The Blindside
A Seattle Sovereigns Novel
by Chase Power
📖 Free with Kindle Unlimited
Pairing: MM
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Inferno
Series: Seattle Sovereigns #1
Tropes: Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers, Bi Awakening, One Bed, Grumpy/Sunshine
He’s been in love with his best friend for six years. Tonight, he’s about to lie to save him. What starts as damage control becomes the only truth that matters.
Declan Ashford has spent six years perfecting the art of wanting what he can’t have. As captain of the Seattle Sovereigns, he’s built his life around control—on the ice and off. But when a PR scandal threatens to destroy the career of the man he loves, Declan makes a split-second decision that changes everything:
“He’s not a playboy. He’s been dating me. Six months.”
Rory O’Connor is hockey’s golden boy—charming, talented, and completely oblivious to the way his best friend looks at him. When a setup at a charity gala goes viral, his career is on the line. Declan’s lie saves him, but living together as fake boyfriends wakes something up that Rory can’t ignore.
Every touch. Every lesson in “how to be convincing.” Every night in their shared bed.
What starts as damage control becomes something neither of them can fake. But Declan knows the truth: when the scandal blows over, he’ll have to let go of the only thing he’s ever wanted.
Except Rory has other plans. Plans that involve public declarations, Stanley Cup victories, and proving to the man he loves that some things were never fake at all.
The Blindside is a 60,000-word MM hockey romance featuring fake dating that becomes devastatingly real, a bi awakening, six years of pining, an on-ice proposal, and an HEA that will make you ugly cry. First in the Seattle Sovereigns series.
🏒 Tropes You’ll Love 🏒
💍 Fake Dating
One lie to save his career. A lifetime of wanting it to be real.
👬 Friends to Lovers
Six years of pining. One desperate lie. Everything changes.
🌈 Bi Awakening
When “practice kisses” make you question everything.
🛏️ One Bed
“We should probably practice sleeping together.”
😠☀️ Grumpy/Sunshine
Stoic captain meets golden retriever energy.
🏆 Stanley Cup Victory
Championship wins and on-ice proposals.
Content Notes
This book contains explicit MM sexual content including praise kink, emotional vulnerability, and intimacy that will wreck you. Additional content includes: bi awakening/coming out journey, discussions of anxiety and fear of abandonment, found family dynamics, and one grand romantic gesture on live television. Reader discretion advised. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
💬 Notable Quotes
“It was never a lie for me. You know that.”
“I spent six years not being able to call you mine. I’m making up for lost time.”
“You’re my forever, Declan Ashford. The best thing that ever happened to me.”
Read Chapter One Free
Chapter One: The Lie
Declan Ashford had made peace with wanting things he couldn’t have.
It was a skill, really. A survival mechanism honed over six years of standing too close to Rory O’Connor, of cataloging every casual touch and storing them away like a miser hoarding gold. He’d gotten good at it—at the careful management of hope, at the precise calibration of proximity that allowed him to exist in Rory’s orbit without combusting.
Right now, that proximity was approximately three inches. Rory was sprawled in the stall next to his, post-practice sweat still glistening on his shoulders, auburn curls a chaotic mess that made Declan’s fingers itch to fix. Or make worse. He wasn’t picky.
“You’re staring,” Rory said without looking up from his phone. His lips quirked into that easy grin that had been destroying Declan’s composure since they were rookies. “Do I have something on my face?”
Just the face itself, Declan thought. That’s the problem.
“You have terrible taste in music,” he said instead, because deflection was also a survival mechanism. “I can hear your AirPods from here. Is that… country?”
Rory’s grin widened. “It’s Taylor Swift, you uncultured disaster.”
“Same thing.”
“Blasphemy.” Rory clutched his chest in mock outrage. “I’m telling Vik you said that. He’ll have opinions.”
“Vik has opinions about everything. It’s his defining characteristic.”
Rory laughed—that bright, infectious sound that made everyone in a three-block radius want to be his friend—and Declan felt it like a punch to the solar plexus. Six years, and he still hadn’t developed immunity.
He was beginning to suspect he never would.
* * *
Keep reading to discover what happens when Declan tells the lie that changes everything…
🔥 Exclusive Bonus Content 🔥
Want the scene that was TOO HOT for Amazon?
“Five Years Later” — Their daughter’s finally asleep. The house is quiet. And Declan gets to show his husband exactly how grateful he is for the life they’ve built together. Slow, intense, and devastatingly tender.
More from Chase Power
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is this book part of a series?
The Blindside is the first book in the Seattle Sovereigns series but is a complete standalone with an HEA (happily ever after). No cliffhangers! Features an on-ice proposal, wedding, and five-years-later epilogue with their daughter.
How spicy is this book?
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ — This is a 5/5 heat level book with explicit MM content. Features praise kink, emotional vulnerability, and intimacy that hits as hard as the steam.
Is there a happily ever after?
Always! Declan and Rory get their HEA complete with a Stanley Cup victory, an on-ice proposal that breaks the internet, and an epilogue featuring their daughter Maeve.
What’s the angst level?
Medium-high. Six years of pining, fear of ruining their friendship, and the classic “he could never feel the same way” miscommunication. But the payoff is absolutely worth it.