Beautiful Player (beautiful Bastard, #3)

Christina Lauren's novel follows Hanna Bergstrom, the youngest of five children in the accomplished Bergstrom family, as she transforms from an isolated graduate student into a confident woman willing to risk her heart. The narrative alternates between Hanna's and Will Sumner's perspectives.

At a Manhattan art party, Hanna's oldest brother, Jensen, stages an intervention, telling her she is addicted to work and has no social life outside her graduate lab at Columbia's medical school. Their father, Johan, a scientist who once urged Hanna to learn from his own workaholic mistakes, silently supports Jensen's position. Jensen suggests Hanna call Will Sumner, his college best friend and their father's former research intern, who lives in New York and models a healthy work-life balance. Hanna agrees, privately recalling Will as the object of her teenage fantasies: a charismatic, tattooed bass player seven years her senior whom her older sister, Liv, once kissed during a Christmas visit.

Three days later, Hanna calls Will before dawn. They meet for a run at the Central Park reservoir on a freezing morning. Hanna arrives underdressed, and Will places a wool hat on her head, a gesture that disarms her. She struggles through the run, but they talk easily. Boldly, she asks him to teach her the "rules" of dating and socializing. Will reluctantly agrees and suggests she meet Chloe and Sara, the girlfriends of his two best friends, Bennett and Max Stella. Max is also Will's business partner.

From Will's perspective, the reunion is equally unsettling. He admits to his friends that Hanna surprised him: She is genuine, funny, and unconcerned with impressing him. He also confesses growing detachment from his two regular no-strings sexual partners, Kitty and Kristy. Sara suggests he reevaluate his "type" rather than assuming his restlessness is unrelated to the women he chooses.

Over the following weeks, Hanna trains seriously, signs up for a half-marathon, and befriends Chloe and Sara. She grows more toned and confident. She and Will develop a candid, flirtatious dynamic during their daily runs, discussing everything from attraction to sex. Will finds himself increasingly drawn to her honesty and stops thinking of her as "Ziggy," her childhood nickname, recognizing she is no longer a kid sister in his mind.

Sexual tension escalates at a grad student party. In a dark bedroom that Hanna declares "Vegas," she confesses she is unbearably wound up around him and asks him to show her how to touch a man. They share their first kiss. She gives him a hand job while he guides her; he brings her to orgasm afterward. Both are overwhelmed by the intimacy. Back at the party, a graduate student named Dylan asks Hanna out. Will suppresses his desire to take her home and instead encourages her to date.

Hanna goes out with Dylan but cannot stop thinking about Will. After her first date ends early, she walks to Will's apartment at three a.m., and they are physically intimate on his living room floor. Her third date with Dylan fails entirely; when Dylan kisses her, she feels nothing compared to Will. She ends things with Dylan, then texts Will asking where he is. He confesses he is standing outside her building, unable to stay away. She invites him upstairs, and they have sex for the first time. During their lovemaking, Will realizes he is falling in love.

The next morning, Hanna deliberately keeps things casual, assuring Will she does not expect him to change. When his phone buzzes with a call from Kitty, she gestures to it and says she understands who he is. Will tries to tell her the night meant something, but Hanna insists she can handle keeping it casual. Days later, Will confesses he has feelings that go "way past sexual." Hanna panics and accuses him of being fundamentally unable to commit, citing Liv's supposed heartbreak after their Christmas hookup. Wounded, Will leaves.

Hanna calls Liv, who reveals their hookup was barely memorable and that she was never heartbroken. Liv encourages Hanna to stop judging Will by her 12-year-old memories. Hanna apologizes, and they reach a compromise: friends who have sex, nothing more for now. Will privately resolves to be patient, acknowledging to himself that he is in love with her.

Their relationship deepens over the following weeks. They spend nights together and grow more emotionally intimate. During one of these mornings, Will writes a Nietzsche quote on her hip in pen—"All that is rare for the rare"—a phrase that becomes a private symbol between them. Hanna invites Will home for Easter weekend near Boston. At the Bergstrom family home, they can barely keep their hands off each other and have sex without a condom for the first time, a decision both recognize as reckless. Jensen nearly catches them. At dinner, Will accidentally calls her "Hanna" instead of "Ziggy," surprising the family. That night, Hanna asks if there are "still others." Will whispers he will be hers "every second" if that is what she wants, but the question of exclusivity remains unresolved.

On the drive home, Hanna scrolls through Will's phone and sees a text from Kitty responding to what appears to be an invitation to meet Tuesday night. Devastated, she believes Will arranged a hookup the day after their unprotected sex. She tests him by inviting him over Tuesday; he declines, claiming a late meeting. Recognizing the lie, Hanna shuts down. When Will appears at her door that evening, she tells him she does not have feelings for him. Will is shattered and leaves.

In truth, Will met Kitty that Tuesday to formally end their arrangement. He has not been intimate with Kitty since February, well before he and Hanna first slept together. He texts Hanna, "You're all I can think about anymore." She does not reply.

The night before the half-marathon, Hanna tells Chloe and Sara about Kitty's text. They urge her to give Will a chance to explain. On race day, Kitty appears at the starting area and introduces herself. Will, surprised by Kitty's presence, introduces Hanna as "my Hanna." Kitty privately tells Hanna that Will ended things with her, that they have not been together since February, and that he is in love with Hanna. Hanna is flooded with guilt.

Will stays beside Hanna for the entire 13-mile race rather than competing for placement, coaching her through every painful mile. They cross the finish line together, and Hanna takes his hand.

Back at his apartment, Will tells her he cannot return to being just friends and will not share her. Hanna tells him she is already his and says, "I love you." Will tells her he loves her too. He redraws the Nietzsche quote on her hip, "All that is rare for the rare," a phrase that has become a private symbol between them.

In the epilogue, Will and Hanna board a flight to San Diego for Chloe and Bennett's wedding. Will texts Hanna that he loves her and might propose soon, asking her to warn him if she will not say yes. She whispers, "We've totally got this."