BLURB:

Lake Capitano has always been a little too loud, a little too bold, and a lot too unwilling to let things go—especially after losing her sister. She channels her grief into protests, journalism, and half-baked decisions, which gives her anger somewhere to crash-land. She’s always known she wasn’t cut out for love—the handholding, the mushy-gushy compliments, the white-picket fence future—so when a video of her ex-boyfriend with his tongue down another girl’s throat goes viral, Lake does what any rational woman would do: she unleashes a swarm of crickets in his house. What she doesn’t plan for? Getting caught mid-revenge, half-dressed, by an unexpected—and very hot—male witness.

Sutton Whittaker lives by the rules—not out of necessity, but in the wake of a cautionary tale. With a father who works as a firefighter, he’s seen his fair share of how ugly the world can be, and the unvarnished truth keeps him cautious. As a player for the Minnesota Mustangs, hockey is his family, his focus, and the closest thing he has to stability. The pursuit of love and its unavoidable pitfalls have never been his priority, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t crave an intimacy that extended beyond game debriefs and drunken heart-to-hearts. He’s definitely not looking for chaos—until chaos shows up in a five-foot-seven package of lace and attitude in his teammate’s bedroom.

Helping Lake escape seems like a one-time occurrence…until he can’t shake the memory of her from his head. When she’s tasked with writing a news article to cover the hockey team’s season, Sutton doesn’t think anything will come from a little harmless flirting. What starts as a messy meet-cute turns into late-night pizza dates with a side of soul-bearing and something dangerously real. Close proximity and stolen glances become a gateway into the kind of relationship that transcends unconditional love, but when Lake’s story puts Sutton’s team in the crosshairs, he’s forced to choose between an impossible ultimatum: protect the people who gave him everything, or risk losing the only woman who’s ever made him want more.

Can Lake put aside her moral superiority complex and make the necessary sacrifices to keep the only person who has ever mattered to her, or will her betrayal unravel the fabric of their relationship for good?