The 'Commitment' Series
Commitment
The 'Commitment' Series Book 1
It was obvious to everyone but them they were all wrong for each other. Riley is a free-spirited boho writer and Shawn is a magnetic and charismatic rapper, riding the highest crest of his career. She doesn't understand his world and he sure as hell doesn't understand hers. And what's worse, while he's never committed to any woman before, she's committed to someone else. Still, they can't stay away from each other. Along with frequent clashes of their equally strong wills, Shawn and Riley will have to face down opposition from friends, family and one extremely motivated groupie, if they want to forge a commitment that will last the test of time.
Unsuitable Men
The 'Commitment' Series Book 2
Beautiful, accomplished and a little uptight, Tracy Emerson thinks she has it all figured out, particularly when it comes to the kind of man she wants to end up with. And she knows for sure that Brendan Cole is not The One. First of all, he works in the music business, with rappers no less! His lifestyle is wholly unsuitable for a long-term partner, and not at all compatible with hers. But she can't help that she's incredibly attracted to him and also can't overlook that he's always treated her better than any man ever has. So what would be the harm in spending time with him until someone more appropriate comes along? But soon Brendan's spirit and spontaneity break down Tracy's walls and have her questioning whether her criteria for the perfect man might not be all screwed up. Then, to make matters worse, as secrets and lies from her past begin to unravel, Tracy wonders whether she might not also be a little screwed up, and not at all the kind of woman Brendan would want in his future . . .
Maybe Never
The 'Commitment' Series Book 3
The postscript to 'Unsuitable Men'. . .
Tracy is a complicated and sometimes difficult woman, but Brendan loves her anyway. Still, your lover’s foibles are one thing to tolerate when they’re just your ‘lover’. Contemplating forever is an entirely different story. What happens when there are things about the person you love that you still want to change? And what do you do when you have to face the fact that if change is what you need from them, that might happen . . . maybe, never?
The Fall
A 'Commitment' Novel
In the summer of her fifteenth year as a professor at Gilchrist College, Lorna Terry is at a crossroads and, she fears, also on the downswing of her career as the “sole remaining radical feminist in academia.” Having built her life on a theory of non-attachment, she is disturbed to find herself becoming very much attached to the somewhat younger, Malcolm T. Mitchell. A writer-on-the rise, and her college’s newest wunderkind, Malcolm is about to challenge everything she thought she ever knew about her life, her loves, and her work.
Four: Stories of Marriage
The 'Commitment' Finale
The ‘Commitment’ series finale.
Four couples, four transitions, four seasons of marriage …
Grace
Most couples wouldn’t have weathered one mistake of the kind Shawn made when he and Riley first got married, let alone emerge with a commitment that’s stronger, a beautiful family and a love that’s even deeper. Is there any way their relationship can survive mistake number two?
Balance
Whatever Brendan wants, Brendan gets. It’s an arrangement Tracy doesn’t mind, because he provides everything she needs: love, financial security and the comfort of never having to work outside the home. But now, the most important thing she wants, he doesn’t have the time—or maybe even the will—to give. With a relationship built on giving all of herself, is it fair to now ask for a piece back?
Growth
Robyn’s career is in a growth-spurt just as Chris’ seems to be at its natural end. No longer empire-building, he’s struggling with his new reality, and the need for a sense of purpose separate from his work. His wife seems way too busy to notice. That is, until someone else does.
Renewal
Once a mistress, now just a suburban wife and working mother, Keisha doesn’t recognize herself most days. The problem is, Jayson doesn’t either. If he’s reading her right, she wants out. And unless she’s mistaken, he might not mind too much if she decided to go.
The 'Afterwards' Series
Afterwards
The 'Afterwards' Series Book 1
Robyn Crandall thought she had the life she'd always dreamed of, with her childhood sweetheart, until he asked for a divorce. Gone with him are her hopes of a perfect home and family. Moving back in with her mother, broke and broken, Robyn has no plans to do anything other than lick her wounds and hold on to her faltering career. But then she finds herself unexpectedly drawn to a man who has everything, and yet seems to have nothing at all.
Every single milestone Chris Scaife set, he's reached and surpassed. The one place he feels out of his depth is being a father to his three kids--all them practical strangers--and dealing with their mothers who view him as a never-ending source of income. Between that, and managing his music empire he doesn't have time for distractions, but one shows up anyway. Robyn is a woman who deserves the kind of life he doesn't feel equipped to give her, but walking away might not be that easy.
Afterburn
The 'Afterwards' Series Book 2
Chris Scaife is not the man Robyn Crandall thought he was. Now that she’s shown him the possibility of a new life, she knows that Chris wants it. And he’s used to getting what he wants. But Robyn is seeing some possibilities of her own, as a highly-valued member of the legal team at Chris’ multimillion dollar corporation.
Just as he’s given her the confidence to soar, will Chris try to clip her wings? Once an unapologetic bachelor and distant father, Chris Scaife is now a different man. Engaged to Robyn Crandall, a woman whose love he never thought he could have—or deserve—Chris wants a wedding to happen, and happen soon. But Robyn’s plans are somewhat different from that.
Young, Rich & Black
An 'Afterwards' Novella
When Chris “Deuce” Scaife, Jr. and the campus revolutionary, Zora Diallo have an unexpected and powerful encounter just before winter break, no one could have been more surprised than they were. While they’re home for the holiday, what started as a temporary fling continues and strengthens. But will their new bond survive their return to campus?
Back at school, Deuce’s reputation as a wealthy and directionless player, and Zora’s as a young-woman-to-watch mean that their friends, priorities and maybe even their values might be sharply at odds. Can the power of their newfound passion for each other withstand their differences? Zora is looking to change the world, but Deuce is just enjoying being young, rich and Black. And ultimately, maybe the pull of their divergent paths will be stronger than the pull toward each other ...
Snowflake
An 'Afterwards' Novel
Running away from his feelings is the one race he'll never win ...
A star athlete and Olympic prospect, Kal Carter is bound for greatness. Everyone says it, only he's not sure he entirely believes it. Because he’s lost something he can’t replace, and most days feels like he’s holding up the sky; and doing it all on his own.
To maintain focus, he never lets anyone close except in the most superficial ways and he’s become very good at it. Until a long, cold week when the solitary girl next-door who never speaks, smiles or makes eye-contact barges into his life and seems poised to upend the whole doggone thing.
Rhyme & Reason
An 'Afterwards' Novel
“Maybe friendship is all that’s realistic for us right now.”
With those words, Zora ended their long-distance relationship, shattering Deuce’s vision of a life with the only woman he’s ever loved. But after months of silence, he thought he was over it. He’d moved on, hadn’t he? And as far as he knew, she might have done the same. Now Zora is back from California, and he’s thrown into an immediate tailspin. Nothing’s changed.
She’s the one, the only, his rhyme, and his reason …
But this ain’t no college romance. There are serious, grown-folks’ obstacles standing in the way, and the other woman in his life isn’t even the half of it.
And sometimes growing up might mean moving on …
Over a few short summer weeks, Deuce and Zora will have to decide whether the great love they shared in the past, is enough of a foundation to build a future.
Courtship
A 'Snowflake' Novel
Ibrahim Carter needs to chart a new course for his life. Having returned home after almost a decade in prison, he is no longer father to a young son nor husband to a deferential wife. Now, his son is a father himself, and his wife, Jada, is a woman changed by her newfound independence.
Struggling to figure out his future, his marriage, and most especially his very identity, Ibrahim finds that to move forward, he must look back …
Over the course of one weekend, he and Jada revisit the first heady days of their young and often immature romance, remembering the courtship that ripened into love, and trying to decide whether the bond they once shared can be revived or is gone for good.
Unplanned
A 'Snowflake' Drop-In
Ibrahim Carter has a plan; to learn from his family's mistakes and make for himself and his new wife, Jada, the perfect life he never had. But she has something else entirely in mind.
Kal Carter is disciplined and focused and those things have served him well while training for the Olympics. But in preparing for fatherhood, he learns that neither one of those traits is worth a damn.
The Broken
An 'Afterwards' Novel
He might destroy her. She could help put him back together.
If it wasn’t for his music, Devin Parks doesn’t know where he’d be. Now he has a shot at a larger audience than he ever dreamed of. All he has to do, is get out of his own way. But when Devin isn’t fighting salacious rumors on entertainment blogs and rival musicians, he’s battling serious demons from his past that threaten to hold him back just as he’s poised to soar.
Harper Bailey has mixed feelings about being assigned to manage the notoriously difficult Devin Parks' mainstream debut. It’s a career-changing opportunity made much more challenging because she’s fighting demons of her own. Not to mention the persistent pull the former lovers have toward each other. Harper has handled her attraction to the artists before, but Devin is different. The draw isn’t just physical, it’s emotional as well. And getting emotionally involved with someone like him is a non-starter for her career and her heart.
Because if her instincts are correct, he isn’t just ‘difficult’, he’s broken.
The 'Mistress' Trilogy
Mistress
The 'Mistress' Trilogy Book 1
Keisha Crawford is at a crossroads. Just when she thought she’d finally risen above the scandal in her past, her latest “sugar daddy” passes away, and now she’s being evicted from the luxury penthouse she thought was hers. Slinking home to her father’s house with her tail between her legs, Keisha’s only goal is to get out of Brooklyn and back to the lifestyle that she’s become accustomed to. But when you go home again, it’s that much harder to let go of the person you used to be.
Wife
The 'Mistress' Trilogy Book 2
No longer a mistress to wealthy, much older men, Keisha Crawford isn't certain who or what she is anymore. But one thing she is sure of is how she feels about Jayson Holmes, the handsome-as-sin ex-con who gave her a reason--and the courage--to change.
Jayson’s going through an identity crisis of his own. He wasn’t the kind the man who was supposed to wind up in prison, and now that he’s out, he’s serving a different kind of time—living in regret for all that he’s missed, the relationships fractured and opportunities gone for good. Now Jayson needs to make some changes and build a new life. But when he does, he just may find that Keisha shouldn’t be part of it.
Mother
The 'Mistress' Trilogy Book 3
Married to Jayson Holmes, and managing school, an emerging interest in a fashion career, extended family and new friends, Keisha’s life has changed well beyond anything she ever imagined. But Jayson has even more changes on his mind–he wants to be a father.
But how can Keisha, who never believed she would be a wife, come to terms with an even more challenging role? Will she rise to the occasion and embrace the joy, fear and uncertainty of motherhood? Or will she allow old habits–and old friends–to threaten the fragile peace she’s finally found?
The 'Secret' Series
Secret
The 'Secret' Series Book 1
Shayla has a secret. She’s a very different woman than the person she used to be three short years ago; that woman she finally feels like she’s left behind and she never wants to be again. And she’s been doing fine so far with her plan to reinvent herself. Trey Denison wasn’t going to put even a dent in those plans. All she needed from him was an extremely short, extremely hot, purely sexual affair and she had no reason to believe he wouldn’t provide it. After all, that was his specialty. But after one crazy weekend, Trey decides that a ‘short affair’ with Shayla is the last thing he wants . . .
The Art of Endings
The 'Secret' Series Book 2
The last time Trey Denison was a “boyfriend” he was seventeen years old, and then a family tragedy forced him to grow up fast and take charge of raising his sister, Tessa. So for the past sixteen years, he had no time, and no inclination for a serious relationship. But that was before Shayla. Trey helped her face demons from her past so that they might have a future. But now he must face his own.
Darren Parsons loves his life. He has a rewarding career and just about any woman who sparks his interest. The problem is, the spark – and his interest – in women have both been diminishing over time and he’s beginning to yearn for more. Unfortunately, ‘more’ comes in the form of Paige Freeman, his dead best friend’s former fiancée. And that’s a line Darren has promised himself never to cross.
Lifted
The 'Secret' Series Book 3
Theirs was a love story, but no old-fashioned romance ...
Tessa Denison knows who she is—she never has and as far as she’s concerned, never will date men. Though she struggles with coming to terms with the loss of her parents at a young age and her very protective and overbearing brother, Trey, her sexuality and free-loving lifestyle have never given her a moment’s pause.
Tyson Clark is a screw-up. Or at least that’s what his sister Lisa and his parents would say. After a second failed attempt to complete his degree, he’s in San Francisco crashing at Lisa’s place trying to figure out his next move when he meets Tessa, the latest woman his sister is pretending not to be sleeping with.
Tessa and Tyson’s connection is immediate, powerful and soon becomes far stronger than either of them have ever experienced. But the problem is … their bond is far less than one of them wants, and precisely what the other needs.
The 'Acostas' Novels
The Seduction of Dylan Acosta
The 'Acostas' Book 1
Dylan wins the heart of New York Mets superstar Mark Acosta and practically overnight her life changes. But as she is pulled deeper into the world of disaffected baseball wives, designer clothes, and million-dollar homes, all while struggling to figure out who she is, will she lose what's most important to her?
The Education of Miri Acosta
The 'Acostas' Book 2
Coming from a large Dominican family that takes their gender roles very seriously, Miri Acosta has always basked in the attention and protection of her three older brothers. Until now.
Almost twenty-three and recently graduated from university, she is finally coming into her own. Eager to experience every bit of what she’s missed her whole life living in the most exciting city in the world, Miri decides to buck her family’s wishes and become a modern, single woman. ‘Modern’ means clubbing, dating, and … casual sex.
Just so long as her brothers don’t find out.
As she’s putting her ‘modern woman’ plan into effect, Miri meets Eduardo Cruz, the newest teammate on her brother’s major league baseball team, and decides he is just the right man to get her started with the whole modern woman thing.
But Eduardo isn’t interested in a ‘modern’ relationship. At least not with Miri Acosta. Her brothers’ reputation for looking out for her make it more than clear, she is definitely not a woman to trifle with. Still, despite having his hands more than full trying to acclimate to a new world and life in professional baseball, Miri Acosta is shaping up to be the kind of woman that makes him want to play for keeps.
The 'Shorts'
Ivy's League
Ivy Livingstone has entrée into Washington DC’s political elite, lives in an exclusive neighborhood and sends her son to a sought-after private school. But her beautiful life is a gilded cage. She is independent, but alone. And unfortunately, very few men are confident enough to believe they are in Ivy’s league.
Eli Thomason has all the confidence in the world, except when it comes to his own judgment about women. And his attraction to Ivy Livingstone proves him right. She is everything he shouldn’t want: a woman above his station and beyond his means. He overreached once before and still lives with the heartbreaking consequences, so why does he find it so difficult to leave Ivy alone?
And if their own baggage isn’t enough, Ivy and Eli have to contend with circumstances around them that seem to confirm their worst fear: that the bond they’re beginning to build can’t possibly last.
The Lover
Ryann Walker knows she’s a difficult woman; difficult enough that it would take a rare, and special breed of man to take her on permanently. Thankfully, she isn’t looking for that. What she does want is a baby. And after a rash decision made during a one-night stand, she just may be having one, with the very successful, good-looking, but completely wrong for her, Spencer Hall.
But once Spencer learns that he may become a father, Ryann just can’t shake him. He isn’t interested in being an absentee parent; and she isn’t interested in having a man hang around who is hell-bent on crawling into her heart, breaking down her defenses and unearthing all her secrets, including the ugliest one of all.
Acceptable Losses
Quentin Thomas is in the middle of a separation from his wife that seems to have no conclusive end in sight, while his friend and colleague, Lena Chambers is stuck in Single Girl Hell. The only respite either of them have is their regular coffee dates, while working on shared projects at a very demanding law firm. Sick of hearing about Lena’s semi-disastrous attempts to couple-up, Quentin decides to fix her up. With his brother. Seems like a perfect solution; after all, his brother is a decent enough guy and Lena deserves that. A perfect solution ... at least until it appears that the fix-up might actually work.
Paid Compaion
Lia Hill isn't a model. But she's pretending to be.
Just for a few days, and just because she stands to earn a ridiculous amount of money. The thing is, her mind-numbingly boring job as a receptionist at a modeling agency while she tries to sell her art isn't exactly paying the bills in her crappy apartment, and she's desperate for cash. So when the wealthy and handsome Blake Morgan contacts her agency looking for a girl who's "not ostentatiously attractive" to accompany him to a family getaway, Lia leaps at the chance, sending her on the adventure of a lifetime with Blake, his sister, Nicolette and Kevin, his somewhat reserved, but super-hot "assistant."
The Morgan clan is young, beautiful, loaded and tons of unexpected fun. So what's the worst that could happen?
The Makeover
They’ve got the ‘friends’ part down pat. But now, they have to learn how to be lovers. Samantha has been best friends with Colton since they were toddlers. His NBA career has never impressed her, nor would he want it to. Their friendship is based on two things: a long, shared history, and Sam's tendency to keep things real with him, even if the rest of the world doesn't. When Sam realizes that the feelings she has for Colton—that are much stronger than friendship—might be returned, it seems like their problems are over, but no, that’s when the real trouble starts.