Chicago Blaze

He's known as Father Anton to his teammates - the brooding, sexy captain of the NHL's Chicago Blaze has a reputation for...not having a reputation. Just like his diet and sleep routines, celibacy is part of Anton Petrov's on-ice mojo. Or so they say. Anton stays mum on the subject. If the world thinks he chooses to abstain from sex, so be it. Better that than the truth getting out: There is a woman he burns for, but he can never have her. She's his teammate's wife, after all.

I only have one love now - the home furnishings business I'm building into an empire. Maybe money and success can't love me back, but they keep what's left of my heart safe. One-night stands are my way of scratching the occasional itch I get for something more. And no one's better for that than a sexy as sin hockey player I'll never see again after one very hot night together.

They don't call me Belinda Boring for nothing. It's my name, after all. And for a 23-year-old with plain brown hair who still lives at home and gets tongue tied over nothing, it's a fitting one. I'm not even one of those quiet girls with a hidden talent, unless making a mean order of nachos at the NHL arena I work at counts. My life consists of working, reading, and harboring a secret crush on a hockey player who doesn't know I exist. At least, until we accidentally meet and become unlikely friends.

I'm done. Getting ditched at the altar is nothing compared to being humiliated there in front of three hundred shocked guests. Apparently I'm no good at spotting the signs your man's a cheating liar. So I set off solo on my honeymoon to Hawaii, where I realize I've got this life thing down just fine on my own. Friendships and laughter? Yes. Adventures? Absolutely. But relationships? Hell no. Never again.

When I wake up in the hospital after a DUI car crash, my new NHL team owner gives me an ultimatum—get sober or get packed for the minor leagues. So I talk the talk and go to rehab. I plan to breeze through, get sprung in thirty days or less and hit the road with my new team, the Chicago Blaze. All I have to do is charm my attractive, uptight rehab group leader into thinking I've changed—how hard could it be?

Nothing rattles me. Well . . . almost nothing. As the most even-tempered player on the Chicago Blaze, I take everything in stride—hockey, fame, and life in general. No one knows that deep down, even I've got a trigger. She's a tall brunette with a gorgeous smile and an iron will. The woman who crushed my heart long ago. I never plan to return to Greentree Falls, Wisconsin, and lay eyes on Allie Douglas again—until suddenly, I'm left without a choice.