It was hard not to scream in frustration when I looked at the screen of my publishing website. The change in their terms of service was written in a tiny font that I scrolled through numbly, chewing on my lip. I didn’t read every word but I got the gist of it—they were changing the way they allowed authors to advertise their work on the site and off of it, and it meant I’d have to change my entire marketing campaign to make up for the changes. I sighed, accepting the terms, and clicked through my stats to see how my most recent books were doing. As far as the romance genre went, I was pretty successful in self-publishing my own work. I’d made a living out of it and it was paying the bills fine, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last with these new website terms.

I sighed when I saw how little my books had sold in the past few days. The update to the website had taken place a week ago and already my sales were tanking. I felt like ripping my hair out—if there was one thing I hated, it was feeling helpless. I wanted to be in control of what happened to me, and right now I felt like there was nothing I could do to get my revenue back up without making a huge change.

I was flipping through the website when I heard a noise outside, a loud crash coming from the hallway. I heard someone grumble something through the wall and got up to check on it, opening my door to see a man crouching down in front of the apartment door just across the hall, picking up several kitchen items and tossing them haphazardly back in the box. He looked up at me when I walked out. Just the sight of him nearly took my breath away—he was extraordinarily good-looking, with dark wavy hair and bright blue eyes. He smiled politely when he saw me and stood up.

“Hi,” he said, reaching his hand out to shake mine. I was frozen for a moment just looking at him, drinking him in. When he stood, I noticed his size; over six feet tall and broad, big enough to pick me up and carry me to bed like a doll. I blushed when I thought about it. I noticed that he was still holding his hand out and I took it, slipping my palm into his.

“I’m Lucas Garvey,” he said. He gestured at the door behind him. “Just moving in. Badly.”

“I’m Ellie Waters,” I said to him. My voice came out small and shy. He was studying me with a slight look of amusement, and I knew he could tell what I was thinking. I looked away from him, though I felt his gaze on me. I knelt to help pick up the things on the floor, desperate for something to do.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said, kneeling and putting his hand over mine to still it. I met his eye again and he was looking at me intently. After a moment, he gave me a half-grin that made me squirm on the inside, feeling warm all over.

“Ellie Waters,” he said, and I could have sworn he’d glanced at my lips while he said it. “Thank you for helping, but I’ve got it.”

“Okay,” I said, but continued to pick things up and put them in the box. He chuckled and helped me.

“Hi, guys,” came a voice behind me, and I turned around to see a woman who was just as beautiful as he was. Her blonde hair was nearly down to her waist, and she had soft brown eyes and a smile that was sweet and sexy at the same time. She raised her eyebrows at me when she saw me on the floor with Lucas, and I quickly stood up and took a step away from him.

“I’m Ellie,” I said to the woman, and only then noticed that she was holding the hand of a little girl, who was staring up at me quietly with the same blue eyes as Lucas. I smiled down at her and she gave me a coy little smile back.

“I’m Alice,” said the woman. “This is Luna.”

“Hi, Luna,” I said, bending over slightly to speak to her. “You look just like your daddy.”

Luna’s face wrinkled up. “I don’t look like a boy,” she said, making me laugh.

“No, but you have the prettiest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.”

The little girl gave me a pleased smile. Lucas stood up to join us, holding the box in his arms.

“Alice, you mind opening the door?” he asked. I looked over my shoulder at him and he smiled.

“It was nice to meet you, Ellie,” he said as the woman circled around us and used a key to push into the new apartment. I nodded at him, not speaking, and watched as the three of them disappeared into the apartment. I went back inside mine and put my back to the door, my head filled with the image of Lucas’s smile. I shook it off. He had the most beautiful family I’d ever seen—they were all perfect together, a gorgeous happy family. I’d never had a relationship like that. I’d dated but it was nothing half as passionate as the romances in my novels. I sometimes felt like a fraud when I wrote them, like I had no idea what I was talking about. I’d chosen my career over having a close relationship like that and I didn’t regret it, but sometimes I did feel lonely.

I sighed and got up, going back to my computer. I had to think of some way to solve my revenue problems or else I was going to go under, and I didn’t have a lot of time to figure it out. Still, no matter how hard I tried to deal with it, I found myself thinking about Lucas. He was so good-looking, with perfect cheekbones, a strong jaw, and a body I knew would undoubtedly be perfect. I had an idea then—a small one. Lucas looked just like the men I fantasized about, the ones who were featured in my romances. I allowed myself to wonder briefly if a new cover model might be just the thing I needed in order to get my books out there, but in the end decided it was a silly idea. I didn’t know Lucas or anything about him other than the fact that he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen, and there was no use dreaming about getting to see him with his shirt off.