Killian Castaneda is the last man Nadia Gregory wants locked in a campus basement: the ruthless hockey enforcer who broke her friend's shoulder, a six-foot-four force they call the Blackout.
She needs an eight-thousand-dollar fellowship to cover overdue tuition and shield her father's shipyard pension, while he funnels his upcoming draft contract into his paralyzed brother's care and refuses any distraction.
The athletic department refuses to negotiate: sixty hours of private kinematic tracking before sunrise, or Killian is benched and Nadia's funding is gone.
In the cold lab, professional distance frays into skin, friction, and orders neither of them intended to speak.
Every reckless contact against the examination table endangers the futures they are fighting to hold, yet she can no longer pretend he is only a required assignment.
