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Pilots Hockey # 1
Pilots Hockey # 1
By: Sophia Henry
Releasing September 1, 2015
Loveswept
BLURB:
She closed her heart long ago. He
just wants to open her mind. For fans of Toni Aleo and Sawyer Bennett, the
debut of Sophia Henry’s red-hot Detroit Pilots series introduces a hockey team
full of complicated men who fight for love.
Auden Berezin is used to losing
people: her father, her mother, her first love. Now, just
when she believes those childhood wounds are finally healing, she loses
something else: the soccer scholarship that was her ticket to college.
Scrambling to earn tuition money, she’s relieved to find a gig translating for
a Russian minor-league hockey player—until she realizes that he’s the same
dangerously sexy jerk who propositioned her at the bar the night before.
Equal parts muscle and scar tissue,
Aleksandr Varenkov knows about trauma. Maybe that’s what draws him to Auden. He
also lost his family too young, and he channeled the pain into his passions:
first hockey, then vodka and women. But all that seems to just melt away the
instant he kisses Auden and feels a jolt of desire as sudden and surprising as
a hard check on the ice.
After everything she’s been through,
Auden can’t bring herself to trust any man, let alone a hot-headed puck jockey
with a bad reputation. Aleksandr just hopes she’ll give him a chance—long
enough to prove he’s finally met the one who makes him want to change.
EXCERPT:
“Aleksandr,
this is Auden Berezin. She will be your translator.”
“I
don’t need a translator.”
I
almost laughed, because he’d said he didn’t need a translator in Russian.
“You
must talk with the media at some point, Sasha. They’re riding my ass to get
better answers from you than ‘was good game.’ ”
Aleksandr
Varenkov, hot Russian hockey god, laughed, showing the perfect set of white
teeth I’d noticed at the bar.
“You
have your teeth in, but you haven’t even showered yet?” Orlenko asked.
Was
Orlenko a mind reader? I sure hope not, because I would be fired for thinking
about my client naked.
“I
wanted to look good for pictures.” Aleksandr winked at me. Then he stood, and
drops of sweat raced down the hard planes of his chest.
I’d
never been so envious of perspiration in my life.
“Sometimes
I talk in the shower. Will she translate for me in there?”
My
cheeks began to burn, so I averted my eyes, lowering them to the black Cyrillic
script tattooed down his sides, then thought better of that line of sight and
studied the soiled beige carpet below my feet.
“Aleks—”
Orlenko sighed, rubbing his forehead.
“Zhenya,”
Aleksandr began. “You know I’m kidding, yes?” He shoved a towel onto the shelf
above his nameplate and walked away without waiting for an answer.
“Yes,”
Orlenko hissed. He’d said it under his breath, but I heard him and wondered
what my grandpa had gotten me into. “Well, that was Aleksandr Varenkov, your
client. He’s a talented player and a good man. But he can be a little—”
“Douchey?”
I offered in English. I shouldn’t have said it, considering Grandpa’s
professional reputation was in my hands. Then again, Evgeny Orlenko was
Grandpa’s friend first, so maybe he wouldn’t be too hard on me. Besides,
Grandpa knew what kind of mouth I had, and he’d sent me for the job anyway.
Orlenko
laughed, and continued in Russian. “Wild was the word I was looking for,
but your adjective may not be that far off.”
“I’ve
got it, Mr. Orlenko.”
“Are
you sure?” He inspected me through thick black-rimmed glasses that were too
small for his puffy face.
“As
a college student with an active social life, I’ve learned how to handle
arrogant douche bags.” This time I was being paid to handle one.
“I
shouldn’t be having this conversation about one of my clients,” Mr. Orlenko
said, his lips quirking up, then back into a tight line. At least he was trying
to keep a straight face. “You’re like a breath of fresh air, Audushka. I hope
you stay that way even with his off-ice antics.”
Off-ice
antics? What the hell did that mean and why would
I have to deal with them? “Will I have to hang out with him outside of the
arena? I thought I was here to translate for media interviews after games and
some practices.”
“Aleksandr
speaks very little English. He’ll need your assistance in all aspects of his
career; interviews, community service. At least, until he gets acclimated.
Vitya said you were here for the month, is that correct?”
“Yep.
All of winter break.”
AUTHOR INFO:
Sophia Henry, a proud Detroit
native, fell in love with reading, writing, and hockey all before she became a
teenager. She did not, however, fall in love with snow. So after graduating
with an English degree from Central Michigan University, she moved to North
Carolina, where she spends her time writing books featuring hockey-playing
heroes, chasing her two high-energy sons, watching her beloved Detroit Red
Wings, and rocking out at concerts with her husband.