Three on the Ice

Nate Callahan has watched four times worth of Jonah Wilders game tape, and he has not told himself the truth about why. Dmitri Volkov has been watching Nate for three years — patient, specific, and completely done with pretending its just hockey. Then the front office trades for Jonah Wilder, and the Hartford first line becomes three men who all understand the game at the same depth, and none of them know how to be in the same room without the architecture starting to shake.

Nate Callahan has been the Hartford first lines center for three seasons — precise, economical, already three steps ahead of every play before it develops. He runs his game the way he runs himself: the architecture decides, the execution follows, and the important things stay behind glass where they cant cost him anything. He has been doing this since he was twenty. He has never once put it down. He knows Dmitri Volkov has been watching — has known for two years with the specific accuracy of a man who notices everything and chooses what to act on — and has filed it under the same heading as the rest of what he cant afford. Then the trade wire delivers Jonah Wilder, right wing, seven years AHL, and the man who dismissed him as a journeyman watches him run four game-day sets with the same pre-formed reads that only come from someone operating at Nates own depth. He watches the tape four times. He knows what the four times mean.

Dmitri Volkov is the first lines left wing and the man who has been practicing one thing since the beginning of the season: holding what he feels without managing it away. He is large and honest and very, very tired of pretending that the thing between him and Nate is the full picture. He watched Jonah Wilder step into the slot on day one and find Dmitris cut before it was made. He is not pretending about that one at all.

Jonah Wilder arrived from Tucson with nine years of paying for his honesty and a wall built high enough to function. He does not make things complicated. He reads the play and he reads the room and he understands, before the first week is out, that Hartford is going to be different from every city before it — not because of the team, but because of the center reading him from across the ice like a man reviewing footage.

Obsession. Three men who see the same play before it develops. One of them has been choosing the architecture over the truth for two years. The playoffs start in four games.

Hartford is one point from a wild card berth. The front office has a cap problem that could put two of them on the trade wire. A road trip to Belleville breaks something open. Jonahs positioning in the second period rewrites a program he has been running for nine years. And Nate Callahan, who has been holding the important things behind glass since he was twenty years old, is running out of reasons why that was ever the right call.

Perfect for fans of Jay Bell, Eden Finley, and Avery Keelan.

Three on the Ice is a full-length standalone MM Hockey Romance with HEA and no cliffhanger. Contains mature content, steam, and a center who has been three steps ahead of every play for fifteen years except the one happening in his own locker room.

If you love MM sports romance with slow burn tension, locker room heat, and endings that make you want to start over from page one — this one was written for you.

? Rivals to lovers ? Shared obsession ? Teammates to lovers ? Forced proximity ? Closeted player ? Sports romance ? HEA guaranteed ?

Click now — one read is all it takes to find out if rivals make the best teammates.