Can I Read 'This Was Never About Basketball' Online For Free?

He was supposed to be a stranger. A bruised, scarred, filthy-mouthed stranger who pinned me against a bathroom wall and made me forget the boy who broke my heart 20 minutes earlier. I walked away first without his name or number, and I didn't look back. Then I found out my mom was engaged. To his dad. Rhys Maddox. Number seventeen. 6'3" of tattoos, bruised knuckles, and the kind of jaw that makes good girls do stupid things. The most dangerous player to ever step on our ice. My one-night stand. My new stepbrother. He doesn't follow rules - he breaks them. On the ice. In my bed. Against every surface in our parents' house while they eat twenty feet away. He calls me "sis" just to watch me squirm. He watches me like he already owns me. And the worst part? He does. Publicly, we're fake dating - a deal to keep my ex-bestfriend away. Privately, we're a stepbrother and stepsister who can't keep our clothes on the second we're alone. It's our biggest secret. Now the boy who I once considered my best friend suddenly wants me back. And the stepbrother who wasn't supposed to mean anything won't let me go. One wants to protect me. One wants to destroy me. And I can't tell which is which anymore. --- For readers 18+ who like their men possessive, their romances FORBIDDEN, and their chapters dripping with filthy, unapologetic spice.

She is focused, disciplined, and determined to survive her first year at university. He is reckless, irresistible, and the most notorious athlete on campus. When fate throws them together, sparks fly and rules are broken. Falling for the bad boy athlete was never part of her plan, but resisting him could cost her everything. Secrets, rivalries, and a dangerous attraction push them to the edge. Can love survive when their worlds are at war?

"You were never her, Aria. You were just... there." Jason's words echo in my head as I stand in the back of the church, watching him mourn another woman on her sister's wedding day. Isabelle. The perfect dead girlfriend. The ghost I've been competing with for three years. I thought I could be enough. I thought love could grow where grief once lived. But when I find the evidence, when I see the hotel receipts, the text messages, the photos of Jason with Isabelle's sister Violet, I realize the truth. I was never the love story. I was the intermission. What I don't know yet is that nothing about my marriage was real. Not Jason's cruelty. Not Violet's affair. Not the stranger's rescue. They've all been playing a game, and I'm the prize they're willing to destroy each other for. When the truth comes out, when I discover why Isabelle really died and who's been pulling the strings, I'll have to decide: Do I let them destroy me, or do I burn their whole world down?

Nerdy Deborah with her big rimmed glasses, has been in love with Caleb, her childhood crush and basketball player for the past ten years. She got admission into the same college as him and even got a job as the coach’s assistant just to be near him. All hell let's lose when she confesses her love to him and tells him she's a virgin and that she wants him to take her virginity on her 18th birthday without knowing she was being filmed by the school bully. Liam, the Captain of the basketball team and Caleb’s best friend, offers Deborah a contract to school her on the art of seduction which could help her get Caleb, in return for something he needs. As Deborah is transformed from invisible nerd to campus heartbreaker, sparks fly where they shouldn’t. What starts as a lesson in flirting quickly spirals into a war of emotions, secrets, and betrayal. Caleb starts noticing her. Liam starts needing her. And someone else—someone dangerous—starts watching her. But when love is a game, and the stakes are deadly, who will win… and who will pay the price?

"Your marriage is a $50 souvenir, Ms. Vance. And your husband's already married to someone else." In a single moment at the immigration office, my life as the wife of NHL superstar Liam Sterling evaporated. Our secret Vegas wedding was a fraud, and Liam was already legally married to his "manager," Sophia. But the cruelty didn't end there. Liam expected me to adopt a "war hero's orphan", a child that was actually his and Sophia's secret son. He didn't want a wife. He wanted a world-class doctor to fix his career and a free nanny to raise his real wife's child. Liam made one fatal mistake: he forgot that I'm the only one who can keep him on the ice. I signed a record-breaking contract with the Titans, his bitterest rivals. Now, while Liam's knee shatters during the playoffs, I'm on the enemy's bench, healing the only man who can destroy him. He want a nanny? I'm sure he'll get his worst nightmare.

I never thought he’d leave me on our ten year anniversary. I gave him everything, my youth, my dreams, my heart and he tossed it all away like I was nothing. Months of heartbreak, solitude, and tequila later, I’m barely holding it together. Then comes the invite: his wedding. The one where he’s marrying her. And me? I’m supposed to smile and clap? That’s when an idea lands in my lap a chance to fakedate the city’s hottest hockey star, the man every paparazzi swoon over. It’s supposed to be simple: protect his image, help him play the perfect boyfriend… maybe get over my ex in the process. But what I didn’t expect was the heat, the lust, the danger of wanting him… or him wanting me. Between stolen kisses in empty arenas, the paparazzi hunting our every move, and the ex who thinks he still has a chance, I’m discovering the dangerous thrill of power, passion, and revenge. But as my fake love story becomes dangerously real, I realize one thing: the game isn’t over, and I might just win… or lose everything I’ve dared to desire.