Heated Rivalry (Game Changers, #2)

by Rachel Reid

“Penguins!” Shane said, clapping his hands and trying to mimic the girls’ excitement. Hayden huffed. “All right, children. Follow your big brother Shane.”

lol

you...look like you.” Shane gave him a flirty look. “Hayden, do you find me attractive?” “Look, pal. If I was a woman, I’d be all over you.”

Shane laughed. In truth, he could think of worse scenarios than having Hayden Pike all over him. But he wasn’t going to tell him that. Besides, Hayden was his best friend. He’d never had anything but platonic feelings for him, blond hair, green eyes, and cleft chin aside.

Shane buried his face in his hands, almost knocking his own ball cap off. “Please stop trying to set me up on dates, Hayd.”

And I want you to have a hundred kids so you can know my pain!”

lol

Shane imagined telling Hayden that he was into men. He knew Hayden wouldn’t shun him or anything. He maybe wasn’t the most worldly guy, but he wasn’t a bigot either. At worst it would probably make things awkward between them. Maybe it wouldn’t, but Shane didn’t want to risk finding out.

His imagination continued to wander, conjuring a scenario where he told Hayden that he’d been hooking up with Ilya Rozanov since their rookie season. The hypothetical look on Hayden’s face made Shane snort out loud.

“Seriously!” Hayden continued. “My ego can’t take it, man! It’s like being friends with the damn sun or something.

“I can’t believe we’re having another one.” “You sure it’s just one?” Hayden’s eyes were pure terror. “Don’t even joke, Hollander.”

“When the demands of the season are over, this is where Shane Hollander comes to relax and recuperate: his five-thousand-square-foot lakefront cottage.” Ilya sat up. He had never seen any place that Hollander called home.

Hollander did look flexible, though.

When he laughed his nose crinkled, and Ilya’s stomach flipped.

It’s the way it should have been. 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.

Instead of getting him out of his system with their hookups, each one just made him want more. It was dangerous fucking stuff.

They had moved their Boston hookups from hotel rooms to Rozanov’s penthouse last season. Shane had been against the idea at the time, arguing that he didn’t want to risk being spotted entering Rozanov’s building.

He had legitimately been concerned about that, and still was, but his real objection—the one that he didn’t voice—was that he didn’t want to make what they were doing seem more...personal.

Meeting in hotel rooms or at Shane’s investment property was one thing, but every time Shane went to Rozanov’s actual home, he felt his world tilt a bit. It was an extra layer of wrongness thrown on top of the m...