Date Me Like You Mean It by R.S. Grey

Synopsis: I’m good at hiding my feelings.
Having to pretend I’m not in love with my best friend?
Pfft. That’s child’s play.

Here’s how I do it: I avert my eyes when he walks out of his room, shirtless in all his toned glory. I squash the butterflies that fill my stomach every time he slowly unfurls a dimpled smile. And, most importantly, I keep an arsenal of “personal massagers” in my bedside drawer. Wink.

Not to brag, but Aiden Smith isn’t hard to resist if you’ve been doing it for as long as I have. In fact, we might have continued as best friends forever if not for the fact that I needed him to play the part of my fake boyfriend.

Date me like you mean it, I told him. Nudge nudge. C’mon, just go along with a little lie, help a girl out, and then we can all return to life as we know it.

Except he veered from the plan.

He crossed the line.

Flirting with me when no one else was around? Pinning me down and kissing me like that? Okay, how exactly is taking off my bra part of the ruse, Aiden?!
I’d ask him about it if I could, but well…things got ugly and we’re not best friends anymore.

In fact, we’re the exact opposite.

Now, I have to play nice even though I want to crush his heart in the palm of my hand.

Pretending not to love Aiden was the easy part.
Pretending not to hate him?
Well…I might need a little more practice.

Review: I always have a great time with the RS Grey romances, and when I saw the French release of this new story, I was immediately curious.

Maddie met Aiden when her sister married her brother. It was love at first sight for her. So when she got the chance to move in with him as a roommate, she figured it was a sign of destiny. But Aiden has never shown any interest in her. In fact, he’s had a string of conquests. What about her? She knows she doesn’t stand a chance. But when she tells her best friend that she’s dating Aiden, she doesn’t expect it to backfire. Luckily, he agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend. But when the lines blur, and Maddie gives him her heart, he crushes it without even realizing it.

This was a light romance. I had a great time discovering Maddie and Aiden. It’s quite classic, of course, but it was very nice and I was delighted to read another story of the author. As always, if they had spoken together, our two heroes could easily have had their happy ending much sooner.