Showing results by author "Lauren Blakely" in All Categories

The woman I want is as off-limits as they come. I had an excuse two years ago when I met her on campus. She interviewed me for a story on major league baseball's rising stars, and we shared a hot, passionate night that ended far too soon, and without a mention of who her father was. Now I know the innocent but sexy woman I can’t stop thinking about is the coach's daughter. All the more reason to resist Reese. That ought to be easy enough, until she confesses she's still carrying her V card, and she’s been wanting me to cash it in since the day we met.

Fake real dating the one who got away? Sign me up… There’s just something about bad boys. Tattoos and leather jackets, am I right? Trouble is, my last boyfriend was a teensy bit too bad and now he’s in prison. Yikes. When my friends challenge me to take a dip in the good guy side of the dating pool, I see their dating bet and I raise it, looking up the guy I crushed on growing up.

In my defense, putting a fake ring on my best friend’s finger seems like a good idea at the time. My dad needs me to look like a committed guy to close a business deal, so what’s the harm in boasting to, well, everyone that I’m the marrying kind of man? Now, I just need my best friend to help me out and play my fiancée for the next week. Good thing Charlotte has her reasons for saying yes to my plan. Just as long as we agree to zero touching, and absolutely no feelings. I can do that no problem.

Fire captain and bar owner Becker Thomas usually spends his nights alone, trying to escape painful memories from his past. When he meets a sexy, free-spirited brunette outside his bar, he knows he's found the perfect way to forget for one night. But when he discovers the woman he wants back in his bed is his best friend's sister, everything comes to a halt.

Fine, fine. Sharing an apartment with my buddy's smoking-hot and incredibly amazing little sister seems like a recipe for disaster. But I desperately need a place close to work, and I swear I’ll behave. How hard can it be to share 500 square feet with the brilliant, beautiful total firecracker who’s my good friend too? Please. It’s sooo easy to hang out with Josie every night, to test out her new brownie recipes after work, to shop for towels and banana hangers on weekends. Until one night when she asks if she can join me under the covers. Platonically, of course.

My former apprentice is the last person I want to work with. Ever. She still hates me since I fired her once upon a time. So when I’m forced to pair up with the wildly sexy brunette every day on the most important custom car build of my career, we spend our days firing snark and sarcasm at each other in the garage. Too bad watching her work automotive wonders with a wrench is doing something to me.

Let me tell you everything I know about love.... Love is a lie, a game, a chase. And most of all - it’s a battle every man and woman must fight for themselves. I don’t trust love for a second. Until I meet Trey. He’s just like me - dangerous, scarred, and keeping secrets that might be darker than mine. And I can’t seem to stay away from him even though I’ve promised to. How can this be the start of something when tomorrow it has to end?

I was only trying to help a friend. I swear. I was legit asking for a friend who was finally ready to date again. So I did what any good friend would do. Posted it for her. It seemed like a good idea at the time - I’d weed through the candidates, and bring her my top picks. But then he responded. Is it wrong to date the guy I screened for my bestie? Not asking for a friend.

There are a million reasons why Miles Hart isn't the man I should date but allow me to enumerate the top three: He's friends with my brother; he's a single dad; and he's a sexy, in-demand rock star. He might as well wear an off-limits, totally unavailable, and don't-even-attempt-to-ride-this-ride sign. And there's one more little itty-bitty thing - he's never asked me on a date. That is, until he asks me to be his plus-one when his band plays at his high school reunion. It shouldn't be a big deal. After all, we're just friends, and no one is giving us our own hashtag. Except me....

Every man knows there are lines you don't cross. Like this one - don't bang your boss' little sister. Too bad I didn't know sexy, clever, irresistible London is related to the guy who signs my paychecks. Would have been helpful to have that intel before I took her out on that first date, before I kissed her on the beach, before I made plans to take her home that night.

The first time a woman stepped out of a painting, I thought I was seeing things. The second time, I thought I was going mad. The night she emerged from a Renoir, I felt something else entirely -- a deep stirring of desire, and the wish to get to know the brilliant beauty who's been trapped inside a painted garden for years. She can only come out at night in the Musée d'Orsay, where I work. There, after hours, we wander through galleries, with the Van Goghs, the Monets, and the Toulouse Lautrecs the only witnesses to our midnight kisses and, soon, our trysts.

I shouldn’t want my bodyguard the way I do. His job is to protect me. It’s not to fulfill all my nighttime wishes. And so, I resist him, working hard on the hotel reopening, all while fighting the enticing pull of the powerful man who watches over me. Until the night we combust in my penthouse suite. It won’t happen again, we say the next day.

Dog trainer Cara Bailey wants to find “the one,” but fantasizing about her sexy-as-hell client, firefighter Travis Jansen, is getting in the way. Her only option? Get the confirmed bachelor out of her system - in every position possible - so she can settle down with Mr. Right. Starting right now. Travis doesn’t do relationships, so no matter how badly he wants the pretty little brunette, he keeps his distance. Until Cara goes and changes the game. She’ll fulfill all of his fantasies if he agrees to walk away when it’s over.

Don’t play dirty. That’s the code I live by on and off the field. The other?Don’t get distracted. Not by the media, not by hookups, and definitely not by our rival team’s ridiculously charming star player, who loves to whisper dirty nothings to me every time we play ball. And sure, his offers are tempting, but he’s the love ‘em and leave ‘em type, and I want the real thing.

After how this season has gone so far—don’t ask—the last thing I need is a distraction. Like, say, my spring training one-night stand showing up in my dugout. If it’s not annoying enough that the hot new shortstop with the heart-stopping smile has been traded to my team, the golden guy now needs a place to stay. When one of my bigmouthed teammates suggests the new star player shack up in my spare room, I’ve got myself a helluva problem—and it’s getting bigger with my eager, interested, and too-sexy teammate sharing my kitchen, my shower, and then, late one night, my bed.

Some women are just forbidden. Like - off the top of my head - my sister's lifelong best friend. Sis has made it patently clear that Vanessa is hands-off, as in keep my ladies' man paws far away from her clever, go-getter best friend who's ready for the real deal. That should be an easy guideline to follow, except Vanessa is deliciously flirty and easy to talk to and laughs at my jokes. Translation - my libido has been craving her many, many years. So many that we might have stolen a kiss or two. Can you say pent-up, crazy, raw desire?

Ten years ago, I let the love of my life slip through my fingers. It’s my greatest regret, especially since she’s all but disappeared. When she walks back into my world unexpectedly, I have one mission - win her back. Whatever it takes. But the gorgeous, brilliant, tough-as-iron Shannon has secrets of her own, and a family past she’s trying to escape. Slowly but surely, I break down her walls over our sinful nights together, with a connection more passionate than ever, an intimacy more fiery than it was before.

Indulge in two delicious standalone tales of love at first date starting with Your French Kisses, performed by Shane East and Erin Mallon. You can also enjoy a brand new recording of the novella Too Good to Be True, now with narration from Joe Arden and Andi Arndt....

I swear I’m changing. I’m trying so damn hard to step into the wild unknown of my future. At least Trey is on the other side waiting for me, and he’s the closest I’ve ever come to something real, something true, something like love instead of addiction. But when I learn what the man I love has been hiding from me, I fear our future will be riskier than I ever could have imagined. And I don’t know how the hell I’ll ever be ready for it.

The seven years I invested in my ex left me with nothing but scorch marks from the way he peeled out and left me at the altar. I’m not looking to put my heart into a relationship any time soon. But getting back out there? That sounds like a helluva good idea to get my groove back. Then I bump into Chris....Clever and funny, with a sexy surfer’s bod and a brilliant nerd brain, he has just the right screwdriver to fix my hard drive.