5 Contemporary Romances Too Sexy to Read in Public

Nuts, by Alica Clayton
Even the title of this one is bound to get some double-takes in public. And don’t even get me started on that cover. The first in the Clayton’s Hundson Valley series, Nuts is the story of private chef Roxie Callahan and local farmer Leo Maxwell, whose romance is full of slow burn, passionate kissing, and food-based innuendo. The two are brought together when Roxie returns to her small home-town to help her mother with the family dinner and Leo delivers some organic walnuts. Roxie may not have wanted the small-town life, but time spent with Leo might start changing her mind, especially when they realize how just completely compatible and natural they are together. Bonus: not only does it make you pine for the sexy, sexy hero, it makes you pine for a sexy, sexy scone too.

Overruled, by Emma Chase
The first installment in Chase’s Legal Briefs series introduces us to defense attorney Stanton Shaw and litigator Sofia Santos, two friends with “mind-blowing benefits” who hatch a plan to make Stanton’s high school sweetheart fall in love with him. The story starts with Stanton and said high school sweetheart, as we discover what happened to them and how they ended up apart, and then moves forward to present day. From the first page they share together, Stanton and Sofia’s chemistry is explosive and you just want them to always be sharing the same page. And just because Stanton is emotionally unavailable, doesn’t mean he is also, uh, physically unavailable, if you know what I mean. Both own their ambitions and sexuality right from the start, which made me blush almost immediately. (The blush, of course, was followed up by an existential crisis that involved me trying to figure out why a successful woman frankly discussing sex made me blush. But anyway.)

Talk Me Down (Tumble Creek Series #1), by Victoria Dahl
Here’s another book with a cover practically too sexy to look at, so it’s a natural fit for this list. We’ve talked about Victoria Dahl before, but with good reason: she’s just a real master of weaving comedy and pathos with incredibly sexy moments. One minute you’ll be laughing, and the next, you’ll be slowly hunching down in your seat to make sure you don’t inadvertently make eye contact with innocent passersby during a particularly steamy scene. This particular book follows Molly Jennings—a bestselling erotic fiction author—as she reconnects with former high school hunk (and current chief of police) Ben Larson. Not only are the sex scenes themselves steamy, they are also plentiful, which makes this a real interesting one to be reading while attempting to get off the bus. Dahl has an extensive and fantastic backlist, but another great, raunchy read that’s a particular favorite of mine is So Tough to Tame.

The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride… and Baby, by Shoshanna Evers
Is it any surprise that the queen of Sexily *Evers* After can write a book hot enough to light you on fire and melt you to the ground? I mean, this is the lady who edited a non-fiction book about writing steamy sex scenes (How to Write Hot Sex). Venturing out in public while reading any of her romances is basically asking to be a big pile of melted, squishy goo whenever someone tries to have a conversation with you. The Tycoon’s Convenient Bride… and Baby is no exception to this rule. It follows Mack and the sister of his now missing partner, Lauren, as the two come together in order to save the missing partner’s very small child. Lauren has lusted after Mack for years (and just one second in Lauren’s head makes it easy to see why), so when he becomes her new husband, she can almost see the life she dreamed of playing out in front of her eyes. There’s only one problem: Mack isn’t the marrying kind—to him, their relationship is business. But with so much passion, you know it can’t stay that way for long.

Bared to You (Crossfire Series #1), by Sylvia Day
I came to Syliva Day by way of E. L. James, a wedding, and a very smart Maid of Honor. As a bridesmaid, I knew I had to get something for the bride for her bachelorette party, and being the romance newb that I was, I opted for the only sexy book I’d ever heard of: Fifty Shades of Grey. The Maid of Honor, however, was much more worldly than myself, so she suggested Day’s Crossfire Series. And whew boy. As if I weren’t already obsessed enough with reading books about beautiful billionaires. The chemistry between Gideon Cross and Eva Tramell is so hot, and so intense, that a scene in which the two do nothing more than work out at a gym near each other is enough to make you reach for a fan. The whole series acts as a master course for making readers uncomfortable in public, while they continue to be unable to put the book down.
What steamy romance has kept you indoors all day?