Playing for Keeps

Top tip: Don't put out an online ad offering your services as a fake date. Someone will take you up on it - and it won't just be for one night. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up being Mason Jackson's fake girlfriend. He didn't even want me to be. No - his sister was solely responsible for me being his date for his 10-year high school reunion. And now, she's responsible for telling his parents our relationship is real. We have no choice. We have to act like this isn't all a mistake. 

It was just a typical Monday. Until the big boss asked me to make the pitch for a prospective new client. After two years on shaky ground at work because of my screw up, an opportunity to impress the senior partners was just what I needed. Or so I thought, until I walked into the conference room and collided with the man I was supposed to pitch to. My coffee spilled, my files tumbled to the ground, and I almost lost my balance. And that was the good part of my day. Because the gorgeous man who crouched down and looked at me like he wanted to eat me alive was none other than my ex.

Sera is usually a good girl. (Except for one wild night in the back seat of a stranger's car!) But what happens when that bad boy turns out to be her new boss? And what happens when he wants more than one night...and he can be very persuasive...?

I moved to New York to prove to everyone that I could - that I'm not the baby my entire family still seems to think I am. So, landing a plum job working for Logan Cartwright at the prestigious Cartwright Diamonds should have been a dream come true. Then I show up for my first day, and my new boss has no idea who I am. He thinks I'm the Muffin Girl (whatever that is.) Turns out, he only hired me because he thought I was a guy. (Thanks Mom and Dad, for naming me Blake.

My life was perfect - until a shocking tragedy pulled the rug out from underneath me. My children were left without a father. I was without a husband and a provider. Instead of wallowing in my grief, I buried myself in my work at Dovetail Enterprises. Landing the promotion as the CEO’s right hand was exactly what I needed. Getting saddled with Milo Huxley as an assistant is exactly the opposite. I can’t stand him. He’s arrogant, irresponsible, and out for my job. As if that’s not bad enough, he has to be devastatingly sexy, and have a posh English accent that makes me squirm on top of it all.

He's the bad boy...but I'm the one breaking all the rules. I've always been the quintessential good girl. I don't just follow the rules - I write them. As an advice columnist, I'm always telling people how to not screw up their lives. So you'd think I'd know better than to bang some random guy in a bar bathroom. But nope. Apparently not. Now, I've got even bigger problems, though. Because it turns out that wasn't just some random guy. It was Tyler Grant. Rich. Playboy. Devastatingly gorgeous. Oh, and the publisher of my new dating-advice book.    

With a famous NHL player for a stepbrother, Violet Hall is well acquainted with the playboy reputation of many a hockey star. So of course she isn't interested in legendary team captain Alex Waters or his pretty, beat-up face and rock-hard six-pack abs. But when Alex inadvertently obliterates Violet's misapprehension regarding the inferior intellect of hockey players, he becomes much more than just a hot body with the face to match.

He was someone who belonged in my wildest fantasies instead of a rest stop in the middle of Nebraska. A sexy, cocky Australian named Chance was the last person I expected to run into on my cross-country drive. When my car broke down, we made a deal. Next thing I knew, we were traveling together, spending sexually tense nights in hotels, and taking unplanned detours. My ordinary road trip turned into the adventure of a lifetime. It was all fun and games until things got intense.

Wearing the nicest suit I own, I stand in the very back with a flask full of whiskey in my inner pocket. I put on a brave face as I watch her walk down the aisle. Because it’s too late. I refuse to be the bastard who makes her cry on her wedding day, but I’m dying to tell her what I’ve always known. She’s my best friend, but she doesn’t realize she owns my f--king heart and soul, too.

When I’m offered the chance to leave New York to live in London for three months, I can’t pack my suitcase fast enough. As soon as I touch down, I’m obsessing over red telephone boxes, palaces, and all the black cabs. But my favorite place is the tube. It’s wall-to-wall hot British men in suits. 

You'd think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You'd be wrong. For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don't know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.

Working for my ex-boyfriend? Sure. But falling for him again? That's a deal breaker. Dancing around my office in my bra isn't exactly the way I'd have chosen to run into my ex for the first time in 12 years, but what can I say? Wes Lake has always had a knack for showing up at the most inopportune times. Unfortunately, he also has a knack for leaving. That's why I've made every effort to put him out of my head - and my heart. But this time, he needs my help. 

Full disclosure: Before we move forward with this email, I would like it to be known that I have consumed an adequate amount of alcoholic beverages to intoxicate myself tonight. Three margaritas, two shots, and one beer - because it was free. I think it's important to be open and honest with your coworkers, don't you? So here I am, being open and honest. Drunk but honest. Or just drunk with lust? You decide. I have a hopeless, foolish, schoolgirl crush on you when you are the last person on earth I should be falling for. Did you know people around the office call you a sadist?

Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have the first clue about what she's going to do after college. To make matters worse, she's nursing a broken heart thanks to the end of her longtime relationship. Wild rebound sex is definitely not the solution to her problems, but gorgeous hockey star Dean Di-Laurentis is impossible to resist. Just once, though, because even if her future is uncertain, it sure as heck won't include the king of one-night stands.

Some women just have it - that combination of stunning looks and sexual confidence that brings men to their knees. Not me. My last boyfriend once fell asleep while we were...you know. Not my proudest moment. And my crush on my hot, arrogant, and oh-so-unattainable CEO? Never going to happen. But one night, after too much wine, I find myself online, creating a profile for a sex kitten called SweetVixen. Safe behind my computer screen, I'm suddenly the seductive goddess of my wildest imagination.