Detective Atticus Ware gave up Idaho to start again in the California mountains, close to his imprisoned brother. Although he’s found good friends, the experienced Dominant wants more than the “do me” submissives flocking around him. He needs a woman to give her heart as well as her body.

After Virginia Cunningham exhausts herself propping up a failing relationship, she accepts a social worker job far, far away in a California prison. Invited to observe BDSM classes on a wilderness camping trip, she’s shocked—her fiancé had insisted BDSM was a fabrication to sell books. But when Atticus lures her into participating, she learns submission under the hands of a powerful Dom is beyond anything she’d imagined. Nonetheless, she can’t permit a relationship—she’d just lose herself again.

Finally, Atticus has found the woman he wants in his life. In his bed. In his cuffs. Only she keeps backing away. Well…if he has to help a little counselor get her head on straight, he’s just the Dom for the job.