Everybody wants Holden Carmichael. Maeuve Beck doesn't. At twenty-four, Maeuve is happiest barefoot in her paint-stained New York loft, hidden behind her canvases and far away from crowds. Painfully shy and completely inexperienced when it comes to love, she has never even been kissed-and the last person she expects to change that is one of professional football's most notorious playboys. Holden Carmichael is everything Maeuve isn't. Confident. Famous. Reckless. Experienced. The star wide receiver is accustomed to stadiums chanting his name, women chasing him, and a life lived entirely in the spotlight. Until he meets the one woman at a crowded Manhattan party who isn't looking at him. When Holden asks if football players aren't her type, Maeuve simply tells him: "I'm not everyone." And suddenly, she's the only woman he can't stop thinking about. What begins with one unexpected kiss becomes something neither of them is prepared for. Holden introduces Maeuve to a world beyond the quiet boundaries she has always known-football games, crowded dance floors, spontaneous adventures, private jets, California sunsets, and oceans she is terrified to enter. But he never asks her to become someone else. Instead, he teaches her one simple lesson: Being afraid doesn't mean fear gets to make the decision. And somewhere along the way, the man who never wanted forever falls completely, hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with her. But loving Holden means stepping into the part of his world Maeuve fears most. The cameras. The headlines. The women from his past. And millions of strangers who believe his life belongs to them. When the pressure of fame threatens the quiet sanctuary Maeuve has spent years building, love may not be enough to keep them together. Holden will have to prove that the notorious man he used to be isn't the man loving her now. And Maeuve will have to decide whether the greatest love of her life is worth doing the one thing Holden taught her to do- Do it scared. Playing With Fire is a steamy, emotional football romance featuring a shy artist heroine, an experienced bad-boy athlete who falls first and harder, opposites attract, first love, public-figure/private-girl tension, emotional growth, and a hard-earned happily ever after. For readers 18+ due to mature themes, strong language, and explicit sexual content. A 5/5 spicy football romance about a painfully shy artist, the notorious playboy athlete who falls hopelessly in love with her, and learning that courage doesn't mean being fearless-it means fear doesn't get the final vote. She was the only woman who didn't want the football star. So naturally... he fell first. And he fell hard.
