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Rugby player\/assistant\u00a0 |\u00a0 \u00a0Grumpy\/grumpy\u00a0 |\u00a0 Enemies to lovers\u00a0 |\u00a0 Stuck together\u00a0 |\u00a0 Found family<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He\u2019s supposed to be playing rugby\u2014not playing me.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t think it was possible to hate someone. Like utterly despise another human. Then I was hired to babysit the Royals\u2019 newest star and found out just how wrong I was.<\/p>\n My job should\u2019ve been easy. Keep the hotshot on time and out of trouble. But that\u2019s hard to do when I dream of smothering him with his jersey.<\/p>\n Every day delivers a new reason to detest Gray Adler. His truck is the size of a whale, and he uses the horn like a weapon. And, no, that\u2019s not a euphemism. He can\u2019t manage a sentence without being rude. And the universe, in its cruelest joke, gave that tattooed, walking red flag the body of a Greek god.<\/p>\n Just when I finally get used to hating him, things take a turn.<\/p>\n A scalding-hot, mind-blowing I can\u2019t do this with a man I work with sort of turn.<\/p>\n Suddenly, those rough hands make my skin sizzle. His sinful smirks fade into grins just for me.<\/p>\n And our banter shifts into something much more profound than it should.<\/p>\n But Gray Adler is hiding something. And when those secrets collide with my vulnerable heart, I ask myself an important question. Is he finally telling me the truth, or am I still getting played?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add to Goodreads<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n She loves connecting with readers, fall weather, football, reading alpha heroes, everything pumpkin, and pretending to garden.<\/p>\n Hailing from a tiny town in the Midwest, Adriana spends her free time with her high school sweetheart (who she married over twenty years ago) and their four sons (who truly are her best work). Her kitchen may be a perpetual disaster, and if all else fails, there is always pizza.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Website\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Goodreads\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Amazon\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook Group<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 \u00a0TikTok\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bookbub<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Pinterest\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0 \u00a0Youtube\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0 \u00a0Verve<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Play Me by Adriana Locke is live! Rugby player\/assistant\u00a0 |\u00a0 \u00a0Grumpy\/grumpy\u00a0 |\u00a0 Enemies to lovers\u00a0 |\u00a0 Stuck together\u00a0 |\u00a0 Found family Amazon Blurb He\u2019s supposed to be playing rugby\u2014not playing me. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[763,634],"class_list":["post-79946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-news","tag-adriana-locke","tag-release"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Play-Me.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-kNs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nBlurb<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nMeet Adriana<\/b><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Adriana-Locke.jpg?resize=174%2C243&ssl=1\")
USA Today and Amazon Charts Bestselling author, Adriana Locke, writes contemporary romances about the two things she knows best\u2014big families and small towns. Her stories are about ordinary people finding extraordinary love with the perfect combination of heart, heat, and humor.<\/p>\n