Book picks similar to
Slow Burn by Roxie Noir


romance
bodyguard
contemporary
audiobooks

Sex Says


Max Monroe - 2017
     What happens when the one guy you want to avoid the most, is unavoidable? Lola Sexton is the writer behind Sex Says, a successful relationship column at the San Francisco Times. She’s a pro at advising others on their love lives, but if there’s one thing she isn’t in the market for, it’s love. Reed Luca is a wanderer and a jack of all trades. He doesn’t believe happiness comes from a nine to five job, or that success is delivered through a paycheck. But opportunity often finds its way to those who aren’t looking. When Reed signs up to write an anti-Sex Says relationship column, the result is all out war. Sex Says: If you let guys walk all over you, you could end up smelling like feet. Reed This: Don’t try to change who you are. There’s someone out there for everyone. Take someone with a foot fetish falling in love with someone who smells like feet as an example. Sex Says: Appreciate what you’re given. Reed This: Don’t like what you’re given? Fight for what you want. Sex Says: Don't ever date a guy named Reed Luca. Reed This: Find a woman like Lola Sexton and find her quick. She's a unicorn. Lola hates Reed. Really, she does. It’s just too bad the guy is so likable.

Only You: A Standalone Contemporary Romance


K.T. Quinn - 2021
    

Candy Boys


Jo Raven - 2016
    Roommates. Total hunks. Inseparable friends. Hot as hell.Meet my fantasy boyfriends. Aren’t they just the sexiest, cutest thing? I know, right? They totally are. They are hot, too hot for a quiet – and obsessed with them – girl working in a bookshop.That’d be me, by the way.There’s also the tiny problem of Joel wanting another girl. And as for Jethro, well… he doesn’t do girls. Or maybe he doesn’t do relationships. He certainly doesn’t do boys, so he isn’t doing his best and very male friend… right? Much less his male friend and me at the same time.So it’s fine to crush on them. And write a serial story on my blog in which we have tantric sex in every possible position.All three of us. Together. Touching, and licking, and sucking, and screwing.Whew.I mean, it’s okay. It’s perfectly safe. They’ll never even know I exist, much less find out about my blog and my secret fantasy about them.Right?Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.

Cake


Carmen Jenner - 2018
     Poppy Porter's ex is getting married ... to her ex best friend. To land her dream job of partner in the most prestigious firm on the Upper East Side, Poppy must now pull double shifts as their wedding planner and maid of honor. And the icing on a truly craptastic cake? Leo Nass. Handsome, infuriating, womanizer, and … the best man. Despite their longstanding loathing, Poppy doesn't see Leo coming. Literally. One ruined cake. One archnemesis. One hour to save the wedding. Can they put their hatred aside long enough to save Poppy’s job and Bridezilla's head from exploding? Piece of cake, right?

Finding Home


Ella Goode - 2019
     She likes stilettos, sidewalks, and the Starbucks on every corner. It doesn't matter that her heels hurt or the sidewalks cracked or no one at the coffee store remembers her name. The horns of taxi drivers serenade her as she walks to work and fast-paced action fills her days which is why she needs her boss to come home from the farm. There are contracts to be signed. Money to be made. Hands to be greased and—oh my gosh, is that a cow? Colton Blackwood is a countryman.  He wants slow walks, slow kisses, and slow love-making, but more than anything he wants that with Charlotte. It doesn't matter that she's scared of the farm animals or that she's suspicious that the store clerk knows her name. He knows that love's the same whether you're wearing a suit in the boardroom or a pair of cowboy boots on the ranch. The trick is convincing Charlotte but, it'll happen because Colton won't accept anything but her by his side.

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 ...

Give Me a Reason


A.L. Jackson - 2021
    Jackson comes a single-dad, enemies-to-lovers stand-alone romance about a jaded club owner and his son’s teacher… Eden Murphy came into my club looking to make some extra cash.A girl like her didn't belong in a place like this. She'd get ripped to shreds.Most likely by me.There's nothing but sweetness dripping from her sexy little body, and I'm the monster who's salivating to get a taste. Trent Lawson is the last man I should want.Dark.Dangerous.So wickedly gorgeous he makes my knees weak. He's also an arrogant jerk who happens to be my new boss. When I discover his adorable son is also in my kindergarten class, I know I have to keep my distance. But neither of us can ignore the attraction that flames.One glance, and our hearts race. One touch, and we’re aching for what we can’t have. One night, and we’re falling fast.Dragging her into my sordid world is wrong.It doesn’t matter. Eden Murphy is mine.

Frisky Business


Staci Hart - 2016
    Not the drama of working in a tattoo parlor, which seems to be around every corner. When things get him down, he smiles and cracks a joke. But he’s not the kind of man you cross, or you’ll find yourself at the wrong end of his fists.Annika Belousov takes everything seriously.Like her job as a reality television producer, given that she typically has something to prove. Or her love life, which is defined by a series of requirements — affluent, ambitious, accomplished, to name a few. Definitely her family, who worked their whole lives to afford her every opportunity, a sacrifice she doesn’t take lightly. When she’s tapped to produce a reality show at Joel’s shop, she doesn’t think twice, just goes in for the kill, as if there were any other way.The second Annika walks into Joel’s shop, he makes it his mission to crack her open, but she’s not having it. He’s all wrong — too crass, too hairy, too un-serious. But it doesn’t take her long to find out there’s more to him than smirks and tattoos. And what she finds could put her career and his heart on the line.Not that Joel cares. Because for the first time in a long time, he’s found his tonic.

Sicko


Amo Jones - 2020
    He swore to protect me.He failed.They all failed.I’m an open box of passé photographs, snapped in chaste daylight, but filtered in sepia. I’m the past that he tried to forget, and he was the future I needed. When he left six years ago, I screamed for him every night. But then it all stopped. My screams were suddenly muffled by cruelty, and further coaxed by pain.But he has come back. He’s not the cute big brother I had a furtive crush on, or the bad boy, rich brat that I hated to love.He’s the ruthless vice president of Wolf Pack MC, and he doesn’t answer to Royce Kane anymore.He answers to Sicko.

Hero


Lauren Rowe - 2018
    Or breathe. Or string two coherent thoughts together. And I don’t mean any of that figuratively. I’m not talking about a guy being floored by the sight of a gorgeous woman—although, of course, Lydia is gorgeous beyond words.No, when I first laid eyes on Lydia Decker—my physical therapist—I was lying flat on my back in the ICU, high as a kite on painkillers, breathing on a ventilator, my bones as broken and splintered as my spirit. When I first laid eyes on Lydia Decker, she was a ray of light in the dark. Hope for the hopeless. A salve for my singed and battered soul.She said she’d been assigned to fix me. That she was there to bring me back to life. She said helping me was her calling. And then she touched me. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. She healed me. And I fell in love. But what I didn’t know . . . what I couldn’t possibly know . . . was that Lydia Decker needed fixing far more than I ever did.​​​​​​​NOTE: The Morgan Brothers are a series of five interconnected standalones. Recommended reading order is to start with HERO or CAPTAIN, as book 1, despite series numbering, because both books run on same timeline, alongside each other, and their events happen first in chronology. However, if you do not mind skipping around in time a bit, you can start with any of the Morgan Brothers books, despite series numbering, and fully enjoy it!

Fight or Flight


Samantha Young - 2018
     The universe is conspiring against Ava Breevort. As if flying back to Phoenix to bury a childhood friend wasn't hell enough, a cloud of volcanic ash traveling from overseas delayed her flight back home to Boston. Her last ditch attempt to salvage the trip was thwarted by an arrogant Scotsman, Caleb Scott, who steals a first class seat out from under her. Then over the course of their journey home, their antagonism somehow lands them in bed for the steamiest layover Ava's ever had. And that's all it was--until Caleb shows up on her doorstep.When pure chance pulls Ava back into Caleb's orbit, he proposes they enjoy their physical connection while he's stranded in Boston. Ava agrees, knowing her heart's in no danger since a) she barely likes Caleb and b) his existence in her life is temporary. Not long thereafter Ava realizes she's made a terrible error because as it turns out Caleb Scott isn't quite so unlikeable after all. When his stay in Boston becomes permanent, Ava must decide whether to fight her feelings for him or give into them. But even if she does decide to risk her heart on Caleb, there is no guarantee her stubborn Scot will want to risk his heart on her....

Love at First Fight


Carrie Aarons - 2020
    Since the moment Smith Redfield laid eyes on me, he’s hated my guts. I’m serious, I think the raven-haired restaurateur gets physically sick just being in my presence. And he’s never been shy about hiding that fact. There was the time he cackled when I landed face first in a pile of Manhattan trash bags. Or the night I tried to throw my ex-boyfriend a surprise party, and Smith had strippers crash the bash. Or maybe it was New Year's Eve, when he got in my face and called me a sheltered goody two-shoes who wouldn’t know passion if it smacked me in the lips. He’s rooming right next door for the summer months, and I don’t think more animosity could exist than in the hallway of our vacation rental. As if I wasn’t already sporting a bruised ego and broken heart from the way his best friend left me. But the more midnight run-ins we have, the more I can’t help but think about the way his mouth would feel against mine. With each heavy-eyed glance over the dinner table, I’m starting to wonder if the damaged alpha male doesn’t harbor more than just loathing towards me. After all, they say hate is the closest emotion to love. And with the way we’re skating that thin line, it’s bound to burn this whole house down.

Hot Cop


Laurelin Paige - 2017
    don’t worry, I’m a bit of an expert in that department.There’s nothing ‘thin’ about my blue line, if you catch my drift, and trust me, I know how to put those handcuffs to good use.***Livia Ward wants a baby before she’s thirty.  And even though Officer Chase Kelly is exactly the kind of cocky jerk this librarian has sworn off, he is undeniably hot.  Both of them think they can give each other what they want—a few nights of fun for Officer Kelly, a no-strings baby for Livia—but this hot cop is about to learn that sex, babies, and love don’t always play by the rules.

Wife Number Seven


Melissa Brown - 2014
    Bright, red lipstick. Nothing but lipstick. Even though it’s against our faith to wear a color that screams of sexual promiscuity and deviant behavior, I’m not allowed to protest. But, I want to. So badly. You see, there’s more to me than the braid that spills down my back. More to me than the layers of heavy fabric that maintain my modesty. And so much more than the oppressive wedding band that adorns my finger--the same band that each of my sister wives wear. So much more. To protest would be sinful. I must keep sweet, that is my duty. So I’ll wear the lipstick. I’ll do as I’m told. And I’ll do my best to silence the resistance within me, to push him from my mind. If only my heart would do the same.

Darling Venom


Parker S. Huntington - 2021
    Huntington comes a broken love story laced with angst and forbidden romance.I wasn’t supposed to be on that roof on Valentine’s Day.Neither was Kellan Marchetti, the school’s designated freak.We met on the verge of ending our lives.Somehow, the tattered strings of our tragedies tangled and tightened into an unlikely bond.We decided not to take the plunge and agreed to check on each other every Valentine’s Day until school ended.Same time.One roof.Two restless souls.We kept our promise for three years.On the fourth, Kellan made a decision, and I was left to deal with the consequences.Just when I thought our story ended, another one began.They say all love stories look the same and taste different.Mine was venomous, disgraceful, and written in scarlet scars.My name is Charlotte Richards, but you can call me Venom.