Center Ice

He's lying to everyone, and the only person who noticed could end his career.

Declan O'Shea throws his helmet across an empty locker room and tells his coach he's fine.
He isn't.

Three weeks of black spots. Double vision. A headache that's set up residence behind his eyes.
One more big hit and he could end up like the guys who can't watch their own highlights.

But the trade deadline is six weeks out. The scouts are watching. His contract is up.
And his sister Fiona, twenty-eight, fighting for every breath, just signed a do-not-resuscitate order without telling him.

He cannot afford to be the guy who's falling apart.

Then his phone lights up with a Portland number.
I noticed you rubbing your temples after that hit. I'm working on a story about concussion protocols. Off the record. Just background.

Maya Reyes.

Sharp. Relentless. A sports reporter who learned from her old man that the real story lives in the silences between questions, in the things people almost say and swallow back down.

She's the last person on earth Declan should let close.
She's the only one who already sees the truth.

Between the holiday homecoming, the interview that should've ended in a walkout, and the secret tying both their families together, the enemy across the table becomes the one person who makes him want to stop pretending.

Then the story she's chasing collides with the brother she never knew he was protecting, and the betrayal he doesn't see coming.

"You can write the truth," he tells her, "or you can save me. You can't do both."

Now Maya has to choose between the story that makes her career and the man who'd lose everything if she runs it.

And Declan has to decide what's worth more, the game, or the family he almost lost while chasing it.

Center Ice is a steamy, emotional enemies-to-lovers sports romance about a hidden injury, a journalist and the athlete she shouldn't want, a holiday homecoming, a hidden heir, a sick sister, and the family they almost lost.

Perfect for readers who love hockey romance, enemies-to-lovers, forbidden athlete-and-reporter tension, holiday second chances, and emotional sports romance with a happy ending. A standalone with an earned HEA.