Neil Carlisle has spent years burying the truth about himself beneath the enforcer's brutal reputation, but a rival executive's recordings now tie his future to stolen encounters with Bram Whitfield in the arena's hidden spaces. The goalie's lean strength and commanding presence pull at the denial Neil has built around never needing anyone.

The dim corridors and locked storage rooms become the only place where their power exchange can exist without ruin. Each lingering contact carries the heat of what discovery would destroy, sharpening the hunger that neither man can admit aloud.

Behind the locked storage room door, Bram asks for the one thing Neil has never given anyone. Can the enforcer's terror of exposure survive the goalie's quiet demand to be chosen?