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

Ryan gives him a wicked grin. “Once we get into that room, I’m not letting you go,” he promises. “Unless you’d rather leave me all alone and troop back down here—”


Dante swings the suitcase up onto Ryan’s lap, plops the duffle bag on top of it. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” he says.


The whole third floor has been reserved for the skate club—Ryan holds onto his suitcase and cranes his neck to see over the duffle bags that wobble precariously in his lap as Dante heads for the elevators. A few other skaters already wait for the lift, their arms filled with their own bags, and Ryan has this terrifying image of everyone rushing through the doors when they open and leaving him out in the lobby. But Dante angles him into a good position and before the bell even dings to announce the lift, he’s pushing Ryan towards the door. “Coming through,” he says, not caring who he shoves aside. “Watch out, guys. We’re first.”


“My mom’s a bad influence on you,” Ryan murmurs.


Chapter 119