Backhand — Elise Faber

Mike Stewart is a bad boy. Sleeping around. Boozing. Fighting with teammates. Name a bad behavior and he's done it -- done it so well, in fact, that he almost tanked his career as a starting defensemen for the NHL's San Francisco Gold. But Mike is done with all that. He's starting with a fresh foot forward and putting his past behind him. That is, until his past quite literally reappears before his eyes. Sara Jetty is just as beautiful as she was a decade before, but Mike hasn't seen her since she left for her first Olympics and scored a gold medal in women's figure skating. Now something has put shadows in her eyes, a familiar type of hurt he is all too well versed in. This Sara wants nothing to do with him. Their easy friendship is gone and in its place is a hardened woman who's nothing like the girl from his past. Still, Mike hasn't become a top defensemen in the NHL by being afraid of hard work, and he isn't about to let Sara push him away. Come hell or high water, he's going to crack her tough outer shell and find the sweet, innocent woman he's lusted after and loved, in equal measure, for more than ten years.