Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, #2)

by Rachel Reid

“I have ruined you,” Rozanov said when they broke apart. “No one else will do.”

Hollander probably would have kissed him right back. And, Jesus, that thought had consumed Ilya since draft day.

Maybe Shane had been a little bit bored before Ilya Rozanov came along. Rozanov was a lot of things, but he wasn’t boring.

“I hate you.” “Yes. I know. Show me.”

He realized, when he was back in his room, that they hadn’t even kissed. He also realized, with horror, that he regretted that.

Shane and Ilya were opposites in almost every way imaginable, but it was getting harder for Ilya to deny that there was something in his core that was drawn to Hollander.

“I like girls.” “Yeah, no shit.” “But I also like you.” “Well, lucky me,” Shane grumbled. “Not as a person, of course,” Rozanov teased. “But you have a good mouth.”

No one makes me feel like Ilya Rozanov does.

“I can’t keep pretending I don’t like you,” he said finally. “You don’t like me,” Ilya argued. “I do. I... I maybe like you too much.”

Ilya had also slipped in an “and on top of everything, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Mm. I did not like you. Just your freckles.”

He was never supposed to have fallen in love with Shane Hollander.

in that moment Ilya wanted to tell him he would stay with him. That he would move into his apartment and help him with his recovery and make him sandwiches and watch the playoffs with him and read him his boring hockey book.

“Will you come to the cottage?”

Shane was so completely in love with him. He would hit his head all over again just to be alone in that quiet hospital room with those careful fingers and those concerned eyes.

The stupid part of Shane wanted to fight for Ilya. For them.

there Hunter was, smiling at this mystery man like he was the only thing that mattered in the world.

“I’m coming to the cottage.”

Ilya couldn’t believe what he had been reduced to. He was...infatuated. It was disgusting.

Shane looked so happy. Somehow, Ilya made him happy. Ilya wanted to always make him happy.

Shane laughed. “You wanna kiss me on television?” “Yes. After I win the Stanley Cup.”

“Mine.” Ilya’s breath tickled Shane’s skin when he spoke the single word. “Yours,” Shane said dreamily.

“I like you, Hollander.” It wasn’t an earth-shattering confession, but the words still moved Shane enormously. “I like you too, Rozanov.”

“You want that? To be together?” “I do. So much it terrifies me.”

“Is it okay if I tell you I love you again?” Ilya asked.

Shane felt dizzy with happiness. To be held like this and kissed like this by the man he loved—the man who loved him back—here at the place he loved more than anywhere else in the world...

“You would leave Boston?” Mom asked, stunned. “For Shane?” Ilya didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

He wanted to tell Shane that the closest he felt to home was when he was with him.

He wanted to anchor himself to Shane and just...stay.

“I will too. Anything. I want this. I want us.”

“You and your plans. What if I just kissed you on the mouth at the next All-Star Game?” “I’ll punch you. I swear to god.”

“I mean... I am yours, yes? To protect that, I will do anything.”