Hot On Ice: A Hockey Romance Anthology
Avery Flynn
Kimberly Kincaid
Susan Scott Shelley
Angi Morgan
Misty D. Waters
Christi Barth
Kim Golden
Kate Meader
Heather Long
Virginia Nelson
Robin Covington
Robin Kaye
Lena Hart
Desiree Holt
Andie J. Christopher
Katie Kenyhercz
Nana Malone
Xio Axelrod
Contents
Meet The Team!
Deep Check
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
Also by Kimberly Kincaid
Bear Naked
Glossary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Katie Kenyhercz
Body Check
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Desiree Holt
Breakaway Brooke
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
~ About The Author ~
~ From The Author ~
Find All The Releases From Angi
Like More On-The-Run Suspense?
Under the Midnight Sun
1. Jonas
2. Mariam
3. Jonas
4. Mariam
5. Jonas
6. Mariam
7. Jonas
8. Jonas
Epilogue
About the Author
Also By Kim Golden
In Skates Trouble
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
About Kate Meader
Also by Kate Meader
Checking Yes
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
More from Misty
Penalty Box Blues
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
Free Agent
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
About the Author
Other books by Robin Covington
Blade
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Also By Avery Flynn
Making His Move
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
Also by Susan
Check My Heart
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
About the Author
Also by Christi Barth
Blocked
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Epilogue
About the Author
The Series So Far…
Full Contact
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
Also by Andie J. Christopher
Courage
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Author Bio
Also by Lena Hart
Ransom (The Player)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
About the Author
More from Nana
Caged
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
About the Author
Also By Virginia Nelson
The Warm Up
Prologue
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Xio
About Homes For Our Troops
Meet The Team!
Coach: Mason “The Rage” Courage
Center: Jonas Magnusson
Center: Kurt Lundquist
Center: Finn Donnelly
Rightwinger: Ford Callaghan
Rightwinger: Oliver “Ollie” Tremblay
Rightwinger: Ransom Cox
Rightwinger: Archer Durham
Leftwinger: Deacon “Tripp” Sanders
Leftwinger: Cooper Banks
Leftwinger: Anders Sorenson
Defenseman: James “DC” Washington
Defenseman: Constantine “Subzero” Zimin
Defenseman: Stryker “The Missile” Gyllenhal
Defenseman: Bear Thompson
Defenseman: Matt Vorchak
Goaltender: Flynn Kazakov
Goaltender: Rod Fraser
and the Keeper of the Cup: Edwin “Eddie” Motz
Deep Check
by
Kimberly Kincaid
DEEP CHECK is dedicated to singer/songwriter Michael Ray
whose song “Kiss A Little More” inspired the love story,
and to singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson,
whose song “Adrenaline” inspired the (ahem) sexy bits.
Download their music responsibly, y’all!
Prologue
Game Seven of the Cup finals. New Orleans Cajun Rage: 1, New York Spartans: 0. Series tied, 3-3. Twenty seconds left in regulation.
Finnegan Donnelly needed a fucking miracle. And seeing as how the man upstairs had already dished one up tonight by way of the ridiculous shot-block that had saved their goalie’s ass and—oh by the way—the Rage’s chance at winning the Cup, Finn was damn near certain they wouldn’t get another.
Which meant the next twenty seconds of his life were about to get as ugly as homemade sin.
Finn scanned the ice, forcing his breath to slow down as his instincts fired up. The Spartans would need to throw everything they had at the Rage’s net if they wanted to tie this thing up and force overtime; hell, they were already in position to do just that. Shifting. Advancing. Bearing down.
No. No way was Finn going to let that happen. The Rage was too close. He was too close, and the win was the only thing he’d wanted for the last seven years.
Okay, Ash. Help a brother out. Just twelve more seconds. Eleven. Ten…
Finn’s muscles screamed beneath his pads, but he welcomed the pain. Lasering his focus on the Rage’s goal, he rushed forward with only one purpose: defend. Their goalie and Finn’s closest friend on the team, Flynn Kazakov, dropped into a menacing stance as every last player on both teams rushed forward. Skates hissed, scraping and slapping the ice, but Finn was oddly calm, focused. His heart pounded with each second—thump-thump, maneuver. Thump-thump, hold. Thump-thump, defend.
Thump-thump. Win.
The Spartan’s center unleashed a punishing shot, aiming right for the space over Kazakov’s shoulder, and Finn’s composure slipped. Throwing everything he had into the movement, he raced toward the goal.
Two, one…
The puck clattered to the ice outside of the net, and holy shit. Holy shit. They’d done it.
They’d won the Cup.
Finn’s heart catapulted against his rib cage, his breath jamming in his lungs for just a split second before releasing in an unholy shout. His teammates—bunch of scrappers and wanna-bes and has-beens that they were—swarmed the ice, all of them tackling each other and whooping and pumping their fists in the air. The keeper brought the Cup onto the ice and handed it over to Coach Thibodeault, who lifted it high overhead. But rather than skating over to join the melee, Finn dropped to his knees on the ice, letting his eyes squeeze shut.
Asher had always said, always known Finn would get here one day. His best friend had been the only person who had believed Finn would fulfill his dream of winning it all.
And now, seven years after he’d wrecked their friendship and left Remington without a backward glance, he would go back to the hometown he hated with a passion in order to bring the Cup to Asher’s grave.
1
Three weeks later
“If you’re trying to kill me, I’ve got to admit, this is probably going to do the job.”
January Sinclair sat back against the electric blue banquette of her favorite booth at the Fork in the Road diner and laughed despite the gravity of her father’s words. “The whole point is that this isn’t going to kill you,” she said, gesturing to the breakfast on the Formica between them.
Her father’s frown, however, didn’t budge. “Oh yes it is. I’m going to die of boredom.”
January looked at the pair of bran muffins, each with a side order of sliced bananas, and ugh, he had a point. “Look, I know this breakfast is a little bland, but between your cholesterol and your blood pressure, you’ve got to make some changes, Dad.”
“I run an intelligence unit in the busiest police district in Remington,” he said, the lift at the corners of his mouth certainly a sign of affection for his job rather than the thimble-sized cup of decaf he’d just liberated from the table. “High blood pressure is an occupational gold standard.”
January’s heart twisted beneath her light blue blouse, but she covered the sensation with a breezy smile. Yes, her father’s workaholic lifestyle and his questionable eating habits were a big deal. But spotlighting that out loud wouldn’t get her anywhere, so she simply said, “Not anymore. Here, have some tomato juice. It’s loaded with vitamins.”
“For the record, it’s also awful.” He raised one blond brow at her, his stare narrowing in the abundant June sunlight spilling in through the diner’s windows. “Are you going to make me resort to my bad cop routine in order to get some bacon?”
“Well that depends.”
“On?”
January dialed her voice to its gentlest setting, but didn’t scale back on her words. “Whether or not you’re going to make me remind you that I’m your only child as well as your only living family member, and that since Mom lives eight thousand miles away on an ashram in India and I haven’t spoken to her in easily a year, you’re pretty much my only family too. Which means I’d like to keep you around for as long as possible, if that’s alright with you.”
“Dammit,” her father muttered, picking up the tomato juice and taking a sip. “You’re tough as hell, you know that?”
January buried her smile in her coffee cup. “Thank you. I come by it honestly.”
“So how are things at the firehouse?” her father asked, reluctantly spearing a slice of banana with his fork as he shifted the subject. “Those guys aren’t working you too hard, I hope.”
“First of all, some of those guys are women,” she reminded him jokingly. Shae McCullough and Quinn Copeland were just as much a part of Station Seventeen’s A-shift as the engine and the ambulance they rode on.
Her father raised his han
ds in concession. “Figure of speech. Some of my best guys are women, too. Speaking of which, Moreno told me to tell you she says hello.”
“Oooh, tell her I said hi back.” Isabella Moreno might be one of her father’s detectives, but she was also living with Kellan Walker, who just so happened to be a firefighter on A-shift. As far as January was concerned, that made Isabella part of the Seventeen family, too. “And secondly, I love my job at the firehouse. They’re not working me too hard at all.”
“You’ve been their administrator for almost four years,” her father allowed. “You run a tight enough ship that even a mountain of work looks like a speed bump to you.”
January took a bite of the bran muffin she’d ordered in solidarity and shrugged. “I don’t mind working hard to keep things running smoothly over there. Those guys are my family, just like you.”
“And I thought I was the workaholic.” Her father gave up a wry twist of his lips, which she didn’t think twice about returning.
“You are. I guess that’s another thing I come by honestly.”
“Is that why you’re chairing next month’s firehouse fundraiser?”
Her pulse stuttered in surprise. She’d just agreed to take the volunteer position yesterday. “Who told you that?”
“I’m a police sergeant.” Her father tried on his most serious poker face. “I know things.”
Ah. Of course. “Isabella ratted me out.” January knew she shouldn’t have said anything when they’d hung out at the Crooked Angel last night.
“She mentioned it when I talked to her this morning,” he admitted. “But come on. Pulling together a fundraiser in four short weeks on top of your regular workload is a pretty big deal. Not to mention a pretty big undertaking, kid.”
“Dad. I just turned twenty-five.” Although she tried to keep her tone serious, she was pretty sure her laughter canceled out any admonition the protest at her nickname might’ve otherwise carried.
Her father wasn’t having it, though, with or without the laughter. “And when you’re ninety-five, you’ll still be my kid. You worry about me, I worry about you. Now stop dodging the subject.”