Summary of Pucking Mad About You

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 Prologue: Two years prior, Ash comes off the ice, having extended a goal-scoring streak. He’s feeling good and perhaps a little cocky as he texts his girlfriend, Grace, a Hollywood actress. He leaves to do a press conference because reporters want to talk to the ‘hottest thing on the ice.’

Two years later, Ash is in a different place, mentally and geographically. He’s just been picked up by the Hartford Hydra, a new Connecticut hockey team that’s only in its second season, and he’s struggling to play well. He lets opponents get in his head on the ice when they chirp at him.

In a pre-season game, Ash is struggling, and a player on the Anaheim Ducks named Lapointe puts a tampon down his jersey. He gets angry and attacks the player before being ejected. After the game, he’s called up to see Max Kaladin, the billionaire owner of the Hydra, who tells Ash he should talk to a professor who specializes in studying trash talk. Ash agrees to go see her.

The next day, Gray Mackey sits at her desk, trying to be productive when Ash comes to see her. She originally mistakes him for a graduate student until he explains who he is and asks her to help him. Gray tries to decline, saying her work is theoretical and that she doesn’t have a solution to his problem, but Ash refers her to a Hydra HR person who lays out a very generous compensation package for both Gray and her department if she helps. Gray says she’ll consider it.

Later that night, Gray has drinks with her BFF Celena and expresses reservations about working with Ash. Celena, always the optimist, points out the advantages of this opportunity while Gray focuses on what could go wrong. While they chat, a couple texts from Ash come in that include a dick pic and a note that he’s thinking about her. Gray is shocked but Celena insists this is a sign she should accept the job.

Ash wakes the next morning to learn he sent a dick pic to someone last night after he took a strong sleeping pill. In his just-waking state, it looks like he sent it to his ex-girlfriend Grace, and he hopes she just ignores it. He heads to the training center for practice where he explains his conversation with Gray to his BFF on the team, Zane Kelsier (usually called Kelsier or Kels). As they head to lunch later, he learns Gray agreed to work with him, and he texts her to set up a time to meet.

Later that week, Gray goes to Ash’s place for their first session, but she’s nervous about what he expects. She begins by explaining her research to him, specifically how the emotions of shame and rage are affected by hearing trash talk. They discuss gender differences as well and consider a plan for moving forward.

The next day, Kelsier asks Ash how things went with Gray. Ash complains that Gray gave him homework. He needs to decide what his ‘ideal image’ is. Ash learns that the whole team knows about his work with Gray from a big defenseman named Mack. Kelsier and Mack manipulate the Hydra’s coach into letting Ash bring Gray to see the team so they can meet her, much to Ash’s chagrin.

That night, Ash and Gray text each other and get to know each other a bit. Ash also extends the invitation to come see the Hydra practice, and Gray agrees to come.

Cutting to Gray, we learn she’s having three conversations on her end: one with Ash, one with Celena, and one with a guy in an online dating app that Celena has made her join. Gray balks when the guy tries to insist on picking her up for a date they’re going on. She tries to back out, but Celena refuses to let her.

Two days later, Gray goes on her date with the man, Barry, and is disappointed to find he used a very old picture on his profile and that he’s a bit awkward and strange. She ends the date as soon as she can and heads to Ash’s early to meet him for their second session.

Ash and Gray discuss more about trash talk and how they might address Ash’s problem. Ash notices that Gray keeps wincing, and she admits to pulling a muscle in her neck. He insists on giving her a shoulder massage. It makes the muscle feel better, but Gray is wary of his intentions and confronts him about sending her the dick pic. Ash is horrified to learn it was Gray and not Grace he sent the pic to, and he explains about the sleeping pills. They get back to work, but Ash is a little aroused. He dismisses it, reasoning that he just hasn’t had sex in a while.

Opening day of the NHL arrives, and Gray watches Ash’s first game with Celena. She explains what happened the other night with Ash, and Celena insists he must be attracted to her, which Gray denies because she feels he’s out of her league.

On the ice, Ash has a good start to the game, but he falls apart when the trash talking starts. He feels bad for letting his team down.

A few days later, Gray comes to the arena to meet the team and coaches, and Ash tries to ignore his growing attraction to her. While Gray is there, Mack insists she has to come hang out with them the next time they go to a club.

Three weeks later, not much has changed for Ash as far as his game play. He still struggles more often than not, and Gray is at a loss as to how to help him. On a personal level, Gray and Ash message nightly over text and have gotten closer, despite not seeing much of each other. Gray vents to him about the men she’s gone out with, who were all duds.

Ash invites her out to hang with the team at a club in a few days. Gray agrees. On his end, Ash is excited. He’s accepted his attraction to Gray and anticipates he’ll want to move their involvement beyond professional limits when she comes out.

A few days later, Gray arrives at the casino to hang with the team. She’s self-conscious of the sexy dress she’s wearing, and at first, she’s not allowed into the VIP area by the bouncer. She goes to the main bar instead where she’s approached by Drew, an ex-boyfriend who used to make plans with her and then cancel at the last minute. Despite herself, she still has feelings for him.

Ash arrives, having finally gotten the messages she left him, and he pretends to be her boyfriend to make Drew jealous. Drew, it turns out, is a huge hockey fan and knows of Ash. Ash is chilly to him and leads Gray away to where the team is camped out. Ash tells the guys they have a ‘Code-ex,’ and they explain to Gray how their job is now to make Drew regret not having her anymore. Ash starts by pulling Gray down onto his lap. Gray also meets Beckham Kingston III, the Hydra’s goalie.

Ash has had a bit to drink and gets handsy with Gray, but she can’t bring herself to mind. Despite her resolve not to be attracted to him, she lets herself enjoy his touching. They eventually get up to dance, but Gray sees one of her students at the club, and they go back to their seats.

Gray calls it a night early, and Ash insists on walking her to her car. There, he kisses her, and although she loves it, she makes him go back to the club because she thinks he’ll regret it the next day when he’s sober. Ash anticipates her reason for making him go and tells her he knows what he’s doing. Gray finds a note on her windshield but thinks it’s an advertisement and throws it out.

Monday morning, Gray is in her office working with a student when her boss calls her in. The department head, Melinda, shows her a picture of her and Ash that’s been on the news. Gray is horrified to see it’s a picture of them dancing sensually at the club, and she tries to explain the situation to Melinda. 

Gray leaves the meeting and sees she has messages from Ash, who already knows about the picture (which is from a video). She tries to call him, but he doesn’t pick up, so she calls Celena instead, who has also left her messages.

Meanwhile, Ash meets with Kaladin and Cedric, the Hydra’s PR manager, about the pic. They’re deciding how to spin it, and Ash suggests that he and Gray pretend to fake date to deflect suspicion away from the idea they’re working together. He calls Gray, who reluctantly agrees to the plan, and Cedric tells them to go out to dinner together to sell the story to the media.

Ash picks Gray up from her house that night, and he gets angry at a reporter who points out that Gray is older than him (by three years). They head to the restaurant – a fancy Michelin-star place – and on the way, Gray gets a text from Drew that she ignores.

At the restaurant, Gray and Ash discuss, hypothetically, how they might show another person they were attracted to them. Gray realizes Ash has done all the things tonight he’s named as things he would do when attracted to a woman. Gray decides to do something out of character and runs her foot up his leg. He catches it and tells her it’s a dangerous thing to do, since – as he suggests – he thinks about fucking her all the time. When he tickles her foot to break the tension, she nearly upsets the table and runs to the bathroom to regroup.

In the bathroom, Gray calls Celena, who tells her it’s okay to sleep with Ash. Gray isn’t convinced but goes back to the table feeling a little reckless.

On the way home, Ash isn’t sure if he royally fucked up or if he’s getting sex. When they get back to Gray’s house, there’s still a news van there, so he kisses her good night and leaves. He calls Kelsier from the car and tells him about the night, and Kelsier suggests he’s falling for Gray. Ash isn’t ready to use the word “love” yet, but he acknowledges he has feelings for her.

Gray is at practice the next day, and they discuss their date with Kelsier. Ash gets a call from his dad, but it’s actually his sister Inga, who he’s been avoiding. Using their mother, she strong-arms him into bringing Gray up to Canada to meet his family over Thanksgiving.

A couple weeks later, Gray is nervous when they get to Ash’s parents’ house in Canada, but she soon finds his family to be very welcoming, despite his somewhat prickly older sister (Inga). Gray realizes that she and Ash will have to do more acting than she thought to sell their fake dating story.

Later that night as they get ready for sleep, Gray also realizes they’ll need to share a bed. When the lights are out, Ash suggests they practice touching so their reactions are more natural. They both become aroused, but Ash decides he’s taken things too far and goes to the bathroom to masturbate.

The next morning, Ash wakes from what’s almost a wet dream to find Gray tucked against him. He goes to take a shower and jerks off again. His attraction to her is starting to become an issue.

On the car ride home, Gray and Ash discuss, hypothetically, what could happen if they had sex. While it’s clear they both want it, Gray is still wary of the repercussions.

The Monday after they get home from Canada, Ash gets a visit at the arena from Gray’s father, Raymond Mackey. Raymond wants to know what’s going on with the two of them, and Ash answers as truthfully as he can without letting on that the relationship is fake. Raymond tells Ash that Gray has a complicated relationship with her mother, but he wanted to meet Ash. Ash agrees to keep his visit a secret just long enough for Raymond to come clean to Gray about it on his own.

The next day at practice, Ash sees Gray talking to Kelsier and gets jealous. When Kelsier starts chirping at him on the ice, he thinks Kelsier is trying to make him look bad.

Ash goes looking for Kelsier after practice but finds Gray instead. He confronts her about talking to Kelsier, and she jokes that they’re having a fake affair. A man with a cleaning cart walks between them as they argue, but as soon as he’s gone, Ash pulls Gray into the equipment room and fingers her until she comes. She’s about to offer to reciprocate when another player named Figuin (aka Fig), and the equipment manager walk in and break things up.

Gray gets home later that night and calls Ash. She admits that she told Kelsier to trash talk him because she has a theory that gender-based trash talk is what really gets to him. As she’s explaining her theory, she notices a few odd things about the house, including a bottle of wine in her fridge that isn’t hers and a shade that was left up when it’s always down. 

Gray freaks out and thinks there might be someone in her house. Ash tells her to get outside and call 911 and that he’s on his way. Gray makes it outside and waits for Ash. He arrives and goes inside to check things out. The police arrive, and Ash comes back outside. Gray calls her mother, who confirms she left the bottle of wine and forgot to reset the alarm.

Thinking it’s a false alarm, the police leave and Gray goes back inside. She’s shaken up, and Ash insists on staying with her that night. When they’re in bed together, he recalls how he found rose petals and a note on the bed when he came in to check out the house. The note said, “You belong with me, not with him.” Realizing Gray has a stalker, he decides to hire a security team to watch her, but he resolves not to tell her for fear of how she’ll react.

Two days later, Gray is in Florida at a conference. When she finishes her panel discussion, she finds a text with another dick pic from Ash. They joke about it, but Ash tells her that he’s tired of pretending and wants her. He plans to have sex with her when she returns, and they have a text conversation about what kinds of kinks she might be into. Ash admits he likes bondage. While texting, Gray notices a man in the hall who looks a bit out of place, but she dismisses him.

It’s New Year’s Eve when Ash and Gray finally get a chance to spend some time together, and she goes to his house to watch movies and the ball-drop. Halfway through the movie, they take a break, but when a small mishap in the kitchen finds them pressed together, Ash decides they’ve waited long enough, and they have sex on his couch. Drew calls in the middle of the sex, and Ash answers the phone. Gray is mortified, but he tells her after that he wants Drew to know she’s his (Ash’s) now.

They finish the movie and start to have sex again, but Ash freezes up when Gray suggests they go into his bedroom. Gray suspects the worst, but Ash insists it’s because he’s worried she’ll be afraid of his tastes in the bedroom. He brings her in and shows her his BDSM toys. He tells her she has some time to think about whether she’d be into it, and they instead have sex on his kitchen island. He tells her that they are no longer fake dating; their relationship is real.

Ash is tired the next morning as he boards the plane for an away stretch, and Kingston gets on his case about playing well. Ash admits to Kelsier that he and Gray slept together, and Kelsier suggests they need to roleplay a student-teacher scenario. Ash decides that will definitely happen when he gets back because Gray gave him permission to start a BDSM scene whenever he wants.

The next night, Ash is out with Kelsier, Fig, and Mack to celebrate their win after a game, and Fig tries to figure out what’s going on between him and Gray. Puck bunnies arrive, and Ash realizes he has no desire to hang out or do anything else with them. He wants Gray. He and Kelsier leave, letting Mack and Fig entertain the bunnies.

A few days later, Gray meets her mother out for dinner. At the restaurant, she notices a man she saw at the gym but doesn’t think anything of it. Gray’s mother questions her about why she hasn’t been allowed to meet Ash yet. Gray makes excuses, but she admits to herself that she’s afraid of what will happen if she loses Ash.

The next day, Gray is in her office when Ash knocks. He didn’t tell her he was back from his road trip, and she again suspects the worst when she sees him. It takes her a while to realize he’s there to initiate a ‘desperate student-naughty teacher’ scene. After some resistance, she gives in, even allowing him to wrap his belt around her neck.

Ash invites both Gray and Celena to a fundraiser at the end of the week, where he and Celena finally meet. Celena also meets Kingston, who gives her his hotel key. She rejects him for his arrogance, but she soon finds that no one else on the team will go near her as long as Kingston is interested, including Kelsier.

While Celena attempts to find someone to take her on a date, Gray and Ash talk about the fact she has an anal plug in. Max Kaladin interrupts their conversation, and Ash is rattled enough that he takes Gray into a storage closet to have sex. She gives him a blowjob first to help him calm down, but they’re both flushed when they return, which Celena notices.

Celena once again publicly rejects Kingston, but she later goes to play poker, and he follows her. Gray is horrified to realize Celena is playing poker because she has a gambling problem. She tries to get Celena to leave, but she refuses, and Gray and Ash wait for her to finish before they leave. Celena is angry when she leaves, suggesting she lost big to Kingston.

Later that week, Gray talks to Celena while grocery shopping, and Celena admits that Kingston card sharked her. As they talk, Gray notices a familiar man, one she saw in Florida, and starts to think she’s being followed. Gray tries to confront him, but he disappears, and Celena agrees to meet her at her house to be sure no one broke in. Celena leaves when everything looks clear, but Gray freaks out again when she once more finds the shade in her kitchen is up.

Ash is getting on a plane again the next day to go to Florida to play his old team, but he’s tired and distracted from worrying about Gray. Kingston once again tries to harass him, but this time Ash snaps back, shocking the goalie. When Kelsier questions him, Ash admits everything that’s been going on, including how he has a security team secretly following Gray. Kelsier warns him he’ll be in trouble if she finds out, and Ash resolves to come clean after their road trip.

The next time they’re together, Ash tries to take Gray into his bedroom so they can finally do some BDSM activities, but he’s cock blocked by his parents and younger sister Petra, who arrive from Canada to celebrate his birthday. Ash’s mother gives him some ingredients so he can make a traditional Icelandic soup for Gray.

The next day, Ash makes Kjötsúpa for Gray, a traditional Icelandic lamb soup, but their dinner plans are derailed when she arrives wearing a naughty schoolgirl outfit. He takes her into his bedroom, and after having her blow him, he straps her first to a chair and then to his bed. Gray freaks out when blindfolded, afraid he’s taking pictures of her, but he assures her he isn’t and later lets her loose from the restraints so she can touch him.

Hours later, Ash and Gray lay on his couch in a satiated haze. They discuss letting others know they’re dating, but Ash is worried about Kaladin finding out. Gray wonders if Kaladin already knows and suggests he’s having her followed. Ash reluctantly comes clean about the security team he has following her, and a little later, about the rose petals and note he found on her bed. Gray runs to the bathroom to be sick.

Gray asks Ash to come to her place with her to check for missing items and to get clothes so she can stay with either her parents or Celena. He insists she’ll stay with him.

The next day, Ash plays like crap, and he’s called into Kaladin’s office, along with Gray, for an ‘update’ on how their work together is going. Gray reiterates that she never promised she could help Ash, and Kaladin confronts them with his suspicions that they’re in a real relationship. Ash deflects the suspicion by telling Kaladin about the intruder in Gray’s house and how she’s going to stay with him for a while.

A few days later, Gray finds Ash on the ice. He’s frustrated with his lack of progress, and she feels guilty for not being able to help him. She declines to come out and skate with him, so he instead picks her up and skates around the ice with her in his arms.

They go up to the locker room, but Gray also declines shower sex, afraid someone will walk in on them. She goes to wait in the hall but is confronted by a man she realizes is Barry, the awkward guy she had her first dating app date with. He gets angry about her involvement with Ash and tases her.

Gray wakes up in the trunk of Barry’s car and forces herself to calm down and figure out what to do. She remembers there should be a trunk release, but the car stops before she can pull it. She pulls it anyway and tries to run, but Barry has a gun and fires a warning shot into the ground.

He forces Gray to walk into the woods where he admits to stalking her and they argue. Barry says he knows from BookTok that all women want a stalker, but Gray angrily points out that books are fiction, not reality, and that people want to experience things in books that they wouldn’t actually want to experience in real life.

Barry gets angry when Gray insults him, and he tries to shoot her, but he hasn’t cocked his revolver again, and she launches herself at him on instinct. His gun is knocked loose, but he lands on top of her and begins to strangle her. She’s able to dislodge him enough to take a breath before he’s knocked off of her.

Ash and one of the guys from his security team, Sully, have found them, and Ash begins to beat the crap out of Barry until Sully pulls him off the man. Ash checks on Gray, and she finally starts to cry.

Two nights later at the Hydra’s home game, Ash receives a hero’s welcome from the sold-out crowd, who’ve heard how he saved Gray. Ash and Gray have a tender moment from different sides of the glass, and Gray talks to Celena about where she goes from here. Two of the security guys Ash hired now sit with her out in the open. Kingston skates over and shows Celena something red he has pinned to his pants. Celena admits to Gray they’re her panties but declines to explain how Kingston got them.

Out on the ice, Ash prepares for the faceoff, starting for the first time this season. He isn’t nervous, and he reflects on what he’s learned from this experience. The trash talk no longer bothers him, as he’s come to understand the strength of the women in his life, including Gray.

Gray and her security detail wait outside the locker room when the game is over. Kingston leaves, and Gray tells him to return Celena’s panties. He tells her to have Celena come out to the bar tonight, and he’ll negotiate an exchange.

Before they leave, Gray takes Ash into the equipment room to tell him she loves him. She mentions that Barry called her “regular,” and he becomes furious, insisting that she’s anything but regular. He says he’ll prove it to her, but he finds his wallet empty when he goes looking for a condom. Gray insists it’s fine not to use one, and they have sex in the equipment room.

Epilogue: About four months later, Gray comes home to find a package for Ash. It turns out to be a strap-on, and Ash asks her to peg him as part of his plan to make himself chirp-proof for the Stanley Cup finals. Gray reluctantly agrees. Afterward, he tells her that the number of times he can get her to orgasm is the number of games they’ll win in the Stanley Cup. They need four to win it. Hours later, Ash has given Gray the four orgasms they need, seemingly securing the Stanley Cup for the Hartford Hydra…