My best friend is married.

Everyone I know is married. It doesn’t bother me. I like my life the way it is.

Since I’m single though, when my best friend and her husband decide to finally go on their dream honeymoon, she asks me to watch their three-year-old son.

Of course I say yes.

What my best friend neglects to tell me is that I won’t be babysitting alone. 

Feeling Max might be too much for me to handle, her husband asks his only single friend to help. 

Nick Carrington and I have met a couple of dozen times. I’ve never really given him a second thought—other than to say he’s kind of a jerk. Out loud. So he can hear. Sure, he’s tall, dark, and handsome. And yes, he has the best ass I’ve ever seen, and I mean ever seen quite literally. You see he mooned me at last year’s Fourth of July barbeque because, like I said, he’s a jerk.

He always has to be the life of the party.

He’s also arrogant.

Imposing.

Rich.

And a playboy.

I’d even go as far as to say he’s a manwhore.

Yet somehow before I know it, this manwhore and I are co-parenting. Living under the same roof. Eating meals together and yes, talking.

Don’t look at me like that—it’s not like I had a choice. Even though I knew every minute would be hell, I had to say yes.

But after two weeks what I didn’t expect to discover is that I’d been wrong about him. 

That under his smart-ass exterior, he’s actually quite charming.

That his arrogance is really confidence. 

And that the sight of his naked body would do really bad things to me.

So yes, I’d misjudged him. And yes, I like him. Really like him. Although I might still think he’s a jerk…I now think he’s a sexy jerk.

And I want more of him.

The question is—does he want more of me?

Tess Winters is starting her life over in Chicago after a bad break up that also took everything she had built up in her career with it. But she is now living close to her best friend, Fiona, and her young family. She is working towards a new business dream., and she is starting to move on. She is scheduled to babysit Fiona's son while the couple go on a long awaited tropical honeymoon.

Color her surprised when she finds out that Fiona's husband has requested a co-babysitter who will now be staying with her and little Max. And he is someone that seems to thrive on making her angry and she sees him as the sexy jerk best friend of her best friend's husband. She thinks he is arrogant, cocky, and a manwhore. He thinks she is hot, but she has always been uptight and judgmental around him.

Nick Carrington is handsome, funny, successful, and bossy. But he never really corrected the other adverse opinions she had of him and his personal life. Even though he has been attracted to Tess from the beginning, she always had a boyfriend, so it did not really matter. And he does have up guards to protect his heart and he has reason to. He works hard and plays hard.

They are set up by their friends as adversaries in adventures in babysitting. But as they develop a routine of taking care of Max and actually getting to know each other, Tess begins to see that Nick has a lot of good qualities and there is a lot she just assumed. And Nick is even more fascinated by the woman that caught his eye and likes her funnier and friendlier personality too. They talk. They laugh. They support each other. They have oodles of sexual tension and chemistry. So their baby sitting morphs from nannies-by-day and secret-lovers-by-night.

They challenge each other. They battle for control, but know when to give in. They spark passion and surprising feelings in the other. But what happens with their little vacation from reality is over and their friends return?

But she has trust issues and for all intents and purposes Nick should just be her rebound guy. And he has never done attachments or real relationships. They actually scare themselves and each other with the situation they seem to be sliding into without a safety net. And they both have a lot going on in their lives due to work issues and some surrounding drama.

I really liked these two. Nick was really a total sweetheart who deep down just wanted to be loved and accepted. He was all about taking risks to reap the rewards. But emotions and relationships area foreign arena for him. But with that being said, Nick could also be totally swoon-worthy. And she was sassy and smart, and was not afraid to challenge him. They brought out more in each other than expected. I enjoyed getting their dual points of view. In the beginning it was important due to their conflicts and later on it was needed to really understand their growing attachment and fears. 

I liked the side characters in their group Fiona, Ethan, little Max, and Jace. They had an interesting stories going on in the background. I would like to know more about Jace especially and Nick also has a younger brother, Lucas. The group was tight knit and their relationships and history were well developed.

This was feisty, funny, sexy, and sweet. It was fast-paced and kept me interested. It made me laugh and touched my heart. I totally fell for the characters and hope we see them again.

I was gifted a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Tess Winters is starting over in Chicago after losing everything she had worked for. While she is settling in and beginning her new business venture, she volunteers to watcher her best friend’s son while she and her husband go on a much needed tropical vacation.

The only problem is that Tess isn’t babysitting alone. For two weeks, she will have to co-parent with her nemesis, Nick. Nick and Ethan are best friends, and since Tess and Fiona are besties as well, Tess has to put up with Nick’s brand of jerk often. Normally, she can put up with it for a few hours and then pretend he doesn’t exist, but 2 weeks is a long time to have to play nice.

Playing nice quickly turns to more as Nick and Tess take the time to actually get to know one another rather than instantly picking fights or staying in neutral corners. And once the walls start coming down the chemistry between them is off the charts. From hate to lust to love, these two feel it all.

They are careful though to keep their attraction under wraps in front of Max. Watching both of them as they work together to take care of Max adds a sweet aspect to the story, as does Nick’s natural tendency to swoop in and solve problems.

When it becomes clear that Tess needs help to follow her new dreams, he does what he can to help her out. As it becomes clear that there is more involved in her business venture than initially planned, he continues to try to keep her safe and protected while still helping her meet her goals.

Both characters have issues from their pasts that are unresolved. This gives them a common ground but also means they both have triggers. There were times I wished they could connect dots to make things easier for them. There were other times I wanted one or the other to be able to see what was really going on.

But overall this was a fun read with a lot going on. I was constantly engaged in the plot, wondering how the details would all add up in the end. The side characters added another level of interest to the story and had me curious about their own stories.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Upcoming stand-alones with related characters

Big Shot
(Jace)

Hot Stuff
(Lucas)

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