Portland Icehawks

As a thirty-five-year-old hockey player, I've learned a lesson in loyalty. I was supposed to be a lifer for the Chicago Tigers, but the team left me out in the cold, choosing to protect younger players. The next thing I know, I'm in a strange city with a fledgling team, and my estranged wife has served me with divorce papers. As the team struggles to find its identity and win games, I struggle with my role as team captain, proving I'm not too old to play at a high level, and getting beyond my failed marriage. All this is complicated by an undeniable attraction to the owner's granddaughter.

Much to my utter dismay, the Portland Icehawks chose me in the expansion draft, and now my estranged father is my hockey coach. No one on the team knows he's my dad. They think he's a distant relative I don't get along with. They're right about that last part. We hate each other. He blames me for the death of my sister, and I blame myself, too. He's unfairly targeted me, and his constant criticism is destroying my confidence and my game. The only thing I look forward to is my time working with the underprivileged, especially with one feisty, attractive female.

I'm the star defenseman for the Portland Icehawks and the guy everyone loves to hate. Not that I don't deserve their hatred. After all, how can you like a guy who doesn't even like himself? Michella is the one woman I can't let go, yet I can't be with her. We're like drugs to each other, and addictions aren't a good thing. I've messed up a relationship before and destroyed the one person I loved. I can't do the same to Michella. To make matters worse, Michella's new job with a private investigative agency puts her in the crosshairs of Portland's elusive serial killer. I have to protect her.

I've never had a man be kind to me unless he wanted something, so when a gorgeous hockey star shows interest, I don't believe it's genuine. I was a throwaway child of a drug addict and I learned to survive in dark places. Now I'm determined to get my life on track, and I don't need complications, especially from a drop-dead gorgeous professional hockey player with delusions of rescuing me. I don't need to be rescued by him or anyone else. I'm doing it on my own.

Being traded from a contender to a basement dweller is bad enough, but now I'm working with the one who got away. She has an explosive secret, and I think it has something to do with me. I want to start where we left off, but she doesn't want anything to do with me. Eventually our mutual attraction steamrolls her resistance, but when her deception catches up to her and what she's been hiding is exposed, nothing will ever be the same for either of us.