Beauty and The Barbarian — Nikki Winter

Ashleigh Thyne was a man haunted by a bevy of things, most of them the hollow echo of memories he'd buried long ago. The other ghosts rattling the frame of his bed at night consisted of his ex-fiance Mackenzie Rogan's unshakable image and the sound of their daughter's laughter. For three years he's tried and failed at compartmentalizing the day that she packed up every possession she had and left him. Polite, distant and aloof had become the basis of their relationship. But with each phone call and holiday spent together, accompanied by dreams that leave tents in his sheets come morning, Ashleigh begins to realize that polite, distant and aloof aren't working anymore. Adding insult to injury is Mackenzie's engagement to someone that Ashleigh hates on principle alone. What's a man to do when the first and only woman he'll ever love is attempting to replace him and his pride is finally on its last leg? Ashleigh doesn't know, but he'll be damned if he allows someone else to claim what belongs solely to him and always will. After all, barbarians weren't exactly known for giving up without a fight, now were they?