Minnesota Caribou

I've sworn off women because I caught my fiancee with my brother. Now, they're both dead to me. They represent an ache so deep, I might never recover. I've never known a goal I couldn't score - or a girl I couldn't score with. Until I see her curled up in a sexy ball in my hospital room. She's off-limits. Julia Wales is lush, smart, more determined than I am, and 100 percent taboo. For the first time in my life, I want someone I can't have.

With my NHL career ripped to shreds by a devastating knee injury, I've hit rock bottom. Deadass broke. Divorced. Single father. But none of that matters to me. It's all about my precious little girl. My heart. My soul. She's sick, and she's hurting. So when temptation makes its siren's call inside a hotel bar, I answer. How hard could it be? Escorting rich, powerful women around town? Besides, I'll do anything. My daughter's uncertain future hangs in the balance. A simple mistake invites a ghost from the past back into my life.

Every single dream I ever had blossomed. Hall-of-fame career in the NHL. Check. Friends and family. Check check. A woman who held my heart in the palm of her hand. Triple check. But my world came crashing down the day I lost my first love along with our unborn baby. I closed up my heart and surrounded it with an impenetrable wall of ice. And for years, no one got through. Until the day I read a Facebook Market ad that changes everything. She needs me. Her kids need me. And once again, I have a mission in life. There is someone to save.

What does the most notorious playboy on the Minnesota Caribou professional hockey team do when everything blows up in his face? Right, I've sworn off women because my multi-million-dollar NHL contract is on the line. If I lose my dream because of my own screw-ups, I might never recover. I've never known a goal I couldn't score—or a girl I couldn't score with. Until she tumbles from a ladder and straight into my arms. Sue-Ann Johnson is lush, smart, more determined than I am, and one hundred percent taboo. For the first time in my life, I want someone who's not a sure bet.

Like all sad stories, mine begins with Johnnie Walker Red, bad decisions . . . And a dick pic. During a wild night, my teammates start goofing around. Riding me about my childhood crush, Cora. I love my sweet, smart Cora with all my heart. Since catching fireflies in a mason jar. Since holding hands behind the jungle gym. Since forever. If I put my heart on the line, she might reject me and shatter it into a million pieces. It would be over before it even had a chance. But with one press of a button, her entire knitting circle sees my junk. Even her grandma.

I get up on the wrong side of the bed . . . every single day. They call me grumpy. A downer. Maybe even negative. But when your fiancee shatters your life into a million pieces it can take a while to heal. Enter Gwenivere. She's ethereal, hypnotic, and completely stunning. Everything that I'm not. The night she slips into the empty chair next to me during a night out with the team feels like the shutters being thrown open in a blackened room.