Love doesn't always come in twos. Sometimes, it comes with a choice-or a chance to rewrite the rules.

Ajaih Jeffries is a 42-year-old Air Force veteran with battle scars you can't always see. After years of unraveling generational pain and rediscovering her voice, she's found refuge and pleasure in the arms of a loving, affirming polycule. But when a deeply buried trauma resurfaces, Ajaih finds herself in the emergency room, breathless and spiraling... until she locks eyes with the nurse who helps steady her world with nothing more than a quiet touch and a look that lingers.

Maverick "Blue" Carter has everything he thought he wanted: a solid career at Winston Hills Memorial, a carefully guarded heart, and a complicated but electric on-and-off love affair with Knox-his oldest friend and sometimes more. But when Ajaih Jeffries is wheeled into his ER, fierce and fragile all at once, everything shifts. Her freckled skin. Her strength. Her story. Blue isn't sure what it means-only that he can't stop wanting her.

Now, desire tangles with devotion, and Ajaih and Maverick must confront what love really looks like when it doesn't fit neatly into monogamous lines. Can Maverick navigate the gravitational pull between two people who hold his heart in different ways? And can Ajaih trust herself to love fully, without losing what she's built?

"AWAKENING" is a sensual, soul-baring erotic romance about healing, queerness, and the courage it takes to love outside the lines.

AUTHOR

C.M. Barnes

ENIGMA: A Winston Hills Novel

AWAKENING: A Winston Hills Novel

Concrete & Cadence (Welcome to Stonebridge)