Pucking Around: Jacksonville Rays Hockey

They were supposed to be on the same team. Santos Khyle arrived in Seattle as the Soul Reapers' most anticipated rookie in years, a natural-born scorer with something to prove and a chip on his shoulder the size of a regulation puck. Gunner Jäger had been tearing up the ice as the team's feared enforcer for two seasons, and he had zero interest in sharing his spotlight with some orange-haired twenty-one year old who looked at him like he was a problem to be managed. From the moment they met, it was war. On the ice, they were a disaster. Off it, they were worse. Screaming matches in corridors. Fists through locker room walls. A live on-air brawl that made every highlight reel in North America and earned them both a suspension, a lecture from their furious coach, and the undivided attention of the entire hockey world. Nobody could stand to watch them together. Nobody could look away either. Because underneath the fury and the bruises and the months of spectacular mutual destruction, something else was building. Something neither of them had language for yet. Something that felt uncomfortably like the only fight either of them was actually afraid to lose. The Soul Reapers are one playoff run away from everything. Gunner and Khyle are one honest conversation away from falling apart completely. Or maybe, just maybe, from finally figuring out what they are to each other. Pucking Up the Ice is a slow burn MM romance set in the brutal and beautiful world of professional hockey. It contains explicit language, on-ice violence, emotional gut punches, two men who are absolutely terrible at feelings, and a love story that had to break everything before it could build something worth keeping.

Luca Devereaux has spent twelve seasons building the perfect image. He is the captain of the Chicago Phantoms, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and the man every sponsor wants on their poster. He is calm under pressure, professional in every interview, and completely untouchable. The only person in the world who has ever made him feel like he might come apart is Ronan Calloway. Ronan is the captain of the Boston Bruins and the league's leading scorer for two straight seasons. He is quiet, intense, and impossible to read. He does not chase drama, he does not play games, But for three years, he has watched Luca with the kind of focus that goes beyond rivalry. He has counted Luca's habits, studied his tells, and waited for the perfect time.. When a brutal championship game collision ends with a nine-second fight broadcast to millions, the world sees the first crack in Luca's perfect armor. But that is nothing compared to what happens after the final whistle, when Ronan locks a locker room door and they are finally, truly alone. What begins as obsession slowly becomes something neither of them has words for. They meet in empty arenas and dark corridors. They push each other away and pull each other back. The hockey world is watching. Management is watching. And somewhere out there, someone is taking photographs. This is a story about two men who have spent years hiding behind control, competition, and composure. And about what happens when the one person who can see through all of it refuses to look away.

AVA When my mom told me she was engaged, I was genuinely happy for her. After ten years of heartbreak and loneliness, she deserved a second chance at love. What I didn’t expect was for Caden Duke to be standing at our front door. Hockey Captain of Norwell University. Rich. Arrogant. Cold-hearted. My crush! The same guy who stars in every filthy fantasy and late-night delusion I’ve ever had is about to become my stepbrother. And somehow, it gets worse. His father decides I should move into Caden’s off-campus house near the university. Now I’m stuck living with the one person I can never have. CADEN Three rules. Stay away from me. Don't touch my food. And most importantly—Get rid of that pathetic crush you have on me, your stares are becoming creepy. That was before the drunken kiss. Before I tasted her. Before Ava Delene became the only thing I could think about. Now she’s everywhere—walking through my house, sleeping a room away from mine, looking at me with those innocent eyes like she has no idea what she’s doing to me. She was supposed to be off-limits. Instead, she’s becoming my newest obsession.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Imani whispered, her voice trembling more from want than from fear of her brother barging in and catching her leaning in to kiss his ex-best-friend now turned enemy. “Then stop me,” he murmured back, his fingers brushing her jaw, his breath hot against her skin. But neither of them moved. The distance between them had already disappeared, along with every rule she’d promised not to break. *** When Imani Grayson, a quiet psychology major, is assigned to mentor the university’s star hockey captain, Nicolas Jameson, she expects arrogance not the kind of chemistry that keeps her up at night. What begins as a simple assignment spirals into late-night tutoring sessions, stolen glances, and kisses that blur every boundary she’s ever set. But with jealous teammates watching, old wounds resurfacing, and a love too intense to hide, the game they started might be the one that shatters them both. Imani will soon learn that some games can’t be won without losing everything, and Nicolas, that even in the game of hearts, the strongest player can fall to his knees.

Maya Adams has a type… Anyone who isn’t Hunter Callum. To the rest of the world, he’s the God of Hockey..a cold, arrogant, shirtless-on-every-billboard legend. To Maya, he’s the prude, stuck-up asshole who just got her suspended from her dream job at a top New York publishing firm. When a drunken night of trash-talking Hunter at a club ends in a bloody brawl and a viral scandal, Maya wakes up in the one place she never thought she’d be…Hunter’s penthouse. Now, his agent is offering her a deal she can’t afford to refuse Play the part of the doting, supportive girlfriend for five months. Curb the temper of the league's most volatile player. Walk away with $3.5 million and her career back. The rules are simple: keep it professional in private and convincing in public. But as the "God of Hockey" starts showing Maya a side of himself the cameras never see, the lines between their contract and their chemistry begin to blur. Maya is supposed to be faking it. But Hunter? He stopped playing a game the moment he laid eyes on her. Falling for the enemy wasn't in the contract. But obsessed gods don't play by the rules.

Janessa got into Berkeley on her own merit, but she didn’t plan on being homeless at 2 AM or living with the one man her boyfriend hates most. Brayden is rude, dangerous, and sees right through her good-girl act. He was supposed to be her punishment, but now he’s the only one teaching her how to want something for herself.