Book Title: Playing by the Rules (Miami Piranhas Book 3)
Author and Publisher: Beth Bolden
Cover Artist: Cate Ashwood Designs
Release Date: October 7, 2022
Genres: Gay contemporary sports romance
Tropes: Forbidden romance, friends to lovers
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 103 000 words
It is #3 in the series.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Blurb
Ex-quarterback Davis Abernathy knows he’s on his last chance.
If he strikes out as Paxton Kelly’s coach, nobody else is going to call him. Not to get back on the field, and not to stand on the sidelines.
He’s got a lot to teach Pax, and as a second-year quarterback, Pax has a lot to learn. But Davis doesn’t anticipate the irresistible way they’ll be drawn together from their first meeting. He never could have predicted such a fierce and uncontrollable yearning—or that Pax would feel the same.
It should be easy to remember rules aren’t meant to be broken, and certain lines aren’t meant to be crossed, but the only thing that’s easy is falling totally, completely in love with Pax.
As Davis falls harder, Pax succeeding becomes just as important—and maybe more so—than resurrecting his own career. If he messes this up, his last chance isn’t all he’ll be sacrificing.
What he should be is focused on being the perfect mentor. But what he wants is Pax in his bed, Pax in his life, and more impossibly, to win Pax’s heart forever.
“Well, you get bored in Carolina, you can always stay with me,” Pax said, turning towards him.
Even though that hadn’t been the thing he’d intended to say at all.
“You’re staying in a hotel,” Davis said, quietly amused.
“When I buy something in Miami, that’s what I meant,” Pax said. He hadn’t even thought about it, he just knew he didn’t want Davis to go just yet.
He wasn’t a lifeline, not exactly, because Pax didn’t like to think he’d been drowning, but whatever Davis was, he made life easier. He made Pax smile. He made Pax want to be better. He also made Pax want to be not good at all.
Davis reached over and he was roughly tugging him into a hug before Pax could acclimate himself to the idea that it was going to happen.
They touched, because football players were all a touchy-feely bunch, but they’d never embraced like this.
Pax expected it to be quick and fleeting, not quite enough to get more than a vague impression of Davis’ body pressed against his. But then Davis, unexpectedly, lingered.
Maybe he didn’t want to let go either.
Whichever it was, Pax’s fingers dug into Davis’ shoulders, and for a single forbidden second, he breathed in the smell of him, trying to memorize everything about him.
This was the very opposite of what he should be doing—trying to forget, trying to move past this ill-advised crush—but Pax also hadn’t expected it to feel this good, either.
“You need me,” Davis said, his voice quiet but gruff, “I’m here for you, okay?”
Pax’s fingers tightened, but Davis didn’t seem in any particular hurry to move either. His palm was big and warm on his back, and it hadn’t moved, but Pax could imagine, so fucking easily, how it might feel to have it stroke him, in long, comforting sweeps.
How it might turn into something else, just as easy as breathing.
He pulled back, letting go even as his body protested.
Davis’ eyes were so deep and blue, and Pax couldn’t look away.
It was funny, how Pax had never looked at Davis Abernathy before the last few days and thought, oh, he’s hot, he’s really fucking hot, but now he couldn’t think anything else.
Before they’d met, he’d just been another guy, another quarterback, and he’d barely thought twice about him, except, Pax supposed, to feel sorry for him.
If he’d thought about attractive quarterbacks, there was always Sam Crawford, who probably could’ve been a model in a different timeline. Or even Heath Harris, his boyfriend, if you liked that stern tough type.
Davis wasn’t a model and he wasn’t a hot asshole either.
He was just himself, and seemingly by being just that, he was irresistible.
“If you need me,” Pax said quietly, “I’m here for you, too.”
A lifelong Pacific Northwester, Beth Bolden has just recently moved to North Carolina with her supportive husband. Beth still believes in Keeping Portland Weird, and intends to be just as weird in Raleigh.
Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published twenty-three novels and seven novellas.
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