Shakedown

Their luck may be tough, but their love is much tougher. It just might not be enough to save their lives. Newly released from prison and haunted by his time inside – and the injustice that put him away in the first place – ex-con Nathan Baldwin knows his life is too complicated for love. Yes it was self-defense, but the world sees him as a murderer. But the longer he works at Shakedown, the more he realizes he doesn't care what the world thinks. Only what SHE thinks. Dancer Starr O'Malley is glad for her new start. Sure the seedy stage of a burlesque club is not where she thought her dreams would take her, but she and her sisters are together again. They have risen above the grimy sorrows of their childhood and are building a future. She might finally be able to breathe again, and maybe allow her grief-toughened heart to soften a little. Specifically towards the sad-eyed bouncer with the scarred face who makes her breath come faster. Two shattered souls stumble into each other's lives.. And beds… and finally dare to have hopes for the future…together. But when the brother of Nathan's victim comes looking for revenge, it puts Starr right in the crosshairs.

Shakedown owner, Declan Phillips, doesn't work for women's attention. They come to him. Throw themselves at him. Except her. No one understands his obsession with cold, angry Phoenix Rising. But how could they? How could they know what she did for him so long ago? He owes her and he won't stop until every trace of the hurt and betrayal he sees in her eyes is gone. Phoenix won't give in to Declan's adoration. She made a pact long ago. Never to be separated from her sisters again. Never to be swallowed whole by another's agenda. Never allow a man to dictate her life like their father. Declan should move on. He should stop tempting her. Stop being so damned perfect. At least he was perfect until she discovered his family connections.

No matter her refusals. No matter her futile protests. No matter her denial of the red-hot heat between them. He will have her. Carragh has waited years for the perfect moment to overthrow his father. Take the crown, the throne and the fortune due him as the eldest son of the MacKenna empire. Then redheaded burlesque dancer Luna Belle sashayed into his view and refused to leave his dreams. Fine. He'll take her, too. After all, a King needs his Queen. Luna Belle has plans. They do not involve an underworld life. They do not involve being a slave to an untenable, consuming passion for one Irish kingpin. She's not about to let someone like him ruin her and her sister's lives. She can live the rest of her life knowing she'll never want a man as much as she wants Carragh. She can resist him. She has to-if she wants to live.