Kindled

It only took four years for the world to fall apart. Now the last member of my family has died, and I'm forced to travel across what's left of three states to find the only people I know left alive. To survive, I'll have to scavenge food and supplies and try to avoid violent men who've learned they can take what they want by force. The only way I'm going to make it is by trusting Travis. Travis used to fix my car, and now he's all I have left in the world. He's gruff and stoic and unfriendly, and I don't really know or like him. But he's all I have left. He'll keep me safe. We'll take care of each other. Until we reach what's left of our town and can finally let go of one another. Last Light is a standalone post-apocalyptic romance set in the near future after a global catastrophe.

Maybe Jackson would be different if he were in love. If he were in a relationship. Or if the world outside this room hadn't fallen into violent chaos, hadn't become a constant war we have no choice but to fight. Maybe he would take his time. Be softer. Gentler. Maybe he would smile or even laugh. Maybe I would be different too. Maybe I wouldn't need his hungry eyes and demanding hands in the dark. But this is how we are together every time. He's not my friend or my boyfriend, but sometimes I go to his room after the sun goes down. I need to. Not for sweet words or soft kisses but because his arms, like the flickering light of that one candle, are the only things that can hold back the night. Haven is a short, steamy post-apocalyptical romance set in the near future after a global catastrophe and includes some violent content and (secondary) character death.

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. When the asteroid hits and the world falls apart, I'm seventeen, and my dad buys us a place in an underground bunker. We're supposed to be safe down there, but we're not. Gradually, I lose everything until all I have left is a bewildering relationship with a stoic, unknowable man. As one of the guards in the bunker, Grant has lurked in the background of my life for years, teaching me to defend myself, making sure I'm safe, and infuriating me by treating me like a sheltered princess in a tower. I don't even know if he likes me, even after we end up in bed together. All I know is that he's always there beside me--during the bleak half-life of the bunker and the hostile, unfamiliar world we discover when we finally come out of lockdown. Maybe one day he'll open up. Let down his walls. And maybe eventually our days can be about more than surviving. Maybe I am one of the lucky ones, but right now all I have left in the world is him.

I never thought I'd live through an apocalypse, but I guess no one ever does. Now my family's gone, and the only person who can keep me safe in a violent, chaotic world is my dead boyfriend's rough, uncivilized father. I don't like him. At all. Cal's the last person I want to rely on, but for now he's all I've got. Eventually we become unconventional partners as we try to stay alive, but then my feelings for him start to change. I want more from Cal, but maybe I shouldn't. I can't risk losing what matters most. One thing I do know. In a world as broken as ours, everything gradually gets burned away. Everything but him.

I was in college when the asteroid hit, and all my dreams and ambitions went up in smoke along with more than half the planet. Now I'm left eking out a treacherous existence in the lonely, violent world that remains. Everyone who loved me is gone, and I'm stuck depending on Zed, my former stepdad's younger brother. I never liked him, but he and his four-year-old daughter are the only people I have left. The small world we've built for ourselves in the past five years is crumbling at the edges. Our food is running out. So soon we'll have to leave our home and travel a dangerous road in search of safety that might not exist anymore. To make it worse, I'm hit with new feelings for Zed and start wanting things from him that I can never have. I know better than to put my hope in romantic daydreams. This has become a world without heroes, and the happiest ending is just to survive.

Ever since the world fell apart, I've had no one except my sister. We've stuck together and taken care of each other, and I've never let anyone else in. But when one bloody night shatters our temporary haven on the flood-ravaged coast, surviving alone is no longer an option. I have to trust someone, and Cole is that person for me. Cole has spent years on a doomed, lonely mission to find his brother, but he goes out of his way to save us. He's strong and stoic and driven, and I can't help wanting him as more than my rescuer. But trusting Cole is a mistake. The man will always leave. Two years after I learned this hard lesson, I need his help again. My sister is taken, and I have no one else to turn to but Cole. I'll accept his help because I have no choice, but I'll never trust him with my heart or my body again. I'll do anything for my sister, including once more risking everything on a man who will always leave in the end.

Ever since civilization fell apart eight years ago, I've used my body in any way necessary to protect my younger sister and stay alive. Now she's safe and settled, I'm free to travel my own path, never again confined by walls or the demands of any man. Everyone says a woman isn't safe by herself in the dangerous wilderness the world has become, but I'm doing just fine on my own. My job as a messenger and courier offers me freedom and the means to provide for the people I love. No one is going to take it away from me-especially not clever, cynical Aidan, who insists I'm moving in on his territory. He's starting to compete with me for jobs, but I've never backed down from a challenge. Not when I was young and helpless and certainly not now that I'm not. If he wants a war, he'll get one. I'll never back down to a man again, even one I'm starting to want.

After losing the last remaining member of my family, I'm left all alone in a dangerous, uncivilized world. A twenty-three-year-old woman with no skills, no resources, and no protection can't make it on her own after Impact, so I'm forced to rely on the charity of strangers to survive. My one chance of safety and security comes from an unexpected offer. Jimmy Carlson needs a partner. He wants help in his house and a woman in his bed, and he'd like that partner to be me. In return, I get a place to live, plenty of food, and the protection of a competent man and his larger community. It's a good deal, so of course I accept. It means I have to live with a gruff, stoic man I barely know. All the new chores around the house are difficult enough, but they're not my biggest challenge. Because I'm now Jimmy's woman... whatever that means.