BROOKLYNAIRE by Sarina Bowen
Release Date: February12, 2018
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Sports Romance
Rating: 4 stars
Rating: 4 stars
A sexy new standalone from USA Today bestseller Sarina Bowen.
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.
When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.
Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other?
EXCERPT
I grab a towel off a waiting stack of them and toss it onto the edge. “You can sit and put your feet in.”
She’s wearing a short little knit dress that’s been making me crazy all evening, so it would be easy enough for her to strip off those stockings, sit on the towel, and drop both feet in.
And that’s what she does. She eases one stocking down over a smooth knee and tugs it off.
I don’t want to stand there staring like a middle-school boy. Okay, I do want to. But I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. So I go over to the sound system instead, and I set my phone on the speaker and cue up a really old playlist. One she’ll recognize.
When I turn around again, she’s seated on the towel, both legs hanging down into the churning water. “Ah. Wow.” She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling. “Nice place you got here.”
“Isn’t it?” I toe off my shoes and kick them to the side.
The first song comes on, and it’s a Macklemore tune that we used to play far too often in our first office. Rebecca laughs immediately. “You didn’t! I haven’t heard this playlist in forever. But I’ll bet I still know every transition. Lady Gaga is next.”
“She sure is.”
Rebecca kicks her feet, making a splash. “I have a little confession to make.”
“What’s that?” I loosen my tie and slide the knot out.
“Well…” She grins up at me. “I used to have a crush on you. Back in the early days.”
My hands freeze on the tie silk. “Get out of town. You did not.”
“No, I really did.” Her cheeks are pink. “That first year especially. But you were taken, and you were my boss. Those two things made it pretty easy to tamp down, when you’re a practical girl like me.”
I walk over and drop down beside her, my back to the water, though, because I’m still wearing trousers and socks. “So how does that work, exactly?”
“What?” She gives me a sidelong glance, but then looks away again and won’t meet my eyes.
“How do you stop wanting someone? I’m a practical person, but I don’t see how that makes it any easier. Nothing seems to mute the raging attraction I have for you.”
Her chin turns quickly toward me, and I seize the opportunity to kiss her. And it only takes one kiss—one slide of my lips over hers, and I’m on fire again.
We’re facing opposite directions, so it’s awkward as hell. But I don’t even care. I take greedy sip after greedy sip of her mouth, until she pulls back to stare at me. Her color is high and her eyes are bright and happy. “This is like Twister.”
“It’s better,” I correct. Lady Gaga comes on, just as Becca said she would. “Are we getting into this pool or what?”
Becca kicks a foot in the water. “I’m tempted. But I don’t have a bathing suit.”
“Oh, snap.”
She smiles and shakes her head. “Are you really getting in?”
“We don’t have to.” I’m never going to pressure her.
Her fingers trail across the surface of the bubbling water. “But this is an adventure, right?”
“Right.” I stand up and remove my socks. She’s watching me. And I can’t read her expression. “What?”
“Just wondering what else you’re going to take off.” She smiles.
“Come here.” The order rolls off my tongue.
But Rebecca doesn’t blink. She gets up and turns toward me, curiosity in her eyes.
“You tell me. What am I taking off?”
She puts two hands tentatively on my chest, and I make myself be patient. Everything I ever wanted is on the other side of this moment. I just need us to break through this awkwardness—the “will we or won’t we” tension.
Her fingers find the top button of my shirt. “I’m not getting in the water unless you are.”
That’s a compromise I can live with. I find my lower shirt buttons and work upwards, until we meet in the middle. She pushes the two halves of my shirt apart and runs a hand down my bare chest.
My inner caveman stands up and cheers.
REVIEW
I’ve known Nate’s mind for years, but his body is a foreign country I’ve never visited before. Somehow I already speak the language.
After finishing a pretty heavy book, Brooklynaire was just the sweet and light read that I was craving. It was low on the drama, high on the sass, laughs, and fun. Another bonus? Despite the the page count hitting the 450 range, it didn't feel like I was reading a lengthy book. I never felt as if it was dragging, in fact, I could have continued the nerdy Nate goodness even longer and not batted an eye. Friends to lovers trope + nerdy genius + Sarina's chuckle inducing brand of humor = another sports romance win.
Becca has known Nate for seven years, before he became a billionaire and owner of the Brooklyn Bruisers. For five years, she worked side by side with him as his assistant and saw him through success and despair. They were more than just boss/employee. They were the best of friends who understood each other at a cellular level. They had inside jokes, they drank tequila together when life brought them down, they geeked out to palindromes. They also silently suffered crushes on each other and buried them for the sake of their friendship.
Becca is just the type of heroine I like to read about. She's tough, highly independent, loyal to her friends and family, and a woman who works hard and doesn't like to stay idle. So it goes without saying that when she gets a head injury on the job, she's completely distressed and agitated over not being able to heal properly and get back to work. Her sense of equilibrium is out of whack in more ways than one, and she can't seem to turn back her internal settings to the home position.
This is where Nate steps in. His worry and protectiveness over her was absolutely wonderful. There was a level of comfort and ease with each other that you only get when two people sail past the bullshit and land in the keeping it real zone. I loved the little flashbacks we got that gave us a front seat to how their relationship began, and how it matured into the bond that they have now.
It’s hard to pinpoint when I stopped looking at Bec like a friend and started dreaming about her. It started sometime after the Juliet fiasco, when I couldn’t help but notice how Rebecca was always there in my life, making every day better.
Becca may have a bit of an inferiority complex towards him because of his accomplishments and success, but she isn't afraid to speak her mind and put him in his place. Not that he really needed that, because he was pretty much the epitome of respectful and sweet.
These two have spent many long years trying to ignore and deny the deep attraction and feeling of completion they give each other. But after she moves in with him temporarily while she's recovering, Nate is unable to keep a lid on his passion for her for very long. Though he's known for being quiet and unreadable, with Becca, he's like an open book. He can't conceal how much he cares about her, and the sexual tension that crackles between them is noticeable to everyone in their orbit.
Though he tries his hardest to navigate them gracefully past friendship, naturally there are going to be worries over taking the risk with their friendship that stand in their way. He never pressures her, but lets her set the pace, and bides his time. On top of that, Becca is determined to not lose the respect of her co-workers and the team by entering into a relationship with the owner. I was a little worried at first that this conflict would drag and keep them apart for too long, but that wasn't the case at all. Fortunately, they build trust in each other and tackle that hurdle gradually without any frustration. His own issues over women using him for his money were a non-issue from the start because he knew Becca never did, and never would look at him with dollar bills in her eyes. She loved him for the man he was, and that was yet another reason in his mind that they fit so flawlessly.
There was a lot to enjoy in Brooklynaire. It was sexy, entertaining, and sweet friends to lovers romance that was low on angst. The sneaking around/secret relationship because of the team's opinion aspect wasn't the most original conflict for me. It made sense, but I've read it a lot in the genre so I need something a little different. However, that didn't detract from my overall enjoyment all that much, and I know most wouldn't even be bothered by it. If you're looking for something to satisfy your sports romance appetite, look no further. Nate and Becca are sure to deliver the goods.
FOLLOW SMOKIN HOT BOOK BLOG ON:
0 komentarze:
Post a Comment