Locked Beneath the Ice

Tallulah Barry needs her senior biomechanics fellowship at Garrison University to keep her family afloat.

Coast Stuart is the last man she can afford near her: the arrogant defenseman who shredded her research three months ago and humiliated her in front of the athletic board.

Refuse his mandatory rehabilitation protocol, and her eighteen-thousand-dollar tuition waiver is revoked by Friday.

Accept it, and she is shut in with him for sixty hours in a basement clinic beneath the ice, the deadbolt closing every morning at five-thirty.

He plays the blue line with ruthless violence meant to punish his own bones.

Boston holds his draft rights, the team needs him for a championship run, and he takes orders from no one.

Tallulah looks through that armor and does not flinch.

Contempt gives way to praise he delivers like a command, and to heat stolen across the examination tables.

The closer he draws her, the faster their defenses fail.

If the compliance board finds them out, her degree is finished, and his professional career ends with it.