She was America's sweetheart. He was hockey's favorite disaster.
Freya Olsen has spent her whole life being perfect.
Olympic figure skater. Beautiful fiancée. Brand-safe good girl. One half of America's favorite ice-skating love story.
The problem is, the love story is a lie.
Behind the engagement ring, the magazine covers, and the carefully managed smiles, Freya's life belongs to everyone but her. Her mother wants a pregnancy announcement. Her fiancé wants seven more years of pretending. The public wants the fairy tale.
Then Rhys Warner overhears the truth.
Tattooed, reckless, and impossible to control, Rhys is the Falcons' most dangerous hockey player - a bad decision in skates, with a reputation almost as bruised as his knuckles. He should be the last man Freya lets near her.
Instead, he becomes the first man who wants her for real.
One dinner becomes a secret.
One secret becomes a scandal.
And when the cameras catch fire, Freya has to decide whether losing the story everyone loved is the only way to finally become herself.
The Real Thing is a spicy standalone age-gap hockey romance featuring a figure-skating princess, a tattooed bad-boy hockey player, first times, forbidden heat, public scandal, and a hard-won happily ever after.
