Title: Three Simple Rules
Author: Nikki Sloane
Genre: Romance, Erotica, Fiction
What It's About: Evie hangs out with Payton, her roommate and best friend from college at a bar in downtown Chicago, to celebrate Payton's job. Two men pay for their drinks and then come over. Payton talks to them, tells them that she is an escort, gives them her business card and tells them to use the password to get in. Then they leave, and Evie is not convinced to do Payton's job.
The next day, Evie's boss, Logan Stone is late to the meeting that gives over critiquing people's work at the advertisement agency that she works at. He is known for being a jerk and has sent one of the designers in tears after his brutally honest critique. Back at her desk, she receives the final copy of a design that she did for a vodka company and is proud of it until she realizes that she made a mistake. She takes it to Logan, who does not see the error at first--she had left a disclaimer from a different company as a placeholder for their client. She asks him to do her a favor and have it reprinted with the correct information and when Logan tells her that it will cost them, she tells him to keep it off the books as she will pay for it. He calls her a few minutes later on the phone, telling her that it will cost her $9,500.00. He does not fire her for this error like he would the others because she tells him she loves this job and needs it.
Knowing that she will not be able to borrow this amount from family and friends, she turns to Payton, and agrees to do a single night at the escort club. So Payton takes her to the club, where Evelyn meets Joe, who asks her to undress, looks at her naked and then tells her to give him a blow job. She does it all, even though it makes her a little uncomfortable, but when Joe commands her to swallow, she realizes that she loves this. She gets a makeover, and then is given a contract to look over. On the way home, she asks Payton about some of the items, and only checks off those she is comfortable with.
At work, she checks her personal email, and after talking to Logan, she lets slip that she will have the money on Saturday. She then responds to Joe, telling him that she will have the contact for him on Saturday. Later, she goes out with Payton and Blake (her college crush with whom she has been in love), and Blake's girlfriend, Amy. Evie tells Blake what she is going to do--join Payton at her escort job on Saturday and tells him the address. He begs her to reconsider but she says no.
On Saturday, Payton and Evie hang out and then they go to the Club. Blake shows up and begs her to not do it and that this will ruin things between them because he loves her. She tells him that it is not possible to love two people at the same time, but he claims it is possible. Evie tells him to leave and goes into the club with Payton, who in turn explains to Eve how it will all go, and Evie hands over the contract to Joe after checking off a couple of. more items on her list. Payton takes her to the lounge and introduces her to Tara, who will be managing the sale, and explains to Evie how Tara will let her know certain things.
Evie goes to her room, gets blindfolded and strapped in with handcuffs. One man comes in, checks her out and then goes to the next room. For a while, there is silence and Tara tells her that there is an issue as a non-member has asked to put a hold on her. Eventually, a man comes in and they manage to negotiate the bid to $12,000.00, which is more than Evie needs to make in order to take home the $9,500.00 that she needs to pay Logan.
And she and the man start to have sex with a condom on, during which she realizes that she absolutely enjoys submitting. At one point, the man takes her blindfold off, while saying something that makes her realize it is Logan. Logan tells her that he has three simple rules--she's not allowed to ask questions, she has to answer his questions honestly, and she's not allowed to come without his permission. He keeps fucking her, while telling her that he has been wanting to take her out on a date for a very long time, but he heard that she had a boyfriend. Evie comes without his permission, and he smacks her across the ass. And she gets close again, this time watching Tara touching herself while watching them. Tara joins them at the table, near Evie's head, where Evie starts licking Tara until all three of them come in rapid succession. Logan zips up and runs out, while she begs him to wait.
Evie tries to follow him, but Tara says that it's for safety that they do not have contact. When Evie gets back to Payton, she's shocked and confused as to how Logan knew she was there. As Payton and Evie leave the club, Blake comes running asking if Evie is okay. She tells him to go away and then sees Logan. She speaks to him and they go to his place after, where they end up having more sex.
The next morning, Evie tries to plan on how to interrogate him, but she finds his mom in the kitchen sweeping the glass from the wine glass that they broke last night, from the floor. Logan introduces her as his girlfriend and she guesses Evelyn's name. Evie runs out of the house, telling him she'll call him later. Blake comes by her apartment and tries to tell her that he loves her and Evie tells him to give her space. Logan then tries to get a hold of her, but she refuses to give him her number.
On Monday, Evie is late to work and Logan demands to talk to her, telling her about the Good Food jacket (a company profile), and she takes it from him. Later on in the day, Logan gives her more work and when everyone has left the office, he asks her to come to his office. Then he tells her that rule number one (not allowed to ask questions), and rule number two (must answer questions honestly) now apply to him. She close s the door and asks him a whole bunch of questions, that he answers.
He reveals that he doesn't have a girlfriend and that he told his mother she was his girlfriend because it's his brother's wedding this weekend. HIs mom is convinced he won't marry and the plan was to say that they broke up before the weeding. He does not tell her how he knew she'd be at the club at first, but then tells her that he got the money from his 401K, which makes Evie realize that he paid a much steeper price for this than she did. The reason her did it was because he felt guilty as he'd come to trust her work so he didn't check her work on the Vodka company. When she asks again about the club, he has her send an email to herself from his email address, while he takes her at his desk, about the company's computer usage policy and how there is monitoring software. He then explains that he saw the email come in on her personal email and the logo caught his eye because it was beautiful. He saw that she said she was going to bring the contract on Saturday, and since she had let slip that she will have the money on Saturday, he reached out to Joe and found out about it. He tells her that he wanted to give her the money on Friday but then shouldn't he get something in return? So he thought that this would be the perfect solution as he has wanted her forever. He reveals that he's been with 30 women, but doesn't want the compromise that comes with relationships.
They go to a stir fry and he mentions that he will be using her number for casual sex, but she tells him that she does not do it outside of a relationship. Logan reminds her that he doesn't do relationships and ultimatums. Evie tells him that she doesn't sleep with men who sleep with other woman, and he clarifies that they can have sex exclusively with each other. They talk about how this relationship would work in the office because neither of them want the others knowing about them, and Evie tells him that he could be a lot kinder to people.
They go back to her apartment this time, and Blake shows up blubbering that he left Amy and told her the truth. Evie tells him to get lost, it's too late and Logan introduces himself as her boyfriend. Once Blake leaves, they have sex in her apartment. Logan also invites her to his brother's wedding, which she agrees to. When the day arrives, she goes to the rehearsal dinner with Logan, and then stays the night at his apartment, that really is owned by a friend who is living in Japan.
In the morning, he comes back from a run, and they have sex in the shower, where Evie gets so hot from the water that she passes out after coming. Logan feels guilty about it so he shuts down. The day of the wedding, she meets April at the reception, and finds out from Chelsea, one of Logan's cousins, that April was Logan's only girlfriend having dated for 12 years. While they are on the dance floor, she tells Logan that she met April, and that whenever he's ready he can tell her what happened between them. That night, when they get back to the hotel, he tells her the truth--he was with April for 12 years and he wanted to move to Chicago while she didn't, so she gave him an ultimatum, and he chose to end the relationship instead. He asks Evie about Blake, to which she responds that they never dated--when one of them was available, the other one was dating someone else. Logan and Evie end up having sex in the hotel room that night and the following night, and Evie agrees to do anal. Logan tells her that she's not ready for this as he needs supplies. At some point throughout that day, Evie calls Blake, who tells her that Amy had taken him back, and later on, Logan gets the supplies that he needs and begins slowly introducing her to anal sex, which Evie finds she enjoys. Logan takes pictures of her in bed while they are having sex.
On Monday, Evie does not see Logan until the critique and this time he is exceptionally nice to the point that everyone thinks he must be on different meds. Evie approves what he did when he speaks with her later.
During Labor Day weekend in September, Evie and Logan drive out to her parents and they spend a great time together. Her mom likes him and tells her to keep doing whatever she is doing. Evie tells him that she loves him and he tells her that he is not ready to tell her that yet, but says that she means a lot to him. They go meet his friends and she stays the night at his place. When she wakes up, she's alone. Then Logan comes in and she teases him about fucking in the shower, only to find out it was Nick, Logan's brother. When Logan finally comes up from the cooldown, Nick mentions that she wants to fuck him the shower and Evie has to explain that he was behind the fridge door so she thought it was Logan.
The next day, Logan has an early meeting with the VP of sales, and it turns out that due to a merger with their competitors, they will have new open positions. Now it makes sense to Evie why Logan wanted to keep their relationship a street. After the news, they meet at a restaurant and they talk about it all, at which point he tells her that he wants her to apply. Then they talk about personal stuff. Suddenly, another office worker comes in and Evie has to run to the bathroom so they are not seen together. That same day, she applies for the superior position, and he sets up an appointment with her. Debbie, one of the employees there asks questions about them in the office, but Evie doesn't say much. Later that night, Logan gives her the keys to his place.
The following day, Evie has interviews and she's nervous that something will go wrong. When she goes in for hers, they hug and then he does the interview before taking a bit more time with her.
Two weeks after that, they get into an argument, because Blake had called to ask to meet with Evie. Ultimately, Evie calls him to cancel, but she decides to go meet with Blake anyway on the day of for lunch, where he tells her about Amy's pregnancy. She tells him that she thinks Logan is the one for her. Suddenly, Blake looks up in alarm, and Evie realizes that Logan was right behind them, and heard a lot of what she had said. Logan brings her flowers that night as an apology.
While on a call with Payton, Evie finds out that it's Logan's birthday. She doesn't know what to do and then comes up with an idea--a threesome with Payton. At the apartment, Payton ties her up and then plays with her a bit, getting Evie close, but Evie needs Logan's permission to come as they had agreed before. He gives it to her in person and then Evie tells him that this is a threesome but she has rules--eh comes with her, uses condoms with Payton and only kisses Evie on the lips. They all have a good time, and once they are done, Payton leaves--she never stays the night with her one night stands.When they hang out with Payton on a different day, Payton tells Evie that she really enjoyed it, but it was a one time thing for her. Evie agrees that it was the same conclusion that she and Logan reached afterwards as well.
At the Monday critique meeting, Logan asks for someone to take on a particularly annoying client. No one wants to do it but Evie. He slips up and calls her Evie. After the meeting, she gets bombarded by Debbie and Jamie, both of whom tell her that Logan has slept with half the office. She goes home and they talk about the error and then about him sleeping with the whole office, which he explains is not exactly the whole office, just a few people here and there. They end up having sex.
The next day, Logan meets her in his office and tells her that Kathleen got the supervisory job because Will (his boss) asked him if he and Evie were sleeping, and he could lie. After this, Evie gets a call from the billing department about a $3,245 bill for a reprint for the Vodka company. She takes that to Logan and e comes clean about how he jacked up the price on purpose but was going tell her when he found out about the club, because he had wanted her to back down from taking it on. He also tells her that his lunch appointment is with April as her dad had died.
Evie goes home after that, and refuses to talk to Logan. She asks for space, and both Blake and Payton tell Evie to forgive Logan. Then when she comes to her cube on Friday, Logan asks to talk and tells her that he is resigning because he can't find another her though he can find another job. It will also put her into the position that she deserves. Evie gets him to hold off on making a decision on it until Monday. He feels disheartened when she tells him she's not sure if she will go to the Marathon that he's running, but she does come up with a plan and calls Nick.
The day of the Chicago Marathon, she hangs out with Hilary and Nick, following Logan's progress across the Marathon course. At the end of it, Logan proposes to her and she says yes.
The Saturday after thanksgiving, Payton calls her and then comes over. Logan is still out thanks to NyQuil and his illness that caused them to cancel last night's plan. Things at the office had worked out for the better by this point--Evie got a Senior Designer position, and began reporting to Kathleen, which allows her relationship with Logan to be out in the open. Payton comes in and tells Evie that she got fired at her club and it is all Logan's fault. She's not making sense, so Evie wakes Logan up and asks. At that moment, he gets a phone call from a very long number, which appears to be international, and realizes that he's made a mistake.
My Thoughts: This was a fun, light read. I really enjoyed the story building and the romance in this book, as well as the conflicts and the conflict resolution between Logan and Evie. Besides the way that Logan and Evie fall in love with each other, there was not much depth to the book, and I don't think that was the point, but rather it was meant to be a fast read for a short flight or train ride to keep you entertained.
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