Pressure Play (Top Tier #1)

Must be nice. Wanting this.

Heathcliff Donnelly does—and the wanting hurts.

An unexpected call-up rockets him from Thunder Bay to the Chicago Ironhawks with one shot to prove he belongs. At twenty-one, with his family's mortgage tied to his signing bonus, failure isn't an option.

Chicago is bigger. Faster. Colder. And Heath is alone—except for the voice back home reminding him he doesn't have to shrink to survive. Pickle knows what it costs to be underestimated, and his advice is take up space, or be erased.

Then Heath meets Kieran Mathers.

Second-generation NHL talent. Effortlessly brilliant. And the first person in Chicago who doesn't treat Heath like a lucky story. Kieran treats him like a reminder—of everything Kieran never got to choose. Hockey wasn't a dream for Kieran; it was obligation. Survival. A future decided long before he had a say.

They're both wingers chasing the same ice time, and hockey is the fault line between them.

Film sessions turn competitive. On-ice collisions linger. And when Kieran watches Heath play—hungry, fearless, alive—something behind his composure cracks.

It breaks at a team charity reception. Too many cameras, too much champagne, and words that cut too deep. When Kieran storms out, Heath follows—into an elevator that stalls between floors.

Anger snaps into heat. The kiss is desperate. Furious. Unavoidable.

"I hate this," Kieran says against Heath's mouth.
"Liar," Heath breathes.

They can't stop. Road trips where hotel walls are too thin. Film room doors that lock. Late-night texts that say everything neither can risk saying in daylight. What begins as friction becomes recognition—two men wanting opposite things from the same game, and more from each other than either expected.

As Kieran's contract negotiations close in and Heath's provisional call-up window narrows, the truth lands Heath needs Chicago to last. Kieran needs out.

To stay in the NHL, Heath has to prove he's permanent. To escape it, Kieran has to prove he's expendable. Falling in love might cost them everything—including each other.