His to Love

Book 1: Fireside

by Stacey Lynn

Genres: Family Life; Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

In the explosive debut of Stacey Lynn’s irresistible Fireside series, a pair of estranged lovers are reunited by dangerous loyalties—and intoxicating desire.

Tyson Blackwell never saw it coming when his Mafia princess girlfriend dumped him and disappeared at the age of eighteen. He never forgot her, either, even after what happened next: the killing of his father, a Detroit PD officer, at the hands of one of her father’s men. Tyson swore revenge, and now, ten years later, the kid who dreamed of a pro football career is a hard-nosed FBI agent, back in town to take down the Galecki crime family once and for all. But Tyson’s mission gets complicated fast—because going undercover means seducing the only woman he’s ever loved.

Gabriella “Blue” Galecki has been in hiding for a decade. She finally comes home to spend time with her terminally ill mother, only to receive a blast from the past when she runs into Tyson. His brooding eyes and electrifying touch still send chills down her spine. But as heir to the family empire, Blue has been promised to another. Caught in a web of deception, she is tempted to pull the trigger on the boldest risk she’s ever taken: trusting Tyson with her life, her body, and her heart.

Praise for His to Love

“Stacey Lynn writes sweet and sexy characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. I was swept away by a romance that practically sizzled off the page.”—New York Times bestselling author A. Meredith Walters

“Stacey Lynn brings the heat and the heart in this moving second-chance-at-love story.”—Elisabeth Barrett, author of The Best of Me

“I absolutely adored this story! His to Love is a fantastic second-chance romance with page-turning tension, passion, and heart. Tyson is a swoon-worthy hero readers will love.”—Brenda Rothert, author of Blown Away

“Definitely a recommended read.”—The Romance Factor

“Don’t pass up this opportunity to read an explosive story about two people from different worlds finding, losing and re-finding love. A lot of emotion went into writing this book and it was a great read, one I would be happy to recommend.”—Books & Boys Book Blog

The passionate novels in Stacey Lynn’s Fireside series can be read together or separately:
HIS TO LOVE | HIS TO PROTECT | HIS TO CHERISH | HIS TO SEDUCE

And don’t miss her steamy Crazy Love series:
FAKE WIFE | KNOCKED UP

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.

Release date: May 10, 2016

Publisher: Loveswept

Print pages: 285

Sample

Prologue
Tyson

My shoulders stiffened and my hands rolled into fists. The senior agent to the Underground Crime Protection Unit was speaking to me, but I couldn’t pull my eyes off the photos he’d just carelessly tossed on the desk between us. His words rolled like thunder through my ears and my head began to pound.

Gabriella Bluejay Galecki.

Long shiny black hair hung past breasts that were larger than I remembered. She had curves that would make men crave running their hands down them, taking in every dip on her frame. Hips that would make a man want to dig his fingers and thumbs into them while he took her from behind. Light blue eyes that were as mesmerizing as I remembered, except they looked much emptier.

Time had been good to her.

She looked more stunning now than she did the last time I saw her, sitting on my bed in my teenage bedroom, telling me she’d love me forever. Telling me that the distance between the colleges we were going to be attending, me at Central U in Michigan, her at some private ritzy college in Detroit, wouldn’t matter. Her family wouldn’t matter. We’d be one of the lucky couples from high school that lasted. One of the few couples that stood the test of time and college frat parties.

Then the next day, she disappeared.

I hadn’t seen a photo of her since I quit carrying her senior picture in my wallet halfway through my sophomore year of college, when I finally realized she wasn’t coming back. For years, I had tried not to think of her as anything more than a passing memory. A blank space in the trenches of my mind, accessed only when I would wonder what happened to her whenever her father’s name and her family came up during conversations and investigations regarding racketeering and illegal gambling.

All it took was one glimpse of her on a three-by-five-inch photo and I remembered everything about her.

Everything about the way I felt about her.

Right then, Agent Jackson was asking the impossible.

“Agent Blackwell. Are you listening to me?”

I nodded, spoke some sort of affirmative, all with my eyes glued to Blue’s bright red full lips.

Beautiful. Physically, she was perfect. It was her eyes and the sad, slightly downturned tilt to her lips that made my brows pull together.

“You’re making a quick stop in Denver and then headed home, Blackwell.”

I flexed my fingers, straightening them, and slid them into the pockets of my black suit pants. Looking up at my supervisor, a man I respected for the last four years, ever since I joined the FBI, I shook my head once. No way could I do this. “I’m not sure I’m the man for this job.”

It was as honest as I could be. Just by looking at Blue’s photos, I knew there was no way I could maintain a professional distance while doing my job. A job I loved.

And this mission was too close to my heart.

It meant using my ex-girlfriend, the only woman I’d told I loved and meant it. That Agent Jackson thought I could do this and not cross inappropriate boundaries showed he had more faith in me than I did.

“You’re the only who can do this job,” he stated, his expression firm.

I ran my tongue along the front of my teeth, sucking in my anger and frustration. When my professional mask was in place, I arched a brow.

“I’m too close.”

“No.” He shook his head and tossed me a file. I already knew what was in it. “You’re the only one of us who can get close enough.” The FBI knew of my connection with Gabriella Galecki. That knowledge was found during background checks they did on all candidates wishing to enroll in the academy. I just never thought that connection would be used against me in this way. My lips twisted as he continued speaking. “As you already know, the Detroit family has been able to remain successful and stable because they’re small and they keep their alliances within the family. Gabriella Galecki is coming home, and the only reason we can assume she’s making her presence known after a decade-long disappearance is because her family needs her. We need to know why, and you’re the person who can figure that out.”

“With all due respect, sir—”

“With all due respect, Agent Blackwell, I am your superior and the Bureau needs you for this. You’ll do as you’re told and get us the information we need so we can tighten our investigation and finally take down the Galecki family.”

“Why her?” I asked, my voice suddenly parched. “Why now?”

He tapped the file sitting on the desk. “That’s what we need you to figure out. Inside you’ll find all the information regarding the investigation we’ve been doing on the Galeckis, but something is still missing. We’ve been hearing chatter about their enemies in Boston and Chicago moving in on their territory. We need to know why they’re suddenly seen as weak. We need to know why Gabriella is being brought home in the midst of all this, and what role, if any, she plays in her family’s business. It could be nothing. It could be everything. That’s what you need to figure out.”

A weight pressed against my chest. Gabriella had never known anything of substance regarding her family. There’s no way she would now, not if she was the same. But people could change a lot in ten years. I sure as hell had. I opened my mouth to speak but Agent Jackson cut me off.

“You’ll do this, Blackwell. We have no other option to get close to the family right now.”

Heck. I had lost and I knew it.

I didn’t have a choice. Being an FBI Agent, one frequently pulled into undercover investigations, had been a goal of mine since I joined the Bureau. When a knee injury in the final football game of my senior year effectively ended any dreams of making the NFL, dreams I’d had since I could walk, I chose the one profession where I could do the most good. I could join an organization that worked at taking down crime families like the one responsible for the death of my dad.

The familiar anger started simmering in my veins. My dad had been a good man, a man committed to his job and his family, until a member of the Galecki organization took him out.

I would never forget the officers who showed up at our doorstep after midnight on a Tuesday. My mom screamed and wailed—sounds I remembered vividly, because they sounded nothing like those a human should ever make. She crumpled to the floor in despair, and stayed there long after my father’s co-workers and brothers in the Detroit Police Department left our house after hours of trying to console us.

“What’s my cover?” I finally asked, sliding the files off Agent Jackson’s desk and into my hands.

I would look at them later in my apartment when I had a glass of scotch close to me. Or the bottle. I had a feeling I was going to need it. I hadn’t been home to Detroit since college graduation. There was only one person who could have dragged me back there. Agent Jackson wanted me to do the impossible—put myself face-to-face with her, insinuate myself into her life . . .

And then betray her in the worst way possible.