Ryan Talonovich is the star of his college hockey team, until an accident during practice leaves him confined to a wheelchair. The doctors say he'll walk again but a new season is already underway and he's been replaced on the team, which leaves him feeling alone and betrayed. What's the use of fighting to get back on the ice now?<br><br>Then he meets Dante Espinosa, a short track skater on the city's speed skating club. Though he has to work overtime to afford his sport, Dante is hell on ice, and dreams of making the cut on the U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team.<br><br>Their love of the ice brings them together, but too many obstacles stand in their way: Ryan's struggle with therapy. The memory of Dante's first boyfriend. Lack of funding to the event, Dante's harassing boss, a skating friend in love with him, and Wil Dietrich, who will do anything to win.

Power Play

Dante leans against his chair and grins at him. “You know you love it.”


I do,Ryan thinks. This is what he’s been waiting for, this sort of relationship, where just seeing his boy makes him giddy, where his smile and his eyes manage to make everything right in the world for the moment they’re together. Ryan’s pretty sure this is what love is because it’s everything he’s been dreaming of, from the flutter in his stomach to the throb in his groin to the memory of lips pressed against his in tender kisses. Suddenly he wishes they were beneath the stands, back near the door or maybe out in the locker rooms, somewhere alone just so he could feel Dante’s mouth on his. “How long is this thing today?” he asks. Not too long, he hopes—he’s wanted Dante’s touch since they parted yesterday, and seeing him now makes everything ache with want for it again.


But Dante shrugs. “Couple hours,” he says. “I’m not sure. Why, you got a hot date tonight?”


Chapter 49