Title: Risky Play
Author: Rachel Van Dyken
Release Date: March 19, 2019
Publisher: Skyscape
Series: Red Card, Book 1
Summary
What else can a virgin do when she’s ditched at the altar? Seattle heiress Mackenzie Dupont is treating herself to a single-girl honeymoon in Mexico and a desire to relinquish her innocence to a gorgeous one-night stand. Fake names. True pleasure. But when she wakes up alone, Mackenzie realizes just how much anger is left in her broken heart.
Suffering a tragic personal loss, pro soccer player Slade Rodriguez has his reasons for vanishing without a goodbye. Right or wrong, he’s blaming the beautiful and infuriating stranger he never wants to see again. They’re both in for a shock when Mackenzie shows up as his new personal assistant. And they both have a lot to learn about each other. Because they share more than they could possibly know, including a common enemy who’s playing his own games. And he’s not afraid to get dirty.
Now there’s only one way Mackenzie and Slade can win: to trust in each other and to stop hiding from the lies they’ve told, the secrets they’ve kept, the mistakes they’ve made, and the attraction that still burns between them.
Excerpt: Risky Play
I was kissing her again.
Maybe it was because it had been months since I’d had a decent kiss, since I’d jumped into the arms of anyone who didn’t know me by name.
I could be Hugo for a few days.
Hugo seemed spontaneous.
Hugo seemed relaxed.
Hugo seemed fun.
I sure as hell needed some fun.
I broke away from her kiss and trailed my fingertips down her chin. “So, now that we’ve established the plane didn’t crash and we’re here side by side, what did you have in mind?”
Ashley grinned up at me, her eyes a bit hesitant as she looked from me to the ocean. “Well, I’ve never gone cliff diving, I heard there’s a great place close by.”
My eyebrows shot up. “No offense, but you don’t seem like a thrill seeker.”
She laughed. I decided I liked the way her laugh relaxed me, made me respond with a smile and a need to kiss her again. “I’m not, trust me.” She sobered a bit. Her lips turned down.
I wanted nothing more than to press a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth just to see if it would it make it decide to smile in my direction again.
“But it would be fun, I need fun.”
I sighed heavily and looked at my feet. When the hell had I ever looked away like that? “That makes both of us.”
“Great!” She walked ahead of me into her penthouse suite, which matched mine even in color. I suddenly wondered what she did for a living. I mean I could afford it because I had been the highest paid soccer star in Europe for the last ten years.
The place was around three grand a day.
I eyed the large master suite as she ran around and then held up her hand. “One sec, I’m going to change into a suit, alright?”
“Great.” I smiled reassuringly. It would give me time to look around, not that I was stalking her, but I could never be too careful. I was still surprised she didn’t recognize me. And I knew when she did, this little facade, this freedom I felt in my chest, the easy way she let me breathe around her? It would go to hell, and I’d need another escape.
I thumbed through a few of the magazines on the table, and dropped the last one down just in time to hear the sliding bathroom door open and see a goddess emerge.
A one-piece swimsuit covered her body. It had a plunging neckline that showed off two generously sized breasts, and I immediately regretted not telling her who I was.
Because clothing tended to get pulled off, not put on, when I was in the room.
I eyed the scrap of material she called a swimsuit, my eyes raking over her muscular legs, her curvy body.
“Unless you’re jumping naked, you should change too,” she pointed out, then cleared her throat and looked away like she was insecure. Damn, the woman could make a man cut his own heart out for a taste of her special brand of sin.
I peeled my shirt off over my body and shrugged. “Ready.”
Her eyes went so wide I had to fight not to laugh.
I knew what she saw.
I had Instagram pages dedicated to my eyes alone, don’t even get me started on my abs.
Eight.
Tight, packed abs, all tanned and golden like I was the sun god himself.
“Uh, right.” Her cheeks brightened as she clasped her hands together. “Let’s go!”
I checked her out the entire time she walked ahead of me, and when she caught me staring I just shrugged and said, “Next time wear more clothes if you don’t want me to look.”
“You should talk,” she fired back.
“Misunderstanding.” I grinned. “I wanted you to look.”
She slapped a hand against my bare chest.
I laughed, and then grabbed her hand and kissed her fingertips. “You ready to jump off a cliff with a stranger you’ve kissed twice?”
“Once,” she corrected with a whisper. “I kissed you, you kissed me, we’re even.”
The doors to the elevator opened as I whispered under my breath. “Not for long.”
