BASS

CAUTION: This is not your usual hockey love story. If you’re looking for clean reputations, tidy pasts, and safe emotional choices, this isn’t the book for you. It’s better that you know that upfront.

I don’t fall in love. I fixate.

On the ice, I’m lethal.

Off it, I’m one mistake away from losing my shot at the NHL.

My reputation? Volatile.

My temper? Legendary.

One more screw-up and scouts stop calling.

So the university assigns me a handler.

Kai Vega.

Sharp mind. Sharper mouth. Walks into a room like she owns it and looks at me like I’m something she refuses to fear.

She’s supposed to fix my image.

Instead, she becomes the only thing I can’t stop thinking about.

The way she challenges me.

The way she doesn’t flinch.

The way she stands in front of me like she has no idea what it means to tempt a man like me.

I don’t do casual.

I don’t share.

And when I decide I want something, I don’t walk away.

But there are parts of my life she doesn’t know about.

History that didn’t disappear.

Mistakes that still breathe.

A past that can surface at any moment and drag us both under.

If the truth hits the light, everything burns.

My future.

Her trust.

Whatever this thing between us is becoming.

Kai thinks she can handle me.

She can’t.

Not when my past decides to remind us both who I used to be.

And if I don’t get ahead of it…

I won’t just break her heart.

I’ll prove she was right about me all along.

Tropes: Enemies to lovers. Forced proximity. Obsessive hockey hero. High heat. Secrets that don’t stay buried.