The Pucking Wrong Number

The first installment in the Pucking Wrong series opens with a prologue set in the past. Ten-year-old Monroe Bardot cleans up after her mother, Roxanne, a sex worker with a drug addiction who is too high to function. After a male client visits, Monroe finds Roxanne collapsed by the front door, gray-skinned and shaking. With her final breath, Roxanne warns Monroe never to let a man take her heart, then dies.

Monroe spends the next eight years in foster care. Now nearly eighteen, she lives with the Detweilers outside Houston, where Mr. Detweiler, Todd, has grown increasingly predatory, revealing he "collects" virgins. One night, Todd picks the lock on Monroe's bedroom door. She decides to flee immediately, despite being one month from graduating high school, and takes a Greyhound bus to Dallas.

Monroe arrives hopeful but is pickpocketed within hours. She sleeps on a park bench, where a homeless man named Bill watches over her and then walks her to a women's shelter called Haven. Over the following year, Monroe earns her GED, finds work as a receptionist at a doctor's office and at a catering company, and enrolls in community college.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Daniels, the 24-year-old star center for the Dallas Knights hockey team, leads a life haunted by guilt over the death of his older brother, Tyler. Lincoln's father, Anstad Daniels, is a billionaire hedge fund mogul. Anstad pressures Lincoln to date a socialite named Kara Lindstrom to facilitate a business merger. When Anstad demands Lincoln fix a missed date, Lincoln texts what he believes is Kara's number with a flirtatious apology, but the message reaches Monroe instead.

Monroe fires back with sharp insults, and their banter escalates. She sends a selfie to prove she is not Kara, and Lincoln is instantly captivated. He hires a private investigator who produces a full background file on Monroe. Lincoln drives to her neighborhood and watches her from a distance, vowing she will be his. Using his investigator's findings, he installs a tracking app to monitor her location and begins routinely visiting her street.

They exchange increasingly flirtatious texts over the following days. Lincoln shares partial photos but withholds his face and identity. When Monroe is tricked into a date by a classmate named Connor, Lincoln tracks her location, buys out the restaurant, and beats Connor in an alley. Frightened, Monroe calls Lincoln for the first time, and his voice comforts her.

Their worlds collide at a charity gala hosted by Ari Lancaster, Lincoln's best friend and the team's star defenseman. Monroe is working the event as a caterer. She drops her tray, Lincoln kneels to help, and Monroe recognizes his voice. Overwhelmed by the realization that her mystery texter is a famous player in the National Hockey League (NHL), she feels the gulf between their worlds sharply. They share an intense first kiss in a private hallway before paparazzi burst in and Monroe flees.

Lincoln escalates his pursuit by appearing at Monroe's class as a guest speaker, offering to pay the entire class's tuition for a year if Monroe agrees to attend his game and go on a date. She agrees under pressure from her classmates. Lincoln plays brilliantly, scoring five goals. At the team's afterparty, Monroe has a panic attack triggered by memories of her mother's degradation, and Lincoln calms her by singing "Creep" by Radiohead, the song Tyler used to sing to comfort him after their father's beatings.

Behind the scenes, Lincoln engineers Monroe's dependence on him. He pays her landlord, Jared, to evict her that night, then swoops in as her rescuer, bringing her to his penthouse. He assaults the harassing doctor at Monroe's office and uses blackmail to force the doctor to fire Monroe under a false accusation of theft. Lincoln also ends her catering shifts and ensures no other employer will hire her. Monroe, unaware of Lincoln's machinations, is devastated by each loss but comforted by his support.

Their relationship deepens physically and emotionally. Lincoln takes Monroe's virginity, telling her she has ruined him. Their bond becomes all-consuming as Monroe travels with Lincoln to away games, where paparazzi capture her identity. When she suggests keeping their relationship quiet, Lincoln refuses, and Monroe capitulates but still does not tell him she loves him.

On Tyler's birthday, Monroe helps Lincoln process his grief, encouraging him to honor Tyler through joyful recollection rather than guilt. Lincoln reveals that as a teenager, he fell through ice on a frozen lake and Tyler jumped in to save him but drowned. At a family dinner, Monroe witnesses Lincoln's parents blame him for Tyler's death and mock her background. She erupts in his defense. Meanwhile, Anstad has Monroe surveilled and threatens Lincoln with consequences, making clear he views Monroe as leverage.

Everything shatters when Monroe receives anonymous videos showing Lincoln paying Jared to evict her, blackmailing the doctor into firing her, ending her catering work, and sabotaging her job search. She sees Lincoln as a manipulator who orchestrated her total dependence and packs to leave. Lincoln returns sooner than expected and reveals he has been monitoring her phone through surveillance software. When Monroe screams, he injects her with a sedative.

Monroe wakes chained by the ankle to the bedpost. Lincoln tells her he loves her and will make her fall in love with him again. He keeps her restrained for days but tends to her attentively. Monroe refuses to speak but gradually weakens, recognizing that her life is materially better and that she is addicted to his presence.

After the Knights win the Conference Finals, Monroe congratulates Lincoln, the first sign of thawing. He removes the cuff and delivers an impassioned speech about the depth of their connection. Monroe, exhausted from fighting her feelings, finally tells Lincoln she loves him, and they reconcile.

Believing Anstad sent the anonymous videos, Lincoln moves to neutralize his father. Tyler's will left Lincoln 30 percent of the shares in Daniels International, the family corporation, and Lincoln has secretly purchased enough additional shares to hold a controlling 51 percent stake. He confronts Anstad, threatening to dismantle the company and release incriminating evidence unless Anstad relocates to New York and leaves them alone. Anstad complies.

In Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Knights are tied with one minute left. Lincoln looks to Monroe in the stands, and she makes the heart sign back at him for the first time. Lincoln scores the game-winning goal, and Monroe leaps into his arms on the ice. Days later, Lincoln proposes on the park bench where Monroe once met Bill, producing a diamond ring and a black rose. She says yes, and they marry that night at a Dallas courthouse.

In the epilogue, Monroe is enrolled at Southern Methodist University (SMU), majoring in English. She reflects that their relationship is codependent and unhealthy by any conventional standard, but she would never let it go because Lincoln makes her feel truly wanted for the first time in her life. She acknowledges her mother's warning but chooses Lincoln anyway. A second epilogue finds Ari calling Lincoln at midnight, distraught, to reveal he has requested a trade to the Los Angeles team, setting up the next book in the series.