Rough Ice: A Hockey Romance
She's here to fix his diet. He's determined to make her job impossible. Neither of them planned on falling in love.
Maya Rourke has spent years earning her place in professional sports. Landing her first full-time NHL position as the team nutritionist for the Pittsburgh Steele should be the opportunity she's always dreamed of.
Instead, she's assigned the one player everyone quietly warns her about.
Veteran goaltender Cole Harrington.
Talented. Respected. Stubborn.
The kind of athlete who trusts his instincts more than any recovery protocol and believes experience beats every new scientific recommendation.
Maya isn't intimidated.
She has the research.
The evidence.
The meal plans.
What she doesn't have is Cole's cooperation.
Cole Harrington has survived fifteen NHL seasons, countless injuries, and more pressure than most people could imagine. He doesn't need another specialist telling him how to eat, sleep, recover, or live.
Especially one who seems determined to reorganize every part of his carefully controlled routine.
But it's difficult to dismiss someone whose recommendations actually work.
Her recovery plans shorten his soreness.
Her nutrition strategies improve his performance.
And somehow, every conversation that starts with protein intake ends somewhere far more personal.
Between long road trips, late-night hotel conversations, impossible travel schedules, locker-room banter, and winter storms that leave them stranded together, professional respect slowly becomes friendship.
Friendship becomes attraction.
And attraction becomes something neither of them is prepared to admit.
Because risking a championship is one thing.
Risking your heart is another.
As Cole faces one of the biggest seasons of his career and Maya struggles to prove herself in one of the most competitive environments in professional sports, they'll have to decide whether protecting themselves is worth losing the one connection they never expected to find.
Perfect for readers who love:
- Grumpy/sunshine romance with genuine emotional depth
- NHL and professional hockey romance with authentic behind-the-scenes details
- Forced proximity during road trips and away games
- A mature hero who falls first-and falls hard
- A brilliant heroine who refuses to compromise her career
- Slow-burn chemistry filled with witty banter and undeniable tension
- Competence attraction, workplace romance, and emotional vulnerability
- Protective hero, independent heroine, and found-family team dynamics
- Steamy romance balanced with heartfelt character growth
- He falls first - She kisses him first - Mutual pining - Guaranteed HEA
Rough Ice is a standalone steamy contemporary hockey romance featuring unforgettable chemistry, emotional healing, laugh-out-loud banter, no third-act breakup built on misunderstanding, no cliffhanger, and a deeply satisfying happily ever after that readers will be thinking about long after the final page.
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