Title: Body Check
Series: Blades Hockey #4 (standalone)
Author: Maria Luis
Genre: Sexy Sports Romance
Release Date: September 13th, 2018
BLURB
They call me the Badass of Hockey.
The Beast of the Northeast.
And I’m not just referring to my stick play on the ice.
As Captain for the Boston Blades, I’ve spent years working toward bringing home the Stanley Cup.
But when the owners sell us out to Hollywood, suddenly we’re not just playing for thousands of fans, we’re cracking open our lives on a new reality show, Getting Pucked. They want all the dirty details, and I’d rather take a puck to the gonads than peel back the curtains on my life.
Not when it could take me out of the game for good.
I agree to sign the contract on one condition: they hire New England’s reigning queen of media to call the shots.
Holly Belliveaux Carter.
The woman who drives me to insanity and turns me on with nothing but a quirk of her lips and the sound of her laugh. The only woman I’ve ever loved.
The problem?
She’s my ex-wife.
EXCERPT
🏒HOLLY 🏒
A year without seeing Jackson’s bare chest is like a year without basking in sunlight.
You can get through it.
Hell, some days you might even relish the murky, gray skies and the heavy snowfall.
Until you get a glimpse of what you’ve been missing. It’s straight downhill from there.
“Can you please put a shirt on?”
I hear the words leave my mouth as I visually soak up the panther-like way Jackson’s hands move to the bench on either side of his hips. Jackson’s always been ripped, but this is . . . just wow. His arm muscles flex, the visible tendons that run along his biceps and down over his forearms visibly rippling. I bet if I were to Urban Dictionary “arm porn,” I’d find Jackson’s picture as the only definition.
Down, girl.
Dark eyes flit over my body, lingering on my thighs and waist before returning to my face. His grin is slow, knowing. “You look flushed, Holls. Feelin’ overheated?”
Unfortunately.
I trace my fingers over the cool metal strap of my purse and cling tightly to the linked chain. Since approaching Coach Hall, I’ve combed through this conversation with Jackson a million times over in my head. I’ve pictured him falling at my feet, grateful as all get-out for doing him a solid. I’ve imagined him turning ambivalent, like I’m a little too late to the cause. I’ve even played out entire scenarios where he’s so overcome with happiness that he twirls me around in the air like I’m some sort of Disney princess on ice.
In none of those versions of the conversation, however, do the following words even consider being uttered: “Your nipples are hard.”
Except that’s what I say.
Your. Nipples. Are. Hard.
Oh my God, someone kill me.
Jackson’s dark brows shoot up. “Excuse me?”
“Your nipples,” my stupid mouth utters without my support, “they’re hard as diamonds.”
Eyebrows still arched high, he sits up a little. Glances down at his chest and rock-hard abs. Like a woman possessed, I count each abdominal ridge as though I’m in pre-k and learning how to count on my fingers with the Count from Sesame Street: one delicious ab, two delicious abs, three delicious abs, ah ah ah.
Girl, you are losing it.
Jackson tilts his head, clearly trying to eyeball his pecs. “How many carats you thinkin’?”
I cannot believe I’m having this conversation right now.
I slam my eyes shut. “One.”
“Yeah?” The blatant humor in his voice is nearly tangible, and I get the feeling that he’s dragging his thumb along his bottom lip, trying to keep a lid on fully-blown laughter. “Just one?”
“Cubic zirconia. Off the shelf of Target.”
“Fitting,” he husks out, “since you’d live in Target if they let you.”
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AUTHOR BIO
Maria Luis is the author of sexy contemporary romances, though she may or may not have a few historical romances hiding in the cobwebs of her computer.
When she’s not writing about strong men and the sassy women who sweep them off their feet, Maria is a historian who specializes in medieval England and 19th century New Orleans. What do the two eras have in common, you ask? Not much, except for disease, scandalous activities and crime—Maria’s favorite topics.
Maria lives in New Orleans with her better half, where she can generally be found hiking with her two dogs, Zeus and Athena, kayaking in Louisiana’s inter-coastal waterways, or curled up on the couch with a good book.