When It Counts

Friends with benefits.
Fast-paced romance.
A temporary arrangement.
Ten rules. Zero chance of survival.

Elle has a formula for everything.
At twenty-seven, she's one promotion away from the career she's spent years dreaming of. She likes control and well-made plans. She especially likes knowing exactly where things are going.

Then Ben Hartley walks back into her life.

Her former boss. The man who taught her everything she knows about the ruthless corporate world. Brilliant, demanding, impossible and the man Elle had a completely inappropriate crush on while he was married.

That was a year ago.
Now Ben is divorced, playing drums in bars and standing two feet away from her at a Gold Coast cocktail bar.

One ill-advised cab ride later, they make a deal.

Six months of fun.
No feelings.
No jealousy.
No expectations.
And absolutely no changing the rules.

What starts as a temporary arrangement quickly becomes the best part of both their weeks: late-night drinks, open mics, stolen afternoons, reckless decisions and the developing chemistry they don't want to label.

So for six months, they're not going to break any rule.
Not because they're falling in love.
Because they're finally learning how to want something and say it out loud.

⚠️ A NOTE BEFORE YOU START
This is a friends-with-benefits romance, not a traditional happily-ever-after love story.

Ben and Elle make a temporary arrangement with a very specific expiration date. They are attracted to each other, they have chemistry and they absolutely enjoy what they're doing but they do not end the book as a couple.

There will be:
🔥 A lot of sexual tension and spicy content
❤️ Happy endings for both characters-but separately

If you're looking for "they fight it, fall hopelessly in love and end up together forever," this isn't that book.

If you like sexual tension and emotionally complicated hookups. Welcome...