Deflected Shot

An MM Interracial Hockey Romance

By: O. Simmons

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Twenty-four games. Zero goals. And a superstar on the verge of a total breakdown.

Lukas St. James is the NHL’s golden boy. The "Saint." The face of the Seattle Slaters franchise. But beneath the million-dollar smile and the perfect media training, he’s drowning in anxiety. A catastrophic scoring drought threatens his career, his endorsements, and his sanity. His teammates’ crude advice to find a "slump buster" only makes him sick. Lukas doesn’t need a meaningless hookup; he needs a miracle.

He finds one in the last place he expected: the stoic, imposing rookie sitting three stalls down.

Marcus "The Tank" Thorne has spent his life having to be twice as good just to be ignored. As a Black defenseman on a tenuous rookie contract, he knows one wrong move could send him back to the minors. He’s focused on survival, strategy, and the brutal geometry of the game. He has no patience for the pampered superstar’s spiraling superstitions—until he sees the raw panic underneath Lukas’s polished exterior.

An unexpected offer to help Lukas rebuild his game during secret midnight training sessions changes everything. In the quiet of the empty arena, stripped of rituals and expectations, the friction between them ignites into a scorching chemistry that neither saw coming.

Marcus becomes Lukas’s anchor on and off the ice. But their secret connection is a ticking time bomb. Marcus fears becoming a "distraction" that destroys his hard-earned career, while Lukas is terrified of shattering his carefully curated brand.

When an ugly act of racism on the ice forces their private world into the blinding public spotlight, the Saint and the Tank face the ultimate test. They must decide if the love they found in the dark is strong enough to survive the glare of the real world—and if winning the Stanley Cup means anything if they can’t claim each other when the final buzzer sounds.

Deflected Shot is a steamy, high-stakes MM professional hockey romance. It features an anxiety-prone superstar center, a protective and stoic rookie defenseman, secret midnight practices, hurt/comfort dynamics, and a hard-won Happily Ever After on center ice.