Merciless Matchup

She was never supposed to matter. But thirty days with her might cost him everything.

Mina

One minute, I was minding my business.

The next, I'd accidentally spilled a drink on Nikolai Volkov-the enforcer for the Detroit Serpents known as the Russian Reaper.

Worse? My boyfriend lost a bet. A bet that involved me spending thirty days with Volkov.

Now I'm stuck in a twisted game between two rival hockey players, and I'm the one paying the price. Nikolai is cold, calculating, and annoyingly smug-but he's also protective in a way that makes my heart race.

This was supposed to be a punishment. A power play.

But the more time I spend with him, the more I start to wonder who the real villain is.

Because Nikolai might be the one man who sees me as more than just a prize to be won.

Nikolai

This was never about the girl.

It was about the principle. About making Petrov regret putting her on the table like a poker chip.

But from the moment I touched her, everything changed.

Mina isn't soft. She's fierce, bubbly, and impossible to ignore. She challenges me in ways I don't like-and ways I crave.

What started as a win turned into an obsession.

She says she doesn't want me. She says she can't trust me.

But she forgets-I'm not just here to collect what I'm owed.

I'm here to keep it.

Merciless Matchup is a standalone dark hockey romance featuring a possessive Russian hero, a thirty-day grumpy sunshine forced proximity deal, and a heroine caught between the man who betrayed her and the one willing to burn everything down for her. Guaranteed HEA. No cliffhanger.