TA: Thanks for inviting us to stop by and chat about Burning Up the Ice, Book 5 in our International Men of Sports series. This whole series is a labor of love for Devon and me.

Devon: We first came up with the series idea at GayRomLit 2012 in Albuquerque, laying in bed one night brainstorming. That turned into a handful of notes on hotel stationery and Starbucks napkins…and now we have six novels done, the original six that we plotted out that GRL.

TA: When Devon and I were picking countries to write about and we decided on Canada,of course, our minds went straight to hockey. But then Devon suggested curling since it is a huge sport in Canada as well. Then we thought, why not do both a hockey player and a curler?

Once that was decided, I immediately said I’d take the hockey player because I have no clue what’s happening during a curling match. And to be honest, even after reading the book and doing a little research on my own, I still have no clue. It’s interesting to watch, but to really know what’s going on…I’d need a lot of help.Now, hockey is a sport I adore and love to watch as much as I can. The Detroit Red Wings are my team, but heck, I’ll watch just about any game if it’s on.

Devon: I love hockey, too, and grew up in the family that loved it. I’ve also curled before. My dad family lives in Rhode Island, and they have a pond in their backyard that freezes over in the winter. I remember they’d freeze a penny into the ice to serve as ‘the button’ and had curling stones in the basement. Of course, it wasn’t serious curling like in the Olympics or in the leagues in our book, but at least I had some idea of what it was about! J We had a great time writing two characters who love winter sports.

TA: Writing with Devon is so much fun. We’ve come to believe that we were meant to write together because we’re so often on the same wavelength.

Devon: Yes, we call it the ‘hive mind’ and it’s almost scary how often we think of the same thing at the same time! That comes in handy while we’re writing because neither of us does a lot of plotting ahead of time.

 

Author bios:

Devon Rhodes:

At 39 and holding, Devon finally figured out the best way to channel her midlife crisis was to morph from mild-mannered stay-at-home mom to erotic romance writer.

She lives in Oregon with her family, who are (mostly) understanding of all the time she spends on her laptop, aka the black hole.

www.devonrhodes.com

 

TA Chase:

I’m T.A. Chase, and I write stories about men loving men, but my stories are more than that. It’s about one person finding the other half of themselves. It doesn’t matter whether that person is male or female. I’ve been writing for six years now, and because of my awesome readers, I’ve been able to do it full time for over a year.

www.tachase.com

 

Burning Up the Ice Blurb:

Two men, two very different sports and one rink—sharing ice has never been so hot.

Olivier ‘Big Bang’ St Pierre is back in his hometown while he recovers from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hockey’s a contact sport—still, he didn’t count on the locker room being dangerous. As a professional hockey player, he also didn’t count on it being hard to find ice time. But when a rink shuts down unexpectedly in a winter-sport-crazy town, even being a big name won’t help as people scramble for whatever they can get.

The first time Ethan Campbell hears from the local hockey legend he knew as a kid, Olivier manages to insult both his family’s rink and his new sport—curling. So he’s not exactly receptive when Olivier shows up in person to plead his case. He makes a sarcastic offer…and is shocked when Olivier takes him up on it. Ethan’s bad experience with hockey had left him cold. But soon he and Olivier are burning up the ice.

Ethan is tied to his town, job and family, while Olivier will be going back to Chicago to rejoin his team as soon as he’s able. It can’t possibly last…can it?

Excerpt:

Olivier cautiously approached the machine. Ethan decided to put him out of his misery and proceed as though he was a newbie—which he clearly was.

“Okay, why don’t you climb into the seat and we’ll start her up.”

Olivier levered himself up into the seat with a hint of a smile and ran his hands over the steering wheel as he checked out all of the controls. “Um…”

Ethan jumped in with, “So to start her up, turn the key over to the left…” He watched as Olivier followed his instruction. “Then press and hold the ignition—the button right over the key—until the engine catches.” He leaned to point, and Olivier gave Ethan a quick glance then did as instructed. His grin bloomed as the engine rumbled to life.

“Let go now,” Ethan added, then considered how they were going to do this. The seat was made for one person. When his dad had taught him and his sister to run the machine, they’d sat on his lap. He could technically stand back on the conditioner while Olivier drove, but that wouldn’t help with teaching the steering pattern…

Well, here goes nothing.

Quit fronting, he taunted himself. You totally want to sit on Olivier’s lap and you know it.

He swung himself up and onto a shocked Olivier’s lap in one smooth move, wriggling just a bit to get his weight settled mostly on Olivier’s uninjured leg. “Is this okay?”

Olivier was motionless, his hand suspended in mid-air, then he cleared his throat. “Fine.”

“Because I don’t want to hurt you,” Ethan prompted, not above a little teasing. “A Zamboni injury might be hard to explain to your PT.”

The tension seemed to drain from Olivier and he gingerly placed a hand on Ethan’s upper thigh, which of course meant that every bit of tension immediately sprung up in parts of Ethan that he had little control over.

Think cold thoughts.

“Okay, so rev up the RPMs for a bit to twenty-five or so to get her warmed up, make sure she’ll stay running, then we’ll put her into gear.” He indicated the right control. “There’s just forward and reverse. No clutch—it’s basically like an automatic transmission car.” He thought for a second. “Or a golf cart. A big golf cart,” he amended when Olivier snorted.

When it was in gear, Ethan had Olivier drive slowly forward to the makeshift ramp over the edge of the ice, then they were on the rink. He explained how to manoeuvre the hydraulic controls so that the blade was where he liked it and they were ready to resurface.

“Drive over towards the far net.” He pointed. “We’ll do a pass alongside the nets down the middle of the ice, then we’ll stop and scoot the nets over so we can go down the middle.”

There was a huff of warm breath against Ethan’s neck that sent shivers straight to his groin. When he carefully glanced back, the joy on Olivier’s face sent another zing through him.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Olivier admitted and gave another laugh that tickled at Ethan’s skin.

His cock began to stiffen in response to the heady combination of Olivier’s proximity, his warmth and his sheer enjoyment in something that Ethan took for granted. He was both disappointed and relieved when they needed to climb down to move the nets. Once they had, Ethan could have just let Olivier fly solo—he obviously had it down by now and it wasn’t exactly rocket science to begin with—but a hedonistic part of him clamoured for any excuse to be that close to the hockey player.

Especially after Olivier got himself back into the seat then patted his lap invitingly.

No way he could resist.

Olivier knew the pattern to follow—he’d probably watched maintenance crews drive it a kazillion times in his life—but had a hard time gauging when to start the turns. All in all, he was doing fairly well and Ethan had laughed when Olivier had ‘fessed up to having studied videos to try to pull it off. Olivier steered with his arms around Ethan as he taught him the most efficient pattern to cover all of the ice. They finished up and Olivier eased off the gas.

“Looks like we’re about done,” he observed unnecessarily, his voice husky and a bit lower than normal.

Ethan reflexively looked back over his shoulder. Pressed by necessity right up against his warm, solid form, riding his good leg, Ethan was struck hard by that wide smile just inches away…

Their lips came together and it was hard to say who had closed the infinitesimal gap between them. At first they were still, merely sharing shallow breaths, but Ethan needed more. His craned his neck back so that his lips slid across Olivier’s to the corner of his mouth, inviting pursuit. And pursue Olivier did. He embraced Ethan and turned him on his lap so they could fit their mouths fully together at the perfect angle. The shift meant that Ethan could now feel a promising ridge beneath his ass. He experimentally rocked against it and Olivier groaned, opening his mouth. Ethan rewarded the move by deepening the kiss. The sleek brush of Olivier’s tongue against the inside of his lip enticed him to respond. He gently stroked into Olivier’s mouth, tasting the silky, warm skin inside.

He couldn’t believe this was happening, right here on the Zamboni with Olivier St Pierre. Oh my God, is he gay?

Buy Link: https://www.totallybound.com/burning-up-the-ice

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