Gloves Off

This Vancouver Storm hockey romance follows Dr. Georgia Greene and Alexei Volkov, two people who despise each other, into a marriage of convenience that slowly transforms into something real.

Alexei Volkov is a thirty-six-year-old enforcer defenseman, a physical player who protects teammates, for the Vancouver Storm and a three-time Norris Trophy winner, the NHL's award for best all-around defenseman. Georgia Greene works part-time as a team physician while running an athlete injury recovery research program at a Vancouver hospital. Their animosity dates back two years, when Georgia examined Alexei, called him "a lost cause" (8), and recommended him for retirement. In retaliation, he falsely told her he had reported her as incompetent to head coach Tate Ward.

Both face crises that converge on a single solution. Alexei's Canadian citizenship application, mired in delays since his family immigrated from Russia when he was eight, has hit another snag. Without citizenship or a team contract, he and his parents, who fled Russia as political dissidents, could be deported. Ward mentions that marrying a Canadian would speed the process. Meanwhile, Georgia learns that her hospital program has lost its funding. The only way to save it is her late grandfather's ten-million-dollar inheritance, which she can access only if she is married. Her controlling ex-fiancé, Liam, once unenrolled her from medical school without her consent, and she has sworn off marriage ever since.

At the Filthy Flamingo, a dive bar run by Georgia's best friend and roommate Jordan, they discover each other's predicaments. Alexei argues their mutual hatred makes them ideal partners: neither would develop real feelings. Georgia refuses at first, but the thought of losing the program and her teenage soccer team of recovering athletes pushes her to accept. They marry the next day at Vancouver City Hall in a stiff, loveless ceremony. Their first kiss is so lifeless Georgia calls it "the worst kiss of my life" (50). She throws her bouquet in the garbage on her way out.

Georgia moves into Alexei's home with minimal belongings and two secret pet rabbits. Early tensions escalate: he throws her shoes in the garbage after an argument, and she retaliates by wearing a provocative sequin dress to what turns out to be a surprise wedding reception organized by their teammates. When the crowd demands a kiss, their second kiss is electric and consuming, nothing like the ceremony. Their teammate Darcy Andersen, the team analyst, quietly tells Georgia she and her fiancé Hayden Owens know the marriage is fake but are rooting for them.

Their antagonism begins to crack as Alexei discovers how wrong his assumptions have been. At a hospital benefit, he learns Georgia earned a full scholarship to play university soccer and built her research program from scratch. He bids $100,000 at a charity auction to prevent a colleague from winning a date with her, then follows Georgia into a library, where their competitive taunting escalates into a frantic sexual encounter. They agree it was a mistake.

Meanwhile, Alexei struggles to mentor Luca Walker, a rookie defenseman Ward assigned him. He has been forcing Luca to play his own brutal style instead of the kid's natural game. A turning point comes when Alexei watches Georgia coach soccer and sees how she tailors her approach to each player. He reviews Luca's game tape with Darcy and discovers the rookie's true gifts: speed, sharp puck handling, and an ability to read the ice before plays develop. He tells Luca to play like himself, and in the next game, Luca scores within 60 seconds.

Georgia's sleepwalking, a stress response she has experienced since university, becomes a recurring thread as she repeatedly ends up in Alexei's bed without realizing it. During a three-night road trip where they share a hotel room with one bed, she clings to him each night, and he sleeps better than he has in years.

Their relationship deepens through shared vulnerability. At Georgia's parents' modest Halloween party, Alexei confronts the full truth about her background: teenage parents cut off by her wealthy grandfather, a working-class upbringing, no trust fund. She learns about his broken engagement to Emma, whose wealthy family rejected his immigrant parents. He learns about Liam's manipulation. When Alexei replaces Georgia's failing car with a luxury SUV without asking, she erupts, recognizing the same pattern of a man making decisions for her. Chastened, he retrieves her junker from the junkyard, returns her friendship bracelets from the soccer girls, and vows to make decisions together.

Physical and emotional intimacy accelerates. After the Toronto awards dinner, where Alexei receives a lifetime achievement award he dreaded as confirmation of his impending retirement, Georgia holds his hand through the ceremony and tells him he is far from a lost cause. That night, their competitive game of chicken escalates until she finally admits defeat. He tells her he likes her; she panics but cannot deny the feeling is mutual. He begins sending flowers with hidden meanings from a book his mother, Maria Volkov, slipped into Georgia's belongings during a visit: blue tansy for declaration of war, gardenias for secret love.

On Christmas morning, both crises resolve: Alexei and his parents receive citizenship approval, and Georgia's inheritance has been transferred to fund the hospital program. With no practical reason to stay married, Georgia suggests they extend the arrangement six months. Alexei agrees, privately determined to make her fall in love with him.

At team captain Rory Miller and Hazel Hartley's New Year's Eve wedding, Georgia tells Alexei she knows what his flowers mean, culminating in red tulips for "declaration of love" (383). He confirms it. She admits she loves him, too.

Back in Vancouver, a vicious head shot during a January game sends Alexei to the hospital, unconscious and bleeding. He wakes to find Georgia sobbing at his bedside. The sight of her distress crystallizes his decision: He tells her he is done with hockey, unwilling to cause her this pain. He has found something he loves just as much: mentoring young players. Ward visits and offers him the assistant coach position, revealing that Alexei, not Luca, was the player he had been grooming all season. Alexei accepts immediately.

Still in the hospital bed, he shows Georgia a chest tattoo of Teasing Georgia roses, a golden variety symbolizing friendship, joy, loyalty, and eternity, which he got during the New Year's celebrations. He then produces a cognac-colored pear-shaped diamond ring he has carried since December and asks her to marry him for real, promising to be a true partner and to never interfere with her career. She says yes, sliding the new ring on above the original cheap band she refuses to remove because "it's mine" (431).

In September, one year after their courthouse wedding, Alexei and Georgia hold a vow renewal under the big oak tree outside Vancouver City Hall, surrounded by family and friends, with Ward as officiant. Alexei has settled into coaching the Storm's rookies and co-coaching Georgia's soccer team, and her sleepwalking has stopped entirely since his retirement. As they slip away from the reception, he calls her by his private nickname for her, Hellfire, and leads her out to have the wedding night they never got.