Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Fri, 03 Apr 2026 23:15:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Right Your Wrongs (Kings of the Ice #6) Read Online Kandi Steiner http://www.books2020.com/right-your-wrongs-kings-of-the-ice-6-read-online-kandi-steiner Fri, 03 Apr 2026 23:15:27 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/right-your-wrongs-kings-of-the-ice-6-read-online-kandi-steiner Genre: Alpha Male, Angst, Contemporary, Forbidden, Sports Authors: Kandi Steiner Series: Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner
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Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 114951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)

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What happens when the youngest, most successful coach in the NHL comes face-to-face with the woman he never got over — only to find out she’s married to his new General Manager?

Everything I’ve spent my life building is suddenly at risk.

I loved Ariana Ridley long before the world knew my name. Before the NHL. Before the pressure of being one of the youngest coaches in the league. Before I learned how to survive by locking my heart down tight.

Leaving her was the hardest thing I’ve ever done — and the one choice I never made peace with.

Now she’s back.
And she belongs to another man.

My new General Manager.

I tell myself I can handle it. Discipline is my job. Control is my strength. I know how to keep my distance — how to respect the lines that should never be crossed.

But every glance drags the past to the surface. Every quiet moment reminds me the love I buried never died.

I see the cracks she tries to hide, the fear she’s learned to live with, and the way she still looks at me like I’m the one place she can breathe.

I want to protect her.
I want to fight for her.
And I want things I have no right to want.

Because if I cross that line, I don’t just risk my career — I risk shattering the woman I never stopped loving.

Some choices haunt us forever.
Some loves never let go.

And trying to right my wrongs might just ruin us both

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Bound

Shane

If a heart was tied to a person, mine was inextricably bound to her — and it stopped beating the day I left her behind.

Ariana Ridley had tried desperately not to be noticed when we were in college, but one look at her and it was clear how impossible that mission was. She was like a diamond buried deep, and her beauty was the volcano that unearthed her. It wasn’t only her piercing blue eyes or snow-white complexion. It wasn’t just her heart-shaped lips or her goddess-like curves.

It was the untold stories in her gaze, the way she wore her trauma like a cloak.

She called to me in a way I couldn’t fight, because I saw what everyone else overlooked.

Ariana was a survivor.

She was just like me.

We fell in love too easily, too quickly, at a rate that should have foretold how bad it would be once we finally hit the ground.

I was young and stupid when I let her go, when I chose my dream of hockey over her because I thought I was doing the right thing, and because hockey was the only thing I’d ever been able to depend on. I hated myself for the choice I made, and I regretted it every day.

I saw her once after that, years later, when I got injured and watched my dream go up in smoke. I begged for her forgiveness. She rightfully denied it.

I never thought I’d see her again.

Which was why I was grinding my teeth together to keep my jaw from dropping now, my heart kicking back to life in my chest with a force strong enough to take me to my knees.

Because here she was, in front of me again.

My Ari.

Standing next to my new General Manager.

As his wife.

Resilience

Shane

2006

Her hand shot into the air, and with it, she knocked my whole world off balance.

It was January 2006. I was a junior at Boston College, playing hockey for the university’s team and counting down to when I’d have my psychology degree in hand on my way into the NHL. I’d already been drafted by the Jacksonville Barracudas, my rights held by them while I attended college.

Four years to hone my skills on the ice with the Eagles, earn my degree, and enjoy a little bit of a normal life.

And then, it was off to the races.

I’d had a plan ever since I was ten years old. That was the year I realized hockey was everything to me. That was also the year I stopped treating it like a game and started manifesting a career.

I’d play my ass off through high school. I’d get drafted. I’d make sure the team that drafted me understood I wanted to go to college, and they’d hold my rights until I graduated. I’d go the full four years, get better and stronger on the ice, and make sure I had a backup plan in the form of a degree that could be used for a future career.

So far, I’d checked the boxes.

I’d played like a beast through high school, securing a spot in the USHL when I turned sixteen. I garnered scout attention early and was drafted the summer after I graduated high school, with the understanding that I would attend college, but the team would retain my rights. And here I was, the top-scoring winger for the Eagles and just three semesters away from graduation.

I had a plan.

And I was following that plan perfectly.

Until the second that girl raised her hand and ruined everything.

“Is resilience an individual trait, or is it built through community?” Professor Reid asked, scribbling Nature vs Nurture in the Home Environment on the whiteboard as he did. It was the first day of my Human Behavior in the Social Environment class — an elective I’d selected with team leadership in mind.

If I wanted to be a leader, not just on this team but on the ones I’d play for in the future, I needed to understand how humans ticked. I needed to know how to work with players from all backgrounds and upbringings.

Again, all part of the plan.

Two rows in front of me in the lecture hall, a hand bolted into the air.

I had a clear view of the girl the hand belonged to — or at least to the back of her head. She wore a white t-shirt, and her dark blonde hair was plaited into a thick braid that she had pulled over one shoulder. Even from two rows back, I could see that her nails were bitten short.

And she had a scar — right in the middle of that hand suspended above her.

“Yes,” Professor Reid said, nodding to the girl as he clasped his hands behind his back. “Miss?”

“Ariana Ridley,” she answered, lowering her hand. Her voice shocked me. It was smooth and raspy, like that of a woman twice her age. “I believe it’s an individual trait.”

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Advertisement Stand Your Ground (Kings of the Ice #5) Read Online Kandi Steiner http://www.books2020.com/stand-your-ground-kings-of-the-ice-5-read-online-kandi-steiner Wed, 29 Oct 2025 22:17:22 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/stand-your-ground-kings-of-the-ice-5-read-online-kandi-steiner Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Kandi Steiner Series: Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner
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Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)

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I wrote up the contract myself.
Legally binding. Crystal clear.
No strings. No feelings.
Just sex — and two million dollars in exchange for my time and expertise.

Carter Fabri may be Tampa Bay’s newest rising star, but off the ice, he’s all Bambi eyes and inexperience. He’s a virgin in desperate need of lessons in dominance, seduction, and everything in between.

And I happen to be just the woman to teach him.

I don’t need his money.
But I do need what it can give me.

I’m thirty-two, cut off from my family, and one bill away from drowning in student debt. The fantasy I’ve built around my lifestyle is getting harder to maintain. This pay day would secure the lifestyle I’ve worked too hard to let slip through my fingers and finally give me the chance to save for something I’ve always wanted — something I’ve never told anyone about.

So, I take Carter on as my student. I lay out every rule, every boundary, every carefully controlled term of our arrangement.

What I don’t plan for is how quickly he’d catch on — or how much I’d enjoy letting him take the reins.

This was supposed to be a lesson in power.
But somewhere along the way, I stopped being the one in charge.

I thought I could keep my heart out of it.
I thought I’d accounted for every risk.
But some consequences you can’t predict — no matter how carefully you draft the terms

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

To the ones who rise from the wreckage

and turn pain into power.

This one’s for you.

Bark, Bark

Carter

“Did you take a pill before coming in?” Livia asked me, hanging one hand on her slim hip as the other pointed a very sharp tool in my direction. “Because that shot only numbs your jaw, and I know you gotta be high to say what you just said to me.”

“Come on, Liv. Look—”

“Doctor Young,” she corrected me, one dark brow sliding up into her hairline. “This isn’t a barbecue at Daddy P’s house. You’re in my chair, at my job, and you will respect me and call me by my hard-earned title.”

Fuck.

My cock hardened at her tone, at the way she snapped at me, at how she made me feel small and somehow made me buzz to life at the same time.

“Yes, Doctor,” I breathed.

Livia narrowed her gaze, dropping it to my lap before she rolled her eyes. She was trying to keep her sassy attitude intact, but I saw the smile she was fighting. “Oh, my God, Carter, you don’t seriously have a boner right now?”

“Can you blame me? That was fucking hot.”

My words slurred a little as my jaw began to numb.

As a professional hockey player, I’d had my fair share of dental work. But somehow, I’d managed to avoid taking a high stick hard enough to break my tooth and send most of it flying onto the ice.

Until last night’s game.

Which was why I was here now, in Dr. Livia Young’s chair, shooting a shot that, until now, I’d been too afraid to shoot. And no, I wasn’t just asking her to fix my tooth.

I was asking her to take me under her wing and train me to be better in bed — and in dating, period.

I’d known Livia for years. She was the dentist for the Tampa Bay Ospreys, the team I was now on a one-way contract with. She was also best friends with Maven Tanev, who was married to one of my teammates and closest friends. Because of that, we ran in the same circle — attended the same parties, went out to the same places, watched the same group of friends grow up and get married and move on while we played on the sidelines.

Maybe that was what had courage swelling up in my chest like a wave. It hadn’t even been two months since we celebrated the wedding of our friends Aleks and Mia, and now, the whole friend group was preparing to celebrate Will and Chloe and their nuptials.

I had a sneaking suspicion Livia didn’t care one way or another, but I was tired of watching everyone else find their happiness when I couldn’t even find a fucking date.

Don’t get me wrong — I loved my teammates, even when they ragged on me, and I was happy they were all finding their soulmates.

I was just also unhappy that my confidence had been eviscerated by an absolute hard ass of a coach when I was fifteen, and I had yet to recover it.

It pissed me off that something I should have been over by now had soiled not only my performance on the ice, but off it, too.

But that’s how trauma works, as my therapist so often loved to remind me. We don’t get to choose how long it sticks around and keeps its claws in us. We don’t get to turn a dial and make it suck less. It’s a part of us, like a mole or a scar, and we have to learn to live with it.

So, that’s where I was now — acceptance.

My confidence was shit. I couldn’t land a date to save my life, let alone a girlfriend.

But Livia Young was just the woman to help me change that.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, that sharp tool still dangling in her other hand. Her dental assistant stood by silently, a mask covering part of her shocked face, though I could see the young girl’s eyes flicking between me and Livia. What I could see of her pale skin was flushed red. But I had no shame when it came to Livia Young, and she’d never been afraid to speak her mind, either.

That was just one of the many reasons I knew she was right for this job.

“Carter, you are in my chair because you were hit in the face and your two lower central incisors have been blown to bits like a mortar went off in your mouth.”

“I love when you talk dentist to me.”

“And the only lesson I will be giving you,” she continued, waving that tool around like a wand. “Is to get a better mouth guard and learn how to dodge a high stick.”

She was so gorgeous I could barely think straight as I listened to her threats, the corner of my mouth lifting helplessly. Deep brown skin, smooth and enticing, dark black hair pulled into a tight, professional bun. She wore little makeup today, and she was still stunning.

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Advertisement Save Your Breath (Kings of the Ice #4) Read Online Kandi Steiner http://www.books2020.com/save-your-breath-kings-of-the-ice-4-read-online-kandi-steiner Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:12:23 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/save-your-breath-kings-of-the-ice-4-read-online-kandi-steiner Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Kandi Steiner Series: Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner
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Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)

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THIS JUST IN: HOCKEY BAD BOY AND POP STAR EXTRAORDINAIRE ENGAGED!
That was the headline we'd wanted. If only I’d known the cost to get it.

Aleksander Suter has been my best friend since high school—and the only man who’s ever been able to truly get under my skin. With his reputation for trouble and a smirk that could melt ice, he’s also the NHL’s favorite bad boy.

When my publicist’s plan to fix my image collides with his need to clean up his own, we find ourselves in a fake engagement that feels too real from the start.

Now, I’m releasing my new album, putting on a show for the paparazzi I usually try to dodge, and falling too fast for a man who never falls for anyone. Every stolen glance, every heated touch blurs the lines between us until I’m wondering where the lies end and the truth begins.

And when a hurricane traps us together in his high-rise condo, all my carefully built walls collapse, and resisting the pull between us becomes a losing game.

Suddenly, the stakes are higher than just headlines, and the risks feel more personal than ever.

But as our past resurfaces and old feelings reignite, I realize the biggest risk isn’t losing my career—it’s losing my heart to the one person I thought would never be mine

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

The Charade

Aleks

She wanted to hit me.

I wanted to kiss her.

That was how it had always been with us.

“This is just… great. Just fucking perfect,” Mia said, throwing her hands up in disbelief before she sank down into my giant bean bag with a huff. As soon as she realized where she was sitting, she hopped up with a frustrated growl before stomping over to the couch, instead.

She hated that fucking thing, thought it was childish and likely had some assumptions about what she thought had taken place on it. Usually, I found her disgust with it hilarious.

But nothing was funny in this moment.

She buried her face in her hands, shaking her head.

“What am I going to do?”

I didn’t mind seeing her flustered in most cases because I was most often the culprit getting under her skin. Ruffling her feathers was one of my favorite pastimes, if only to see that fire within her spark to life. But in this instance, I hated it, because she was upset over something I had no control over.

Under normal circumstances, I’d toss a smart-ass remark at her and smirk as that perfect mouth of hers gaped open at me, as her cheeks turned red and that little vein in her forehead popped. I knew exactly how to push her buttons, how to make rage pour through that normally put-together woman.

But right now, that side of me I always kept tied up in the basement of my cold, dead heart was thrashing, urging me to go to her, to pull her into me, to hold her and find a way to make it right.

I kicked that motherfucker hard enough to knock him out, snuffing the lights and reminding him why he was locked away in the first place.

Her dark hair fell over her shoulders in a silky curtain as I took the seat next to her. I hovered one hand over her slender back before I carefully, slowly, rubbed it. “I’m sorry.”

Mia froze under my touch.

There it was again, that shock of electricity between us, that zap of heat I felt any time my body made contact with hers.

But just when I thought she might melt into that touch, Mia yanked away, uncovering her face so she could properly glare at me. Those sharp blue eyes of hers narrowed into slits. “Well, you should be. This is all your fault.”

And just like that, we were back to sparring.

“My fault?” I gaped at her, smirking even with my mouth open because I wanted her to feel as ridiculous as she was being. “Mia, it’s a fucking hurricane. What the hell am I supposed to do about it?”

“You’re the whole reason I’m here instead of in New York to begin with. I’m doing all this to save your ass! And now I have to cancel a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.”

The truth of that seemed to hit her full force, her face going white.

“Oh, God,” she whimpered, burying her face again. “I have to cancel a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.”

Any desire I did have to comfort her was receding now, held at bay by her accusation. “Saving my ass,” I repeated, tonguing my cheek. “So, this is all about me suddenly? I’m the big bad wolf and you’re just doing this to be a little saint, huh? Nothing at all in it for you?”

“Oh, shut up,” she spat, shoving me away. I barely budged.

“Because I’m pretty sure this was your publicist’s idea,” I reminded her.

“Well, your agent is the one who made me come here for your stupid game!”

“Made you?” I stood, jaw tight. “You are a woman with free will, Mia. In case you forgot. No one can make you do anything.”

She looked up at me then, her eyes softer, something in the relaxing of her jaw telling me I’d struck a nerve without trying. She was a woman of free will, yes — but she was also a pop star puppet, her strings being pulled by an entire team she paid to keep her career skyrocketing.

That softening in her reminded me so much of when we were younger that I had a hard time taking my next breath.

For a split second, we were both eighteen again.

She was begging me to kiss her.

I was begging her not to let me.

I knew even then that we were wrong for each other.

I knew even then that we’d break each other’s hearts if we ever tried to be more than friends.

“Whatever,” she said after a moment. The word was resigned, not laced with any sort of edge, and that upset me more than if she’d screamed it.

I could handle her yelling at me.

I couldn’t handle knowing I’d hurt her — even with all the practice I’d had over the years.

She sniffed, waving her hand in the air like I was one of the people paid to wait on her. “Do you at least have some tequila or something?”

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Advertisement Learn Your Lesson (Kings of the Ice #3) Read Online Kandi Steiner http://www.books2020.com/learn-your-lesson-kings-of-the-ice-3-read-online-kandi-steiner Sat, 27 Apr 2024 17:48:46 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/learn-your-lesson-kings-of-the-ice-3-read-online-kandi-steiner Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Kandi Steiner Series: Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner
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Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >138

My mother only wanted me to learn one lesson growing up…
Men are trash.

Her father left her, and then my father left us. Being raised by her and my grandmother, I was surrounded by the reminder to be independent and guard my heart.

After my one and only experience with a boy in college fell flatter than a pancake, I realized they were right — and I was content to live the life of a twenty-six-year-old cat lady.

Until Will Perry blew my quiet world to smithereens.

Starting goalie for the Tampa Bay Ospreys and the kind of hot that scrambles your brain, all I was ever supposed to be to him was his daughter’s kindergarten teacher. Then, in a twist of events, his temporary nanny.

But temporary turns to permanent, and when I move into his pool house, everything changes.

He’s impossibly grumpy and focused on only two things: hockey, and taking care of his daughter. I’m only focused on using this new income to pay back my student loans.

But in that house, I feel his heated gaze beneath that permanent scowl, the way it lingers and warms my skin. And though I know my mother would lose her mind if she knew, my dreams have become midnight fantasies about my long-haired, muscle-lined mystery of a boss.

When the tension becomes too much, we break, and we make a deal.

He still needs a nanny. I still need a paycheck and for my matriarchy to not disown me. But Will agrees to teach me everything I’ve always wanted to learn, and I’m all too eager to be his student.

I can do this. I’m a grown woman. I can explore my sexuality with the hottest goalie on earth and still remain one-hundred percent professional. And I can definitely do it all without catching feelings.

I have to.

Otherwise, I’ll end up heartbroken in my mother’s arms while she shakes her head and asks me if I’ll ever learn my lesson.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Yes, Sir

Will

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

I growled the words, ripping my mask off as I skated past our wide-eyed assistant athletic trainer. She was new to the team, joining us for her first season, and I didn’t mean to make her pale as a ghost with my reaction to the message she’d delivered — but I couldn’t help it.

Grumpy was my natural state of being lately.

And I was extra grumpy at the moment from being interrupted in the middle of our practice by a trainer telling me my daughter was here.

Ava was my fucking world. Other than hockey, she was all that mattered to me. I looked forward to every minute I got to spend with her.

The issue was that she should have been at home right now with the newest nanny I’d hired — not standing in the penalty box.

I tried and failed to school my breathing the closer I got, both frustrated by a clear sign my latest nanny had bit the dust, and worried something might have happened to Ava. But she looked content as could be, perched on the seat inside the box, pressing up onto her toes to get a better look at the rink through the glass. She was watching the rest of the team as they ran drills, her mop of dark brown curls falling out of the ponytail I’d tried to wrangle them into earlier that morning.

Like me, my daughter didn’t smile much. It was an unfortunate side-effect to having me as a father and the only steady parental figure in her life.

But right now, her eyes were big and filled with excitement — well, as much excitement as she was capable of showing, anyway. The kid loved hockey just as much as I did, and any time I let her come to the arena, she lit up like I’d taken her to Disney World.

Except this time, I hadn’t let her come. This wasn’t an approved visit.

She was supposed to be at home — playing house or running in the yard or swimming in our pool.

Instead, she was watching pucks fly.

And it wasn’t her nanny standing beside her and making sure she didn’t fall.

It was Chloe Knott — her kindergarten teacher.

She stood out like a sore thumb, not just because the stands were empty, but because that woman wouldn’t be able to blend in anywhere no matter how hard she tried.

Her bright copper wave of hair was lobbed just above her shoulders and parted down the middle, her brown eyes framed with thick, dark lashes that dusted her rosy cheeks every time she blinked. Other than that blush, her skin was like porcelain, pale and smooth like she bathed in sunscreen every morning before leaving the house.

She wore a long black skirt with white polka dots and a white t-shirt with a rainbow on it. Under the rainbow, it said no rain, no rainbow. Jade green arches dangled from her ears to complete the look, and they shimmered in the stadium lighting the closer I got.

I remembered the relief I’d felt in my chest the first time I’d met her, how she’d warmed at the sight of Ava as if she were her only student. Chloe had bent down to her level, looking her right in the eye and talking to her like an adult. She’d managed to get my daughter to smirk, and I’d felt the weight on my chest dissipate.

It was one thing to have Ava in a half-day of early learning last year, but to have her officially in school had put my emotions through the wringer. I didn’t want her to grow up. I didn’t want to have to face everything that came with school — bullies, friendships breaking down, the struggle of learning.

I wanted her to hold onto her innocence forever, to always stay this young.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Perry,” Chloe said when I was close enough to hear her. She smiled apologetically, her coral-painted lips curving up just a fraction as she looked at Ava and then at me. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

I could put the pieces together before I even got an explanation.

After the run of bad luck I’d had with nannies over the summer, I’d made sure to let Miss Knott know when I hired a new one. I’d also written consent for Miss Knott to be able to drive Ava to me should anything happen.

She had already been added to my approved list from when she’d tutored Ava in the first semester of the year, as my daughter had struggled with speaking in front of a class of twenty kids. When Ava finally started feeling comfortable, she excelled — but I didn’t revoke Miss Knott’s access even now that we were in the second semester, because I had a feeling I’d need her.

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Advertisement Watch Your Mouth (Kings of the Ice #2) Read Online Kandi Steiner http://www.books2020.com/watch-your-mouth-kings-of-the-ice-2-read-online-kandi-steiner Thu, 02 Nov 2023 21:55:57 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/watch-your-mouth-kings-of-the-ice-2-read-online-kandi-steiner Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Erotic, Forbidden, Sports Authors: Kandi Steiner Series: Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner
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Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >129

My brother’s teammates know not to touch me — but that doesn’t stop me from daring Jaxson Brittain to be the first to break the rule.

After one steamy night in Austin, I’m all too aware of the hot, broody defenseman with icy blue eyes and ink sprawling his muscular arms. He was the one my brother assigned to keep me safe — and I had far too much fun tempting him to be the one to put me in danger.

It was just one night of tip-toeing the line, of teasing and flirting and messing around knowing nothing would ever come of it.

But when the universe throws me back into his lap two weeks later and we end up on a secret road trip together, all bets are off.

I can’t help but touch him. I can’t help but pray for him to touch me. And I can’t resist the temptation to test him at every turn.

Jaxson is smart and doesn’t have a death wish. So, like a gentleman, he keeps his hands to himself… the jerk.

But the closer we get on the road and the farther we get from reality, the less those warning signs from my brother seem to deter him.

When we started this road trip, we set a boundary. We promised to keep all arms and legs safely in the friend zone.

Now, miles and miles away from all the reasons we shouldn’t, all I can hear is my heart thumping out the resounding reason we should.

And the way those heated blue eyes watch me, I know I’m not the only one.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

To the weirdos.

Keep that shit up.

We Ride at Dusk

Jaxson

My whole life, I’d been walking in a fog, in a dense and heavy cloud that I thought would stay with me forever.

But one night with her had brought in the sun.

From the time I was born, I knew the plan for my life. That plan revolved around hockey. I had a stick in my hands at the age of three. I was playing on a team by the time I was five. My parents sacrificed family vacations for hockey camps, Christmas presents for hockey gear, and board game or puzzle nights for evenings watching video of every team we could study.

I was meant to live out the dream my father had. The dream that was stolen from him.

And that’s what I did.

Don’t get me wrong — hockey was my dream, too. Nothing filled my soul the way being on the ice did.

But no matter how I performed, I had a lashing waiting at the end of every game from the man whose approval I desired most.

It was impossible for that not to chip away at someone’s spirit.

Before I even realized what was happening, I woke up in the middle of a life that felt like it was being lived by someone else. I was a professional hockey player — a defensemen who made my father passively okay with my performance twenty percent of the time and angry as hell the other eighty. He always felt I could do better. He was always pushing me to do more.

I survived the pressure through numbing myself with whatever substance I had available — mostly, alcohol and women. Fortunately, I’d also found a family in my teammates, especially in the last year.

Most days, they were the only thing keeping my head above water. They gave me a reason to play — not just for my dad, or for me, but for them.

One of my teammates who was like a brother was Vince Tanev, our new winger who’d stepped in like the leader he was born to be.

Which was exactly why I was trying to ignore the fact that I hadn’t thought of much other than his sister since the night he won NHL rookie of the year.

I was at his house now, waiting on our goalie to meet up with us so we could play a round of golf. I hadn’t seen them since our weekend out in Austin two weeks ago, everyone settling into the off-season. But now that I was in Vince’s space, I couldn’t help but think about his sister.

Which was a real fucking problem.

I’d spent the better half of the last fourteen days doing my level best to erase her and that night from my mind. Because it didn’t matter how easily the conversation came, how heartily she’d made me laugh, or how my body had hummed to life with her hips in my hands as we danced in a crowded club.

Grace Tanev was off limits.

She was in a relationship. She was eight years younger than me.

She was my teammate’s little sister.

That was a hurdle not even I could jump.

I didn’t understand why I even wanted to jump it, but she had done something to me. If my life were going according to plan, then she was the nuclear bomb that blew it all to bits.

It was like she’d shaken me from a deep slumber, and now I was wide awake, looking around with a new perspective on life and absolutely zero desire to go back to bed.

I’d done a somewhat decent job of letting the idea of her go. I had resisted the urge to look her up on social media, had ignored the fact that she’d given me her number, that she’d put it in my phone before we said our goodbye.

Because that was exactly what it was — a goodbye.

Until it wasn’t.

“You really want to lose your money that badly, Fabio?” Vince asked Carter with a whistle, shaking his head. We were at his new place on the beach, half of it still littered with boxes, waiting for Will Perry to show up so we could hit our tee time. “You know my game puts yours to shame.”

Carter Fabbri, or Fabio as we called him, had been a rookie this past season, too. Unfortunately, he’d also been sent down to the AHL in March to help them during playoffs. That happened sometimes, if the NHL team could spare a player and the AHL team needed some help. But it always stung like a bitch when you were called down, because it meant one thing was clear: you were expendable.

Still, everything reset after playoffs. Carter had moved to Tampa to show his dedication to the team, and he’d be at camp with the rest of us come September. I wasn’t sure where he’d end up after that, but I hoped he’d be with us.

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Advertisement Meet Your Match (Kings of the Ice #1) Read Online Kandi Steiner http://www.books2020.com/meet-your-match-kings-of-the-ice-1-read-online-kandi-steiner Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:19:39 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/meet-your-match-kings-of-the-ice-1-read-online-kandi-steiner Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Kandi Steiner Series: Kings of the Ice Series by Kandi Steiner
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Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)

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One Month with Vince Tanev: Tampa’s Hotshot Rookie
Twenty-four-seven access on and off the ice.

The headline says it all, and my bosses are over the moon when the opportunity of a lifetime lands in my lap. Of course, they aren’t aware that I’ve already met Vince Cool at an all-star gala — and that we were at each other’s throats the entire time.

It doesn’t matter that he’s the kind of hot that shows God has favorites — messy brown hair, heated hazel eyes, the smirk of a rockstar, and a scar over his eyebrow that makes every woman particularly feral.

He’s a rich, cocky playboy — a brand I’m all too familiar with, and one I’m determined to never be around again.

But after my coverage of the gala stirs up buzz, the team’s General Manager and my CEO strike a deal. To help fill the arena at home games, I’ll get up close and personal with Tampa’s new shiny toy. Whether he’s at practice, playing in a game, partying, or drinking coffee half-naked in his condo — I’ll be there for all of it.

Vince gets under my skin like no one else. It isn’t long before that paper-thin line between hate and lust blurs, and being around him every waking minute of the day leaves no chance to escape his devilish stare.

The air crackles between us. The tension is hot enough to melt my inhibitions.

But I know the way this story ends. I’ve lived it once before.

As much as I work to guard my heart, my body is a traitor — and if this man puts his hands on me, I know I’ll submit to desire.

I thought one month with Vince Tanev was a game I could win easily.
But I might have just met my match.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

To the ones who run despite the rain,

who jump without fear of falling,

who open their hearts when the world says it’s foolish to do so,

and who are just crazy enough to believe in love.

This one’s for you.

The Most Heinous Vase Ever Created

Maven

“It smells like rich assholes in here.”

I wrinkled my nose to hammer that point home, and my best friend let out a soft laugh before sipping from the glass of champagne she held daintily between her fingertips. The diamonds on her warm brown wrist glittered under the chandelier, but as impressive as her jewelry was, it didn’t hold a candle to the long, black, starlight-like dress hugging her curves and draping down to the floor in romantic sweeps of shimmering fabric.

“And you know that because you’ve had your nose buried in a rich asshole a time or two in your life?”

“Don’t even have to get that far to sniff one out. Just being in the same room suffices.”

The room we were currently in was of the ballroom variety, with elegant chandeliers, pristine marble floors, and a majestic, vaulted ceiling painted like an Italian chapel. It was one of the most historic buildings in Ybor; an old social club transformed into an upscale party for tonight’s event.

When we walked up the grand staircase earlier, I was entranced by the lush gold and blood red tones. The way they mixed with the expensive wooden trim transported me back in time, as if we were attending an 18th century royal affair.

Tampa’s rich and famous filled the lavish space, dressed to the nines in tuxedos and gowns that cost more than everything I currently owned put together. The only reason I was able to dress to fit in was because of Livia, who had a flair for designer clothes even before she was the highest-paid dentist in the state.

Mostly because her dentistry didn’t just consist of filling cavities and routine cleanings — although, she’d argue she did plenty of that, too — but rather handling the absolutely brutal mouth trauma suffered by professional hockey players.

She’d been ecstatic for the chance to get me out of what she referred to as my “hippie clothes.” I much preferred the flowy fabric of my Free People dresses to the form-fitting mermaid number Livia had strapped me into tonight. Although, the gorgeous yellow tone of it was my favorite. It complemented my rich, creamy brown complexion beautifully, and I’d styled my hair back in a sleek ponytail so all attention stayed on the dress.

Livia folded one arm over her middle, balancing the elbow of the other on her wrist and tilting the champagne flute to her lips again. “What exactly is the scent?”

“Dirty money, designer leather, and Bond No. 9,” I said easily. “With a hint of that particular fragrance that you only find in the lobbies of million-dollar condos.”

“Does my condo lobby smell?”

“It’s the most pungent one in Tampa.”

Her coral-painted lips curved into a saccharine smile, one that told me she took that as a compliment.

“Well, good thing you’re only here to report on the event and how much these rich assholes raise for charity tonight,” she said. “Wouldn’t want you to catch the stench.”

She elbowed me with the joke, and I smiled, pulling my phone from my clutch and switching it to cinema video mode before I took some close-up shots of the elaborate centerpiece glittering on the cocktail table we were standing at.

When I had that clip, I tucked my phone away and wrapped my hands around the camera hanging from my neck. I adjusted a few settings before taking a photograph of the table, then of Livia as she winked and tipped back the last of her champagne.

Outside of this event, when people saw us together, we didn’t fit. Livia was born and raised in Long Island, New York — and her parents had the vacation house in the Hamptons to prove it. I was from the opposite side of the tracks, a humble upbringing in a suburb inland from Tampa Bay. She was also four years older than me, graduating with her doctoral degree when I had just barely clinched my bachelor’s.

Still, from the moment we met, there had been an understanding between us. It was the kind you only found in someone who saw you for who you are and didn’t expect you to be anyone or anything else. It was rare, and special, and something I never took for granted — especially since finding any kind of connection like that with the opposite sex seemed futile at this point.

Livia Young was the best thing to come out of the most traumatic relationship of my life.

As if she could sense where my head was going, Livia gently touched my shoulder. “You good?”

I ignored the twinge in my stomach when I responded. “Good. You want a picture with any of these prissy athletes?” I teased, holding up my camera.

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