THE BALLERS AND BABES COLLECTION

  LAUREN BLAKELY

  CONTENTS

  Also by Lauren Blakely

  About

  The Ballers and Babes Collection

  Most Valuable Playboy

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Epilogue

  Another Epilogue

  Final Epilogue

  Most Likely to Flirt

  1. Jillian

  2. Jones

  3. Jillian

  4. Jones

  5. Jillian

  6. Jones

  7. Jillian

  Most Likely To Score

  Prologue

  1. Jones

  2. Jillian

  3. Jones

  4. Jillian

  5. Jones

  6. Jillian

  7. Jones

  8. Jillian

  9. Jones

  10. Jillian

  11. Jones

  12. Jillian

  13. Jones

  14. Jones

  15. Jillian

  16. Jillian

  17. Jones

  18. Jillian

  19. Jones

  20. Jillian

  21. Jones

  22. Jones

  23. Jillian

  24. Jones

  25. Jillian

  26. Jones

  27. Jillian

  28. Jones

  29. Jillian

  30. Jones

  31. Jones

  32. Jillian

  Epilogue

  Another epilogue

  A Wild Card Night

  A prequel

  Nearly Eight Years Ago

  1. Harlan

  2. Katie

  3. Katie

  4. Harlan

  5. Harlan

  6. Katie

  7. Harlan

  A Wild Card Kiss

  1. Katie

  2. Harlan

  3. Katie

  4. Harlan

  5. Harlan

  6. Katie

  7. Katie

  8. Harlan

  9. Katie

  The Fall

  10. Katie

  11. Katie

  12. Harlan

  13. Katie

  14. Harlan

  15. Harlan

  16. Katie

  17. Katie

  18. Katie

  19. Harlan

  20. Katie

  21. Harlan

  22. Harlan

  23. Katie

  24. Harlan

  25. Katie

  26. Katie

  27. Katie

  28. Katie

  29. Harlan

  30. Harlan

  31. Katie

  32. Jason

  33. Emerson

  Epilogue

  Epilogue

  Also by Lauren Blakely

  Contact

  Copyright © 2022 by Lauren Blakely

  Cover Design by Kate Farlow.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This contemporary romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This book is licensed for your personal use only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with, especially if you enjoy sexy romance novels with alpha males. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  ALSO BY LAUREN BLAKELY

  Big Rock Series

  Big Rock

  Mister O

  Well Hung

  Full Package

  Joy Ride

  Hard Wood

  Happy Endings Series

  Come Again

  Shut Up and Kiss Me

  Kismet

  My Single-Versary

  Ballers And Babes

  Most Valuable Playboy

  Most Likely to Score

  A Wild Card Kiss

  Two A Day

  Plays Well With Others

  Rules of Love Series

  The Virgin Rule Book

  The Virgin Game Plan

  The Virgin Replay

  The Virgin Scorecard

  Hopelessly Bromantic Duet (MM)

  Hopelessly Bromantic

  Here Comes My Man

  Men of Summer Series (MM)

  Scoring With Him

  Winning With Him

  All In With Him

  The Guys Who Got Away Series

  Dear Sexy Ex-Boyfriend

  The What If Guy

  Thanks for Last Night

  The Dream Guy Next Door

  The Gift Series

  The Engagement Gift

  The Virgin Gift

  The Decadent Gift

  The Extravagant Series

  One Night Only

  One Exquisite Touch

  My One-Week Husband

  MM Standalone Novels

  A Guy Walks Into My Bar

  One Time Only

  The Bromance Zone

  The Best Men (Co-written with Sarina Bowen)

  The Heartbreakers Series

  Once Upon a Real Good Time

  Once Upon a Sure Thing

  Once Upon a Wild Fling

  Boyfriend Material

  Asking For a Friend

  Sex and Other Shiny Objects

  One Night Stand-In

  Lucky In Love Series

  Best Laid Plans

  The Feel Good Factor

  Nobody Does It Better

  Unzipped

  Always Satisfied Series

  Satisfaction Guaranteed

  Instant Gratification

  Overnight Service

  Never Have I Ever

  PS It’s Always Been You

  Special Delivery

  The Sexy Suit Series

  Lucky Suit

  Birthday Suit

  From Paris With Love

  Wanderlust

  Part-Time Lover

  One Love Series

  The Sexy One

  The Only One

  The Hot One

  The Knocked Up Plan

  Come As You Are

  Standalones

  Stud Finder

  The V Card

  The Real Deal

  Unbreak My Heart

  The Break-Up Album

  The Caught Up in Love Series

  The Pretending Plot

  The Dating Proposal

  The Second Chance Plan

  The Private Rehearsal

  Seductive Nights Series

  Night After Night

  After This Night

  One More Night

  A Wildly Seductive Night

  ABOUT

  Most Valuable Playboy…

  When the hot young quarterback desperately needs a fake girlfriend he turns to his best friend’s sister in this sexy, feel-good, friends to lovers romance!

  Most Likely to Score…

  When the star receiver needs to rehab his rep, he turns to the only woman who can help… but fighting their desires is the toughest play of all in this sexy forbidden romance!

  A Wild Card Kiss…

  When the single dad athlete meets the woman who got away, sparks fly, but fate has other plans for the jilted bride and the football star in this second chance romance!

  THE BALLERS AND BABES COLLECTION

  By Lauren Blakely

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>   Did you know this book is also available in audio and paperback on all major retailers? Go to my website for links!

  MOST VALUABLE PLAYBOY

  DEDICATION

  Thank you to Gale for letting me use the name of your hair salon in this book! You’re a goddess, Gale!

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dear Reader:

  As I was revisiting these characters five years after writing them, I enjoyed Cooper and Violet so much that I wanted to spend more time with them. As part of my revisions of this novel I reframed a subplot to make it more current. If you read an earlier version, you’ll notice the character of Maxine and her situation has completely changed. The character of Vera is a new addition. And the interaction Cooper has with both of them has entirely changed to reflect the times. If you haven’t read this book, then dive in and enjoy this fun, sexy, swoony, naughty romance!

  Xoxo

  Lauren

  PROLOGUE

  Always a bridesmaid.

  No Action Armstrong.

  Ball Cap Boy.

  Mr. Clean.

  The Unused Insurance Plan.

  Oh wait. Here’s one more, a personal fave.

  Best Butt in the NFL.

  Those are just some of the nicknames I’ve been given in the last few years. They don’t bug me. Not one bit. They’ve all been true, especially the last one. You should see my ass. You can bounce a quarter off my cheeks.

  Here’s the thing—when you spend the first three years of your career warming the bench for the best player in the league, you can’t get a chip on your shoulder. You have to stay sharp and be ready for that moment when you swap out a ball cap for a helmet and get your pants dirty.

  My time has finally come this season, and so far, we’re winning.

  But tonight isn’t about what happens between the opening kickoff and the end of the fourth quarter.

  Tonight is about the one game I’ve always dominated.

  For the last few years, I’ve been the highest ticket item in the players’ annual charity auction, and I can’t help enjoying that. Because the guy I’ve backed up has been called a lot of things—a legend, the greatest ever, a titan of the game—but the one I most enjoy is “second-best-looking quarterback on the Renegades.”

  Hey, I didn’t give him that name. The media did, deciding the dude who played second-string—me—had a prettier face. Before this season, I’d seen a grand total of 120 minutes of playing time in my first three years, but I’ve taken home the top honors in the charity auction, where some of the loveliest ladies come to bid on the players they want to take out for a night on the town.

  Ah, the memories of those dates have warmed my heart, and other parts, on the sidelines when the games were dull. Evenings in limos, testing the strength of the leather backseat, nights in hotels that lasted way past dawn, mutually and blissfully ignoring the no physical contact between the winner and the player rule.

  Yeah, I’ve enjoyed the fuck out of being paraded on stage in front of hundreds of women, their slender arms lifted in the air, raising their bids higher on me than all the other guys. It’s been my one chance to shine, even to stand out.

  Those days are behind me, though, now that I’m finally leading the team down the field every single Sunday. I still expect to rake in top dollar for the charity I gladly support, but this time, I won’t be living it up and letting loose after hours. I have a reputation to protect, and a season on the line.

  Guess that means it’s time to call an audible on the line of scrimmage.

  1

  My hair is sticking up.

  In my defense, it’s always sticking up.

  I have what’s known as permanent bed head. Which can be awesome, if I want to look like I just strolled out of a most excellent roll in the hay, complete with a sexy stranger running her hands through my dark brown strands.

  It’s less awesome for pulling off the part of a classy athlete dressed to the nines. I’m decked out in a tailored charcoal-gray suit and parked in a leather chair in a suite at the Whitney Hotel in the heart of San Francisco, along with a bunch of other guys from the team.

  Violet’s trying to curb my bed head. Her long fingers thread through my hair, aiming for a reverse roll-in-the-hay effect. “I swear, Cooper, you’ve had the most stubborn hair your entire life.”

  I wiggle my eyebrows. “It takes after me. I can’t be tamed either.”

  She rolls her amber eyes, her long chestnut hair spilling over her chest. “That’s right. You’re a wild mustang. Impossible to domesticate.”

  I neigh.

  She stops, sets her hands on my shoulders, and gives me a sharp stare. “Can you count with your hooves too?”

  I drag a wing-tipped foot along the carpeted floor one, two, three times. “I can go all the way to ten.”

  “You let me know when you make it to twenty, Mister Ed. That’s when I’ll truly be impressed,” she says, with the smile I’ve seen for the last twenty years. I’ve been friends with Violet since we were kids and I moved to her hometown, a few blocks away from her house.

  I rub my palms together. “Excellent. I have a goal to shoot for. You know I love goals.”

  She laughs. “I do know that.”

  Give me a task, and I’m nose-to-the-grindstone focused. I’ve been that way my whole life. Run a mile in under six minutes? Sure thing. Throw a ball downfield twenty-five yards? Let’s do it. Win a scholarship to a top-tier school? Consider it done, and done with a smile.

  Violet stretches her arm behind her, silver bracelets jingling as she grabs some hair gel in a black tube from the chrome coffee table. “We need to domesticate your lovely locks, Cooper. I don’t have a riding crop with me, but I think this gel will do.”

  I give the tube a skeptical stare. “You’re not going to put a ton of goop in my hair, are you?”

  She adopts a serious expression. “Absolutely. It’s a brand-new product I’ve been testing at my salon. It’s called Goop for Guys. It’s so perfect for you.” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “But I won’t tell anyone you have to use . . . product to look so pretty.”

  “More like pretty ugly.” A deep voice booms the insult across the suite. Jones is the king of put-downs, and one of my closest friends on the team. At the moment, he’s lounging in a chair, scrolling through his phone, and wearing a custom-fitted dark navy suit.

  The team publicist, Jillian, organized the event and chose the tailored suit theme for this year’s auction, our annual holiday fundraiser for the San Francisco Children’s Hospital. Her exact words were, “Suits are like catnip to women, and to men, too, and I want my team of pretty kitties to raise even more money this year.”