Title: Guarding the Crease
Series: Playmakers #9
Author: G.K. Brady
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Opposites Attract/Sports Romance
Release Date: July 12, 2023
BLURB
The knight charging to her rescue is the last person in the world she wants to see. Now she owes him, and he’s ready to collect.
When Serena Lambert finds herself in danger, a knight in shining armor charges out of the darkness to her rescue. More shocking than his appearance in the nick of time is the knight himself: Wyatt Tompkins, the copper-haired star of her work nightmares. Just when the Colorado Blizzard’s PR director thought she was finally rid of the biggest pain in her butt and his outrageous tabloid shenanigans … But what’s the saying about bad pennies always turning up?
Being a famous NHL goaltender comes with a lot of perks, on and off the ice, and Wyatt has taken advantage of every single one. But when he becomes the NHL’s most infamous netminder, he loses more than the fringe benefits—he forfeits his roster spot. He wants back in. Sadly, the one person who can help him salvage his image and his livelihood has written him off, despite his heroics.
Wyatt needs Serena’s seriously savvy PR skills, and he’s not beyond leveraging the payback. He’s even willing to overlook her prickly exterior to get her on his side. After all, she’s already familiar with his brand of crazy … and it doesn’t hurt that she’s easy on the eyes. Oh yeah, he’d love to get her between the sheets, but what begins to intrigue him even more is taking a deep dive into her guarded psyche.
Serena is focused on launching her career into the stratosphere and making herself indispensable to the team—as soon as she overcomes a conniving coworker. Helping Wyatt will only steal time and energy from her goal, but she can’t deny that more sizzles beneath his roguish smile. Bit by excruciating bit, Serena peels back the layers to reveal the real heart beating beneath the goalie gear.
Oil and water don’t mix, though … they merely leave an oil slick. Can these two find the right blend and net their happily-ever-after?
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PLAYLIST
EXCERPT
Voices sounded in the hall—one of them very familiar—and Wyatt took two backward strides in time to distance himself from Terry before Serena sailed into the room.
She came to an abrupt halt, her eyes bouncing between them. Terry gave her a smug smile and turned toward her office but not before winking at Wyatt. “Don’t forget your promise, handsome.” Her hips swung in an exaggerated side-to-side motion, making her ass jiggle as she slowly paraded back to her office and shut the door.
Serena swiveled her head to him and arched curious eyebrows. “Promise?”
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and back. “She thinks I promised to … shit, I’m not sure what she thinks I promised, although I have a pretty good idea. And for the record, I didn’t promise a damn thing.”
Serena crossed her arms over her chest, and his eyes drifted to the swell beneath her gray silk blouse. She wore a black pencil skirt and simple black heels that accented her trim waist and shapely legs. Today, she was professional Serena, but something about her getup was sexy as hell. Maybe because of what was hidden under those practical clothes. He took a quick inventory of the pearly buttons on her blouse and imagined popping a few to get a closer look at what he’d touched the night before.
“Tompkins, would you please stop that?”
He snapped his eyes back to hers. “Stop what?”
“Stop looking at me like you’re a wolf and I’m a baby lamb.” Fire blazed in her aquamarine-colored eyes, drawing him in.
“A lamb is a baby.” Moving closer, he fingered her loose hair. “And it’s also one of my favorite things to eat.”
“Oh, for God’s sake! First, you’re canoodling with Miss Shiny Apples and now you’re trying to cozy up to me? Who does that? Never mind,” she grumbled. “I forgot who I was dealing with.”
One corner of his mouth hitched in a smug smile. “Am I detecting jealousy, Lambert?”
“Me, jealous? Ha!”
He continued slipping the silk of her hair between his fingers. “Don’t deny it. I see that little green monster in those blue eyes. And you know what? I like it.” The few times he’d been the subject of women’s jealousy, he had found it annoying, amusing, tedious, or some combination of the three. But right now, he was warming to Serena’s version—assuming he was reading her right, and that was one big-ass assumption.
She batted his hand away. “Well, don’t get used to it, buddy, because it’s all in your delusional, over-inflated opinion of yourself. We kissed last night in a moment of … lunacy. Shouldn’t have happened and won’t happen again because it didn’t mean anything.” She tossed an arm toward Terry’s closed door. “You’re a free agent, and I don’t care what you and Shiny Apples do. Have at her. You two should make a fine pair.”
His hand, like his mouth, dropped like a hunk of hot lead. “Hey, wait a minute. First of all, I was not canoodling with her, whatever the hell that means. It was the other way around. She was getting friendly with me. Second of all—”
Serena snorted. “And you, paragon of virtue that you are, resisted.”
“No, I didn’t resist because resisting implies I was tempted in the first place, which I wasn't. Contrary to my reputation, I do not take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. And you know what else? She doesn’t want me. She wants what you have, like a spoiled kid would ... and she’s gunning for it, so you better watch yourself, sweet cheeks.”
Serena’s mouth turned down, her face contorting with an I-just-sucked-on-a-lemon look. “Are you implying I have you?”
Oops. Had he just committed a Freudian slip? “Figure of speech. Although if you want me, I’m all yours.” He waggled his eyebrows.
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AUTHOR BIO
Since childhood, all sorts of stories and characters have lived in G.K. Brady’s imagination, elbowing one another for attention, so she’s finally giving them their voice on the written page.
An award-winning writer of contemporary romance, she loves telling tales of the less-than-perfect hero or heroine who transforms with each turn of a page. She also writes historical fiction under the pen name Griffin Brady.
G.K. is a wife and the proud mom of three grown sons. When she’s not writing, she might be watching hockey, reading, traveling, drinking wine, listening to music, or gardening—sometimes all at once! She currently resides in Colorado with her very patient husband.
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