Especially a matchmaker who works at the kind of paranormal bathhouse that would have grandmothers clutching their pearls. A worse look is a matchmaker experiencing a crisis of confidence. I am that matchmaker.

As the first humans allowed in Suevan space, there’s a lot riding on my all-woman team. Earth desperately needs their tech, and I’m determined to prove we can negotiate the price. Without their planetary defense systems, Earth is a sitting duck, ripe for invasion. Except the Suevan culture is nothing like ours. When I take part in what I think is a welcoming ceremony, I leave with more than I bargained for: a husband. A mate. Apparently, we’re there to marry them as payment—something the top brass on Earth doesn’t bother denying. Fantastic.

One night, and my entire life went up in flames. All because of him. Jafar. As my world burned down around me, he offered me a choice. Walk away with nothing but my freedom...or rise to his challenge and win my fortune back. I bargained. I lost. Now Jafar owns me, and even as my mind rails against his rules, my body loves the punishments he deals out when I break them. But a gilded cage is still a prison, I’ll do anything to obtain my freedom. Even betray the man I’m falling for. Content Warning: This book contains depictions of consensual non-consent.

When librarian Poe Markham takes the job at Thornchapel, she only wants two things: to stay away from Thornchapel’s tortured owner, Auden Guest, and to find out what happened to her mother 12 years ago...As Poe begins uncovering the house’s secrets, both new and old, she’s also pulled into the seductive, elegant world of Auden and his friends-and drawn to Auden’s worst enemy, the beautiful and brooding St. Sebastian.

Blythe has accepted her fate and is tired of running. Who would miss her anyway? She attends her new and eccentric town’s month long Halloween masquerade for one last party before meeting her end. But what will she find...and what will find her?