In her Loveswept debut, Sidney Halston turns up the heat as a sexy cage fighter shows a former bookworm how delicious a few rounds between the sheets can be.
For Chrissy Martin, returning to her Florida hometown always seems to bring bad luck. The day starts with a breakup text, followed by a jailhouse phone call from her troublemaker brother. Now a routine traffic stop has ended with her accidentally punching an officer . . . in a delicate place. Then Chrissy realizes that the hot cop on the receiving end of her right hook is none other than the man from her teenage fantasies.
Jack Daniels knows how to take a hit. After all, when he’s not chasing reckless drivers, he’s kicking ass in a mixed martial arts ring. So what takes his breath away isn’t the low blow, but the woman who dealt it: a gorgeous knockout with legs Jack wouldn’t mind being pinned under—who just so happens to be his best friend’s nerdy little sister, all grown up. Soon their instant chemistry leads to a sizzling affair, but Jack and Chrissy are fighting an uphill battle if they want to make love last beyond the final bell.
“Christ, had he always been so…so…there are no proper words. Male! That’s the word! I can’t believe I punched him in the nuts. How humiliating!” Chrissy gave herself a self-deprecating thump to her forehead. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
Growing up, Chrissy had always had a crush on Jack but his jerkiness overshadowed the crush. In fact, it crushed the crush. Every time she found herself swooning over Jack, and she had swooned often, he’d do something to remind her of what an ass he really was.
Slade always ignored her and pushed her away. But, whereas her brother completely overlooked her, Jack never did. He was always the one that brought her straight back home when she snuck into one of their backyard cage fights. He’d always scolded her when she did something he considered to be reckless, like joining the girl’s basketball team. He’d say: “You’re gonna to get hurt Chris. You’re a munchkin. What do you know about basketball?” Or, like that one time, senior year of high school, when she had wanted to go to a party hosted by the head cheerleader. The plan had been to sneak out of the house after her father went to bed. Her best friend Veronica had lent her a dress and helped her with her hair and make-up. Chrissy even decided against glasses that night, it didn’t matter that she couldn’t see two-feet in front of her. She had been so excited. It was a cool kids party and she and Veronica were going to flirt with Roger and Nick, some wrestlers on the varsity team. She was sure Roger would finally notice her; she was, after all, wearing a tiny denim skirt. That night she had planned to indulge in her first kiss and Roger was the target. As soon as they arrived to the party, they noticed the crowd cheering around a table where a game of beer-pong was underway. The crowd was chanting around none other than Slade and Jack.
After gulping down a big red cup of beer, Slade and Jack glanced sideways and saw Chrissy. Both guys glared at her. Slade rolled his eyes, annoyed, and said something along the lines of, “go home.” She had shook her head and stomped her feet. Yes, stomped her feet. Just like a toddler. Jack didn’t even bother to talk; he grabbed her by the wrist, dragged her into his car and drove her home, all the while lecturing her on why she shouldn’t and couldn’t be at the party. The excuses mostly entailed: cramping their style while they tried to get laid. The worse part had been that Veronica, her best friend of six years, had completely stopped talking to her after that night. Lots had changed since.
She wasn’t the same naïve and defenseless little girl any longer. She was a woman. A woman who’d been through a lot. She had lived in the worst parts of the world and survived. She’d been through hell and back in her personal life and survived. That stupid love-struck teenager was gone and now every time Jack gave her one of those panty-dropping dimpled-smiles, she’d remember how mean he had been to her growing up and how he ruined her relationship with her best friend. How he never saw her as anything other than Prissy Chrissy, a dorky little sister in need of a protective big brother. How he had stifled her and never let her do what she wanted. But she had managed just fine for the last decade and she didn’t need a man to watch over her like that now. If Jack or Slade thought they could swoop in after eleven years and push her around like they used to, they were totally mistaken.
I am woman hear me roar! Roar!
She had riled herself up into a fit of anger, and only snapped back to reality as they approached her house. “He’s an ass. Keep chanting that to yourself Christine. Don’t let the gorgeous looks confuse you. Ass. Ass. Ass…”
God, she wanted to see that ass.
Naked.
In her bed.
No, wait! That’s not right.
A few moments later she pulled into her driveway and he pulled into his.
“Were you talking to yourself?” he hollered from across the lawn, as she got out of the car.
“Huh?”
“I couldn’t see too well since it’s dark out, but I thought I saw you talking to yourself from my rearview mirror. You’re animated when you talk, and you were flaying your hands around, like you were having a conversation with someone.”
She laughed, a little hysterical. Humiliation seemed to be the theme of the day. “Just singing. I sing sometimes,” she lied.
This book was like a breath of fresh air, not entirely what I expected from an MMA read.
It begins with one of the funniest opening chapters I’ve ever read and I was hooked, I immediately loved Chrissy & Jack.
Chrissy is in town to save her brother Slade’s ass (again) he’s been arrested for fighting and despite being three years older than Chrissy and a professional MMA fighter, she carries a lot of guilt and responsibility after the death of their father so will do anything to keep Slade on side, even if it’s to her own detriment. She’s a doctor and has an desire to help & care for people but has her own demons and to watch her to try to reign in these two full on alpha males was so funny.
Jack is Slade’s best friend and grew up with them both, he’s surprised at how much Chrissy has changed, he’s a hot, sexy, badass cop and fights MMA as a hobby, he makes it his mission to look out for Chrissy whilst she tries to wade into Slades business and the results are hysterical, I was literally laughing out loud as they interacted and throw in a quarter pit bull Chihuahua called Drogo and I was done for!
I devoured this book in one greedy sitting, it has serious undertones but for me it was a funny, sexy, fresh easy read, a little predictable and the angst that was portrayed didn’t jump off the page to me, there was one teeny weeny heart stopping moment that had me sucking in my breath & thinking NO WAY (you’ll know it when you get to it) but you’ll have to read it to find out if this trio find their way to their own happy ever afters!
Sidney Halston lives her life by one simple rule: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started” (Mark Twain). Or even simpler: “Just do it” (Nike). And that’s exactly what she did. At the age of thirty, having never written anything other than a legal brief, she picked up a pen for the first time to pursue her dream of becoming an author. That first stroke sealed the deal, and she fell in love with writing. Sidney lives in South Florida with her husband and children.
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