The Bully I Keep

He doesn’t want my respect. He wants my soul.
On the ice, he’s a god. In the locker room, he’s a predator. And I’m the only one he wants to devour.

The Bully I Keep is a gritty, high-heat dark MM college hockey romance where the line between visceral hatred and toxic obsession is as thin as a blade on the ice. In the halls of St. Ignatius, power isn't earned—it’s taken by force.

Julian Ashcroft is a strategist, a scholarship rookie who survives by being invisible. But he can’t hide from Damien Rourke. As the ruthless captain of the Serpents and heir to a hockey dynasty, Damien thrives on control. He’s determined to break the quiet boy who refuses to flinch, turning every practice into a battlefield and every confrontation into a calculated torment.

One wrong move made Julian a target.

One stolen look made him an obsession.

What starts as brutal hazing spirals into a forbidden game of cat and mouse. Damien wants to crush Julian’s spirit, but he can’t stop craving his touch. Julian knows Damien is his destruction, yet he find himself drawn to the darkness behind the captain’s cruel eyes.

The stakes are lethal. If their secret is exposed, Julian loses his scholarship and his only escape from a dead-end life. If Damien lets his guard down, he loses his NHL future. As the Frozen Cup championship nears, the ice is thinning, and the heat between them is ready to shatter everything they’ve built.

Experience a dark enemies-to-lovers sports romance packed with intense obsession, "touch him and you die" energy, and a redemption arc that burns hotter than the spotlight. This is a journey through pain, power, and a love that was never meant to survive the winter.