Showing results by author "Melissa Toppen" in All Categories

I remember the first time I saw Sutton Barnett in perfect detail–like a fragment of time suspended in front of my eyes. I remember his shirt–faded blue against tanned skin that had seen countless hours of the summer sun. Wet droplets peppered his shoulders from where his still wet hair had dripped onto the fabric. He rounded the bottom of the stairs, our eyes meeting for only a fraction of a second before he looked away, but it was long enough for me to know right then and there that nothing would ever be the same again.

Time is a funny thing. It keeps moving even when it feels like everything around you stops. It is the catalyst for everything. How we grieve. How we heal. How we live. Time was the one thing I tried but could never escape. Days passed in his absence. Months. Years. And I stood still. Stuck in the past. Paralyzed by the memory of him. Nash Ketter had been my whole world for as long as I could remember. The person I loved with my entire being. He was the sun, the moon, and the stars. He was everything. And then one day, he was gone… Just like that. Like he had never existed at all.

Fabrication. The one word that describes my entire life. They didn’t want me to know my true identity. Now, I know why.... Abducted. Held against my will. I’ve become a bargaining chip in a blood feud that spans decades. Mateo Rivera is the one calling the shots. His father’s death put him in charge. Now he holds all the power. I should have known that he would ruin me the moment I laid eyes on him. And he did. He introduced me to a whole new world. One filled with danger and desire. I wasn’t just his prisoner. I was his prize.

It was destiny - the night I met Hudson Demasi. I remember how effortlessly he stole my heart - his dark eyes and quick smile forever etched into my mind. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila - a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone. I never expected to see him again - especially not five years later standing on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans as none other than hot, new country artist, Hudson James.

It’s funny how differently we view life when we’re young. Everything feels possible- limitless. If only things could stay that way forever. Then maybe life wouldn’t be so complicated. Maybe Jace would still be the same ten-year-old boy I fell in love with. Maybe I’d still be that same girl too. The girl who believed that there wasn’t anything we couldn’t overcome. But I’m not that girl anymore. Time has beaten me down, broken me, taken everything from me. And it’s taken even more from Jace. I naively believed that I could save him...From his dad. From his anger.

At twenty-six, I thought I knew exactly what my life would look like. Marry my fiancé, Blake. Buy a big house on the California coast and have a couple of kids. Everything was so clear, until my mom got sick, and then suddenly it wasn’t anymore. In the span of one year, my entire life was different. My mom was gone. I had abruptly ended my engagement. And I found myself three thousand miles away from home, trying to reassemble the pieces of my life when none of them seemed to fit together anymore.

Our parents’ friendship meant we had to co-exist. But it didn’t mean we had to like it. He purposely did things to get under my skin. Like spreading rumors about me in junior high so no boys wanted to go out with me. Or sleeping with several of my high school friends, just to prove he could.

Years passed. Moments faded into the background. Until eventually, he became nothing more than a distant memory—a dream that almost didn’t seem real. But then suddenly he’s there, standing in front of me again like he never left. And in that one heartbeat, in that one breath, I relive it all over again. Every touch. Every word. Like frozen snippets of time suspended in front of my eyes.

I had a lot of plans entering my senior year of college—dealing with Archer Copeland in any capacity was most definitely not on that list. The cocky quarterback and I have been at odds since last year when he posed naked for one of my art classes. Okay, so he was wearing a towel, but really, that barely even counts. Apparently, he enjoyed how uncomfortable the whole situation made me and decided that messing with me was his new favorite past time.

Arrogant. Egotistical. Playboy. Three words that perfectly describe Atlas Keaton. My twin brother’s best friend. The absolute bane of my existence. And my new college roommate. It wasn’t by choice of course. The last thing I wanted was to be forced to endure a full semester living under the same roof as him and my brother. But when a housing mix-up leaves me 3,000 miles away from home with nowhere else to turn, I don’t really have another option. It’s only four months, how hard could it be, right? Wrong...

It only takes one night - one moment, one small snippet of time - to change everything. At 16-years-old, Sebastian Baxter taught me that. He taught me a lot of things. He never had to work for my heart. In some unexplainable way, I think it had always belonged to him anyway. Some might think our love story is over, but deep down I know it's only just beginning. Because it's not about where the night begins, it's about where it ends.

Roses are red. Violets are blue. Forget everything good you’ve been told about love. Because, none of it’s true. You don’t agree? Spend a day in my shoes and you’d curse love, too. My name’s Blue. Yes, you read that right. Blue Daniels. And I hate love. I despise every single thing about it. In my 32 years on this Earth, it has brought me nothing but heartbreak and disappointment. Love is a void.

Alec Murray. He was the one. From the first moment I saw him, I knew. I had never been more certain of anything in my 16 years on this Earth. But Alec didn’t notice me. At least not in the way that I wanted him to. He noticed my best friend instead. I stood by and watched their relationship blossom. An outsider looking in, wishing things were different. Torn between my loyalty to my best friend and the boy who had unknowingly stolen my heart.

It was destiny - the night I met Hudson Demasi. We spent one incredible night together under a haze of tequila - a perfect night. And when I woke the next day, he was gone.... I never expected to see him again - especially not five years later standing on a stage in front of thousands of screaming fans as none other than hot new country artist Hudson James.

Ten hours… That’s how much time we spent together. How much time I got with the man whose bright eyes and sultry smile almost made me forget that I was sick. Six hundred minutes… That’s how long it took me to fall in love. Thirty-six thousand seconds... And then it was over. And all I wanted was more. More seconds. More minutes. More hours. More him. Ten hours… Such a small, insignificant amount of time. Yet those ten hours changed everything.

I want him. Unlike I have ever wanted anything before in my entire life. I knew it from the very moment his eyes met mine; the way my skin burned under his dark gaze. I knew nothing would ever be the same again. Decklan Taylor isn’t just tempting; he’s dangerous - a storm who destroys everything in his wake. But even as I stand in the path of his force, I can’t turn away. While he may be the very thing that breaks me, he’s also the only thing that has ever made me feel alive. Sometimes falling in love is more than just crazy, it's downright stupid.

They say everything happens for a reason - that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. For the longest time, I didn’t think that was true. I had stumbled around in the dark for so many years that I didn’t think I would ever find my way out. But when I finally did, it came in the most unexpected way. Miles Hollins had been my brother’s best friend for as long as I could remember. We didn’t like each other much growing up. Or rather, we couldn’t stand each other.

Life is full of many things. Love. Loss. Heartbreak. Laughter. No matter how small, each moment has value. Then there are the big moments. The moments that define us. And the people who shape our very existence. Abel Collins is that person for me. From the very first time our eyes locked, I knew there was something about him. That he was the person that would change everything. And he did. But Abel isn’t just any man...His past is his prison. His guilt keeps him chained. His grief defines him. And now it’s up to me to set him free.

For years, I’ve been planning my escape. Preparing for the day when I could leave home and never look back. But when the moment came, it didn’t happen like I had planned. I didn’t pack up my car and drive away, watching my old life disappear in the rearview mirror like I had always envisioned I would. Instead, I ran — quite literally — as fast and far as my feet would take me. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I had to get away. And that’s when he found me....

Sham. Fraud. Hoax. All words that describe my relationship with Callum Hanson. It didn’t start out that way. We used to be friends. That is until high school, when Callum decided he was too cool to be seen with his less than popular next-door neighbor.