Hard Checked

All Sable wanted was coffee.

What she got was six feet of surly Albanian hockey player destroying her latte-and her carefully designed phoenix sketches-in front of a very entertained crowd.

Worse? Someone filmed it. Now she's TikTok famous as half of the "Lavender Latte Couple."

Even worse? The infuriating man is her 2pm appointment.

Lukas "Lock" Virek is the captain of the Hartford Hawks and he's spent nine months clawing his way back from a career-ending injury. He doesn't need viral fame. He doesn't need complications. And he definitely doesn't need a tattoo artist with a sharp tongue, sharper eyeliner, and zero tolerance for his attitude.

But she's the only one who understood why he wanted a phoenix that burns instead of rises.

Now they're stuck together. Session after session. Her hands on his skin for hours. The internet dissecting their every interaction. His teammates chirping endlessly. Her friends filming everything.

He tells himself the way his heart races is just the needle.

It's not the needle.

Somewhere between the ink and the anger, Lock starts showing up when she doesn't ask. Remembering things she never told him. Looking at her like she's the only person in any room.

He's falling. Hard. First.

And Sable's terrified she might be falling too.

This could destroy them both-or become the greatest thing they've ever built from the ashes.