Showing results by author "Lauren Blakely" in All Categories

As the team’s publicist, I desperately need a football player to be the face of our charity calendar. Turns out our one-time party boy receiver Jones Beckett needs a savvy PR woman to manage his new good guy rep. Sounds like a simple give and take, even though I’ll be traveling around the country, snapping pictures of the sexy athlete holding rescue kittens and puppies. Still, I’m dedicated to my job, so I'll stick to my iron-clad rule—don't date a player. And never ever fall for one. No matter how charming, big-hearted and devilishly clever the man is.

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve got it bad for my good friend Mia. But I’ve never acted on this crush. She’s my best friend’s little sister and, oh, there’s that little problem of her living 3,000 miles away. So I resist her every time I see her...until one night she’s in town and she confesses she’s been wanting me too. What’s a guy to do? I give in till she’s screaming out my name. But in the morning we swear we won’t let it ruin our friendship. Especially since she hires my adventure-tour company for a weeklong retreat for her new business.

Some women are impossible to forget no matter how hard you try. Believe me, I've tried. I've done everything I can to get the gorgeous, captivating, sexy-as-sin Julia Bell out of mind since she skipped out after one seductive weekend together. Trouble is, I can’t. Since she’s in my heart. And when I run into her at her sister’s wedding, she falls into my arms again, and my bed. Finally, she tells me everything, and it’s my turn - my turn to help her find her way out of the trouble that’s been chasing her.

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.

Top three reasons why sleeping with the enemy is a bad idea.... She's my fiercest rival. She's also my fiery ex. We're going up against each other in a stiff competition to win the hottest new client on the market. And yet, I'd like to be up against the wall in a stiff competition to get her to call out my name. Time to double down on my resistance to her tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners, sexy-as-sin attitude. The same attitude I find irresistible.

Let me just say -- none of this was supposed to happen. I didn't expect the letter to go viral. I didn't think anyone would figure out who Dear Sexy Ex was. And I especially never thought he would find out about it. Yeah, bit of a miscalculation there. But see, I need the money to fund my brand new venture. And Dear Sexy Ex, well, it turns out he needs me to save his business.

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.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever done this. Written a racy message and sent it to—oops—the wrong person. Yeah, me too. Except, I sent my latest Tales of a Naughty Virgin column detailing my fantasies about my hot, charming, thoroughly bangable next-door-neighbor to…my entire company. Did I mention I’m a children’s book editor? Well, I was. *Facepalm.* At least the column goes viral, but I’m still the gal who gets fired for her not-safe-for-work thoughts about the so-called “Mister Sexy Pants”.

Look, it wasn’t even my idea. But that’s hardly an excuse for agreeing to teach my best friend’s little sister how to win a man. But like I was going to let some other guy in the city help the deliciously awkward and ridiculously sexy woman figure out the ways of men? My unquenchable (and very secret) desire for Harper aside, she’s my good friend too. What’s the big deal if I give her a fake (but it feels real) kiss on the street? Or if I help her learn how to dirty text?

I live my life by a few simple rules - let no one in, trust only my family, and don’t ever spend more than three nights with a woman. Those are easy enough to abide by when I meet gorgeous, captivating and absolutely brilliant Sophie Winston, who wants nothing more than to explore all her sinful desires with me after dark. Desires that put me firmly in control in the bedroom. That works for me - as long as I can keep the secrets I need to protect. Not only the ones about my family, but the ones about how she’s interwoven into my dangerous past.

I don't mean to just blurt it out. "Why, yes, I'm engaged!" But once I say it to a potential client, there's only one logical thing to do - cast the role of my fake fiancé. Easy enough. As a casting director, my job is to find the most talented players for every part, so I choose dreamy, edgy, sexy, sarcastic Reeve. And I sign him up for one week in the role of mine. It's not as if I'll fall for him in five nights even if we get a little cozy one night at theater. It's not as if I'll want more even after a scorching afternoon in the stacks of the New York Public Library.

The second the test-the-sexy-scenes offer landed in my lap, I said yes. After all, I've been damn curious about a few things I've read in romance novels. Do buttons truly go flying across the floor when you rip off a guy's shirt? Is staircase nookie hella hot, or does it leave you with a big old bruise mark on your back? And don’t even get me started on all that panty shredding, and whether it even works. Time to find out as I embark on Project Sexy Scenes Research, at the request of my hotshot book editor bestie. All I need is a willing scene partner.

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. With a winning grin and heart of gold, Gabe Clements is now the star receiver for a pro football team. Except, the supposed good guy turns out to be nothing like I imagined. He’s better. He’s growly, possessive, smoldering.

April Hamilton wants you to know she hasn’t been on Craigslist since that time she sold her futon after college. She doesn’t even spend that much time online. And even if she did, she would not be looking up personal ads. But going home alone for her family's summer reunion is an invitation for every single relative to butt into her personal life. She simply can’t handle another blind date with the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker from her hometown. So when she finds the Craigslist ad for a boyfriend-for-hire, she’s ready to pay to play.

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 really don't need a bodyguard—I run a small-town lavender farm, for bee's sake! But I'm getting one anyway since my identical twin sister just booked the movie role of a lifetime and it's being shot in my hometown. And guess who my new broody, tattooed protector is? None other than the guy I had a one-night stand with last month.

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....

My sexy-as-sin husband and I are living our best life together in Manhattan. Clay and I dote on our little girl, enjoy thriving careers, and indulge in the best nights together ever. But when competition rears its head in my bar business, I have to pull out all the stops to show I’m not a one-hit wonder in my field. Turns out, though, that this drink contest inspires my husband and me in other ways - ways that might lead to even more wildly seductive nights.

Just because you want a woman doesn't mean you get to have her. I've been lusting after Mindy Gamble since the night I met her, but romance was never in the cards. Working to crack a case was the only order of the day. Now, a year later, she's one of my closest friends. The feisty, no-nonsense, sexy-as-hell blonde that I just want to slap my handcuffs on and do bad things to. I resist though, since I need her too much as a friend. Until the night all my resistance cracks, and we fall into bed together. And I start thinking we can maybe find a way to make this work.

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.