Big Stick Energy

A Chicago Wind Novel
by Chase Power

📚 Free with Kindle Unlimited

Pairing: M/M
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Inferno
Tropes: Fake Dating, Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Sunshine, Size Difference (6’7″/5’6″), D/s Dynamics, Praise Kink, Hurt/Comfort, Secret Relationship, Touch Starvation

A viral moment. A fake relationship. A giant who kneels and the small king who commands him.

Silas “Cy” Thorne is 6’7″ of pure defenseman—and pure contradiction. On the ice, he’s a wall. Off the ice, he’s spent his entire life trying to disappear, hunching in doorways and hiding in showers because the world has always made him feel like too much. When a rookie’s livestream catches him in a compromising moment and the internet christens him #BigStickEnergy, Silas’s carefully constructed invisibility shatters overnight.

Julian Mercer is the Chicago Wind’s head of PR—5’6″ of razor-sharp precision, designer suits, and absolute control. He’s spent five years burying every emotion behind professionalism after a scandal nearly destroyed him. When Silas’s viral moment threatens to derail both their careers, Julian proposes the only solution that makes sense: a fake relationship to control the narrative.

The rules are simple. Public affection only. No catching feelings. And absolutely no one can know the truth.

But rules were made to be broken.

Behind closed doors, Julian discovers that the giant everyone fears craves something he’s never allowed himself to want: praise, guidance, and someone who sees past his size to the man underneath. And Silas learns that the pocket-sized PR king who controls boardrooms and press conferences has his own needs—needs that only someone willing to surrender can fulfill.

When the line between fake and real begins to blur, they’ll have to decide: protect their careers, or fight for a love that started with a lie but became the most honest thing either of them has ever known.

Big Stick Energy is a high-heat MM hockey romance featuring a touch-starved giant, a pocket-sized dom, praise kink that will make you blush, D/s dynamics, size difference taken to delicious extremes, and a happily ever after worth waiting for. Contains explicit content and two men learning that the best relationships are built on trust, communication, and knowing exactly when to kneel.

⚠️ Content Notes

This book contains explicit M/M sexual content including: D/s dynamics, praise kink, size difference, body worship, edging, light bondage references, and detailed intimate encounters. Also includes: discussions of body image issues, touch starvation, past emotional neglect, workplace scandal (off-page), and public declarations of love. All content is between consenting adults. Guaranteed HEA.

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Chapter One: The Leak

The water was too hot.

Silas knew this because his skin had gone from pink to an angry red somewhere around the ten-minute mark, and he was now pushing twenty. The steam had long since fogged over every surface in the shower area, turning the Chicago Wind’s state-of-the-art locker room into something closer to a sauna. His teammates had filtered out one by one—first the forwards who never shut up, then the other defensemen trading shit about someone’s girlfriend, and finally the equipment managers who’d learned years ago not to rush him.

Now it was just Silas and the scalding water and the blessed, echoing silence.

He tipped his head back, letting the spray pound against his chest. At six-foot-seven, he had to hunch slightly even under the industrial showerheads designed for professional athletes. Story of his life. Hunching in doorways. Hunching in airplane seats. Hunching at every family dinner until his mother stopped inviting him because he made the dining room feel “cramped.”

The shower didn’t care how tall he was. The shower didn’t measure him with its eyes, didn’t make jokes about the weather up there, didn’t assume he wanted to fight just because his shadow fell across someone’s face. The shower just… was.

Silas exhaled slowly, watching the water spiral toward the drain. Practice had been fine. Good, even. He’d blocked three shots that would’ve been goals, fed Kowalczyk a beautiful cross-ice pass that the old man somehow converted into a highlight reel save—

Thump.

Silas’s shoulders tensed. Footsteps. Voices. The locker room door swinging open with that distinctive hydraulic wheeze.

“—told you, bro, content is king. My agent says I need minimum three posts a day if I want the brand deals.” Bryce Morrison’s voice echoed off the tiles, far too loud for the space. “Day in the life stuff kills. People eat that shit up.”

Silas turned off the water and stood very still, hoping the steam would provide enough cover. Bryce was nineteen, fresh off his emergency call-up from the AHL, and seemingly incapable of existing without a phone in his hand. He wasn’t malicious—just young in that exhausting way that made Silas feel ancient at twenty-six.

“You think Coach will care?” That was Dmitri, one of the other rookies. “My old team had rules about filming in the locker room.”

“It’s just background stuff, bro. Establishing shots. I’m not pointing it at anyone’s dick.”

Silas closed his eyes. Just get to your locker. Towel. Clothes. Gone. You’ve done this a thousand times.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What’s with the size difference?
Silas is 6’7″ and Julian is 5’6″—over a foot of height difference. But here’s the twist: the giant is the one who kneels. This book plays with expectations and delivers a D/s dynamic where size has nothing to do with who’s in control.

Is the fake dating believable?
The fake relationship starts as pure PR strategy, but both men have needs they’ve been denying for years. The chemistry is instant, the denial is delicious, and watching them fall for real is half the fun.

How steamy is it?
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (5/5 flames). This book contains explicit content including D/s dynamics, praise kink, body worship, mirror scenes, phone sex, and reunion sex that will melt your e-reader.

Is there a happy ending?
Always. This is a romance novel—the HEA is guaranteed. Grand gesture, public declaration, proposal, and a future full of love (and very creative uses of size difference).

Do I need to read anything before this?
Nope! Big Stick Energy is a complete standalone in the Chicago Wind series. No cliffhangers, no prior reading required.

Who is Chase Power?
Chase Power writes high-heat MM romance featuring emotional depth, swoony moments, and guaranteed happy endings. Check out more titles here.