Listen Free: Breaking the Ice by Jace Wilder — Extended Audio Preview (Chapters 1–9)
He came out to his best friend. Three weeks later, his best friend kissed him in the kitchen — and changed the rest of both their lives.
If the closeted-athlete arc gets you every time — best friends to lovers, a decade of mutual pining neither man diagnosed, a coming-out story with real stakes and real support — clear your commute. This one’s a long, generous pour.
The latest episode of Fractal Enigma Audio Previews is live: the first nine chapters of Breaking the Ice by Jace Wilder, completely free, right in your earbuds. Over two and a half hours of audio.
What Is Fractal Enigma Audio Previews?
Think of it as a test drive for audiobooks. Every episode gives you a generous chunk of one of our novels in full audio, so you can climb into the story before you commit. Real chapters. Real narration. Real “it’s 2 a.m. and I’m replaying a fictional kitchen kiss.”
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Nine chapters — from a confession over takeout to the kiss that reframes ten years of friendship. Then we cut you off with both their careers on the line. (We’re not sorry.)
The secret. Mark Rothstein has spent ten years pretending to be straight. An NHL right wing traded out of a conservative organization that taught him exactly what his league thinks of men like him, Mark has kept the truth locked behind a game face — until the night he finally tells the one person he trusts.
The best friend. The confession is supposed to change nothing. His best friend says all the right things. Everything stays normal — for exactly three weeks. Then a quiet night, a kitchen, and a kiss neither of them planned rewrites a decade of history in about four seconds.
The fallout. Because it turns out “I support you” and “I’ve been in love with you” were never mutually exclusive — and now two men who know everything about each other have to figure out the one thing they never talked about, with a locker room, a league, and a media cycle waiting outside the door.
The burn. Nine chapters of mutual pining finally naming itself, secret-relationship tension, and a coming-out storyline with genuine found-family warmth. That’s where we leave you.
About the Book
Breaking the Ice is a 96,000-word MM hockey romance featuring:
✅ Best friends to lovers with ten years of history
✅ Coming out and closeted-athlete stakes handled with heart
✅ Bi awakening and mutual pining finally paying off
✅ Secret relationship, forced proximity, found family
✅ Praise kink and a slow burn at inferno heat 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
✅ Crossover characters from the Jace Wilder hockey universe
✅ HEA guaranteed
⚠️ Content note: This novel contains explicit MM sexual content, closeted-athlete stress and homophobia from specific characters, light bondage in the bonus chapter, and strong language. For readers 18+.
Ready for the Full Story?
The audio preview covers Chapters 1–9. The full novel takes Mark all the way to center ice — plus Wedding Night, an exclusive bonus chapter too hot for Amazon.
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Breaking the Ice is written by Jace Wilder and published by Fractal Enigma. Browse the full Jace Wilder catalog or explore all our books.
