My Pucking Crush

“Good boy. Such a good boy for your bodyguard.”

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REVIEW

Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe

Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?

Tropes	Trigger Warnings
MM romance, Hockey romance, Dark romance, Forbidden love, Forced proximity, One bed	Homophobia, Violence, Teenage sexual assault, Incest, Voyuerism

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SUMMARY

Want to just skip to the spice? I got you - Chapters 2, 19, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 49, 50, 57, 58, 63, 79

Max Ryan is a star hockey player for the Stamford Crushers. A little background on Max, he has a strained relationship with his parents. They basically disowned him after he was found in a compromising position with his best friend and teammate, Jake, in highschool. Max sends them money, sends them season tickets, but they only call when they need more money to help bail out Max’s loser brother, Jimmy. His high school coach, Coach Avalon, helped him throughout high school and helped him get into an Ivy League college and then he got drafted in his senior year. Anywho, his team just won a conference game against Richmond. The team is all out at a bar, picking up chicks. Max would rather pick up dick, but since he’s a celebrity, he feels like he can’t openly do that. So fine, chicks it is. It’s way too easy for him being a star hockey player and he finds one pretty quickly. She invites him back to her hotel but when they arrive, there are two big Russians there. Max thinks they are there to rob him but not so much, they attack him, he holds his own for a while but 3 against 1 isn’t great odds and they knock him unconscious.

Luca Sheppard (real name Daniil Korolev) was in the Russian mafia, married to the Chicago Bratva pakhan’s, Ivan Belova, sister, Lia, when she and Luca’s son, Eli, died 5 years ago. Luca has been on the run from the Bratva because Ivan tried to kill him as he blames Luca for Lia’s death. She walked in on Luca blowing her bodyguard and that was too much for her. She was drinking, then got in the car with Eli. Luca also has a younger sister, Samara. He faked her death after Ivan tried to have Luca killed. Samara works as a cleaner for the mob. She doesn’t clean houses. 

Nowadays, Luca is a bodyguard for the Stamford Crushers. Unlike Max, he isn’t a celebrity, so whoever he decides to stick his dick in doesn’t matter. He likes to frequent this sex club in Manhattan called Club Dare and that’s where he is after the game, getting kinky with a guy that he asked to wear a jersey. A number 43, Max Ryan jersey, to be exact. Luca’s got a great ole big crush on him. Luca gets a phone call from his boss, director of Security for the Crushers, telling him there’s been an incident and he needs him pronto. 

Luca arrives at the hospital where Max is getting basically every test done. He ends up with a concussion and some other injuries. Luca has been placed by the team to be Max’s personal bodyguard. Moving in with him, shadowing him everywhere he goes, the whole shebang (...or hebang?). 

Luca traced his attackers back to Ivan. Ivan has just bought a hockey team (Richmond) and Luca is all sorts of confused as to why he is doing this. Max is not happy about this arrangement and sneaks out of the house the next morning to go to practice. When Luca wakes up, he finds two flat tires on his Honda. 

Max finds himself very attracted to Luca. Which he tries to fight because he can’t be gay. Even though Carter, another player, is openly gay in the locker room (not in public) and none of the team cares. But since his dad and mom shunned him for it, he tries to fight that part of him. Luca asks him why he doesn’t want Luca guarding him, it seems personal. Max says “you bother me”. Luca tells Max he was married, but it was arranged. They were friends, her brother was Luca’s best friend. Max’s like arranged marriage is still a thing? Luca says yeah in the mafia. Luca tells him the story about how his wife and son died. This news that Luca is bisexual is very interesting to Max. Max asks if he is seeing anyone, Luca says no, but maybe that Carter would like to hook up. Max gets instantly jealous and tells him he better not touch Carter. After winning a game, Max and Luca head back to Max’s penthouse. Luca makes him dinner and tells him about his past. Tells him about how Ivan sent him on a fake mission when Luca was the real target but he shot his way out and has been laying low. At the end of this season, he is going to leave, go find another mafia family to align with, to help protect him from Ivan. 

The team travels to Houston for an away game. In the hotel, the security team decided to bunk Max with Luca. Max doesn’t want to room with Luca because sexual tension is high but he says it’s because he doesn’t want the team to think there’s this massive threat to them. When they open the door, there’s only one bed. 

A little more backstory to Max - he was raped by his Uncle Harris. Even though Max likes guys, he always tops. He wants nothing near his ass because of his Uncle. After his parents found out about Max hooking up with Jake, his dad sent him to stay with his brother for a week and basically told him to beat the gay out of him. Max was raped all week. He never asked his dad if he knew that Harris did that to him, he didn’t want to know. 

Max gets in the shower and decides to rub one out while imagining Luca and the angry sex they could have. He was into the fantasy and was even talking a little out loud, using Luca’s name. Max had left the door unlocked in case Luca needed to use the toilet but forgot. When he opens the curtains, Luca is standing there, brushing his teeth, just staring at him.

Max at first is like oh shit but then he is incredibly honest with Luca. Even hints at the sexual abuse he endured as a teenager. Luca and him end up making out and jerking off on each other. Afterwards, Luca tells Max they can’t do this again. Luca is his bodyguard and he needs to protect Max and if anyone found out, he’d be fired. Max says he doesn’t want anyone to find out either but also, they won’t fire Luca, because Max is kind of a big deal on the team. 

They have to share a bed because there’s only one, but why they have to sleep naked...I'm unsure.

They are all standoffish towards each other for the next couple days. The team has to go to a charity gala and of course Luca goes too. During it, Max keeps looking over at Luca so he keeps moving positions. Max gets mad “What are you doing to me?” and drags Luca into a coat closet. But instead of punching him, he kisses him. Max leaves the coat closet and by the time Luca arranges himself and leaves it as well, Max is gone. He hitched a ride home with Carter and some dude he picked up. When he gets back, he goes into Luca’s room, but Luca hasn’t gotten back yet. He is still standing there, smelling his pillow, when Luca appears in the doorway. Luca tells him he knows he said this can’t happen again, but…maybe it can? Maybe it shouldn’t? They’re both confused. He asks Max to spend the night in his room, Max says no, when he opens the bedroom door, there’s a dude there with a knife. Luca shoots him in the shoulder, he manages to cut Luca with the knife, but not deep. He won’t tell Luca anything but he knows, based on his accent, that he was sent by Ivan. Luca calls his sister because he needs a cleaner. 

Max keeps asking a lot of questions and Luca tells him that he’s crazy about him but he really needs Max to just stfu right now. He makes Max strip and take a shower in his bathroom. They need to keep everything contained to one room. When Max is in the shower, Luca joins him. Luca tells him he wants to fuck him but Max’s past trauma won’t allow that to happen. They both get off though and then Luca goes and kills the guy and waits for his sister to arrive. 

After winning a few more games, the coach treats the team to a night in Vegas. Max doesn’t want anything but to be in bed with Luca. 

Luca is usually a top. Max wants to be fucked but he can’t. So Luca takes one for the team. Multiple times.

Luca is woken up by Max screaming. Max was having a nightmare about his Uncle. He tells Luca about what happened. Luca is pissed (and since he’s in the mafia, probably making plans for murder) but he listens and consoles Max. They admit to each other that they like each other, probably more than they should since after the season Luca is leaving and Max can’t come with.

A few days later, Carter tells Max that there’s a player on the Richmond team that is going on social media and claiming that there are a lot of gays in hockey and he wants separate locker rooms. Max asks who and Carter tells him Jake Quinn. As in, Jake the guy that Max used to hook up with in high school, who then told his parents that Max forced himself on him, and got Max sent to his Uncles for a week. 

They play against Richmond and it’s a brutal game. Jake manages to trip Max on the ice in the final seconds and Max goes full hockey player on him and attacks him. The ref pulls him off of Jake and kicks him out of the game. Since it was at the end, the officials decided to suspend Max for the next game. 

Luca goes to New York that night. He feels like Belova is closing in on him and he is going to found soon. He wants to work for Daria Enterprises. Which is run by the four mafia kings of New York, Messina, Daria, Byrne, and Russo families. Who are all married to Queen Rebecca Domenico. They tell him they’ll be in touch.

He goes back to Max's, who is jealous that he was gone all night thinking he was out getting laid. He tells Max about his plan, and that with the way the mafia kings and queen relationship is, Max and Luca would be accepted - together. 

Since Max is suspended, he and Luca spend the day together and then watch the game. Well, kind of watch the game, they’re a little distracted. Richmond wins that game - easily with Max not there.

The Crushers get into the playoffs and Max becomes ultra focused. 

Luca leaves for the day and drives up to Vermont. Every year on the anniversary of his death, Luca visits his son’s grave. He may have been forced to marry Lia. He may have been forced to have a baby with her. But Eli was his life. While he is standing at his son’s grave, 4 black sedans pull up and out comes Ivan Belova.

He asks Ivan why he bought a hockey team. Easy - for the money. He is pulling all the strings he can to get Richmond into the finals. He asks why is he targeting Max? He says because he’s the best - without Max on the ice, Stamford will lose. Ivan wants Luca to come home. He fucked up trying to take him out - makes people distrust him that he would try and kill his own best friend and brother in law. He keeps calling Max “your boy” and Luca realizes that he’s been keeping an eye on Max so he knows about their relationship. 

Ivan tells him he has five days after the Crushers season is over to come home or he will drag him back. He even tells him he can bring Max - since they will make sure Max won’t make it past game 1 and probably won’t ever be able to play hockey again. Luca lunges for Ivan to choke him and he has his goons open up a car door - Ivan has Samara. 

A few days later, Max can tell something is wrong with Luca. But then again, Max has been acting differently too. He is in playoff mode. He wants to tell Luca, after the season is over, that he wants to try and make this work with him. First play off game, Max’s parents show up. They win the game against Albany and then he has to talk to his parents. They aren’t there because their son is in the playoffs. They are there because their loser son got arrested again and they need bail money. Grade A parents.

They sweep Albany in four games and then wait to see if they will play Richmond or Cape May in the final playoff round (I don’t understand hockey. If this was football or tennis, but hockey, no clue what’s happening). Luca wants to take Max to his sex club in Manhattan and Max agrees because everyone there has to sign a NDA and he can wear a mask. Luca wants Max to be comfortable receiving instead of just pitching all the time (is there a hockey reference I should be using?) so he takes him to his club. Pulls his arms over his head and secures them with rope, and then uses a plug on him, in front of a crowd. That’s one way to do it. But it seems to work a little.

Before game 1 vs Richmond, Luca gets called into the GMs office. He is surprised to see Ivan there with his new assistant - Samara. Luca and Samara have a code phrase to use if one of them is in danger, but she doesn’t use it, which makes Luca relax a bit. Ivan tells the GM that his team did an investigation and found the culprit that was after Max and they have been dealt with. Luca knows this is a bunch of shit.

Crushers win the first game 6-1. They go on to win the next two games. Luca gets notified that there has been some dude in the stands at every game. Seems like security but for who? After some digging, it’s a hired guard for Jake Quinn’s family. 

Apparently in hockey you need to win 4 straight games to win that round of playoffs or something. Crushers lose game 4 to Stamford. 

Max gets a phone call from his mom telling him that his coach, Avalon, the guy who was more of a parent than his own parents, has died. Max wants to go back home, just for the day, to go to his funeral. Luca does not want him to go, he can’t secure a funeral. All these people make Luca uneasy but he asks the funeral director if Max could go get before they let everyone else in. But then Max sees some friends from high school and wants to grab a beer with them. Again, making Luca uneasy but he goes along with it. Max’s friends are kind of assholes. When Max asks how a mutual friend is they respond with “he’s a queer” and “fucking fag”. Max kinda stands up for him but also doesn’t if that makes sense. Luca is disappointed that Max doesn’t tell his friends to stfu.

Max wants to show Luca his house in the Hamptons. They go to dinner first and Max reaches over and holds Luca’s hand but when a fan comes up and says his name, Max drops Lucas hand like it’s on fire. They go to Max’s house. Luca is in a mood. They go out to the hot tub, naked, and then Luca locks Max out of his own house, with no clothes. 

After a bit, and realizing Luca is not joking and is not letting him back in, Max walks (butt naked) over to his neighbors house to ask for help. He knows the guy that opens the door - Ashton Ives. There’s also two other guys and a girl in the house. He tells them that someone locked him out of his house and then he admits that it’s a boyfriend, not a girlfriend. He tells them that he fucked up real bad and that he needs to do something to fix it.

Meanwhile, Luca is realizing that maybe throwing Max outside, naked, in the cold, wasn’t the best idea. But he also realizes that he’s in love with Max and he doesn’t know what to do with that. He goes outside and follows Max’s footprints to the house next door. Two people answer - the woman and one of the men. They tell Luca that Max was there, but isn’t anymore. He went with two of their fiancees. Then Luca gets a text message from an unknown number saying that Max requests his presence at Club Dare in NYC. Then a helicopter lands in the yard. It’s there to take Luca to Max.

When Luca arrives, Max says he’ll do whatever if Luca forgives him. He wants to go with Luca when Luca leaves. He tells him that if he wins the finals again this year, he is retiring. He wants Luca - and then calls him by his real name, Daniil. Luca says there isn’t anything to forgive, he was just mad, so lets get out of here. Max tells him he wants to be bottom. Luca says why would you do that and Max says simply, “because I love you”. When they get back to the house, the lights are off when Luca left them on. Four men are waiting inside. It's Ivan’s men. 

They kidnap both of them and hold them hostage for almost 24 hours. They need Max off the ice so that Richmond can win. But also, Ivan wants Luca to come back. And Samara escaped so Ivan is really annoyed. Luca tells him that he has an app on his phone, that if Luca doesn’t put in a pin every 24 hours, it sends a whole bunch of information to the feds… information Ivan doesn’t want to get out. Luca says let Max go and I’ll leave with you, right now, I’ll come home. Ivan agrees. Luca drives Max home (with an entourage following them). He tries to be cold and push Max away. Max says he loves him, Luca says he doesn’t care. He needs Max to just forget him.

Luca gets in the car with his dead wife’s old bodyguard. Ivan has gifted him to Luca. Luca plays along, rubbing his groin, going down on him, just to distract him, get his gun, blow his head off, then shoot the driver. He didn’t anticipate that no one would be driving the fucking car so they crash - right off a bridge and into some water. Luca gets out and swims to shore. Goes to some random house, breaks in, and calls his New York contact and asks for help basically.

When Max gets home, he calls his coach, who is pissed that Max has missed practice. But he explains (most) of the story. 

By the next day, Max is really feeling his injuries from being beat up while being kidnapped. But he is going to play in this game, no one is going to stop him. During the game, Jake repeatedly goes after Max. When the coach pulls Max, and puts in Carter, Jake goes after him. Second quarter, Jake goes after Max again, and gets ejected from the game. At the end of the quarter, or whatever, I don’t understand hockey, the team takes Jake into the locker room, and Max goes in to ask him what the fuck his problem is, when he sees the team being held back and someone beating the fuck out of Jake. It's Luca.

Luca and Max question Jake. Apparently, Ivan found out Jake likes dick, and was blackmailing him, and threatening his family. His wife may be a beard but he loves his kids. 

Crushers win the game, which I guess means they win this round? Which I thought it was over but Max says he has ten days off, so apparently there’s more finals? I don’t know. 

Back in the Hamptons, Ashton comes to check on Max (he’s a doctor). Max offers Ashton and his 2 husbands and wife his family season tickets (for the rest of this season anyways). 

Chapter 79 - Max is finally the bottom and is healing from his teenage trauma.

Luca gets a call from New York that Ivan is dead. They tell him that someone got into Ivan’s office and slit his throat and they have a message for Luca. It’s the code message he and Samara use. 

Crushers win the trophy. Isn’t it called the Stanley Cup? This one is called the Dresden Trophy. (Upon researching, Dresden Trophy does not exist. Dresden is a hockey team in Germany. The real trophy is the Stanley Cup - I guess I know one thing about hockey.) At the end of the game, when the reporters interview him, he tells them that he’s retiring, oh and he’s married … to a dude. 

One month later, Max and Luca visit Uncle Harris. Where they discover, he has another little boy. Max takes him outside while Luca gets rid of Uncle Harris. He then gets a call from his sister who tells him to get his ass to Chicago now.

When he gets to Chicago, he goes to the address Samara gives him. When he gets there, she opens the door and she seems happy, but yet teary, and she said she couldn’t tell him on the phone. Then he hears a little boy's voice say “Who’s that?” At first, Eli doesn’t remember Luca, but when Luca starts humming some lullaby he always sang him, he remembers. 

Samara says she was in Chicago doing a job when she heard someone mention Eli’s old nanny’s name and that she had some boy. Samara found out that Ivan knew that Eli wasn’t dead, so Samara killed him. The nanny had been taking care of Eli under Ivan’s orders, and out of fear. They take Eli, and the nanny for now, home to New York.