to a growling giant who looks at me like I'm the first woman he's seen in years. Boone Callahan doesn't do company. Doesn't do conversation. Doesn't do soft. But when he carries me through the blizzard and locks us inside his cabin, something shifts. His hands are rough. His voice is gruff. And the way he watches me peel off my wet clothes makes me forget I'm supposed to be scared. Three days until the roads clear. One bed. And ...

Four snowy nights. Four rugged men. One mountain town where Christmas heat burns brighter than the firelight. From storm-stranded strangers and snowed-in rescues to small-town traditions and unexpected second chances, four women arrive in Aspen Grove just as the holidays are about to change everything forever. These are the kind of heroes who shovel your driveway before dawn, pull you close when the cold sets in, and make forever feel inevitable—gruff on the outside, fiercely loyal underneath, and all-in when it counts. And when forced proximity, crackling chemistry, and Christmas magic ...

June Maddox has dreamed of Caleb Price since she was old enough to notice men. He’s older, gruffer, and completely off-limits. But when she comes to his farm to help with the harvest, Caleb notices her in a way he never has before. One look turns into one touch. One touch turns into one filthy night that ruins her innocence. June swore she was just helping with the crops. But Caleb’s not letting her walk away untouched—or unmarried.