Power Play
by Sophia Henry
(Pilots Hockey #2)
Publication date: February 16th 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Synopsis:
In Sophia Henry’s blistering follow-up to Delayed Penalty, hailed as “sexy, fun, and full of angst” by L. P. Dover, a good girl and a hockey hunk face off against expectations—and this match is guaranteed to see plenty of action.
Beneath her innocent facade, Gabriella Bertucci has her reasons to be standoffish with guys. Especially guys like Landon Taylor, a star defenseman on the minor-league Detroit Pilots and the object of a serious crush since he first walked into her family’s market. But when Landon comes through for her in a moment of crisis, Gaby starts to wonder if there might be more to Landon than hard muscles and fast skates.
Landon isn’t afraid of telling Gaby that he’s got it for her bad. The problem is, she seems unwilling to believe it. And though Landon enjoys his reputation as a cool-headed athlete, he hates losing—both on the rink and off. It’s his competitiveness that makes him so damn good at what he does . . . but it also makes him just a little bit complicated.
One minute Gaby’s tempted to give in; the next, she’s getting cold feet. How can she trust a guy who’s destined for bigger and better things to stick around? Then again, when Landon pulls her close with those powerful arms, the only thing that matters is right now.
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AUTHOR BIO:
Award-Winning Author, Sophia Henry, is a proud Detroit native who fell in love with reading, writing and hockey all before she became a teenager. She did not, however, fall in love with snow. So after graduating with an English degree from Central Michigan University, she moved to the warmth of North Carolina for the remainder of her winters.
She spends her days writing books featuring hot, hockey-playing heroes. When she’s not writing, she’s chasing her two high-energy sons, watching her beloved Detroit Red Wings, and rocking out at concerts.
Sophia's writes heartfelt and flirty fiction for readers who love the Mature Young Adult and New Adult genres. Check out her emotional and engaging Pilots Hockey series from Random House Flirt.
Author links:
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Chapter 1 (Part of
it)
Rule One: There’s no such thing as love at
first sight.
Lust at first sight, sure, but not love. Don’t
get me wrong. I love love. I love love so much, I’ve dressed up as
Cupid for Halloween. But real love takes time.
Just some unsolicited advice from Gabriella
Bertucci, Queen of Having It All Figured Out, except my own life, of
course. It’s easy to give advice and boast lofty ideals when no one
pays attention to you.
“Hey!”
I knew the voice, but I had to do a double take
after looking up from the “Lions and Tigers and Red Wings, oh MI”
T-shirt I’d been folding. “You
got your haircut.”
Landon Taylor ran a hand over his dark blond
faux-hawk and grinned. “Yeah. It was time to lose the mop top.”
“Looks nice.”
I grabbed another shirt out of
the cardboard box filled with our most recent shipment of T-shirts
from Totally Detroit, a local screen printer. If I held the shirt up
and folded it in front of my face, Landon might not notice my
annoying habit of hyperventilating whenever I talked to him.
Though Landon and his family had been clients
at my family’s produce stores for years, my palms still broke out
in a sweat whenever he walked through the door.
“Do you guys have any more of the Tigers
Legos?”
Landon asked as he dug through a
tiny box of toys next to the register. “My brothers are obsessed
with them.”
“Yeah, I know. Your mom was in here last week
and bought us out.”
“Damn.”
His dark blond eyebrows knit in
defeat and he turned his attention to a rack of kids’ T-shirts.
“You could buy him an actual tiger,”
I suggest.
“Animal or baseball player?”
Landon glanced up to shoot me a
wink, then resumed pushing the hangers quickly aside, obviously not
impressed with our selection.
I grabbed a stuffed tiger with the state of
Michigan embroidered in pink across its chest from a nearby table and
threw it at Landon. “RAWWR!”
It bounced off his freshly shorn
head and landed on the floor.
“Geez, Gaby! You’ve gotta tell a guy when
you throw a damn tiger at him.”
“Now I see why you play hockey,”
I joked before rushing behind the
register to help another customer. He couldn’t retaliate while I
rang up someone’s purchase, but I’d have to remember to take
cover after.
The Taylor family had shopped at Eastern
Market, Detroit’s historic, outdoor public market, religiously
every Saturday morning for as long as I can recall. They always
bought a bushel of apples from our stand and ate them as they wove
through the aisles under the covered sheds. Once they would finish
browsing, they would come back and load their old red wagon with
enough produce to last the week.
That was back when Bertucci Produce was just a
small, but thriving, stand in Shed One at Eastern Market. Years
before my mom and dad decided they wanted to open 313 Artisans, the
small store I currently run, which began as a way to feature local
artists as well as my mom’s own artistic creations.
This was back when Landon was just a kid
strolling through the streets in one of Detroit’s oldest
communities, not Landon Taylor superstar defenseman for the Detroit
Pilots. Detroit’s next NHL-bound player.
Rule Two: Real love is between two people. If
it’s one-sided, it’s just infatuation; a crush.
Which is why I couldn’t call my feelings for
Landon Taylor love. Sure, my forehead broke out in a cold sweat and
my heart pumped and thumped like a rock ’n’
roll drumbeat every time I
watched him walk through the door. But since I didn’t seem to have
the same effect on him, it couldn’t be love.
In defense of my hormonally charged reaction,
every time I saw him now he looked like a fitness model who’d just
left a photo shoot. Today, for instance, a blue Detroit Pilots Under
Armor shirt skimmed the curves of his chiseled chest, and black
basketball shorts swished against his muscular thighs. I even knew he
had on little white ankle socks inside his gray and blue Brooks
running shoes.
Because I’m that obsessed
observant.
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