Declan apologizes to rich men for a living.
He never planned to marry one.
He's the concierge who keeps The Asteria running on charm and exhaustion.
He knows every flooded pipe, every VIP whim, every way the hotel is quietly replacing him.
What he can't fix is the text from his sister that starts with three words: it's not big.
It's always big.
Julian Hartley checks in platinum, demands discretion, and notices everything—including the man who put him in a closet of a room and dared to look him in the eye.
They start as enemies.
Sharp words. Sharper looks. Two men who'd rather win than blink.
Then the debt collector comes for Declan's family, the medical bills stack up, and Julian offers the one thing money can buy and pride can't: a marriage of convenience.
Sign the paper. Play the part. Let him pay for the people Declan can't save alone.
It's a transaction.
It's revenge against the people who underestimated them both.
It is absolutely not supposed to mean anything.
But conscience has a way of catching, and so do the nights when the act slips and Julian forgets to be cold.
"This was a deal," Declan says. "So why does it feel like the only real thing I've got?"
A marriage on paper. A wanting neither of them will name. A secret on the roof that could blow the whole arrangement apart.
When the truth gets overheard and the distance feels safer than the fall, Declan has to choose between the contract that protects him—and the impossible man who's started to feel like home.
Some keys open doors. One opens a life he never thought he'd get.
Checking Him is a steamy and emotional MM hockey-adjacent contemporary romance about enemies-to-lovers, a marriage of convenience, revenge, found family, and a last chance at forever earned the hard way.
Perfect for readers who love MM enemies-to-lovers, marriage of convenience, grumpy meets grumpy, a hero fighting for his family, and a hard-won happily-ever-after. A standalone with a satisfying ending.
