Kaiden Demay has messed up for the last time. He’s an NFL player, and for the past year, he’s fallen into a hole of self-destruction. Tired of his drunken antics, the owner of the team invokes the morality clause in his contract to release him as a free agent.
His last hope is a new team forming in St. Louis. He’ll do anything to make sure he keeps playing the game he loves, even getting a fake girlfriend to sway public opinion.
Romilly is instantly smitten with the big, muscular man. Thrilled when he asks her for a date. Little by little, she falls for him, thinking he feels the same way. Then she discovers that they were nothing more than a lie.
Or were they?
She glanced upward, loving how the sun played peek-a-boo through the tree branches. The scent of wildflowers hung heavy in the air. She wasn’t looking where she was going and ran into a jogger, bouncing off a hard male body. His momentum and sheer muscular size knocked her completely off balance. Then Toby must have thought she wanted to play and darted between her legs, tying the leash around them. She teetered and then pitched forward, falling onto the man’s chest. Knocking him off balance, they fell together in a tangle of arms, legs, and energetic dog. Toby jumped on her back, adding insult to injury.
Her lips were pressed against a sculptured pec, which might have been really gross if she hadn’t been distracted by his smooth, perfect, hard, tattooed … wait, she lost her train of thought. Muscles. Yes, that was the word she was looking for.
“I’m so sorry,” she gasped. “It was, um...”
The second their gazes met, everything came to a screeching halt. The edges of her vision went a little out of focus, and all coherent thoughts fled her mind. What the hell? She’d seen beautiful men before, but this man was a different breed altogether. Rugged, with short, dark cropped hair and scruff on his jaw. Hazel eyes that stared into her own with a deep, penetrating gaze before it dropped to her mouth.
Something sparked between them, and she was surprised the whole electrical grid didn’t short-circuit. Then he grabbed her hips and pushed her back so he could get to his feet. He held his hand down to her.
She looked up muscular legs, past the mouthwatering V line that disappeared into his low-riding basketball shorts, over a taut stomach and washboard abs.
Was she drooling? She felt like she was drooling.