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’s fuming over Dietrich’s comment, Ryan can see the anger from where he sits on the other side of the ice. It’s in the set of his lover’s jaw, the way he keeps tugging at the strap on his helmet. When Dietrich sits down on the bench near him, Dante stands, walks away. When Dietrich laughs, Dante leans over the boards to watch the women’s race and scowls at the ice.


The five hundred is their last practice run, just four and a half laps around the track but Dante’s so damn pissed that he false starts twice. The next time he waits for the gun and he’s off, fast and hard from the line, a good two, three feet ahead of the others. Dietrich scrambles to keep up but Dante’s fucking livid, he sets a quick pace, takes the first curve at such speed that Ryan sees his skate wobble unsteadily, he’s going to fall.


Chapter 150