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Also by Willow Winters

You Are Mine World

You Are My Reason (You Are Mine Duet book 1)

You Are My Hope (You Are Mine Duet book 2)

Mason and Jules emotionally gripping romantic suspense duet.

One look and Jules was tempted; one taste, addicted.

No one is perfect, but that’s how it felt to be in Mason’s arms.

But will the sins of his past tear them apart?

You Know I Love You

You Know I Need You

Kat says goodbye to the one man she ever loved even though Evan begs her to trust him.

With secrets she couldn’t have possibly imagined, Kat is torn between what’s right and what was right for them.

Tell Me You Want Me

This is Sue’s story.

Small Town Romance

Tequila Rose Book 1

Autumn Night Whiskey Book 2

He tasted like tequila and the fake name I gave him was Rose.

Four years ago, I decided to get over one man, by getting under another. A single night and nothing more.

Now, with a three-year-old in tow, the man I still dream about is staring at me from across the street in the town I grew up in. I don’t miss the flash of recognition, or the heat in his gaze.

The chemistry is still there, even after all these years.

I just hope the secrets and regrets don’t destroy our second chance before it’s even begun.

A Little Bit Dirty

Contemporary Romance Standalones

Knocking Boots (A Novel)

They were never meant to be together.

Charlie is a bartender with noncommittal tendencies.

Grace is looking for the opposite. Commitment. Marriage. A baby.

Promise Me (A Novel)

She gave him her heart. Back when she thought they’d always be together.

Now Hunter is home and he wants Violet back.

Tell Me To Stay (A Novella)

He devoured her, and she did the same to him.

Until it all fell apart and Sophie ran as far away from Madox as she could.

After all, the two of them were never meant to be together?

Second Chance (A Novella)

No one knows what happened the night that forced them apart. No one can ever know.

But the moment Nathan locks his light blue eyes on Harlow again, she is ruined.

She never stood a chance.

Burned Promises (A Novella)

Derek made her a promise. And then he broke it. That’s what happens with your first love.

But Emma didn’t expect for Derek to fall back into her life and for her to fall back into his bed.

Valetti Crime Family Series:

A HOT mafia series to sink your teeth into.

Dirty Dom

Becca came to pay off a debt, but Dominic Valetti wanted more.

So he did what he’s always done, and took what he wanted.

His Hostage

Elle finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The mafia doesn’t let witnesses simply walk away.

Regret has a name, and it’s Vincent Valetti.

Rough Touch

Ava is looking for revenge at any cost so long as she can remember the girl she used to be.

But she doesn’t expect Kane to show up and show her kindness that will break her.

Cuffed Kiss

Tommy Valetti is a thug, a mistake, and everything Tonya needs; the answers to numb the pain of her past.

Bad Boy

Anthony is the hitman for the Valetti familia, and damn good at what he does. They want men to talk, he makes them talk. They want men gone, bang - it’s done. It’s as simple as that.

Until Catherine.

Those Boys Are Trouble (Valetti Crime Family Collection)

To Be Claimed Saga

A hot tempting series of fated love, lust-filled secrets and the beginnings of an epic war.

Wounded Kiss

Gentle Scars

Read Willow’s sexiest and most talked about romances in the Merciless World

This Love Hurts Trilogy

This Love Hurts

But I Need You

And I Love You the Most

An epic tale of both betrayal and all-consuming love...

Marcus, the villain.

Cody Walsh, the FBI agent who knows too much.

And Delilah, the lawyer caught in between.

What I Would do for You (This Love Hurts Trilogy Collection)

A Kiss to Tell (a standalone novel)

They lived on the same street and went to the same school, although he was a year ahead. Even so close, he was untouchable.

Sebastian was bad news and Chloe was the sad girl who didn’t belong.

Then one night changed everything.

Possessive (a standalone novel)

It was never love with Daniel Cross and she never thought it would be. It was only lust from a distance.  Unrequited love maybe.

He’s a man Addison could never have, for so many reasons.

Merciless Saga

Merciless

Heartless

Breathless

Endless

Ruthless, crime family leader Carter Cross should’ve known Aria would ruin him the moment he saw her. Given to Carter to start a war; he was too eager to accept. But what he didn’t know was what Aria would do to him. He didn’t know that she would change everything.

All He’ll Ever Be (Merciless Series Collection of all 4 novels)

Irresistible Attraction Trilogy

A Single Glance

A Single Kiss

A Single Touch

Bethany is looking for answers and to find them she needs one of the brothers of an infamous crime family, Jase Cross.

Even a sizzling love affair won’t stop her from getting what she needs.

But Bethany soon comes to realise Jase will be her downfall, and she’s determined to be his just the same.

Irresistible Attraction (A Single Glance Trilogy Collection)

Hard to Love Series

Hard to Love

Desperate to Touch

Tempted to Kiss

Easy to Fall

Eight years ago she ran from him.

Laura should have known he'd come for her. Men like Seth King always get what they want.

Laura knows what Seth wants from her, and she knows it comes with a steep price.

However it’s a risk both of them will take.

Not My Heart to Break (Hard to Love Series Collection)

Tease Me Once

Tease me once... I'll kiss you twice.

Declan Cross' story from the Merciless World.

Spin off of the Merciless World 

Love the Way Duet

Kiss Me

Hold Me

Love Me

With everything I've been through, and the unfortunate way we met, the last thing I thought I'd be focused on is the fact that I love the way you kiss me.

Extended epilogues to the Merciless World Novels

A Kiss To Keep (more of Sebastian and Chloe)

Seductive (more of Daniel and Addison)

Effortless (more of Carter and Aria)

Never to End (more of Seth and Laura)

Sexy, thrilling with a touch of dark Standalone Novels

Broken (Standalone)

Kade is ruthless and cold hearted in the criminal world.

They gave Olivia to him. To break. To do as he’d like.

All because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But there are secrets that change everything. And once he has her, he’s never letting her go.

Forget Me Not  (Standalone novel)

She loved a boy a long time ago.  He helped her escape and she left him behind.  Regret followed her every day after.

Jay, the boy she used to know, came back, a man.  With a grip strong enough to keep her close and a look in his eyes that warned her to never dare leave him again.

It’s dark and twisted.

But that doesn’t make it any less of what it is.

A love story. Our love story.

It’s Our Secret (Standalone novel)

It was only a little lie. That’s how stories like these get started.

But with every lie Allison tells, Dean sees through it.

She didn't know what would happen. But with all the secrets and lies, she never thought she’d fall for him.

Collections of shorts and novellas

Don’t Let Go

A collection of stories including:

Infatuation

Desires in the Night and Keeping Secrets

Bad Boy Next Door

Kisses and Wishes

A collection of holiday stories including:

One Holiday Wish

Collared for Christmas

Stolen Mistletoe Kisses

All I Want is a Kiss (A Holiday short)

Olivia thought fleeting weekends would be enough and it always was, until the distance threatened to tear her and Nicholas apart for good.

Highest Bidder Series:

Bought

Sold

Owned

Given

From USA Today best selling authors, Willow Winters and Lauren Landish, comes a sexy and forbidden series of standalone romances.

Highest Bidder Collection (All four Highest Bidder Novels)

Bad Boy Standalones, cowritten with Lauren Landish:

Inked

Tempted

Mr. CEO

Three novels featuring sexy powerful heroes.

Three romances that are just as swoon-worthy as they are tempting.

Simply Irresistible (A Bad Boy Collection)

Forsaken, (A Dark Romance cowritten with B. B. Hamel)

Grace is stolen and gifted to him; Geo a dominating, brutal and a cold hearted killer.

However, with each gentle touch and act of kindness that lures her closer to him, Grace is finding it impossible to remember why she should fight him.

View Willow’s entire collection and full reading order at willowwinterswrites.com/reading-order

Happy reading and best wishes,

Willow xx

You Know I Love You

I married the bad boy from Brooklyn.

The one with the tattoos and a look in his eyes that told me he was bad news.

The kind of look that comes with all sorts of warnings.

I knew what I was doing.

I knew by the way he first held me that he would be my downfall; how he owned me with his forceful touch.

I couldn’t say no to him, not that I wanted to. That was then, and it seems like forever ago.

Years later, I’ve grown up and moved on. But he’s still the man I married. Dangerous in ways I don’t like to think about and tried to ignore for so long.

I did this to myself. I knew better than to fall for him.

I only wish love were enough to fix this …

You Know I Love You is book 1 of a duet. It is the second duet in the You Are Mine series, but it can be read first.

Prologue

Kat

It only took one night; one moment, and my fate was sealed. He knew I would never tell him no.

I wonder what would have happened if I’d never met Evan. The thought makes my stomach sink and twist, and a cold chill flows in waves over my body.

It pains me to consider such a thing. To have never been with the man I love.

Dragging in a lungful of cold air, I steady myself with deep breaths.

It physically hurts to imagine not having him in my life for the last six years.

I didn’t know I was setting myself up for heartbreak all those years ago. Yet here I am, and that reality is what keeps me up at night. My eyes burn from both exhaustion and the tears begging to be shed.

That chance encounter set everything into motion, and only months ago I would have said it was a blessing, bestowed upon me by fate, or maybe kismet. But now I know better.

I wish I’d never stopped that night.

I wish I’d never met Evan at that gas station.

Whoever said it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all was a liar and a fool.

This pain isn’t worth it.

If only I could go back, because I don’t know how we’ll get through this.

Kat

Tell me a lie and make it sweet,

Like the vows you made on our wedding day.

Tell me a lie, don’t make it hurt,

The pain in my chest won’t go away.

Don’t tell me the truth, I can’t face what’s to come.

I’ll yell and I’ll kick, I’ll fight it, I’ll run.

Don’t tell me the truth, I don’t want to hear.

Tell me pretty lies with whispers sincere.

The chill on my skin lingers and flows down my shoulders. It’s an odd sensation that travels across my arms and I’d like to blame it on the alcohol, but I’ve felt it all day. From the very start of this morning, before the drinks came easier and easier. For days, really, I’ve been feeling this strange sensation of not quite being in my own body. As if I’m not really here. This isn’t really happening to me.

It’s been going on for more than a few days if I’m honest … maybe even weeks, but I’ve been ignoring the signs and whispers, pretending like they weren’t real.

Now that this sickness won’t leave me, I can’t deny it.

Ever since I let the words slip through my lips.

I hate you.

You’re a fucking liar.

I want a divorce.

An ache in my chest prompts me to take a sip of wine. Letting it slide down my throat, I pretend that it soothes me. It’s numbing, that’s what it is. That’s what I need. Tears prick at my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. Instead a shuddering breath leaves me and I lift up my glass, downing the remaining wine. It’s too sweet for being so dark.

Startled by a sound from the floor above me, the glass nearly tips over as I set it down quickly to wipe under my eyes. I don’t want him to see me cry; I won’t let him. But the creak I heard was a false alarm. I don’t hear the heavy footsteps of him coming down the stairs to our townhouse. I’m still alone in the dining room, waiting for him to leave.

Left only with bittersweet memories and the constant question: How did this happen?

The thick, dark drapes behind me are pulled shut but even they can’t completely drown out the night sounds of busy New York City. There’s always a bit that travels through. It used to bother me when I initially moved here, but now it’s soothing. It calms me as my gaze drifts toward the empty stairwell, where it lingers.

I shouldn’t be drunk, not when I’m supposed to be preparing to meet with a potential client tomorrow. As one of the top literary agents in New York City, I’m damn good at what I do but tonight, I don’t care.

I shouldn’t have closed my laptop and logged off all social media when I have promotions and advertisements running around the clock for these launches.

I shouldn’t be doing a lot of things.

But here I am, sitting at the head of the dining room table, and I refuse to do anything but watch the stairs and wait for him to leave. The very thought of staring at his back as the front door closes forces me to reach for the bottle.

I listen carefully as I pour the last of the wine into my glass. He’s packing at the last minute, like he always does, but this time it’s so much different. He’s traveling for work, but when he leaves from his rendezvous in London, he’s not coming back here. That sudden realization brings a fresh flood of unshed tears to burn my eyes, but I remain very still. As if maybe playing dead will hold back these emotions.

“He better not,” I mutter beneath my breath, holding on to my resolve.

I lift the glass to my lips, the dark cabernet tasting sweeter and sweeter with each sip, lulling me into a lethargy where the memory of yesterday fades.

Where the article doesn’t exist. Where the denial of an affair can fall on deaf ears. The picture itself was innocent. But Evan doesn’t have a single explanation for me. He can’t make clear to me why he’s lying, why he’s stumbling over his words to come up with a justification.

What hurts the most is the look in his eyes when he lies to me. The paparazzi photo is of him with his boss’s wife Samantha, who just so happens to be in the middle of a vicious divorce. He was with her at 3:00 in the morning in her hotel lobby. Three fucking a.m. Nothing good happens past 2:00 a.m. He used to make that joke all the time when we first met. I used to laugh with him when he said it.

There’s only one explanation for that photograph and both of us know it. Even though he can’t come up with a plausible excuse, he still denies it. It’s a slap in my face. I’m done pretending like I can forgive him for this. If he can’t give me his truth, I’m left with my own, which is that my husband is not the man I fell in love with. Or at the very least, his decisions aren’t ones I can live with.

I suck in a long, deep breath, pushing my phone away as it beeps again with a message from a friend and I lean back in my chair. I don’t want to read it. With the palms of my hands, I cover my eyes, suddenly feeling hot. Too hot.

They keep asking me the same things, but with different words.

Maddie: Are you all right?

Julia: Is it true? It can’t be true.

Suzette: So you went through with it? Is there anything I can do?

Messages from my friends have been hitting my phone one by one, each of them making it vibrate on the table throughout the day.

It takes everything in me to face them, as if they were really here in person asking me all these questions. I don’t have answers to give them, none that I want to say out loud anyway. I’m not pushing away my husband because I want to. I’m doing it because I have to and I don’t have the resolve to speak that confession.

Even I’m disappointed in myself.

My friends want what’s best for me. They only want to help me and I know that’s the truth, but it doesn’t keep me from being angry at the phone as it goes off again.

Heaving in a deep breath, I wish I wasn’t in the big city. I wish I wasn’t well known. I wish I could hide under the guise of anonymity and just be no one. More importantly, I wish no one knew. I’d crawl back to him if that were the case. I’d beg him to hold me every time I cried, even if he’s the one who brought out this side of me.

I’d beg him to love me. He would, I know it. And then I’d hate myself.

You deserve better than this. Another message from Suzette comes through next and I can only run the pad of my thumb down the screen over her words. It’s an attempt to make myself believe it.

Just leave me alone. Everyone get out of my life, my marriage. It wasn’t for them to see. It’s not for them to judge like every fucking gossip column in New York City. It’s not the first time our marriage has been mentioned in the papers, but I pray it’ll be the last.

My knuckles turn white as I grip the phone with the intent of throwing it, letting it smack against the wall to silence it, but I don’t. It’s the sound of Evan’s boots rhythmically hitting each step as he walks down the stairs that forces me to compose myself. At the very least I pretend to; he’s always seen through it, though. He knows how much this kills me.

I hit the button to turn off my phone and ignore the texts and calls, squaring my shoulders as I attempt to pull myself together.

I haven’t answered a single message or email since this morning when Page Six came out with an article about our separation. It’s funny how I only uttered the words two nights ago, yet it was already circulating gossip columns before the weekend hit, blasted all over social media. I wonder if he wanted this. If that was Evan’s way of finally pushing his workaholic wife to the brink of divorce.

My gaze morphs into a glare as he comes into view, but it doesn’t stay long. My skin is suddenly feeling hotter, but in a way that’s joined with desire. I can’t help but to imagine how his rough stubble would feel against my palm as I caressed his cheek, how his lips would taste as he leaned down to kiss me. A very large part of me wants to savor it. Our last goodbye kiss. It’s funny how the goodbye kisses are the ones I value most, but I won’t let him kiss me before he leaves this time. Not when the last things that came from his lips were lies.

My deep inhales are silent, although the heavy rise and fall of my chest betrays me. If he notices, he doesn’t let on as he places his luggage by the front door. My own hands turn numb watching his.

Even if he is only wearing a pair of faded jeans and a plain white T-shirt, he’s still devilishly handsome. It’s his muscular physique and tanned, tattooed skin that let you know he’s a classic bad boy regardless of what he’s wearing. My heart beats slower as the seconds pass between us; it’s calming just to look at him. That’s how he got me in the beginning. The desire and attraction are undeniable despite what he’s done.

He’s the first to break our gaze as he runs his fingers through his dark brown hair and lets out an uneasy sigh. In response my lips curl into a sarcastic smile, mocking both me and my thoughts. I’m not the only one to fall for his charm and allure, but I should have learned my lesson by now. My fingers slip down the thin stem of the wineglass as I smile weakly and force back the sting in my eyes, pretending I’m not going to cry, pretending that I’ve made my decision final. Like I don’t already regret it.

“I have to go,” Evan states after a moment of uncomfortable silence, apart from the constant background hum of traffic.

My blood rushes and I try to swallow the lump in my throat. I focus on the wine, the dark red liquid pooling in the base of the glass. I try to swirl it, but it doesn’t move; there’s so little left.

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