Shohoku Jersey

Alexander Hawthorne doesn’t date. He doesn’t have time. At thirty-five, his life revolves around HawStone Global Engineering and his ten-year-old son, Jack. Work is demanding, parenting is exhausting, and now that Jack’s mother is moving to New Jersey with her new husband, Alex is left to manage it all alone. Exhausted, overworked, and barely keeping it together, he’s desperate for help. Celine Stone, his partner’s niece, a brilliant graduate student taking a break from her thesis in cybersecurity. Ten years younger, stunning, compassionate, and completely off-limits. Celine becomes Jack’s new nanny. From the very first moment, Alex is captivated. She's Gorgeous. She’s patient with Jack, smart, funny, and utterly irresistible. And the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to deny the attraction that’s simmering between them. He knows he shouldn’t. She’s his partner’s niece. She’s just 25 years old, ten years younger than him. And he’s a father who must put his son first. But some desires don’t wait for perfect timing… and some connections refuse to be ignored. As their forbidden attraction grows, Alex and Celine must navigate their feelings, their responsibilities, and the world that insists they stay apart. Because falling for the nanny isn’t just risky it could change everything.

As a male Omega, stepping onto the ice was never supposed to be my dream. Hockey belonged to Alphas—strong, dominant, born to conquer both the rink and everyone on it. Omegas like me were meant to stay hidden, protected, controlled. But hiding had never been enough. The World Hockey Academy was the only place powerful enough to shield my identity, the only place my adoptive father—its Dean—believed I could survive. To the public, it was an elite sports academy. To those like me, it was a prison disguised as opportunity. To them… it was Alpha Academy. From the moment I arrived, I swallowed suppressants like oxygen. Every breath had to be measured. Every movement controlled. A single slip—one flare of Omega scent—and I would be exposed. I had to skate like an Alpha. Fight like an Alpha. Bleed like one. On the ice, weakness wasn’t forgiven. That was when I noticed him. The strongest Alpha in the academy. The storm everyone feared. His presence alone made my knees weaken, my instincts scream in panic and hunger all at once. His golden eyes tracked me every time I touched the puck, sharp and suspicious, as if he already sensed something was wrong. During practice, we crashed into each other. The impact sent us both sprawling across the ice—but it was his hand gripping my jersey, his scent crashing over me, that shattered my control. My suppressants burned uselessly in my veins. His lips curved slowly, dangerously, as he leaned close enough for his breath to brush my ear. “Funny,” he murmured, voice low and certain. “For an Alpha… you smell like prey.” My heart slammed against my ribs. If he figured it out, everything would end. And yet— my Omega instincts whispered something far worse. I wanted him closer.

"Let's play a game." "What game?" "One that involves you not screaming." ★★★★★ I'd been the perfect girlfriend to my star hockey player for two years. Stood in the rain at his practices. Drove hours just to watch him warm benches. Wore his jersey like it meant something. And he repaid me by fucking his way through half of Chicago—including the sister of the one man he's been obsessed with for years. Zane Mercer. The NHL's most dangerous player. My stepfather's worst enemy. And the man who looked at me like I was something worth destroying the world for. One impossible offer. One desperate bet. One night that changed everything. Zane doesn't do fake. He doesn't do half measures. When he tells me I'm his for two months, he means it. In every way that matters. But Zane has secrets buried so deep they connect to my family's past in ways I never imagined. Dark secrets. Deadly ones. What starts as a transaction turns into obsession. What starts as revenge turns into something I can't walk away from. And what starts as a lie might be the only truth that matters. They say some men are too dangerous to love. They're right. But I was never good at following warnings. ********** This book contains explicit sexual content, dominant/possessive behavior, morally gray characters, family conflict, and themes that may be triggering. Intended for mature readers 18+. This isn’t your normal hockey romance. It’s dark, raw, and unrelenting—where obsession, desire, and power collide, and nothing is off-limits.

Shortly after we said "I do," the Family sent my husband, Dario, down to the Mexican border. He told me it was a meat grinder down there—cartel territory. where guys were zipped into body bags every day. He said he had to go—to expand the territory, for the glory of the Family. He claimed it was too dangerous and that his enemies would paint a target on my back, so he wouldn't take me with him. I believed him. I stayed behind in his old, rot-infested house in New Jersey, taking care of his bitter, spiteful parents. I spent my days and nights in the Family's moldy laundromat, washing bills stained with blood. He told me he sent every dime he made down there to the widow of a brother who took a bullet for him. He asked me to be understanding. I never complained. Day after day, I pressed expensive suits in that humid laundromat, waiting for him to come home. It wasn't until the eighth year that a mobster came back drunk. When I asked about Dario, he froze, then sneered at me through a haze of alcohol. "Dario? Are you kidding? He’s been a King in Manhattan for years. He’s the youngest Underboss of the Corleone family." I stood frozen, the iron in my hand burning a hole right through a shirt. "And he got married seven years ago. Biggest cathedral in New Jersey. Half the mob was there to toast the groom..." He pulled a crumpled photo from his leather jacket. Snuggled up against my husband was a woman in a high-end couture gown—the very same "poor, widowed sister-in-law" he had told me about. The next day, I contacted a fixer who specialized in fake IDs. On the application for a one-way ticket to Europe—a ticket to vanish off the face of the earth—I filled in the fake name I had prepared long ago. He trapped me for seven years with a sham marriage. From now on, I’d be done with this damn loyalty.