Paige has spent years outrunning the woman she used to be.
When danger from Callie's past brough Detective John Ryker into her life, she never expected him to stay once the case was over. But John was there when she woke up in the hospital- and somehow, he kept being there.
With him, Paige has found something she never expected: Safety without a cage, strength without losing control, and a man strong enough to surrender it when she needs him to.
But Paige has secrets John doesn't know. A past she buried for a reason.
And the closer they become, the harder it is to ignore the question haunting her.
Will he still love her when he learns who she was- and what she did?
With John, control isn't taken- it's chosen. Their connection asks both of them to surrender exactly what scares them most.
Paige built a new life from the wreckage of the old one. Loving John means risking the truth she fought so hard to bury.
John knows how to face danger. Protecting Paige becomes harder when the threat is tangled up with the woman she used to be.
Desire. Trust. Danger. A love worth choosing.
Paige has spent years building a life no one can take from her. She survived a man who treated love like ownership, and she swore she would never hand anyone that kind of power again.
Then she meets Detective John Ryker.
Steady, protective, and impossible to fool, John sees through every joke and deflection Paige throws his way. With him, trust begins to feel less like surrender- and more like a choice.
But Paige's past isn't finished with her. When the life she escaped collides with the man she's beginning to trust, John will have to protect her without becoming another cage- and Paige will have to decide whether loving him is worth risking the truth.
Because some bonds don't hold you down. They hold you together.