Off the Boards

My new teammate pisses me off. Everyone else is falling over themselves when Golden Boy flashes a fake smile. Me? I just want to wipe it off his face. Off the ice, there's no escaping Nick Sandoval's dimples and plastic grin—because he's my new roommate. And on the ice? We need to get our act together, or else our final year of college hockey's going to waste. I can't ignore him, and I won't put up with that bullshit front he puts up for everyone. Especially when I push his buttons just right and get a glimpse at something no one else has seen—the real Nick Sandoval.

Carter Morgan III hates everything about South Carolina University except for one thing: hockey. As the starting netminder for the team, he lives for those moments when he can step onto the ice and between the pipes. Unfortunately, his time at school and on the team is slowly coming to an end. Although he'd love nothing more than to pursue a career in the NHL, he knows better than to get his hopes up.

Danny Hall is terminally single. That's not surprising, given that he lives in the tiny township of Goose Run, Virginia, and the only other gay guys he knows live with him in his grandma's house and are like brothers to him. It probably also doesn't help his dating prospects that he works at a gas station. When a series of petty disputes with his awful neighbor escalates into a legal matter, Danny calls in a lawyer. But when Miller Clarke turns up on his doorstep, Danny finds himself chasing more than just legal advice.

I had my person I was supposed to grow old with, but he double broke my heart when he forced me to choose between marrying him or hockey. I chose hockey and if I’m choosing hockey, I’m doing it all the way and leaving love out of the equation. Sounds like a great plan until I show up to hockey practice and realize the guy I fell into bed with is actually my new coach.

Egon Wolf is on a hockey scholarship but failing at everything else. Knowing he's going to lose his ride if he doesn't get his academic act together, he seeks out a tutor. Rakesh Aahnu is a dual major and dangerous when bored. What he enjoys more than anything is the challenge of making straight men fall for him before walking away. Just because he can. Both Egon and Rakesh are about to discover that life has a way of throwing you in the sin bin when you least expect it.

The first time I laid eyes on him my heart skipped a beat. My obsession began the way all obsessions do…with a spark. A small, seemingly insignificant flicker that quickly took root. He was pure, liquid light. A sunshine boy with a heart of gold. He turned my world up-side-down. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t let him out of my sight. Ever wondered what happens when red flags and green flags collide? If so, you’re about to find out.

Falling for my girlfriend’s twin brother wasn’t what I had in mind when I hired him to be my son’s nanny. Working on my family’s cattle ranch, the hours are long, and sometimes unpredictable, so when my regular nanny quits, leaving me in a pinch, I have to think fast. In walks Ash Tudor. My opposite in almost every way. He’s cheerful and bubbly, has horrible taste in music, and does yoga in my yard almost every morning in the tightest shorts I’ve ever seen. Not that I’m looking.

I should hate Rowan Hughes. He was a bully when we were kids, and now I find out he's messed around with my girlfriend. But how can I hate the campus soccer star when he's everything I've always wanted to be? With my reputation on the line, I can't let Rowan get away with humiliating me in front of people I know—people we both go to school with. When he swears he didn't know Annalese was my girlfriend, I actually believe him. When he says I'm good enough to play beside him, I want to believe that too. But when he insists he's not gay, all I want is to prove him wrong.

Finding out the guy I hooked up with is on my team isn't the way I saw my first week of coaching going. My name is Anthony Hawke, and I used to be a rising star in the NHL until someone purposefully tore my ACL, ending my career. I went from the top of my life to nothing in a matter of months. I take a coaching job a thousand miles away as a fresh start, only to ruin it before I start. Three months ago, I met him in a bar. Sexy and funny and built like a God—no names, just the best night of my life.

Waking up alone in a strange hotel room, missing my prosthetic legs, and having no memory of what happened the night before is not how I wanted to spend my estranged twin's bachelor party trip. Yet there I was, legless and with zero idea how I got there. Or who I spent the night with. Which is… not great. Though I suppose that trauma lies somewhere between losing my legs in a car accident, which killed my career in the NHL, and my brother running off with my fiancée. So, in the grand scheme of things, not the worst weekend I've had.

Whoever convinced me to join the gym needs to be hung, drawn, and quartered. Or, at the very least, suffer with a pillow hot on both sides every night, because this? This is terrible. Running? No thank you. Lifting? Who needs biceps anyway. Now, I will say the eye-candy is nice. Especially my new personal trainer with the tattoos and dimples. But that’s all he can ever be: eye candy. Because he’s fit and I’m not. He’s gorgeous and I’m, well, me. He’s hearing…and I’m Deaf.

Being a lifelong Chicago Thunder fan, I know that Blaine Olsen is trouble. Because all hockey players are. He's a notorious playboy, and I refuse to be another notch on his bedpost. But when he shows me the part of himself he keeps hidden, it gets harder to resist him.

Atticus King had his life mapped out—train hard, play volleyball, keep to himself. That is, until Noah Rossi burst onto the scene: charismatic, impulsive, a storm that tore through Atticus's carefully built walls and set his world on fire. They didn't fit—Noah was everything Atticus wasn't—but somehow, they found a rhythm in their shared love for the game and an undeniable pull toward each other. It was everything Atticus never knew he wanted. But just as quickly as Noah entered his life, he disappeared. No explanation. No goodbye. Only silence that left Atticus drowning in confusion and pain.

I caught the attention of a savage beast. My fault–ish after I crashed into Crestwood hockey team's star defenseman on my way to class. In typical Eli Holmes fashion, instead of walking away after he threw my books across the hall, I stood up to Alexei Petrov. Even sat right next to him in class, letting him know exactly what I thought of his brutish behavior. Someone should’ve reminded me not to go around poking monsters. But I’m not one to cower. Until a heated encounter leads to a steamy kiss.

When it comes to hockey, I'm all about the game. I've worked for years to be one of the best in the league, and l've done it without splashing my orientation all over the tabloids. My hockey image is one I've carefully cultivated, and after one night with Ezra Palaszczuk, I risk it all. He's cocky, obnoxious, and has an ego bigger than Massachusetts. And okay, maybe he's the sexiest man I've ever known. We'll never get along. Not when we sleep together. Not even when my possessive streak awakens. That doesn't stop us from falling into bed together over and over again.