PLAYING DIRTY – C. L. Parker
Monkey Business Trilogy , Book 1
Bantam Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-101-88294-8
May 2015
Erotic Romance

San Diego, California – Present Day

Denver “Rocket Man” Rockford was San Diego's star quarterback, and he just kicked his agent to the curb over a difference of opinion about Denver's worth in the open market.  Now Striker Sports Entertainment is determined to sign him up and has put their two best sports agents in a contest to get him for their company, and one of them to become his personal agent.  Wade Price is the CEO, and with his partner, Monty Prather, retired, says whoever signs up Denver will get the other partnership position.  So Shaw Matthews and Cassidy Whalen, the two best agents in the agency, get the assignment to meet Denver and convince him to hire one of them as his personal agent.

For some reason, ever since Shaw came to Striker, Cassidy hasn't been able to stand him; he was just too much of a prima donna , and now their boss has pitted them against each other.  Both ruthless, Cassidy is going to pull out all the stops to make Denver her client.  Unfortunately, x-rated dreams about Shaw keep rolling over into real life, and it's as if Cassidy has no control over her traitorous body.  Soon, Shaw is playing her like a violin, and her attention is being sidetracked by the lust that occurs between them, and whenever she challenges him, the hotter it gets.

Shaw came up the hard way, never went to college, and had to claw his way up the ladder, and he is not averse to using every wile and seductive technique to upset Cassidy's concentration. Denver will sign with him!  From office to private plane to alleys, Denver can play Cassidy like a finely tuned instrument and knows it.  Once in a while she gives him a surprise, but if she could just keep her mouth shut maybe he could almost like her—but she's not getting Denver or the partnership away from him, because his charm has never let him down yet.

C. L. Parker writes PLAYING DIRTY alternating Cassidy's and Shaw's points of view.  Shaw definitely uses sex with Cassidy to get to her and confuse her.  Cassidy gradually is losing her vaunted aggressiveness and turns into a seething mass of womanhood waiting for Shaw to Ignite her every time they get around each other.  Soon Cassidy is contemplating seducing Denver to get him to sign with her. Shaw goes the route of taking Denver to a city that wants to sign with him; private jet, limos, fancy hotels, all on Shaw's coin.  Competition never gets hotter than when two sports agents will do whatever it takes to come out the winner.

Secondary characters are Cassidy's friends who meet every night after work at Monkey Business, the local pub.  Chaz is the bartender, and Demi Renee, Sasha Hale, and Quinn, Cassidy's roommate, are her special friends.  Each of them has romantic trouble, except for maybe Quinn, whose “Daddy” keeps him in Breitling Bentley diamond watches, but refuses to leave his wife for him.  Denver, while of course a spoiled, rich quarterback looking to make the most money he can, also has a deep dark secret that will need special handling by whoever becomes his agent.

PLAYING DIRTY not only plays dirty, it plays HOT at the interactions between Cassidy and Shaw.  Several scenes will definitely have your temperature rising and your heart beating fast. (Stopping to run cold water over your hands might help) This will show you what lengths Cassidy and Shaw will go to in trying to sign Denver, and will continue in the next two books. Watch for GETTING ROUGH in November. Shaw and Cassidy's story will end in the middle of a mystery on Shaw's part, so grab up PLAY DIRTY this month and get in on their quest to sign Denver.

Cece Johns