Spectrum & Smoke
(2026)(A book in the Rochester Copperheads series)
A novel by V L Locey and RJ Scott
One firefighter. One hockey player. One slow burn that had nothing to do with the fire.
Russell ‘Chip’ Cornish has always been the heart of the Rochester Copperheads—he reads the ice in angles and probabilities, and the rest of the world the same way. He keeps his routines, maps every room in steps and distances, and lets his assistance dog Sable do the emotional heavy lifting when the world gets too loud. Then a fire changes everything, and the firefighter who pulls them both from danger turns out to be the one thing Chip can't calculate his way out of.
Pulling a stranger and his dog from a fire was just the job. Dane Rourke hadn't counted on the stranger being quite so impossible to forget—or on breaking every rule he'd signed up for about getting involved. After a second encounter crackles with something neither of them planned for, they start finding reasons to be in the same room—and then the same apartment. Slow and steady, careful and quiet, keeping it hidden from Dane's station captain while a homophobic colleague watches for cracks.
As the Copperheads chase the Cup and Chip and Dane navigate trust and the terrifying leap from careful to committed, they're learning that showing up—every time, even when it's hard—is everything.
Spectrum & Smoke is a steamy, slow-burn MM hockey romance featuring neurodivergent rep, an assistance dog who steals scenes, opposites attract, a hero learning to let someone in, and a love story that goes all the way to Game Seven.
Genre: Gay Romance
Russell ‘Chip’ Cornish has always been the heart of the Rochester Copperheads—he reads the ice in angles and probabilities, and the rest of the world the same way. He keeps his routines, maps every room in steps and distances, and lets his assistance dog Sable do the emotional heavy lifting when the world gets too loud. Then a fire changes everything, and the firefighter who pulls them both from danger turns out to be the one thing Chip can't calculate his way out of.
Pulling a stranger and his dog from a fire was just the job. Dane Rourke hadn't counted on the stranger being quite so impossible to forget—or on breaking every rule he'd signed up for about getting involved. After a second encounter crackles with something neither of them planned for, they start finding reasons to be in the same room—and then the same apartment. Slow and steady, careful and quiet, keeping it hidden from Dane's station captain while a homophobic colleague watches for cracks.
As the Copperheads chase the Cup and Chip and Dane navigate trust and the terrifying leap from careful to committed, they're learning that showing up—every time, even when it's hard—is everything.
Spectrum & Smoke is a steamy, slow-burn MM hockey romance featuring neurodivergent rep, an assistance dog who steals scenes, opposites attract, a hero learning to let someone in, and a love story that goes all the way to Game Seven.
Genre: Gay Romance