Cross Checked by Melanie Walker

This book is intended for readers 18+ due to graphic violence, sexual situations and a slew of other trigger warnings.

Bliss

It started as a year-long human-interest project, and despite what Cade Mercer would probably say, that is not code for “romantically self-destruct in front of the hottest hockey player at Kimball Falls University.” It was supposed to be a perfectly academic, very professional deep dive into the public versus private identity of the Fury captain, future NHL first-round draft pick, campus obsession, and walking violation of every rule I had ever made about men with sticks, skates, and emotionally manipulative cheekbones.

Was Cade beautiful? Unfortunately, yes. Was he controlled, rich, intense, and entirely too good at looking at me like he could hear every thought I was trying not to have? Also yes. Was I planning to fall for him? Absolutely not, because I had one rule and that rule was simple: no hockey players, not after growing up around athletes, not after learning the hard way that charm could hide rot, and definitely not after Luke Dempsey became the kind of mistake a girl spends years trying to survive.

Cade was supposed to be my project, not my exception, not my safe place, and not the man who looked at me like he could see every secret I was trying to bury. I wanted the version of him nobody else got to see, the one beneath the captain title, the money, the interviews, the draft talk, and the KFU mythology, but somewhere between the banter, the stolen moments, and the way he kept showing up exactly where I needed him, I started to realize Cade Mercer was not the dangerous part of my story.

The dangerous part was the past that refused to stay buried.

Cade

She keeps calling it a project, which is cute in the same way it is delusional. Bliss Bennett walked into my life with sarcasm, sunshine, glitter, trauma jokes, and a pocket full of secrets, then expected me to sit politely while she pretended I was just an assignment, which was her first mistake because I do not do polite, and I definitely do not sit back when something I want is standing right in front of me pretending not to want me back.

I do not get distracted, not by parties, not by campus attention, not by the draft talk following me around like a second shadow, and not by people who only want the version of me that looks good on camera. Then Bliss looked at me like she wanted to figure me out, and suddenly I wanted to let her, but I wanted the same thing in return: the loud version of her, the soft version, the girl who laughs too hard when things hurt, checks exits without realizing it, and hides pain behind jokes sharp enough to draw blood.

She thinks I do not notice, but I notice everything, especially the fear she keeps trying to smile around. I notice the way her body goes still before her mouth gets funny, the way her friends close ranks around her like armor, and the way one name still has the power to turn the brightest girl in the room into someone bracing for impact.

Bliss may have sworn she would never trust another hockey player, but I was never asking to be compared to anyone who came before me. I was asking her to look at me and understand that once I decided she was mine, there was no version of me that walked away when someone threatened her.

Luke Dempsey was still watching.

He should have watched closer.

Cross Checked is a full-length college hockey romance featuring obsessive love, found family, emotional trauma, filthy banter, suspense, healing, and a protective hero who falls first, falls hard, and never gets back up.