Shadednight

Emery Hale is one missed paycheck away from disaster. She's a scholarship student juggling classes, a part-time job, and a mother who works too hard to make ends meet. When she overhears the university's star hockey captain, Calloway Marchetti, on the verge of losing her spot on the team over failing grades, Emery sees an opportunity. A tutoring stipend that could save her from eviction. There's just one problem. Calloway doesn't want a tutor and she won't take Emery seriously unless she can score a goal on her first. What starts as a desperate bet becomes something neither of them expected. Between chemistry lessons and ice time, Emery starts chipping away at the walls behind Calloway's captain's letter, and Calloway starts looking at her scholarship-kid tutor like she's worth more than just passing grades. But when the tutoring arrangement turns into something more complicated— a fake relationship neither of them can quite call fake anymore. Emery will have to decide if she's playing a game she can win, or falling for one she never saw coming. A slow-burn sports romance about pride, pressure, and falling for the girl you were only supposed to be helping. New story alert: Alpha Queen's Fake Wife.