Summary:

“I think you don’t hate me as much as you want to. I think you’re curious about me. I think-” Ilya leans in, voice dropping even lower. “I think you watch my highlights. Late at night, when no one is looking.”

Shane Hollander is bred for greatness: son of a future Prime Minister, Canada’s golden boy, first overall pick. Ilya Rozanov is Russia’s answer: the President’s son, cocky and brilliant, everything Shane is supposed to beat.

Their rivalry begins at seventeen with an overtime goal and a blown kiss. It evolves in hotel rooms and stolen hours between games they’re supposed to hate each other through. For seven years, they hide what they are while the world watches them compete, until one catastrophic hit forces Ilya to make an impossible choice in front of twenty thousand people.

What starts as Cold War propaganda becomes something neither of them can control. And when you’re in love with your rival, winning and losing stop meaning what they used to.