




Stella groans lightly and rolls over. I’ve been watching her from my desk for half an hour, trying not to wake her. But as soon as she realizes my side of the bed is empty, she sits up dazed. Her head turns toward the bathroom and then turns to me.
“What are you doing?” she asks sleepily.
“Working a bit.”
“What time is it?”
“A little after seven.”
“Why the hell are you up? Do you ever sleep?” She falls back onto my bed and the sheets slip down her naked body.
I jump to my feet and make my way to her side of the bed in a second. “Yeah, I slept, then I worked out, showered, and decided to work until you woke up.”
“You worked out? Showered? What the hell is wrong with you? I thought we weren’t going anywhere this morning.”
She throws an arm over her eyes and I take the opportunity to kiss the skin up to her elbow, then pull her arm down so she has no choice but to look at me.
“I didn’t go anywhere. I have a home gym down the hall. I showered because I was gross, and we are staying here this morning. We have a meeting at ten, but until then, it’s us.”
“You have a home gym? Where?”
“Yeah, babe, there’s about two thousand square feet you’ve not seen yet. Two more rooms and a gym.”
“What?”
“Babe, you’ve only been here a few times, I haven’t had time to show you.”
“This is a whole lot of information for me this early, without coffee. Remember I’m not a morning person.”
“So you keep saying, but I love proving you wrong.” I kiss her softly and slide my hand under the sheets and down until it reaches her pelvic bone.
My fingertips run lightly back and forth from hipbone to hipbone until her breath catches. Every time I hear that small sound, I know she’s getting turned on. Then my hand slinks lower to her slick heat and I press one finger in, sliding her wetness back and forth. “You are the best morning person I know.”
“That’s because you give me orgasms before my coffee.”

There were a couple of things that gave me pause as I was reading. I get that things tend to move quickly in romance books, but insta-love is a hard sell for me. Max was head over heels from Day 1, but, to give credit to Ahren, Stella and Max do discuss the speed with which their relationship is moving, and it does eventually work. Also, with all of the action and drama surrounding Max, and, by default, Stella, there was an awful lot to keep up with and to accept as believable.
Overall, I enjoyed Smokescreen. The plot and action kept me engaged; I was interested in seeing how everything was resolved, and am happy with the way Ahren wrapped things up. I will absolutely read other books by Ahren in the future, and give Smokescreen 4 stars.










