My obsession was born of innocence and good intentions, and it began the day I spotted a handwritten journal lying in the bushes outside a townhouse on Lexington Avenue. It was raining sideways that morning, and my plan was to return it the next day; safe and dry. Only I kept it. I kept it, and I read it. A week later, overwhelmed with curiosity and feeling guilty for harboring secrets that didn’t belong to me, I tried to return it. Only I wasn’t expecting to meet him. Unapologetically heartless and enigmatically sexy, he claims he knows nothing about the journal I found outside his place, but the reticent glint in his blue-green gaze tells me otherwise. There’s something different about him; something damaged yet magical, and I’m drawn to him; pulled into his orbit. There’s just one problem. The more I get to know him, the more I’m positive the journal belonged to him... ...and the more I find myself hoping, selfishly, that I’m wrong.

It was just a party. A silly little celebration with champagne and my best friends. As I blew out the candles on my divorce cake, I said goodbye to my failed marriage and embraced my future with open arms. But I didn’t know the future was going to come in the form of a mysterious stranger sitting at the end of the bar stealing glances all night. And I didn’t know at the time, but my future even had a name... Dante Amato. Over the weeks that followed, he pursued me with reckless abandon. He broke down my walls and ignored all the reasons we were completely wrong for each other. He made me feel something I hadn’t felt in years... something so real it terrified me. But the moment I let him in... just when I began to let myself fall for this dashing stranger... he dropped a bombshell that changed everything.

It was New Year’s Eve, and I should’ve been ringing in the night with cheap champagne and bad decisions at home in New York. Instead I found myself holed up in some hotel room in southern California. But I wasn’t alone. I was in the company of a fellow stranded traveler by the name of Cristiano. We spent one night together – forced into the same hotel room by the snowstorm that cancelled our flights and changed our lives. His dimpled smile, panty-melting kisses, and charming wit were a temporary distraction from the chaos of the day... and the past year. But as soon as morning broke, I set my sights on getting home. I rented a car, mapped out my 2,749 mile journey, and packed my bags. Only Cristiano insisted on joining me. He needed to get home, too. His best friend was getting married on Saturday. And he refused to let me go it alone. It wasn’t safe, he said. Trekking across the country with an alluring stranger was certainly one of the more adventurous moments of my life. Falling for him was certainly one of the most daring. But uncovering his secrets? That was the most challenging. And the truth I learned... would shatter us both.