Book picks similar to
The Refusal by Eve M. Riley


contemporary-romance
romance
slow-burn
steamy

Park Avenue Player


Penelope Ward - 2019
     Then the fender bender happened. The guy I collided with drove an expensive car and was drop-dead gorgeous. Too bad he was also a total jerk. We argued over whose fault it was and any other thing that came out of his condescending mouth. Eventually, the police came and we went our separate ways. The insurance companies would have to figure things out. I had a job interview to get to anyway—one I was excited about. Though that excitement changed to disappointment the moment the person interviewing me walked in. The guy from the accident. Whoops! Yeah, so I didn’t get the position. The problem was, I really wanted it. No, I needed it. Anything to get me out of my current career and back into working with kids. So, even though Hollis LaCroix was as intimidating as he was devastatingly handsome, I went back to see him and begged for a chance. To my surprise, he gave me a shot taking care of his troubled niece. At least my attraction to him wouldn’t be able to go anywhere. I wasn’t about to jeopardize my job or the strong bond Hailey and I formed. But resisting the magnetic pull between us wasn’t that simple. (Then there was our little underwear game—don’t ask.) We continued to flirt without crossing the line—until it finally happened. This is the part of the story where we fall in love and live happily ever after, right? Well, life has a way of throwing some major curveballs. Ours was one I didn’t see coming.

Sexy Filthy Boss


Piper Rayne - 2019
    Stipulation--we do it together.It doesn't take a tarot card-reading psychic to figure out where our story is headed... late nights, trips out of town, and more than a few awkward moments filled with sexual tension.No worries though. I pride myself on my willpower. I can totally ignore his sexy grin, his rock-hard body and his dreamy brown eyes. I will not become the woman other women hate.But it turns out that Enzo Mancini has a lot of layers and if I don't stop peeling, I'm going to lose everything, including my dignity.Don't miss this NEW Steamy Enemies-to-Lovers Office Romance by a duo of USA Today Bestselling Authors!

The Rule Book


Jennifer Blackwood - 2016
    Don't call your hot boss the antichrist to his face. 2. Don't stare at hot boss's, um, package or his full sleeve of tattoos. (No. Really. Stop!) 3. Don't get on the malicious first assistant's bad side.4. Don't forget to memorize the 300-page employee manual.5. If you value your cashmere, steer clear of boss’s dog.6. Boss’s dimples are lust-inducing. Do. Not. Give. In. 7. “The elevator ate your clothes” is not a valid excuse for showing up to important meetings half dressed. 8. Don't break seven of the rules within the first week of employment if you, ya know, are in dire need of money to support your sick mom.9. Whatever you do, don’t fall for the boss. See rule eight about sick mom.10. Never forget the rules.

Artful Lies


Jodi Ellen Malpas - 2020
    When aspiring antiques dealer Eleanor Cole is handed the chance of a lifetime to work for the Hunt Corporation, the renowned antiques dealers, she doesn't think twice. Only to discover she'll be working up close and personal with the notorious and insanely irresistible Becker Hunt. He is a man famous for getting what he wants, and Becker wants Eleanor. But as Becker pulls her deeper into his world, she discovers there's more to him than meets the eye.And falling for Becker goes from being foolish to dangerous... Move over Jesse Ward and Christian Grey, it's time to fall in love with Becker: the ultimate alpha hero!

Play


Piper Lawson - 2016
    Just another twenty-something girl, living the dream. That’s what I tell myself every morning. That I’m successful, self-aware, and well-balanced. It's just a tiny fib. I would be all of those things, if I had friends who didn’t work with me at the bank. And if I made it to pilates more than once a quarter. And if watermelon slushies weren't the main source of nutrients in my diet. It wouldn’t hurt if I’d had sex in the last year, either. (My best friend insists Jorge the Nightstand Boyfriend doesn’t count.)But when you know where you're going, you don’t need to enjoy the ride. Right?Even if some teeny part of me did want to fool around, Max Donovan would be the last guy I’d call. Sure, he made the indie video game that broke the internet. And yeah, his eyebrow piercing’s sexy, in a ‘what-are-you-in-a-band?’ kind of way. And fighting with him gets me going faster than Jorge on bezerker mode…He’s still colder than a cactus and twice as prickly. And I’m not talking about his face, because the guy’s barely old enough to shave. It’d really be best if we just ignored each other. Which is a problem, because Max Donovan is my new biggest client.So what happens when the girl who lives to work meets the guy who was born to play?Game on.

Everything for Her


Alexa Riley - 2016
    I watched her from a distance. She wasn't ready for me yet. I didn't approach her and I didn't disturb her, but I never once took my eyes off her.   Mallory Sullivan is ready to start her new life. After graduating at the top of her class, she's landed one of the most coveted internships in the United States. Hard work and determination have gotten her to this moment of living the life she only dreamed of while growing up in foster care.  From the start, I knew that she would be my greatest achievement, so the day I let her go, I set down a path for her. A path to me.   She never expected Oz to be the greatest culmination of those dreams. But sometimes fate determines who you fall in love with. Who makes you lose control. Who owns your soul. And then you realize it wasn't fated at all…  I've wanted to care for and protect her since the first moment I saw her. I've constructed everything in our lives so that at the perfect moment, I could have her, could give her the life she deserves.   The time has come.

That Man 1


Nelle L'Amour - 2014
    Until he meets Jennifer McCoy, his outspoken new assistant and development executive.Newly engaged Jennifer has no idea that her devastating new boss is the man she kissed, blindfolded, in a game of Truth or Dare. That kiss, that man, that beautiful stranger she cannot forget.Blake hasn’t been able to stop thinking about that kiss either…and he’ll do anything to win Jennifer —even if it means being a beautiful bastard and breaking all the rules.

Bigshot Boss


Cat Carmine - 2017
     Some women just have it — that combination of stunning looks and sexual confidence that brings men to their knees.Not me. My last boyfriend once fell asleep while we were … you know. Not my proudest moment.And my crush on my hot, arrogant, and oh-so-unattainable CEO? Never going to happen.But one night, after too much wine, I find myself online, creating a profile for a sex kitten called SweetVixen. Safe behind my computer screen, I’m suddenly the seductive goddess of my wildest imagination. Next thing I know, I’ve spent a month sharing every filthy fantasy I’ve ever had with a man I know only as Mister Bigshot. A man who can make my toes curl with just a few keystrokes. A man who brings new meaning to the eggplant emoji. A man who now wants to meet in person. Dressed in my rarely-used little black dress and heels higher than my expectations, I gather my courage and cross the restaurant toward the stranger who’s been teasing me mercilessly all month. But then I come to a dead stop. Right in the middle of the restaurant. Frozen in place like a deer in the candlelight.Because the man sitting there waiting on me is no stranger.The man I’ve bared everything to — and I do mean everything — is none other than my hot, arrogant, and oh-so-unattainable CEO.Mister Bigshot is … my boss. And trust me, there’s no emoji for the look he's giving me right now ...

The Contract


Melanie Moreland - 2016
    That is the reputation that precedes Richard VanRyan. He lives life the way he wants, no concern for the opinion of others. He cares for no one, is completely unrepentant, and he has no desire to change his ways.Katharine Elliott works under Richard as his PA. She despises him and his questionable ethics, but endures all the garbage he sends her way, because she needs the job. Her end goal is far more important than the daily abuse and demands she tolerates from her nasty tyrant of a boss.Until the day, he asks her for something she never expected. A new role with a personal contract — fiancée instead of PA.What happens when two people who loathe each other, have to live together and act as though they are madly in love?Sparks.That’s what happens.Can the power of love really change a person?Will they survive the contract?What do you do when the one person you hate the most becomes the one person you can’t live without?

Mister McHottie


Pippa Grant - 2017
    Point is, she cost me my two best friends ten years ago. It’s payback time, and I’m going to make her life hell.When I’m not banging her silly and myself stupid.I need to get my head back in business, because getting off is great, but "He was a man who had sex, and lots of it, and in the worst locations, with the woman of his nightmares" isn’t the inscription I want on my tombstone.Even if it’s true.AmbrosiaThere are three things I hate:Bratwurst in any form, my neighbors boinking loudly like farm animals at 3 AM, and Chase Jett.Mostly I hate Chase Jett. It’s been ten years since he took my virginity—I’d make a bratwurst joke, but the unfortunate truth is that it would have to be a bratbest joke, and yes, it kills me to admit it—and now he’s not only a billionaire, he’s also my new boss.Turns out our hate is mutual. And this kind of hate is horrifically twisted, filthy, and banging hot.I just might have to hate him forever.MISTER McHOTTIE is 45,000 gloriously hilarious, hot, sexy words that your mother warned you about, complete with an organic happy-ever-after (or seven), a Bratwurst Wagon, ill-advised office pranks, and no cheating or cliffhangers.

The Wrong/Right Man


Aurora Rose Reynolds - 2020
    But, how could she know that Mr. Right was actually Mr. Wrong.Brax Adam’s has been called a few things in his life, but a liar was never one of them. That all changes when he’s standing outside a coffee shop and approached by a beautiful woman who thinks he’s there to meet her for a blind date.As a businessman, Brax knows to trust his gut and never let an opportunity pass him by so he pretends to be someone he’s not.Maybe he shouldn’t have lied, maybe he should have come clean, but in the end it doesn’t matter because now he has to prove that he’s not the wrong man but the right one.So what if he’s not the man she’s expecting, she’s the one he’s been waiting for.

Carnal Secrets


Nadia Lee - 2011
    But when it becomes obvious that the new CEO is interested in her on a more personal level, she pushes him away -- she doesn't want to repeat her past mistake of giving her heart to the wrong man.A self-made billionaire, Alex Damon has his own reasons for pursuing Natalie. Her adoptive father, a powerful U.S. senator, is using his political clout to protect his friends the Rodales, who Alex intends to destroy for ripping his own family apart when he was a child. Furthermore, he suspects that Natalie is spying for the Rodales.What he hasn't planned on is her unflinching sense of loyalty and integrity, the sizzling attraction between them that threatens to turn into something much more, and the dark secrets that can destroy them both.Length: Novel

Three Simple Rules


Nikki Sloane - 2015
    Now I have to.In order to save my skin at the office, I'm forced to sell it at an exclusive and illegal blindfold club. He paid thousands of dollars for one night to own me, but when my blindfold comes off, I want more. More nights, more rules, and more from this unavailable and uncompromising man.Rule number one, no questions. Rule number two, no lies. But, rule number three? That's the hardest one to obey.

Penthouse Prince


Virginia Nelson - 2015
    Instead, she finds herself greeted warmly by gorgeous company CEO Camden James...and introduced to his father as his fiancée. Now she's been hired—complete with a hefty pay raise—to be the fake fiancée of the infamous “Penthouse Prince.”Camden doesn't believe in love. He believes in mutually beneficial business arrangements. With his real fiancée off cheating on him, Camden needs someone to help him prove to his father that he's definitely ready to marry. Yet Jeanie's combination of beauty and bluntness act like an aphrodisiac, and their “for the press” kisses look incredibly real. So real that Jeanie and Camden are either really convincing actors...or they've fallen for their own charade.

Mixed Up


Emma Hart - 2017
    I need someone like him in my new kitchen.There's just one problem: I hate his cocky, filthy-mouthed, sexy-as-hell guts.Even if I might want him. Just a little...Working for my best friend's sister? Not on my to-do list.She's another story.Whiskey Key was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, except I haven't reached the heights I have by lying in a hammock drinking cocktails. So when Raven Archer is desperate for a chef, I offer up my skills.I'm bored. She needs what I can give her.Except there's a problem: I've always hated her.Her and her big, blue eyes, sassy mouth, and killer curves.If only I didn't want her.Mixed Up is a standalone, enemies-to-lovers romance. It's red-hot and hilarious, so grab a glass and get comfy!