Two guys stuck in an awesome cabin for the weekend, this story had all the makings of awesome but it somehow didn't connect. Something about the premise of two grown adults who can't have a fling together and still maintain a working relationship didn't sit well in this book. There are people out there having affairs on their husbands and wives, men and women still concealing their sexuality, and the list goes on of adults secretly having sex and doing it well. It was hard, in this story, to connect with the idea that they couldn't as responsible adults enjoy each other's company without having to continuously mention nothing can happen between them. I guess for me it's odd that the only thing one can think of when finding someone attractive is it must turn into something serious. There are loads of people with mutual attraction and most of them are not compatible beyond physical attraction and that's perfectly okay.
That out the way, Mason is continuously saying we can't do anything but is forever swatting Rhy on his butt. It makes zero sense this flirtatiousness amongst other flirty things he does if he's so serious about not doing anything with him. Go hard or not at all. I couldn't believe him really because he didn't have that much conviction. All words but didn't back it up.
Nothing much to say about Rhy. I liked him in general. He liked Mason could tell he liked him back and acted on it. My anxiety-ridden self can appreciate that type of directness cause I don't have it. Normally I would be annoyed that he ignored Mason's request to back off, but Mason was a bit flirty and smacked him on the butt more than once so it was perfectly logical that he wouldn't take him seriously. Rhy's breakdown, however, seemed misplaced.
Basically, I wasn't in the headspace to enjoy it yet. They had just gotten snowed in, were still in flirty stage, and as yet had not had their first adult encounter. I dunno but their relationship was still circling around Mason's halfbaked 'we can only be friends' and Rhy seeing right through it, part of the story. This felt like a good end bit. The type of big emotional connection that could be used to finally sway Mason to be like, 'yeah maybe we could work out'. Instead, it was used as a segway into their first encounter. It didn't seem earned at that point so I couldn't fully enjoy the steam once it happened. And, unfortunately, Mason says we can never do that again. The man you find attractive af, legit just had a nervous break down turning into a sobby mess revealing his life story and then, in his vulnerable state, you allowed an encounter to happen and you end with 'we can't do this again'? This just felt very wrong and almost like he used him instead of taking the moment and running forward with some sort of acceptance. I gave up around here, well a little past here.
The reason it gets three stars even though I didn't finish is mostly because it checked all the boxes for what should be in this type of steamy romance. Readers will more than likely love this story. For me, however, the breakdown and subsequent encounter it lead to seemed to be in the wrong spot. The way Mason behaved lead me to believe he was professional in words but all for something more adult in behaviour, and I couldn't get past the idea that them doing something together had to by default lead to something serious thus mixing business with pleasure.
I'd recommend to romance readers who want just a touch deeper than simple romance but with all the steamy fun that comes with it, this one will more than likely deliver.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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