The Lockdown Mann
Necessary Roughness #2
Riley Hart
Desmond
I was sixteen years old when I met Oakley Manning during a family beach vacation. He was funny, gorgeous, as obsessed with football as I was, and hurting after his mom abandoned him.
For two weeks, we were inseparable. Oakley made me feel complete, settling something inside me.
Then one night, I kissed him…and he kissed me back.
When he walked away afterward, I pretended it hurt less than it did. It’s a lesson that’s stuck with me—the people I want never choose me back.
Oakley
Everything about what I shared with Desmond Jackson was perfect.
Then, on the last morning of our trip, my ex-girlfriend-slash-best friend dropped a bomb: “I’m pregnant.” For the sake of the baby, we decided to make it work.
Eleven years later, Serena and I are still best friends, but our relationship is over, though we haven’t told anyone. Between her mom’s recent diagnosis and our daughter, we aren’t ready for more complications.
Enter Des, recently traded to L.A.’s second pro football team—my team being the first. Now he’s always in my periphery, infuriating and needling me…and still capable of making my pulse race. Our chemistry is as combustive as ever. Des worships my body in ways I’ve never experienced, but he doesn’t believe in forever, and I can’t do casual.
We compete at everything, but he doesn’t know he’s already won my heart. I just hope it’s a prize he wants…and that my world won’t implode if I have him.
The Lockdown Mann is a second-chance romance between two professional football players, with a complicated history and an even more complicated present. Expect banter, anonymous online messaging, and heart. There is no cheating in this book.
Graphics From author's Facebook
Desmond and Oakley met on a beach vacation when they were sixteen years old, and they formed a fast friendship that turned into first kisses and feelings, but circumstances made it unsustainable. Their lives went in different directions, but they've now ended up in the same place, which is playing professional football in Los Angeles, but for two different teams. And now they have shared friends, and they’re in closer proximity.
There were a lot of unresolved feelings between them that they never really addressed, so most of their recent interactions have been more taunting or competitive or just a little bit awkward. But now they’ve decided they need to clear the air and figure it out. There’s a lot more going on in Oakley‘s life than most people know, and for some reason Desmond has always been a safe space for Oakley to share issues. Desmond is guarding his heart because he got his heart broken by Oakley and then by being a secret for someone else, so he keeps things close to the chest and always feels like the one that nobody chooses.
They both are still kind of obsessed with each other, and when things escalate, it just ignites those feelings, and they continue to get closer and closer. But Oakley is keeping secrets from everyone, and Des doesn’t want to be a long-term secret. And there have been certain things from their past and their present that they really haven’t admitted to each other due to misconceptions of the other's thoughts and feelings. There is fear of saying or doing the wrong thing.
But in order to get around their issues, they figure if they can just have a sexy fling, maybe they can actually explore and enjoy that aspect together and keep it contained. But these two have always had issues managing their feelings about each other, even if they were trying to deny it.
This is a second-chance romance between pro football players with a hurt-comfort component, strong physical chemistry, and two guys who just want to be free to explore their potential and not cause repercussions. But it’s messy and complicated, and there’s a lot at stake. And they’ve already been through the loss of each other once, and they really don’t want to end up in the same place again.
I enjoyed more with Hunter and Lucas from the first book and I am looking forward to the next book that was teased.
There were a lot of unresolved feelings between them that they never really addressed, so most of their recent interactions have been more taunting or competitive or just a little bit awkward. But now they’ve decided they need to clear the air and figure it out. There’s a lot more going on in Oakley‘s life than most people know, and for some reason Desmond has always been a safe space for Oakley to share issues. Desmond is guarding his heart because he got his heart broken by Oakley and then by being a secret for someone else, so he keeps things close to the chest and always feels like the one that nobody chooses.
They both are still kind of obsessed with each other, and when things escalate, it just ignites those feelings, and they continue to get closer and closer. But Oakley is keeping secrets from everyone, and Des doesn’t want to be a long-term secret. And there have been certain things from their past and their present that they really haven’t admitted to each other due to misconceptions of the other's thoughts and feelings. There is fear of saying or doing the wrong thing.
But in order to get around their issues, they figure if they can just have a sexy fling, maybe they can actually explore and enjoy that aspect together and keep it contained. But these two have always had issues managing their feelings about each other, even if they were trying to deny it.
This is a second-chance romance between pro football players with a hurt-comfort component, strong physical chemistry, and two guys who just want to be free to explore their potential and not cause repercussions. But it’s messy and complicated, and there’s a lot at stake. And they’ve already been through the loss of each other once, and they really don’t want to end up in the same place again.
I enjoyed more with Hunter and Lucas from the first book and I am looking forward to the next book that was teased.
The Comeback King
Necessary Roughness #1
Riley Hart
June 17, 2026
Riley Hart
June 17, 2026
Sports Romance
Big Feels
Secret Relationship
Forbidden Relationship
Brother's ex-boyfriend/ex-boyfriend's brother
Pining
Lucas
To my dad, Hunter King is a football prodigy destined for greatness.
The son he always wanted.
To me, Hunter King is the guy I’ve loved most of my life.
The guy who happens to be my dead brother’s boyfriend.
We were kids when Hunter came into our lives—the boy with the skill my brother didn’t have and the drive I lacked. The one who was always kind to me, who cared about my photography when to my dad, it was a hobby, not worth anyone’s time.
Looking at the world through the lens of my camera is the only thing I’ve ever wanted.
Other than Hunter King.
Hunter
I would be nothing without the Blakes. Coach Blake nurtured my football talent from high school through college and now professionally. For all intents and purposes, he was my father. And when I started dating his son Ellis, it felt like I truly became part of the family.
But since Ellis died, nothing feels right anymore—not even the game I’ve always loved.
Until Lucas walks back into my life.
With each lingering touch, I feel sensation returning. Every kiss breathes air into my lungs. And for the first time in three years, it feels like my heart starts beating again.
But with every embrace, I’m betraying Ellis’s memory. The media, my team, Coach Blake will all condemn me. I’ll no longer be their Comeback King. I’ll be the man who is sleeping with his dead boyfriend’s brother.
Yet none of it is enough to make me stop.
Riley Hart’s love of all things romance shines brightly in everything she writes. Her primary focus is Male/Male romance but under various pen names, her prose has touched practically every part of the spectrum of love and relationships. The common theme that ties them all together is stories told from the heart.
A hopeless romantic herself, Riley is a lover of character-driven plots, many with flawed and relatable characters. She strives to create stories that readers can not only fall in love with, but also see themselves in. Real characters and real love blended together equal the ultimate Riley Hart experience.
When Riley isn’t creating her next story, you can find her reading, traveling, or dreaming about reading or traveling, and spending time with her two perfectly snarky kids, and one swoon-inducing husband.
