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Playing It Straight by Nicole Crystal
Release Day: September 1st 2026
Tropes: Hockey Romance (NHL), Playboy X Owner's Daughter, Forced Proximity, He Falls First, Just sex... until it's not, Bi-sexual FMC, Open Door Spice (4/5).
Series: This is Book 4 and final in the Playing the Game series of interconnected standalones.
POV: Dual POV, 1st Person.
Content Warnings: Explicit Content, Pregnancy/Unplanned Pregnancy, Parental Death (off-page/backstory), Workplace harassment/blackmail, Bi-sexual representation on-page (FF). For readers aged 18+.
Expected Page Count: 300.
BLURB:
Sometimes the most dangerous play is the one you don't see coming.
Zane Morgan has FOUR MONTHS to prove he's worth keeping.
Traded from LA to New York mid-season, my contract expires in June. And the woman holding the pen has already decided I'm a flight risk with a tabloid problem. Alexis Westgate. Owner's daughter. Ice-cold negotiator. Looks at me like I'm a line item she's trying to justify.
She's also my next-door neighbor.
Six feet of hallway. One signed contract standing between me and free agency. And the most infuriating, intelligent, devastating woman I've ever met telling me she doesn't do relationships, doesn't do hockey players, and definitely doesn't do me.
Yet.
Because here's the thing nobody warned her about: I've spent my entire career being the guy who never stays. Turns out, I just hadn't met the right reason to.
She can keep telling me this can't happen.
I'll keep waiting.
Because for the first time in my life, the win I'm playing for isn't on the ice.
Playing it Straight is a steamy, slow-burn sports romance featuring forbidden workplace attraction, forced proximity, an ice-queen owner's daughter, and a reformed playboy finally ready to stay.