Slow Heat - Jill Shalivs

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Slow Heat - Jill Shalivs

Description~
After a woman claims she’s pregnant with Wade O’Riley’s love child, Major League Baseball’s most celebrated catcher and ladies’ man is slapped on the wrist by management and ordered to improve his image. His enforcer is the team’s publicist, the tough and sexy Samantha McNead.

When Wade needs a date for a celebrity wedding, Sam steps up to the plate as his “girlfriend.” But given her secret crush on him and that one awkward night a year ago in a stuck elevator with too much scotch, the whole thing is an exercise in sexual tension.

Wade is thrilled when the pretense turns into an unexpected night of hot passion. But the next day Sam is back to her cool self. As a catcher, Wade’s used to giving the signals, not struggling to read them. Now, to win the love of his “pretend” girlfriend, he needs a homerun–even it involves
stealing a few bases…

Ok I LOVE LOVE LOVE Jill Shalivs and her Baseball books are my FAVORITE!

In the second story we get into Wade and Sam’s story! We met the two in Double Play as side characters that had a past! I was super excited to see them get their own book b/c let me tell you I believe it was even hotter than the first!

Sam is the Heats publicist and Wade is the infamous play boy catcher on the team. The two shared a wild night of passion while stuck in an elevator at a hotel during an away game. Since then both have thought of nothing but the other person…even though they weren’t able to react on their feelings. Now Wade has put himself in a pickle by having Tia (the crazy stalker from the first book) claim to be carrying his BABY! So Sam being who she is steps in to save the day by playing “girlfriend” and making Wade look like a stable man. The problem arises when the fine line of pretend and reality gets blurred. Will the two be able to call it quits after the deadline of a month? Or will they finally give into their true feelings?

I loved how in this story the h/h already has a past! Like I said they had hot sex in an elevator but after that night avoided each other at all costs. Sam went along with her work as did Wade. At one point in the story Sam tells wade that it took her a year to get over their actions of that night and my little heart squeezed! Wade is TOTALLY scared of commitment! He’s never even attempted but who could blame him. His mother and father both were drunks and never had a true relationship with their son. This bleeds into his life now. Going girl to girl Wade is anything but ready for a relationship. That’s what’s so great b/c it seemed it took the right woman to show him the real man he truly was! Sam was that woman!

Besides us getting to see our fav’s from book one we also get a few new side characters that really made the story more dynamic! One of these characters in Tag, Sam’s nephew. Tags father is Jeremy (the baddie from book 1) and hes :trying” to get his life in order by going to rehab. So what does he do? Ship his 10 year old son to Sam to watch for 3 months. It was hard at first for Sam to crack Tag’s harsh exterior but when she realized the hardships he’s faced she soon gets to his level and they find a common ground to walk on. Their relationship warmed my heart! By the end of the book they are really like mother and son! Also Tag and Wade really got along. Wade saw a bit of himself in Tag which helped him to steer him towards being a good boy and straightening his act up.

Another great character was Wades dad John. John was a drunk all Wades life…all the way up until he sought Wade out to seek his help. Wades puts him off for years. Just shoving money at his father seemed to ease the pain inside him but when his father gets serious about changing his life he tells Wade all he wants is him! I loved when John came into the picture! He was funny and interesting. You got to see Wade heal old wounds and grow! :o)

My last thing I have to mention would have to be the chemistry between Wade and Sam! I loved their relationship! They banked on it always being pretend when inside they knew there was something more. They could never help themselves when they were around each other! Sam made Wade grown up while Wade loosened Sam up! (No pun intended lol) It was great seeing this small little family start to form between the 4 characters! Sam, Wade, Tag and John are by no means perfect but in each other found a strength that no one could break! :*)

Snib Bit~
“When were you going to tell me they want us to do this boyfriend/girlfriend thing for a whole month?”
“You heard?” she asked in surprise. She’d been asked to talk him into it.
“I work with a bunch of women, Sam. They tell all. Is your father’s okay with it?” he asked carefully.
With good reason. Her father was one of the owners of the Heat.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “My father thinks it’s a good idea.”
“So they’re willing to pimp out their princess when it suits them.”
Ouch. But the answer was yes, a McNead was expected to stick to the pack. She’d known that by the time she could talk in full sentences. “It’s just an illusion.”
“It’s an entire month.”
The reminder made her stomach quiver. An entire month of being his girlfriend. “We’re grown-ups.”
“Really?” His stark green gaze was more genuine curiosity than sarcasm. “Because we’ve not spent more than two minutes together without snarling at each other.”
“Well, except for the elevator,” he said.
Also true, and her stomach executed a double gainer with a twist as the memory flew back, hot and sexy, resurrected by nothing more than the sound of his voice and the sudden sleepy look in his eyes.
It’d happened last season. The Heat had just lost, bad. The press had been ruthless, and her father had been pissed at her for somehow not being Super Woman. She’d been in desperate need of some alone time.
What she’d gotten instead was stuck in an elevator on the way to her hotel room with Wade and a couple little bottles of airplane Scotch, and her pity party for one had turned into a naked party for two. The erotic, alcohol-tinged memories came to her in slow-mo and as always, always, sent her spinning between total and complete humiliation and an even more devastating aching hunger and desire.
If she could just erase from her memory banks the picture of Wade taking her straight to heaven in under five minutes she would, but the pictures in her brain only seemed to only strengthen with time instead of lessen. "I don’t want to discuss that night.”
Wade shrugged. No skin off his nose. Hell, he’d probably had lots of nights like that since. She concentrated on the view. Not a hardship. Santa Barbara wasn’t called the American Riviera for nothing, and she watched as they passed four-thousand-foot peaks covered in unique and beautiful chaparral and sandstone outcrops. “So we’re good?” she asked quietly.
Wade smiled. It was his professional smile, the one that could melt a woman’s panties at fifty paces and make men wish that they had half his athletic prowess, and it was a charmer. She knew its potency, braced herself for it, and still felt her panties begin to melt. “What the hell.” He stretched out even further, his leg sliding to hers. “We’re good. Girlfriend.”
“Fake girlfriend,” she corrected.

If you haven’t checked this series out you need to! They are not only hot but very heartwarming!

I give this book a total of...




Also check out our buddy review at Breezing Through!


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