Playing Hurt

An MM Hockey Romance
by Jace Wilder

Pairing: MM
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Scorching
Tropes: Age Gap, Forbidden Romance, Secret Relationship, Forced Proximity, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort

His hands can fix anything — except the way he feels about the captain.

Julian Miller is the Ice Lions’ best physical therapist — and the head coach’s son. He didn’t take this job to prove anything to his father. He took it because he’s damn good at what he does. When he’s assigned to rehab the team captain’s shoulder five nights a week, he knows the rules: stay professional, stay invisible, stay in the closet his father built for him.

Roman Vane is thirty-four, six-three, and the gravitational center of the franchise. He’s spent seventeen years turning his body into a weapon and his composure into a fortress. He doesn’t need a twenty-three-year-old PT with steady hands and dark eyes making him feel things he’s spent a lifetime not feeling.

But the treatment room is small. The sessions are late. And the thing building between them doesn’t care about Julian’s father, Roman’s captaincy, or the fact that one wrong move could end both their careers.

When a controlling coach discovers what’s happening behind closed doors, Julian and Roman must decide: protect the secret, or protect each other.

You’ll love this if you enjoy:

✓ Age gap (34/23) with a silver fox captain
✓ Forbidden romance — coach’s son × team captain
✓ Secret relationship with mounting stakes
✓ Forced proximity in late-night treatment sessions
✓ A slow burn that detonates spectacularly
✓ Scorching steam with emotional devastation

Playing Hurt is a high-heat MM hockey romance featuring a forbidden age-gap relationship, a controlling father, a captain who falls first, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

⚠️ Content Warning: This book contains explicit MM sexual content, an emotionally abusive parent, workplace power dynamics, homophobia, closeted anxiety, and graphic intimate scenes including praise kink, size difference, and emotional intensity. Heat level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️. Intended for readers 18+ only.

Read Chapter One

The New Assignment

The shoulder was a mess.

Julian traced his finger down the MRI on his screen, following the frayed edge of the supraspinatus like a map to someone else’s bad decisions. Partial-thickness tear, Grade II. The kind of injury that didn’t happen all at once — it accumulated. Years of repetitive overhead motion, inadequate rest, and the particular brand of stubbornness that convinced professional athletes they were immortal.

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. The clinic was quiet at four in the afternoon, the distant hiss of the ice resurfacer the only sound bleeding through the concrete walls of the Ice Lions’ training facility. His office smelled like antiseptic and the eucalyptus muscle rub Mara insisted on ordering in bulk, and Julian had long since stopped noticing either.

He pulled up the treatment notes from Dr. Adkins. Patient has been non-compliant with recommended rest protocol. Continues to play through discomfort. Recommend aggressive PT intervention, 5x/week minimum, until ROM is restored.

Non-compliant. Julian almost smiled. That was doctor-speak for this guy won’t stop doing the thing that’s destroying his body, so now it’s your problem.

He’d been working with the Ice Lions’ roster for four months. Long enough to learn the rhythms of the place — which players showed up on time, which ones needed to be hunted down, which ones cried during deep tissue work and pretended they didn’t. Long enough to prove he was good at his job. Long enough for the novelty of being Coach Miller’s son to wear off for everyone except Coach Miller himself.

Julian closed the MRI and opened a blank treatment plan template. He was halfway through mapping out a progressive loading protocol when a knock on the doorframe made him look up.

Mara leaned against the jamb, arms crossed, her dark hair pulled into the kind of effortless bun Julian had never once been able to replicate on anyone. She had the look on her face that meant she was about to deliver information she found personally entertaining.

“Got a reassignment for you,” she said.

“From who?”

“Adkins. He wants Vane moved to your caseload.” She paused, letting it land. “Full shoulder rehab. Late sessions — he doesn’t want it interfering with practice or team gym time.”

Julian kept his expression neutral. “I already have a full schedule.”

“I know. I’ll shift Patterson and Greer to the day rotation with me. Vane’s a priority case.” Mara tilted her head, studying him. “Problem?”

“No problem.”

“Good. Because the alternative was Briggs, and Briggs thinks rotator cuff rehab means ice and ibuprofen.”

“Briggs also thinks cupping works.”

“Exactly. So you’re up.” Mara pushed off the doorframe. “First session’s tonight. Seven-thirty. He’ll come to you.”

She said it casually — he’ll come to you — like it was a scheduling detail and not the fact that the captain of the entire franchise was going to walk into Julian’s ten-by-twelve treatment room and take his shirt off.

Continue reading → Get Playing Hurt now

🔥 Want an EXCLUSIVE Bonus Chapter?

“The Table” — A chapter-length scene TOO HOT for retailers

One year after the epilogue. Julian recreates their first session — same room, same table, same seven twenty-nine arrival. Except this time, the door locks. And the treatment plan has nothing to do with rehabilitation.

🔥 Read the Bonus Chapter →

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Playing Hurt spicy?

Yes! Heat level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (Scorching). The slow burn builds through weeks of late-night treatment sessions before exploding into explicit scenes. Expect praise kink, size difference, emotional intensity, and a captain who worships every inch of his PT.

Is this a sports romance?

Yes! Playing Hurt is set in the world of professional hockey. Roman Vane is the captain and defenseman for the Ice Lions, and Julian is the team’s physical therapist. The hockey setting drives the plot — the power dynamics, the secrecy, and the stakes are all tied to the franchise.

What’s the age gap?

Roman is 34, Julian is 23 — an eleven-year gap. Roman is the seasoned captain with silver at his temples. Julian is the brilliant young PT who’s been underestimated his whole life. The dynamic is everything.

Is there bonus content available?

Yes! There’s an exclusive bonus chapter set after the epilogue — Julian and Roman return to the treatment room where it all started, and things get very heated. Read it here.

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