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Chapter 5
publish date:
2026-07-01 21:41:03
Latest chapter
Thin Ice Between Us Chapter 6
ETHANMaya doesn’t stay long, and that's always been the thing I like best about her. The clean edges of it, the unspoken agreement that whatever exists between us begins at my door and ends long before sunrise. It’s uncomplicated and temporary and blessedly free of the kind of emotional excavation that other people seem to crave from intimacy.She arrives sometime after two a.m., slipping into my penthouse with her heels dangling from two fingers, lipstick slightly smudged, perfume carrying the stale sweetness of crowded bars and expensive gin. When she kisses me, it feels practiced in the best possible way, familiar enough that neither of us wastes energy pretending that this is romance instead of ritual.We've never asked each other difficult questions. She doesn't ask where my head is when I'm staring out the window after a game, and I don't ask why she always comes to me after a night out instead of before it. We exist in the comfortable space between curiosity and commitment, wh
Thin Ice Between Us Chapter 5
CALNoise has always been good for me, the thud of music through bone and floor, something to push against, something that meets force with force and doesn’t ask any goddamn questions.I hit my favorite bar, the one that I always drink at when I'm in Denver for a game, and tonight I drink fast. The whiskey burns a familiar line down my throat, the kind of burn that promises to erase whatever came before it if I give it enough time.Except tonight, it doesn’t.It sits low and stubborn, coiled in muscle and breath, my body holding onto tension that should have burned off hours ago, either on the ice or in the locker room fight that never came. I struggle hard to not think about the bitter Cup loss, or my team mates’ whispers, or the way that I fucking stupidly charged at a man whose whole career has been built on evading exactly that kind of play.Most of all, I try to drown the memory of the hallway – the narrowness of it, the way that Ethan stood there and didn’t move, the way that I
Thin Ice Between Us Chapter 4
ETHANUp close and half-naked, Cal Mercer is utterly overwhelming.Not in the way the press means when they talk about his size, not as spectacle or intimidation, but in the way his body seems to exceed the logic of the space meant to hold it, like the hallway itself has underestimated what it would mean to contain that much heat, that much muscle, that much barely restrained force stripped of pads and context and armor.He’s shirtless, skin still flushed from exertion, heat rolling off him in a way that I can feel without even touching. His chest is broad to the point of near-impossibility, peppered with black hair, muscles layered thick and dense, rising and falling with breaths that haven’t settled yet. Veins stand out along his arms and neck, dark and pronounced, like the map of something dangerous and alive just under the surface.Ink crawls over him, black and dark-blue tattoos, lines disappearing beneath the waistband of his jeans, spiraling over shoulders that look built to abs
Thin Ice Between Us Chapter 3
CALThe anger in the locker room barely registers.I hear my name in half-whispers, sense the fury in the set of my teammates' shoulders. But since I don't turn around or make eye contact, nobody actually speaks to me directly.I don’t shower, I don’t cool down; I just shove my legs into faded jeans, pull on my boots, grab my t-shirt, leave my gear strewn across the floor for someone else to deal with. The air-conditioning against my bare chest is a shock, but it doesn’t help. It just sharpens everything.The hallway outside the locker rooms is narrow and utilitarian, concrete walls sweating in the June humidity, fluorescent lights flickering. My skin is still sticky with sweat and disappointment, chest bare and flushed. My body hasn’t caught up to the fact that the season is over, and my pulse is still looking for something to hit.That’s when I see him.Ethan Locke stands alone at the far end of the corridor, freshly showered, hair damp and curling, in an impeccable suit that isn't e
Thin Ice Between Us Chapter 2
Stanley Cup Final. Ten Years Later.ETHANI’ve been tracking Cal Mercer’s career for a decade.You don’t have to like a man to know his numbers, his habits, the arc of his reputation. In this league, some players become unavoidable, not because they’re particularly talented or brilliant, but because they're loud and demand attention. Cal has always been loud in all the ways that sell this sport: hits that rattle glass, penalties that make highlight reels that get a million likes, a body built to look dangerous even when he’s standing still.Violence photographs well, after all.I’ve known exactly what he would become since I first laid eyes on him back at training camp. The league loves a monster that it can point at, coaches love a weapon that they can unleash, fans love rage that they don’t have to carry themselves and can simply observe from their own living room, or from the arena seats. Cal delivers all of it reliably, every single time he hits the ice.Across from me tonight, st
Thin Ice Between Us Chapter 1
Stanley Cup Final. Ten Years Later.CALI've been hitting Ethan Locke for ten years.Not always legally, not always cleanly. Sometimes only with my eyes, sometimes with words, mostly with the full, undeniable weight of my massive body driving him into the boards. Ten years of crossing ice, a decade of wanting – needing – to leave a mark that he can’t just get up and skate away from. Ten years ago, I wanted to hit him because he mocked me, now I hit him because it’s the only language loud enough to fucking reach him.The Stanley Cup Final does nothing to blunt those instincts. If anything, it sharpens them.From the opening shift, I play the game the only way I ever have: loud, violent, absolute. I finish checks that echo, I chase hits that bring the crowd to its feet, I feel the familiar burn in my shoulders and legs and welcome it. Pain means I’m doing my job. Pain means I still matter.Locke is everywhere that I am not.He moves with that infuriating calm he’s perfected over the yea
Thin Ice Between Us Prologue 2
Pro Development Hockey Camp, Ten Years AgoETHANI clock him the minute that he steps onto the ice, because it’s pretty much impossible not to.Some bodies announce themselves without trying, simply by existing at a scale the rest of the room has to adjust to. He’s one of those: chest and shoulders
Thin Ice Between Us Prologue 1
Pro Development Hockey Camp, Ten Years AgoCALI notice him because the rink goes quiet around him.I don't mean literally, of course. The air is still full of skates cutting sharp edges and coaches shouting and pucks cracking against boards… but something in me focuses when he steps onto the ice,
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