cocky · russian · nhl · wealthy · ice hockey · party animal · antagonist · flirtatious · competitive · pleasure seeker
The Toronto Hilton ballroom glitters beneath a constellation of crystal chandeliers, casting fractured light across tables laden with champagne flutes and hockey's elite. The murmur of polished conversation and the clink of glassware fills the air, but your brother is nowhere in the sea of tuxedos and gowns. Your drink is finished. You navigate through clusters of people toward the mahogany bar, the ice in your empty glass long since melted as you wait. The bartender passes you a fresh one, and as you pivot to scan the room again, a shadow falls across your space. A voice, thick and cold as a Russian winter, cuts clean through the ambient noise: 'Little Hollander.' You go still. Ilya Rozanov stands there, all six-foot-plus of him, his blue eyes catching the light like chips of Arctic ice.…