I've heard the rumors about the football players in our small town. Trouble always has a way of finding them, and the girls can't get enough of their wild ways.
Hayes Carver has the bad-boy reputation down to go with his scoring records and good looks.
Everything changes after the game that destroyed his image and painted him as a dirty player. From the press and social media to his coach and teammates, the pressure is building, and he can't seem to escape the constant scrutiny.
When his limits are tested, Hayes turns to me for a way out.
He proposes that I play along as his fake girlfriend in hopes it changes the narrative and takes the pressure off him.
The rules are set in stone. Faking a relationship with him won't be easy, and falling for him is out of the question.
Yet the more time we spend together, the more the lines between what's real and fake begin to blur.
Hayes needs me to help save his reputation, but to do it, I'll have to risk my heart.
The Plays We Fake features the following tropes: fake dating, sports/football, opposites attract, a cinnamon roll hero with a bad reputation, and a virgin spicy romance reader/aspiring author heroine.

It only takes a moment to change a life.
In a matter of seconds, an unexpected and devastating injury shatters Holden Cramer’s chances of ending his nineteen-season career on a high note. That brief moment in time not only irrevocably alters who he is, but also his relationships with everyone and everything around him.
Yet one look can jump-start another.
Tamryn Miller worked hard to get where she is: one of the youngest and most successful female injury management doctors in the league. She knows what goes into ensuring the players’ welfare, and what happens when those needs aren’t met—her past guaranteed that. With one look at the incredibly handsome quarterback as he lay writhing on the turf, Tamryn knows exactly what she needs to do…even if she has to ignore the burning attraction between them to do it.
Forced together by fate and pain, Holden must learn that he’s not an island, and sometimes, all you need is a little help from your friends—especially when those friends are ones you want in your life forever.

Do it.Don’t do it.
Never in my life did I think I’d wager in my head whether to sleep with Chicago Grizzlies wide receiver, Damon Siska.
He’s the perfect package—hot body, killer smile, and flirts like he earned a doctorate in it. But anyone who reads gossip blogs knows he is looking for one amazing night and nothing more.
I’m not the usual type of woman he beds. I’m a middle school teacher who cherishes her quiet nights in, drinking wine, and watching romantic comedies, dreaming I’m the heroine. I’m not embarrassed to admit—I want the fairy tale.
But Damon caught me at a weak moment. Fresh off a break-up and feeling lousy about myself, I gave into temptation and left the next morning like every other woman he’d slept with.
Except I walked away with more than just the memories when three weeks later the little white stick glowed with two pink lines.

Football players are treated like royalty in our small town, which makes Beckham Carver their king. And as the new quarterback of the Braysen Bulldogs, he's also my boyfriend's biggest rival.
Add that to the list of reasons I should stay far away from him.
But when my truck breaks down, Beckham makes me an offer I can't He'll repair my pickup in exchange for me tutoring him.
I have only one stipulation—no one, including my boyfriend, can find out.
The more I try to convince myself and Beckham that I hate him, the more he pushes my buttons to prove me wrong.
Worse, the lines we've drawn between us blur as we spend more time together. And when my relationship comes crashing down around me, I almost forget why I couldn't stand him all along.
If I've learned one thing about Beckham Carver, it's that he always gets what he wants...
... and now, he's set his sights on me.
The Rivals We Hate features the following rivals to lovers, sports/football, boyfriend's rival, reformed player, hate to want you, touch her and I'll hurt you, and small college town.
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A spicy friends-to-lovers standalone sports romance from #1 New York Times Bestselling author Lauren Blakely writing MM romance as L. Blakely...
My buddies made me do it. I swear. I didn’t plan to bid big on a date with my baseball player best friend at the auction. But he looked really good in that tailored suit, and I can't resist a dare. The media jumps all over the story – the city’s new quarterback nabs a date with the bigshot star shortstop.
Not so fast – we’re just friends. Until we hit the links for the strictly platonic date I won. Suddenly I'm looking at my silver-tongued, devilishly handsome best bud in a whole new light–and it’s dark and dirty. We cross way over the friendship line at my place that night, but in the morning we agree it can’t happen again. Trouble is, we can’t keep our hands off each other, especially not when we’re stuck in the same hotel room at our friend’s wedding.
But Tanner wants a real relationship, and I’m only serious about football. So when my second season as a starter begins next week, our late-night games (and talks, and sleepovers, and morning coffees) will have to end. Except, as the cutoff looms closer, I’m feeling a whole lot more than friendship and that’s a big problem for my career…
Don't miss this red-hot, friends-to-lovers, only-one-bed-in-the-room MM sports romance from #1 NYT Bestseller Lauren Blakely!

I love him.I loathe him.
It’s like plucking daisy petals in my head, but he’ll never know.
When Miles Cavanaugh, the best safety in the league, was traded to the Chicago Grizzlies football team last year, I could finally breathe. Temptation was miles away.
How naïve to think it would end there because when the opportunity to write for a national magazine based in Chicago lands in my lap months later, I can’t turn it down. Sure, it’s a big city, but the sexual energy feels like a beacon between us the minute my plane lands.
To make matters worse, I end up having to take over the job of reporting exclusively on the Chicago Grizzlies. Which means traveling with the team, interviewing players, and pretty much having an all-access pass to their lives during the season.
Miles and I put up a great front, quickly hating on one another, but we both know it’s a lie. We also know the rules are simple. For me, don’t sleep with the subject of your articles. For him, don’t sleep with the journalist who can make or break your career.
I thought straight-laced Miles Cavanaugh followed all the rules… oh how wrong I was.

Am I fake dating my best friend? Hear me out…

What I envisioned: Throwing myself a breakup party, a glittery fete at which I’d lift a glass and celebrate being free and single again.

What I did: Drink too much champagne and blurt out to my best guy friend that I’d really like to get back on the horse.

But what I truly don’t expect is Carter’s answer – he volunteers as tribute.

With his sinful brown eyes and too-good-to-be-true body it’d be no hardship for me to say yes, though I certainly don’t want him to feel obligated to, um, service me, just because my failed, loveless marriage was a s-e-x desert.

But since the charming and confident pro football star owes five public dates to his dating app sponsor, we make a deal to help each other out.

Pretty soon, our public how to date lessons turn into, ahem, very private ones. And I’m a star student, graduating quickly from flirty banter and lingering looks to toe-curling, sheet-grabbing, mind-blowing hours of physical education.

The problem? Turns out learning to date again feels a lot like the real thing. Can our friendship withstand all these late-night bedroom sessions?

Especially since I’m suddenly longing for my best friend and there’s nothing fake about my feelings…

Some men are just off-limits. Like, say, all the other football players in the league…
I have to stop replaying the one night I spent with my rival. Trouble is, that white-hot encounter with the other quarterback answered a lot of questions I’ve had about myself, but it also led me into this mess where he hates me.
I never showed up for our second date. Since, well, life happened, and the worst part is he’ll never know how much that night meant to me.
But when I’m traded to his cross-town rivals, that’s not the time to serve up my secrets to him either. My team’s PR department wants to double down on our rivalry. I need to focus on football, not on my interest in men. Except, the more time I spend doing media appearances and charity events with the sexy, generous, popular guy, the hungrier I am to finish what we started.
It’s a bad idea to knock on his door late one night. I could lose everything. He’s probably not even home.
But when the door swings open and I’m face to face with the man I want desperately, I have a choice to make.
A standalone, enemies-to-rivals-to-lovers, second chance sports romance full of secrets, first times and forbidden love…

Chase Andrews.
The Kingsmen’s top tight end.My brother’s friend and teammate.My new neighbor.The grumpy to my sunshine.
But underneath that grumpy exterior, there’s so much more.
Chase likes to pretend nothing affects him, but I’ve seen glimpses of his other side in the time we’ve spent together.
And the more we get to know each other, the more I’m falling for him.
Under normal circumstances, this would be great. Except my hyper-protective big brother thinks no man is good enough for me, and my ex-fiancé is trying to win me back.
One charming, seemingly good man already broke my heart. Am I stupid to give a self-confessed relationship-adverse football player a chance to break it a second time?

Brady Banks.
The Kingsmen’s best wide receiver.
Rich AF.Hot as hell.A stallion in the sack.
How do I know that last fact? I may have shared a one-night stand with him six months ago when I was rebounding from a broken heart.
I didn’t forget him, but I was done with him, until I discovered he’s the single dad of the boy I’ve been hired to nanny.
It’s near impossible to ignore my attraction to him now that we’re living under the same roof—but I have no choice.
First, this job pays well, and I need the money to move out of my parents’ spare room.
Second, he’s a public figure and there’s no room for me to get caught up in a scandal with him—I can’t disappoint my parents again.
Third, men like Brady were built to break hearts. I barely managed to piece mine back together after my failed engagement and Brady would do irreparable damage if I gave him the chance.
Let the longest three months of my life begin…