Hot on Ice: A Hockey Romance Anthology Read online

  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
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br />   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 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

  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.”