Irresistibly
Yours
Oxford #1
Oxford #1
By: Lauren Layne
Releasing October 6, 2015
Loveswept
Blurb
Meet
the men of Oxford magazine! In the first captivating spin-off of Lauren Layne’s
Sex, Love & Stiletto series, a not-so-friendly battle of the sexes turns into
a scorching office romance.
Hotshot sports editor Cole Sharpe has
been freelancing for Oxford for years, so when he hears about a staff position
opening up, he figures he’s got the inside track. Then his boss drops a
bombshell: Cole has competition. Female competition, in the form of a
fresh-faced tomboy who can hang with the dudes—and write circles around them,
too. Cole usually likes his women flirty and curvy, but he takes a special
interest in his skinny, sassy rival, if only to keep an eye on her. And soon,
he can’t take his eyes off her.
Penelope Pope knows all too well that
she comes off as just one of the guys. Since she’s learned that wanting more
usually leads to disappointment, Penelope’s resigned to sitting on the
sidelines when it comes to love. So why does Cole make her want to get back in
the game? The man is as arrogant as he is handsome. He probably sees her as
nothing more than a barrier to his dream job. But when an unexpected kiss turns
into a night of irresistible passion, Penelope has to figure out whether
they’re just fooling around—or starting something real.
Buy Links:
“First game?” he asked.
Brown eyes flicked to him, barely. “What?”
“First baseball game?”
That got her attention. For the first time, she seemed to really
look at him. Her eyes drifted over him slowly, before returning to his, her
tone just slightly annoyed. “No. Not my first game.”
“Ah,” he said, already mentally maneuvering into a backpedal. “Bad
assumption of me. You were just so into the game . . .”
“So you figured I must be trying to figure out how it all worked?”
she asked. “That I must be trying to understand why some of the field is green
and some is brown, and whatever could those white squares on the dirt be, and
why-oh-why
are those men running toward the white squares, but only sometimes .
. .”
“All right,” Cole said with a laugh. “I’m an ass. You know
baseball.”
Her smile was quick and easy, and he was relieved to see that she
wasn’t one of those snippy, hold-it-against-him-forever types. “I know
baseball.”
Is
that what’s in your notebook? Baseball stuff?
She took a huge bite of her hot dog, completely unabashed at her
bulging cheeks, and Cole hid a smile, pretending instead to be fixated on the
game.
Hell. When had he ever had to pretend to be fixated on
the Yankees?
“You were partially right,” she admitted, after swallowing.
He glanced at her. “Oh yeah?”
She grinned. “This is my first Yankees game.”
“I knew it,” he said, matching her grin full on. “I knew there was
something virgin
about you. But tell me, how come a baseball fan like you never made it to
Yankee Stadium until now?”
“Well . . .” She licked a spot of mustard off her finger, but not in
the slow, deliberate way that most women he knew would have done it. “It’s a
long way from Chicago . . .”
Cole tore his eyes away from the way her lips closed around her
thumb, sucking off that mustard. “You’re from Chicago?”
“From there, yes,” she said. “But let’s just say that as of two
weeks ago, I’ll be spending a lot more time here than at Wrigley.”
“Ah. You’re new to New York.”
“Quite.”
“How do you like it?”
She hesitated. “It’s . . . intense.”
“Meaning . . . we New Yorkers are scary as hell?”
She smiled. “Well, it’s not as hostile as I’d been warned, but yeah.
We Chicagoans are a bit more openly friendly than you New Yorkers.”
“I’m friendly,” he countered.
Tiny Brunette laughed. “No. You’re just incredibly charming. And a
smidgen good-looking.”
He gave her his best bedroom look. “Am I?”
She smiled. “You know you are.”
Their eyes held for a moment, and Cole was startled to realize it
was the most relaxed—the most himself—he’d felt around a woman in . . . hell .
. . he didn’t know.
Mostly he was used to throwing out a couple of witty lines, a few
slow smiles, and watching women counter with moves of their own.
There were no moves with this woman. She merely was.
Cole realized he didn’t even know her name.
“So tell me, as a Chicago baseball fan, are you Team Cubs or Team
White Sox, Ms. . . .”
“Pope,” she said. “Penelope Pope. And both.”
Cole’s subconscious acknowledged that Penelope Pope was somehow
exactly what this woman’s name should be. Perky and alliterative. His
consciousness, however, latched on to another fact. “Both?”
It was not a typical answer. Most people had one baseball
team, even if you were from a city with two teams, as Penelope was.
She shrugged. “Baseball’s not about who wins. It’s not even about
who’s playing. It’s about the game. The consistent flow of it, the smack of the
ball against the glove when you’re lucky enough to be sitting along one of the
baselines, instead of stuck up here in this stuffy box—”
He stared at her. The words so closely echoed his own thoughts from
just moments before that he wanted to kiss her.
She might just be his dream woman.
“That explains the hot dog,” he said.
“What?”
He nodded his chin at the last bite of hot dog, ignored in her left
hand. “The hot dog. You’re in a luxury suite in Yankee Stadium with a whole
buffet of gourmet foods, and yet you went and fetched the most basic hot dog
you could find.”
She grinned. “Guilty.”
Cole turned his body all the way toward her now. “Tell me, Penelope
Pope, what brings a Cubs and White Sox fan all the way to New York where you’ll
face a whole new dilemma of choosing between the Yankees and the Mets . . .”
Tiny Brunette never got to answer.
The shadow of someone coming up behind their seats caused them both
to turn. It was Alex Cassidy, Oxford’s editor
in chief, looking down at them with a half-amused, half-worried expression.
“Cassidy,” Cole said. He lifted an eyebrow and silently added, Nice of you to show
up.
“Sorry I’m late,” Cassidy said, not really sounding sorry at all. “I
got held up.”
Automatically, Cole’s eyes scanned the luxury suite until he found
the pretty woman he knew was likely to be somewhere around here . . .
Yup, there she was.
Emma Sinclair, Cassidy’s long-ago runaway bride, with whom he’d
recently reconciled, was surreptitiously wiping smudged lipstick from the
corner of her mouth.
His eyes returned to his boss, this time looking closer . . .
“Third button, dude,” Cole said wearily.
The always polished Cassidy glanced down, and without so much as
wincing, fixed the misaligned buttons of his shirt.
Cole should have known. A naked Emma Sinclair was the only thing
that could throw Alex Cassidy off his rigid timetable.
But Emma and Cassidy’s sex life was where the predictable part of
the evening ended, because Cole was absolutely not prepared
for Cassidy to reach out a hand to Tiny Brunette, a polite smile on his usually
impassive face.
“Alex Cassidy. I’m so sorry I’m late, Ms. Pope.”
Cole glanced between the two of them. They knew each other?
“Not a problem,” she said, turning an easy smile on Cassidy. It was
the exact same friendly smile she’d given Cole, and it very much made Cole want
to punch his friend in the mouth.
“It’s refreshing to see you two playing so nicely,” Cassidy said
with a droll look at Cole.
He narrowed his eyes at his boss, not sure what he was missing, but
certain that he was missing something.
Cassidy answered Cole’s silent question with his usual professional
businessman smile. “Cole, this is Penelope Pope.”
“We’ve met,” Cole said slowly.
“Excellent. So then you know that Penelope is our late-stage
applicant for the sports editor role at Oxford?”
Very slowly, Cole turned toward Tiny Brunette. Took in her friendly
smile even as he took in the sorry-not-sorry glint in her eyes.
This
was his competition. This was the person standing between
Cole and the job he so desperately wanted.
“I suppose I should have been more thorough when I introduced
myself,” she said sweetly. “Penelope Pope. Sports editor.”
Plus side? At least now Cole knew what was in her damn notebook.
The
downside? Everything
else.
"For Cole Sharpe. Penelope would have been one out of a million other women in his life. For Penelope, Cole might have been one in a million. The only one. It's how she rolled, throwing herself all the way over the ledge without looking."
There's a fine line between love and war...and these two know how to straddle that line.
I adored Cole and Penelope's story! There's something so entertaining about watching two people fall in love while trying so hard not to.
Penelope isn't a girly girl in any way (which I loved about her). That's also what makes her turn Cole's head. She's different-a breath of fresh air.
"You are so out of my league."
"Not from where I'm sitting."
The push and pull from these two, and the banter, was great! They didn't hold anything back from each other...except their feelings;)
I love Lauren's storytelling! You fall in love with her characters so quickly! She has the perfect mix between humor and swoon-worthy moments. Plus, there are serious undertones within that have you flipping the pages faster.
Penelope and Cole's story is no different. I want more of them!! I'm so excited for the next one! I can't wait to read more about the characters in this series:)
Another wonderful book from Lauren Layne!
Giveaway
About the Author
Lauren Layne is a USA Today
Bestselling author of contemporary romance.
Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing.
In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren
decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her
first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only
take three). Since then, Lauren's gone on to publish ten books, including the
bestselling Stiletto series, with several more on the way in 2015.
Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When
not writing, you'll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or
trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.
Website: http://www.laurenlayne.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/_laurenlayne
I saw this blog tour too! After reading your review, I'm so mad at myself for not participating! This book definitely sounds like something I'd enjoy. Great review! :)
ReplyDeleteCheryl @ I Heart Fictional People