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? 

FINALLY! It is Nate and Becca's turn!

We have watched these two silently pine for each other throughout this series. Now we get their full story from when she first came to work for the math nerd, tech star wannabee seven years ago to the present where he is her billionaire boss and owner of the Brooklyn Bruisers. Over the years she has been at his side and has seen him become a successful businessman. Two years ago he distanced himself from her by relocating her from their Manhattan offices to Brooklyn to work in the Bruisers team offices and she was never really sure why.

Becca  is organized, efficient, smart, warm, and sweet. She keeps everything running smoothly, fixes things, and can be a tough when she needs to be. But her personal life is more chaotic, and she lacks confidence and self worth. She never understood why Nate sent her away so it feeds into her insecurities. And she is clueless about his feelings for her that others can clearly see. After she is injured and is going through a challenging recovery, he does what a good friend would do and tries to help. She is stubborn, independent, and not used to needing or accepting help, but it also fills his need to protect her.

Nate has been unlucky in love in the past, and has not been able to get over his crush on his longtime assistant and right hand girl. He is a tech genius, handsome, rich, and charming. But he can also be distractible, socially inept, awkward, and a work-a-holic. He never knows if people really like him or his bank account. He could probably have any woman he wants, except the one he is hung up on. So even though he has a big heart, he is lonely.

There are questions unanswered, feelings not disclosed, confusion, sexual tension, and attraction simmering between them. And now that he is getting more involved in her personal life, it is ramping up. And when they find themselves getting closer and more uninhibited than they ever expected, it just adds to the complications.

Poor Nate was already hooked and just keeps getting in deeper. But Becca is easy to spook and analyzes everything. Their professional lives affect what they can do with their personal lives. There are no easy fixes. They have to figure out what they can live with and without. They are two smart people with a shared group of coworkers and friends, media attention, and a whole lot at stake.

I was totally enthralled in Nate and Becca's story. I just love these two. Nate is such an adorable, caring, charismatic, down-to-Earth hero despite his high intelligence and money. And Becca is a straightforward, short, curvy, real woman. They are so delightfully awkward, vulnerable, and insecure at times, but in other arenas they can be confident and strong. They just fit so well together with their inside jokes, true feelings, and smoldering chemistry.

It brings back  the Bruisers crew we have come to know over the series. It makes you want to cheer the team on right along with them. I love how the team has come together through the series and how they have bonded with Nate and Rebecca.

This is a funny, sweet, swoony, angsty, and sexy friends-to-lovers and falling-for-the-boss story set around the world of professional hockey. It is told in flashbacks and in first person dual points of view in the present. I was initially a bit worried that it would not live up to my high expectations, but it really did. It was everything I wanted for them and more.

I was gifted a copy by the author.
 I have been waiting for Nate and Rebecca to have their moment pretty much since we met these two. They have worked together for 7 years, since before Nate was a billionaire businessman, back when he was working to start up his company and Becca was interviewing as an office manager.

After years of building a working relationship, they have hidden any sparks that were felt early on. Both still harbor those feelings, but the risk is too big when they are both comfortable enough with what they have. When Becca is hurt, Nate steps in to help her recovery and after 7 years of friendship and the lines begin to blur.

These two have each been hiding feelings for the other nearly the entire time they’ve known one another. In fact, they seem to be the last ones to notice that there are sparks flying. I love a good friends to lovers situation, and these two are the epitome. They are both afraid of losing a good friend and messing up the fantastic work relationship they have. Becca has the added concern of not wanting to be thought of as a gold digger.

I loved that the timeline backs up a little bit and readers are able to see what was happening while Lauren and Mike were settling their business. Those teasers from Pipe Dreams only encouraged my imagination. There are also flashbacks told in a fun, fairytale format so we can see scenes from their entire friendship.

This story returns readers to the Brooklyn Bruisers world, but from a different angle. It was fun to follow the team owner - to watch the run for the Stanley Cup from the owner’s box. It was also great to see the players that I’ve already fallen in love with. This team really is a family, and because they have all noticed the chemistry between Nate and Becca, they all rally around (as much as they can while focusing on the Cup) as their boss takes a risk that can’t be calculated.

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