Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com Fri, 06 Dec 2024 20:23:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.ilovenovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.ilovenovels.com 32 32 Coyotes Ever After (Colorado Coyotes #7) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/coyotes-ever-after-colorado-coyotes-7-read-online-brenda-rothert Fri, 06 Dec 2024 20:23:46 +0000 http://www.ilovenovels.com/coyotes-ever-after-colorado-coyotes-7-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Insta-Love, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 24377 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 122(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 81(@300wpm)

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The Colorado Coyotes series has come to an end...or has it?
Follow the Coyotes players and the women they love as they navigate life over the decade following the end of The Fall. The twelve main characters from the series each check in with a chapter from their point of view.
Through the highs and lows of marriage, family, hockey and life, the teammates’ bond only gets stronger with time.
Who got traded to a new team? Which couple has five children? Did Mila ever mellow out?
Get all the answers you didn’t know you needed in this heartwarming conclusion to the Colorado Coyotes series.

Please note that Coyotes Ever After is not a full-length novel. This novella is about half the length of the novels in the series.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

THREE YEARS AFTER THE END OF THE FALL

Stella

“Ahhhh!” I hike my leg up onto the back seat of Mila’s Range Rover. “Is it crowning? It has to be because this hurts like fuuuuuck!”

She gapes at me, her uniformed driver giving me an alarmed look in the rearview mirror as he presses his foot down on the gas pedal, speeding toward the hospital like a racecar driver.

“What? I’m not checking if that’s what you’re thinking.” She gives me her patented look that’s somehow a combination of disgust and indifference. “Just keep breathing. We’ll be at the hospital soon.”

On the one hand, I’m elated. Ben and I tried for almost a year to get pregnant the first time, and I lost the pregnancy at eight weeks. After I recovered, it took thirteen anxiety-inducing months to get pregnant again, and at thirty-nine weeks, it’s now safe for me to deliver our baby.

But I didn’t imagine it like this, with Ben in Tampa for a road trip, all flights out of the city grounded by a hurricane. When I realized I was in labor and frantically messaged the group chat for the Coyotes players and spouses, only Mila responded that she was on her way.

No Ben. No Cam. No Tess or Shelby. It’s just me and the team’s hotheaded Russian owner. Well, and her driver, Carl, who seems like a nice person but was not part of my carefully-designed birth plan.

“Look at my vagina!” I scream at Mila, frantic. “You have to guide the baby out if it’s crowning!”

She lowers her brows, scowling. “For fuck’s sake, Stella, it’s not crowning. This is your first baby and your contractions are still five minutes apart. I was in labor for nineteen hours with Anastasia and thirteen with Irina.”

I yell out a long, single syllable, about to lose my shit. This is the worst. Ben didn’t want to go on the road trip with me this pregnant, but he had no choice. So now contractions are ripping through my body and I don’t have my birth partner. Cam is my back up, and she’s trying to secure a babysitter so she can get to the hospital.

Angry tears spill from my eyes. “Mila, I swear to God, if you don’t look at my vagina right now, I will never forgive you! I’ve waited a long time for this baby and I’m scared.”

She shakes her head, her glare softening. “Fine. I’ll look. But I’m not touching your underwear.”

There’s a low, electric humming sound as Carl raises up the dark partition that separates the front and back seats of the car.

At least I’m not alone. Mila isn’t an outwardly warm person to anyone but her family. Her love language with everyone else involves writing checks, and she’s generous. She always tells her players to put family first, and she backs them up when they do.

I put my foot back on the car floor. My maternity pants have a loose elastic waistband, so I grab it and my underwear at the same time, grunting as I arch my hips up off the car seat to slide my clothes down.

“I’ll just...donate this car to charity or something,” Mila says crisply.

I’m in no mood.

“Fuck you, Mila,” I snap. “You’re the one who offered to take me to the...oh fuck! It’s another contraction! Get down there; you might need to deliver the baby!”

“Breathe, Stella.”

She helps me get my clothes from around my ankles. Moving one foot back up to the car seat, I pant and moan my way through a rising contraction as Mila gets to her knees on the floor.

“Jesus, I’ve never been this close to another woman’s vagina,” she mutters. “And I was right, the baby isn’t crowning. You’ll make it to the hospital just fine.”

“Oh God! It’s like someone’s stabbing me in the stomach with a machete!”

Mila moves back into her seat, answering her phone. “Hey...yeah, I’m taking her to the hospital.”

She moves her mouth away from the phone to talk to me. “Colby says Ben borrowed a car from a Tampa player and he’s driving to Atlanta to get a flight to Denver.”

“Ben,” I say frantically. “Can I talk to him?”

“Colby’s not with him, but he’s on his way.”

She goes back to the call. “Call Quentin and tell him to arrange a chartered flight for Ben...yeah, tell him to get a pilot on standby...thanks, love...okay, I will. Bye.”

I take a deep breath as the contraction winds down. “I have a birth plan. It’s in the planner in my bag.”

She laughs, genuinely amused. “I don’t get birth plans. You’re going to deliver a baby. What is there to plan?”

“Who will be in the room with me, whether I want an epidural, whether my pubic hair is shaved.”

She scoffs. “Did you read a birth planning book from the 1980s? They don’t shave women’s pubes anymore.”

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The Fall (Colorado Coyotes #6) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-fall-colorado-coyotes-6-read-online-brenda-rothert Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:05:01 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-fall-colorado-coyotes-6-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)

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My timing on the ice might be great, but when I asked Cameron Ellis out almost a year ago, it was weeks after she’d sworn off men for a year. I understand why she did it. Her past choices in men have been...well, awful, and she’s a single mom who wants to show her sons she doesn’t need a man to be happy.
So when I finally get her to agree to go out with me, I’m all in. Then my timing fails me again and I crash and burn on the date, blowing my chances with her.
I’m built for fun. Life taught me that loving people is just a set up for inevitable heartbreak. Problem is, my heart’s not doing so great now that Cam put me in the friend zone.
I have to win her back. She’s everything I never realized I not only want, but need. Showing her I’m not like every man who’s ever let her down will take more than just good timing. It’s going to take everything I’ve got.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Cam

“Where do you want this one?” Dom asks me, holding a box so tall I can’t see his face.

“Wherever the label says,” I murmur absently for at least the thirtieth time since moving day started this morning.

“It says Assorted Dildos, but I wasn’t sure if you liked to diddle yourself exclusively in your bedroom.”

“What?” I lunge toward the box, my cheeks warm with embarrassment.

Who wrote that on one of the moving boxes? My twin sons are smart and they love playing tricks on me, but surely they don’t know what a dildo is and how to spell it. They’re nine. That would be a huge mom fail.

I inspect the box, my future brother-in-law waiting patiently. There’s nothing written on it.

“Why are you like this?” I roll my eyes and shove his shoulder.

“If the box had a label that said which room it goes in, I’d put it there. I do have a few brain cells to work with.”

“You’re basically my third child. Put it in the kitchen.”

In the year my boys and I lived with Dom, my sister Tess and her two kids in Dom’s luxurious Denver house, I got to know Dom a lot better. Even when he annoys me, I love him to death. He’s so good to Tess. He’s good to all of us, but her especially.

“Hey,” Tess says as she walks through the front door. “Unpacking all this will take forever, you know. It’s not too late for us to just move it all back and forget this whole thing.”

I smile at her as she passes me a sandwich wrapped in white paper, having just returned from taking my boys Sam and Tate and my niece Hannah out for a late lunch. Tess has fought me every step of the way on moving out of Dom’s house. Even Dom said we should stay another year so I could save more money. He never charged me any rent to stay at his house, and being there while I finished my degree and started my new job took a lot of financial pressure off of me.

It was time, though. Dom and Tess have only been together for a little over a year, and my nephew Zane will be seventeen soon. With him leaving soon for college, I want them to have time to become a foursome.

As much as I love my sister, who is my best friend, my goal, as we both struggled to get by while I went to school part time, was to be financially secure and independent. To show my sons that their mom can and always will take care of them.

“It’s a solid idea, but I think we’ll stay,” I tell Tess.

She sighs dramatically. “I guess the rest of us will have to move in here, then.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

My new home is a neat three-bedroom ranch. It doesn’t compare to Dom’s, but it’s mine, and I’m able to give my boys something they’ve always wanted but never had—their own bedrooms.

“Seriously, you okay?” Tess asks me.

I meet her gaze and smile. She knows me better than anyone, so she knows that while this move is a good thing overall, I’m still haunted by memories of the reason we moved into Dom’s house in the first place. A guy I dated for a couple of months, Jake, stalked me. It was the most terrifying and helpless-feeling experience of my life.

Jake is in prison now, but it’s still scary to be moving out of Dom’s house, which has a top-notch security system. And also...Dom. Even though, as a pro hockey player, he’s on the road a lot, he was the one who caught Jake when Jake was prowling around his house.

I shove aside the unwanted thoughts, reminding myself I’ve moved on.

“Hey, pass me that one.”

My heart beats faster at the sound of the deep male voice as Dom’s teammates Rowan and Beck walk through the open front doorway.

Tess squeaks and practically runs toward the kitchen. She knows I have a thing for Rowan and she wants to give us a chance to talk alone.

“Come on, Boni, let’s go play in my room,” my son Sam says as he leads Dom’s Great Dane into the house. The twins adore Boni, and Dom told them Boni could spend the first night in our new house with them.

“You’re supposed to be unpacking your room,” I remind my son.

“I will.”

Rowan approaches me with a smile, carrying several stacked pizza boxes. “Hey, are you hungry?”

The chastising look I mean to give him probably looks more like an adoring gaze. “You didn’t have to do that. I was going to get pizza for you guys.”

“Beat you to it.” He winks. “You should take a break; you’ve been on your feet all day.”

“I’m going to.” I scan the dozens of packed moving boxes stacked in the living room, feeling overwhelmed. “Soon.”

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The Face-Off (Colorado Coyotes #5) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-face-off-colorado-coyotes-5-read-online-brenda-rothert Sat, 30 Mar 2024 18:33:56 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-face-off-colorado-coyotes-5-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Chick Lit, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 49239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)

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It was an average day in my above-average life: wake up hungover with a woman I just met, part ways, then drive to the arena for a home game with my pro hockey team. But when my car breaks down on the highway, a stunning waitress named Tess pulls over and surprises me by easily fixing it.
Great little detour in my routine, right? It would’ve been if her kid hadn’t lifted my wallet. Now I have to find Tess and get it back. When I discover that the money’s gone, Tess insists that her son work off the debt to me. And the more I get to know the spirited single mom and her hilarious family, the more I find myself at a crossroads. I’m in a personal face-off: The man I’ve always been vs. the man I want to be for Tess and her kids.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Dom

* * *

“Get up, asshole,” a female voice grumbles. Something hard and pointy hits me in the head and I swat the air aimlessly, eyes screwed shut.

I groan and lift my head from the pillow. Horrible idea. It’s pounding so hard I drop it right back down.

But the high-pitched voice is relentless. “I have to go to work and you’re not staying here.”

Shifting, I force myself to sit up. I squint against the sun pouring into the bedroom, which has yellow-and-white everything. Fuck. My head. How much did I drink last night? And why did an angry woman just throw...a shoe at me?

“Coffee,” I manage to say, sliding out of bed and checking the floor for my clothes.

They’re not there. I look down and find I’m still dressed, which is just weird. The last time I woke up in a woman’s bed fully clothed was...never.

“Buy your own coffee, fuckface.” The woman, a tight blond in a low-cut blouse, sneers at me. “The only reason I let you sleep here was because I couldn’t push your ass out of my bed once you passed out.”

Some of last night comes back to me. Her name is Lauren. We met at Mountain Top, a local bar. We were both there with friends—mine were all teammates and hers were all hot chicks hoping to hook up with a hockey player.

I lower my brows, confused. “Wait, we didn’t...?”

She laughs and crosses her arms. “Not even close. We walked in the front door and then you staggered in here and passed out in my bed. After puking on one of my houseplants.”

I nod, looking down. So that’s how much I drank. “Sorry about that.”

She shakes her head, disgusted. “Just get out. I’m going to be late for work.”

Work. Shit. My eyes widen as I frantically search the room for a clock. “What time is it?”

It’s a home game day, and I was supposed to set my alarm before I went to sleep last night.

“It’s time for you to get the fuck out of here.”

“For fuck’s sake⁠—”

She loses it. “It’s 8:12 a.m.! And I’m exhausted because you snored all night long. Get. Out!”

When she raises another shoe in the air, I shield my head with an arm and head toward the front door to her apartment.

Damn. She must have been some kind of horny last night to be this pissed off.

“Might as well take this with you. It’s ruined.” She picks up a plant in a shiny blue pot and shoves it into my arms. “There’s a dumpster behind the building. Just toss this on top of my hopes for a good time last night.”

I recoil, the smell of stale vomit making my stomach turn. “You don’t have to be so dramatic.”

“I’ve had that plant for three years!”

I wrap my left arm around the plant’s pot, turning away from the smell as I dig in my pocket for my wallet. I take it out and manage to pull out two fifties, passing them to her.

“Is that enough to replace it?”

She swipes the money and opens the door, glaring at me. “It’s fine. Have a nice life.”

My throat burns with dryness as I slink away, holding the plant as far away from my face as possible as I take the stairs down to the first floor. After dropping the plant in the dumpster, I call an Uber and walk around to the front of the building.

I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a while now, not sleeping well on the road and staying out too late when I’m home. But it’s still not like me to pass out before I feed the kitty.

Must’ve been all the vodka shots we drank to celebrate our teammate Sergei’s return from an injury. I’ll never admit it out loud, but hard liquor packs a meaner punch at age thirty-two than it did at age twenty-two.

I’m going to be late no matter what at this point. I was supposed to be at practice at eight a.m. at the college arena our team is using while our new one is under construction. At least it’s not a road trip day. If I’d missed a flight, Coach would have ripped me a new one.

It’s October, so I can still get by with just a T-shirt and a flannel, even though it’s a little chilly this morning while I wait for my ride. I’d give my left nut for a cup of coffee, but I don’t have time.

My Uber driver is jamming out to some shitty New Age music on the drive to Mountain Top, where I left my car, so I use the time to check my socials and text my teammate Rowan.

Dom: Running late. Cover for me if you can.

Rowan: I’ll try.

Dom: You feel like death walking this morning? Or is that just me?

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The Imposter (Colorado Coyotes #4) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-imposter-colorado-coyotes-4-read-online-brenda-rothert Sun, 14 Jan 2024 20:20:47 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-imposter-colorado-coyotes-4-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 52813 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)

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The secret to being the best man at your twin brother’s wedding to the woman you’ve been in love with since you were an awkward adolescent? There are two, actually: a solid game face and a bottle of strong whiskey.
What to do when things implode the night before the wedding and aforementioned dream girl asks you to stand in as the groom, though? Say yes, of course, and wing it. Don’t let it slip that you weren’t faking that kiss that left her dazed and breathless and definitely don’t mention that it’s no hardship at all to pretend she’s your wife for a weeklong honeymoon in Hawaii. And when you run into two of your hockey teammates at the resort, let them believe you lost your mind and married someone you’ve never even mentioned to them.
When she starts to have feelings for you, though? This part’s important—don’t, under any circumstances, confess that you’ve been in love with her for more than a decade. You’ll ruin everything.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Stella

* * *

“Stella, repeat after me.”

I nod, my heart racing. I’m going to nail these vows. I won’t miss a single word. Vow perfection right around the corner here.

“I, Stella McGovern, take you, Owen Hogan, to be my lawfully wedded husband,” Claire says.

I repeat the words. “I, Stella McGovern, take you, Owen Hogan, to be my lawfully wedded husband.”

“To ride and to blow, in richness and wealth”

I scowl at my best friend and maid of honor. “You’re an asshole. I’m going to punch you in the tit so hard it swells up and you have to walk down the aisle with imbalanced tits tomorrow. I hope you fall over.”

She shrugs, sitting down on the bed in our hotel room with her phone. “As long as Ben is the one who picks me up, I’ll offer up my tit in sacrifice.”

Claire and I met at our freshman orientation day at Michigan State University when both of us were lost, and from the day she first met my fiancé Owen’s identical twin brother Ben our sophomore year, she’s been trying to get him in bed. To no avail. Now that’s he’s Owen’s best man in our wedding, she’s like a dog with a bone.

“Ben’s not a one-night stand guy, I’ve told you that a million times,” I remind her.

“I’ll take Tyler or Amir.” She taps the tip of her index finger on her chin. “Or better yet, Tyler and Amir.”

“Amir is married.” I lean a hip against the console the TV is sitting on. “And can we possibly return the focus to how I’m going to get these vows right?”

Her expression softens. “Honey, you just repeat after the pastor. Why are you so stressed?”

“Ever since my asshole brother told me to make sure I don’t say ‘cock’ during my vows, I can’t stop worrying that I’m going to say it.”

Claire laughs lightly. “You won’t say cock. And even if you do, you’ll still be married to the love of your life at the end of the ceremony.”

I shake my head and pinch the bridge of my nose, wishing Owen was here to give me a hug.

“I want this wedding to be perfect for my mom.”

Silence hangs in the air for a few seconds. Claire knows better than anyone how hard I’ve worked to make the wedding special for my mom. Mom’s been fighting breast cancer for five years now and she doesn’t have much longer. Owen and I moved our wedding up from September to May after the doctors told us my mom won’t be here in September.

“Stella,” Claire says softly.

I wipe the tears from my cheeks and meet ger gaze.

“You’re marrying Owen. The boy who walked you home from the bus and carried your backpack every day since sixth grade. The man who drove ten hours after staying up all night studying for a law school exam to be in the front row at your grad school graduation next to your mom. As long as you’re married to him at the end, the wedding will be perfect for her.”

A sob escapes my throat and I bury my face in my hands. It’s been a year since I graduated with my MBA, but I’ve just been working part-time gigs so I can take care of my mom. The doctors told us she probably has around four weeks left, making my wedding bittersweet.

She’ll be there. My dad passed away when I was a sophomore in high school, so my dream of him walking me down the aisle can’t come true, but my mom will get to see me marry Owen, the boy she’s known since our family moved in a few houses down from his when I was eight.

“We’re gonna need lots of that eye de-puffing stuff before the rehearsal dinner,” I say, smiling even as I blot tears with my shirt sleeve.

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The Proposal (Colorado Coyotes #3) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-proposal-colorado-coyotes-3-read-online-brenda-rothert Mon, 02 Oct 2023 05:17:11 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-proposal-colorado-coyotes-3-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Erotic, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 52355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)

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The Proposal is the third book in the Colorado Coyotes series.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Mila

“You did it.”

Peter Cline, the lead attorney for the Colorado Coyotes, picks up the glass of champagne my assistant Quentin poured for him and holds it up.

“We did it,” I say, looking around at the group of Coyotes employees gathered in my office. “I can’t thank you enough for sticking with me during the past two years. Today is for celebrating, but tomorrow we’ll get back to work rebuilding.”

As everyone else raises their champagne flutes for a toast, I lift a thick shot glass of Stoli, the celebratory drink of choice in my family. The glass belonged to my grandfather and is one of my most prized possessions.

Deda was born into a poor Russian family and he made himself into a billionaire with his own blood and sweat. No tears, though, because that would be weak.

“Sorry I’m late,” says Ron Maddox as he walks into my office. He’ss the head coach of the Colorado Coyotes, the professional hockey team I own. “Did you get it?”

“We got it!”

He pumps his fist in the air. “Yes! I don’t know how you pulled that off, Mila, but you did a damn good job. How much did you get?”

“All of it. The last $25 million.”

It’s been more than two years since the Shapiro Center was destroyed due to multiple facility explosions, killing twenty-two people. The investigation into the explosions took nearly a year and were eventually ruled as accidents—one caused by faulty wiring and the other caused by fire from the first explosion reaching chemicals in a storage room.

Our team has been sharing the home ice of a local community college’s hockey team, which has eaten into our bottom line significantly because of the much smaller seating capacity. We wanted our new arena to be the biggest and the best in the league, which meant acquiring property and financial assistance from the city of Denver. It’s been a bureaucratic nightmare, every milestone wrapped in red tape.

But today, I got the call from one of our state senators that we’re getting a state grant worth $25 million to cover the last of the funding.

“How’d you get the governor to cave?” Peter asks me.

“He didn’t. I went around him.”

Our state’s governor, Mike Mills, was behind many of the roadblocks I ran into as I tried to secure funding for the new arena. I bet on the wrong horse in the last election, giving heavy financial backing to the incumbent governor. Now Mills wants my head.

Coach Maddox shakes his head and grins in my direction. “Balls of steel, Mila.”

I’ll be the first to admit, it was a hell of a fight. It’s well known that I’m not self-made; my father is a Russian billionaire with a well-deserved reputation for ruthlessness who gave me the money I used to start my business career.

But no matter how many times I multiply that money, I’m still seen as the entitled daughter of a criminal. I put as much distance between myself and my father as I could as a teenager, but even now, at age thirty, it’s always his reputation that precedes me rather than my own.

“Do you want me to ask the PR department to put together a press release?” Quentin asks me.

“No,” I say, remembering the caveat for receiving the grant for the new arena. “Everyone, can I have your attention for just a second? This is really important.” The room quiets. “We are not authorized to announce this. There will be a press conference held by Senator Shumaker’s office and we’ll need everyone to attend. The politicians want us to kiss the ring over this money, and we’re going to.”

“You got it, boss,” Coach Maddox says.

People start to filter out of the room, returning to work. It’s late morning, and I have a full day scheduled.

But first, I get to sneak out of my office for my favorite part of the workday.

There’s a corner of the press booth at the community college’s arena where I can sit out of sight to watch the team practice. The college team practices early and our team gets the ice later in the morning, but several college players usually hang around to watch or take part in drills with our team.

I’ve loved hockey since I was a little girl. I was sent to a Swiss boarding school, but when I came home for breaks, my father would sometimes play ice hockey with me and my brothers. It was the only time I saw him smile and have fun.

Now I get to sign some of the best players in the world to play on the team I own. Ford Barrett is a recent acquisition I’m especially proud of. He’s our team captain and is part of the first offensive line. Beau Fox and Colby Harrison round out the first line, and I’d put them up against any first line in the league.

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The Opponent (Colorado Coyotes #2) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-opponent-colorado-coyotes-2-read-online-brenda-rothert Sun, 09 Jul 2023 00:33:26 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-opponent-colorado-coyotes-2-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Alpha Male, College, Contemporary, Sports Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)

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Ford

As the new captain of the Colorado Coyotes, there’s a heavy weight on my shoulders. The Coyotes lost five players last season to a tragic arena explosion, and as the new team leader, I want to be a rock for my teammates. That includes battling my new neighbor Eleanor Lawrence, the Denver newspaper columnist who’s on a mission to end the city’s pro hockey team for good. Do I want her? Desperately. But we’re on opposing sides of a war I don’t intend to lose.

Elle

I’m in no danger of being charmed by Ford Barrett. My new neighbor is a caveman—not remotely my type. He may be attractive, but he’s also stubborn and permanently scowling. Even worse? He dropped a couch on my foot. The more we spar, though, the hotter my secret attraction to him burns. Once I give in to the possessive hockey player, lines get blurred.
I want to win, but I also want him. And I can’t have both.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Ford

“Horseshit,” my teammate Dom muttered, setting his PS5 controller on my coffee table. “Three out of five?”

He’d lost another round of Call of Duty, and I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t quit until he won at least one.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said, standing up. “Want to go for a run?”

“Let’s order pizza first.”

I shook my head. “I’m not eating half a pizza before a run, man.”

“I’m not running on an empty stomach,” he countered. “We already worked out today anyway; stop being such an overachiever.”

Dominic Locke was one of those hockey players who was born with natural talent. He didn’t have to work as hard as the rest of us. He was also twenty-three years old to my twenty-eight. I’d learned over the years that the hardest workers were the ones who had the longest pro careers.

“Our home opener is tomorrow night,” I reminded Dom.

“Better rest up for it then, right.” His phone dinged with a notification then, and he picked it up, looking down at the screen and grinning. “Sadie’s angling for a nooner. You can go for your run, I’ll go meet up with her, and then we can get back to the game.”

I wanted to argue with him, but I forced myself not to. As team captain, I had to walk a fine line between being the team leader and staying friends with my teammates. The pressure was on, though. I was one of five players who had been acquired by the Colorado Coyotes after a devastating explosion leveled their arena last year and killed not just five players, but seventeen other people, too.

How would I lead the team back onto the ice for the first game after such a massive tragedy? We were playing on a Denver college hockey team’s home ice, which was also our home ice for now.

“I’m done with video games for today,” I said. “I have to stop by the arena and I’m going over to Coach’s house early.”

Our head coach, Steve Maddox, was hosting a cookout for the whole team and their families tonight. Since I was flying solo, I’d told him I’d show up early to help him and his wife get things ready.

“I want a rematch soon,” he said.

“I’ll whoop your ass as many times as you want, son.”

He flipped me off and stood up. “I’ll catch you later.”

I was already wearing tennis shoes and shorts, so I pulled off my T-shirt since I was going for a run and grabbed my phone, keys, and headphones from the kitchen counter. I followed Dom out the front door, locking it behind me.

“Ang, no! It’s too big. It won’t fit!”

“That’s what she said,” Dom murmured to me as he checked out the two women trying to get a recliner through the front door of the townhouse next door to mine.

One of them was a tiny woman with a dark bun on top of her head, and the other was tall with shoulder-length blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. She wore shorts and a tank top, showing off her long, shapely legs and—I angled my head slightly for a closer look—nice round tits. I forced my gaze to her face, which was pretty. Damn, I hoped she was the one moving in.

“Hey, can we help with that?” I asked, also hoping these two were platonic roommates and not a couple.

“We’re perfectly capable, thank you,” the blond said, her voice strained.

The other one rolled her eyes. “Please help. We are not capable of moving this beast.”

I set down my stuff and approached the blond, saying, “Let me get it.”

After a couple seconds of hesitation, she nodded and said, “Thanks.”

Dom took the other side, both women breathing sighs of relief.

“Hey, I think if we turn it and put the back in first, it’ll fit,” I said to Dom.

“Yep.”

We flipped the chair and got it through the doorway, the blond following us inside the apartment.

“Where do you want it?” I asked her.

Dom snickered and I gave him a warning look.

“Oh, anywhere is fine,” she said with a wave of her hand.

Her townhouse was similar to mine. It even had the same hardwood flooring in the living room. As Dom moved to set the chair down, I shook my head.

“This could scratch the floor,” I said. “You don’t want to scoot it once you decide where to move it. Tell us where you want it.”

“Oh.” She frowned, a little wrinkle appearing between her brows. “That’s a good point. How about in that corner?”

We carried it to the corner she’d pointed to and gently set it down. The dark-haired woman walked in carrying a box, breezing past us. I didn’t see anyone else in the apartment.

I turned to the blond. “Do you have anyone else helping you move?”

Her note of laughter was unamused. “My moving company cancelled on me yesterday, and my old landlord has someone moving into my former apartment tomorrow, so it’s just me and Sam.”

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The Donor (Colorado Coyotes #1) Read Online Brenda Rothert http://www.ilovenovels.com/the-donor-colorado-coyotes-1-read-online-brenda-rothert Sat, 15 Oct 2022 22:38:50 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-donor-colorado-coyotes-1-read-online-brenda-rothert Genre: Contemporary, Sports, Virgin Authors: Brenda Rothert Series: Colorado Coyotes Series by Brenda Rothert
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Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)

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“I want your sperm.”

Those were Shelby Grant’s first words to me. Didn’t even want me to buy her a drink first. See, Shelby isn’t like other women. After researching Denver’s most eligible bachelors in search of her ideal sperm donor, she chose me.

As a pro hockey player, I’m used to women wanting things from me, but my swimmers? That’s a new one. Somehow, though, with her color-coded parenting plan, sales pitch and contract, Shelby sells me on the idea. After my donation, she doesn’t want anything more to do with me.

I can’t seem to stay away, though. As her belly grows and I get to know the tightly wound mom-to-be, I get attached.

Shelby’s jaded about men and I’m not looking to settle down. There are countless reasons why crossing the contractual line between us is a bad idea.

But once Shelby gives birth to our child, all bets are off. Whether I planned for it or not, I have a family now, and I’m not letting go without a fight.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

CHAPTER ONE

Shelby

It started with a kiss. Or more accurately, with a screaming baby.

An hour ago, I was immersed in a state Supreme Court opinion on local ordinance enforcement, a Schubert vinyl record serving as the soundtrack for my home office. Soon, though, the only thing I heard was the racket coming through the wall of the apartment above mine. It wasn’t just your average crying baby—it was a shrieking, incredibly pissed off baby.

I told myself to focus. Get in the zone and tune out the noise. I’d somehow gotten through contractors reroofing the neighboring building last fall, hadn’t I?

The contractors didn’t wail, though. I would have preferred an incessant alarm clock to the baby upstairs, and I couldn’t say the same for the nonstop hammering. My god, the absolute lung capacity of that child.

Glaring at the ceiling, I yelled, “Enough, already!” and started reading a paragraph of the opinion for the fourth time. I’d budgeted exactly enough time to finish this job and start my next one on time, but thanks to my new neighbors, I was going to have to work this weekend.

The baby’s cries were turning from angry to mournful, and I frowned at my computer screen. What if my new neighbors were trash humans who had abandoned the baby? Clearly someone wasn’t taking care of it.

I stood up, scolding myself for waiting an entire hour to go up there. The kid couldn’t feed itself, after all. This had to be a problem with the blond twentysomething with a pixie cut I’d seen carrying boxes up the stairs a week ago, or her partner. Whoever it was, they were about to get an earful from me.

Grabbing the keys to my apartment, I walked out the front door, locking it behind me, and stormed up the stairs, stomping my feet on each one to show Blondie how annoying loud neighbors could be.

If she was even there. I pounded on the door of apartment five, vowing to kick it open and go help the baby if no one answered within a minute.

“You’ve got thirty seconds,” I yelled at the closed door. “Then I break it down!”

The door flew open, and Blondie gave me a wild-eyed look, cradling the crying baby in her arms while bouncing up and down gently.

“Break it down?” She looked me up and down. “With what, your hands?”

This bitch. I shook my head.

“More importantly,” I said sharply, “I work from home. And I can’t focus with your kid screaming at the top of its lungs.”

I crossed my arms and held her gaze, waiting for her to go on the defensive. Instead, she surprised me, her shoulders sinking.

“She’s not my kid, and I don’t know shit about babies. My friend had to rush to the hospital because her dad had a heart attack, and she couldn’t find a sitter, so…I’m sorry.”

An hour of built-up rage drained out of me in an instant.

“Try feeding her,” I suggested. “Or changing her.”

“I’ve tried every single thing on Josie’s list, and nothing is helping. I fed her, changed her, walked around with her, talked to her…”

“Well, can’t you just…rock her or something?” I asked.

“I’ve rocked her while sitting, while standing, and while walking. I even turned on some Soundgarden and tried rocking while rocking. Nothing.”

I rolled my eyes. “You tried to soothe a baby with Soundgarden?”

“I’m desperate. Got any better ideas?”

I frowned at her, because yes, I did. “Brahms?”

“Are they on Spotify?”

I was twenty-eight, and ashamed of my generation. Shoving my keys into the pocket of my cardigan, I sighed softly.

“Look, I have some music that might help. Why don’t you bring—” I gestured at the infant and Blondie interjected.

“Iris. This is Iris, and I’m Marlowe.”

Iris unleashed her fury again, the noise deafening.

“I’m Shelby,” I said loudly. “Let’s go. Like right now.”

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