Sin Bin
A Chicago Sentinels Novel
by Rowan Black
📖 Free with Kindle Unlimited
Pairing: MF
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Inferno
Series: Chicago Sentinels #2
Tropes: Fake Dating, Grumpy/Sunshine, Found Family, He Falls First, Neurodivergent Rep
He’s the hockey player with a secret he’s hidden for thirty years. She’s the crisis manager hired to save his career. When fake dating becomes real feelings, they’ll discover that the biggest risk isn’t the scandal—it’s falling in love.
Tommy Catalano is Chicago’s favorite party boy—the charming center with a smile for every camera and a reputation for trouble. But when a viral video captures him punching a fan, his career hangs by a thread. The team’s ultimatum: work with a crisis manager or get traded to Arizona. What no one knows is that behind the cocky grin, Tommy hides a secret that’s haunted him his entire life. He can barely read, and the literacy foundation ambassadorship they’ve assigned him might expose everything.
Elena Ricci doesn’t do chaos. With her color-coded binders and meticulous spreadsheets, she’s rebuilt reputations others wrote off as unsalvageable. But Tommy Catalano is her biggest challenge yet—unpredictable, infuriating, and determined to sabotage every strategy she creates. When a reporter suggests that a relationship would rehabilitate his image, Elena proposes a fake dating arrangement. Professional. Strategic. Completely under control.
Except nothing about Tommy is under control. He crashes into Elena’s carefully constructed walls, makes her laugh when she’s trying to be professional, and looks at her like she’s something worth keeping. When his secret comes out and everything falls apart, they’ll both have to decide: is love worth the risk of getting hurt?
In a game where everyone’s playing defense, the most dangerous move is letting someone see the real you.
You’ll love this if you enjoy:
✓ Party boy hockey player x uptight crisis manager
✓ “This is just fake” to “I can’t live without you”
✓ He falls first and falls HARD
✓ Found family with loud Italian relatives
✓ Dyslexia representation with HEA
✓ Protective hero who learns to ask for help
✓ Charity gala confession + hospital scene that’ll make you cry
✓ Guaranteed HEA with wedding epilogue
⚠️ Content Warning
This book contains explicit MF sexual content including: multiple detailed intimate scenes, possessive/claiming behavior, praise kink, and intense emotional themes. Themes include dyslexia/learning differences, foster care trauma, family pressure, and public scandal. All intimate scenes feature enthusiastic consent.
Reader discretion advised. This book is intended for mature audiences only.
💬 Notable Quotes
“I’ve spent my whole life using jokes to hide. Tonight, I don’t want to hide anymore.”
“You trust your plans. You trust your spreadsheets. But trusting me—that’s different.”
“Let the wild rumpus start. Let’s all be a little braver, a little more honest, a little more willing to face the things that scare us.”
📖 Read Chapter One Free
Chapter One: The Incident
The video had seventeen million views by the time Tommy Catalano’s phone died.
He’d watched it exactly once—that grainy footage of him throwing a punch at the Cup celebration, captured from an angle that made him look like exactly the kind of violent, out-of-control athlete the sports media loved to crucify. The clip didn’t show the drunk harassing Jax Mercer. Didn’t show Tommy stepping between them, trying to defuse. Didn’t show the guy grabbing Tommy’s shoulder and spinning him around.
All it showed was the punch.
And now, sitting in the conference room at Sentinels headquarters with sunlight stabbing through the floor-to-ceiling windows like a personal accusation, Tommy was pretty sure his career was over.
“Seventeen million,” Patricia Wong repeated, her voice flat as lake ice. The GM had a way of making simple statements sound like death sentences. “Do you know how many views our Cup celebration video got? The one where you lifted the trophy with Declan?”
Tommy didn’t answer.
“Two point three million.” Patricia leaned back in her chair. “You punching a fan has officially received more attention than the greatest achievement in this franchise’s history.”
“He wasn’t just a fan. He was harassing—”
“I don’t care what he was doing.” Patricia’s words cut like a blade. “I care about optics. I care about sponsors who are suddenly very concerned about their association with our organization. I care about the fact that you’ve given every critic of this team exactly the ammunition they needed.”
Tommy wanted to argue. Wanted to explain about Jax’s panic attack in the bathroom afterward, about the drunk’s slurred threats, about the protective instinct that had overridden every rational thought in his head. But Patricia wasn’t interested in context. She was interested in damage control.
“You have two options,” Patricia continued. “Option one: we trade you. Arizona has expressed interest…”
…
🔥 Want an EXCLUSIVE Bonus Chapter?
“The Wedding Night” — A 4,000-word scene TOO HOT for Amazon
It’s their wedding night, and Tommy has plans for his new wife. Plans that involve silk ties, whispered Italian, and showing Elena exactly how thoroughly he intends to worship her for the rest of their lives. Features praise kink, multiple rounds, and the kind of passionate possession that comes from finally having forever.
More from the Chicago Sentinels
Five Hole
Chicago Sentinels #1
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Coming Soon:
Penalty Kill
(Viktor’s Story)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this book part of a series?
Sin Bin is Book 2 in the Chicago Sentinels series—standalone romances connected by the world of professional hockey. You can read it without reading Five Hole, though characters from Book 1 do appear. Complete HEA guaranteed!
How spicy is this book?
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ — This is a 5/5 heat level book with multiple explicit scenes throughout. Features include praise kink, possessive hero, and a slow burn that explodes into scorching passion.
Is there a happily ever after?
Absolutely! Tommy and Elena get their complete HEA with a press conference vindication, engagement, wedding, and a beautiful epilogue. No cliffhangers!
What about the dyslexia representation?
Tommy’s dyslexia is portrayed respectfully and authentically. He’s spent 30 years hiding it and compensating, and a major part of his arc is learning to accept help and recognize that different isn’t broken. The representation was important to get right—this isn’t “cured by love” but rather finding the courage to ask for support.
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