On his way to realizing his Olympic dream, Tom Alan Baranowski finds himself in the midst of a dilemma. His traditional Japanese coach is insisting upon an arranged marriage between his biological daughter Erika and adopted son Tom Alan, who are partners on the ice. Tom Alan loves Erika, and his coach literally saved his life, rescuing him from an abusive home. How can he say no?<br><br>Somewhat resigned to his “not so bad” fate, everything changes when Tom Alan meets British ice dancer Milo Fisher. The spark between them is almost hot enough to melt the ice beneath their blades, and the two fall into an affair.<br><br>What about Erika? What about loyalty? What about gold? For Tom Alan, the impossible throw quadruple jump is suddenly the least difficult thing in his life.

Quadruple Flip

“Yeah.” Milo turned, rubbing a lot of his stuff on a lot of Tom Alan’s, to look him into his eyes. “You?”


“Yeah. Yeah…I’m good,” Tom Alan said. “You keeping up?”


“Mostly,” Milo admitted. “I think.”


“Good.” Tom Alan knew his words were clunky and rambling. Emotion wasn’t a good editing tool. “Mostly” was all he wanted. “So, my papa first saw the scars when I was sixteen. He accidentally walked in on me, too. Like the creep had.” He paused for a brief, light moment. “What in heck is it with me and not locking doors?”


Milo reached up and touched his smile. A finger went into his mouth. Tom Alan played with it just a moment, licked at it, and…He took it away after a while, and guided it to his shoulder, so he could talk some more.


Chapter 68