Stephanie Drake, or Steph as she’s known to her friends, is lost. Somewhere between the end of her childhood, and the day her loser of a boyfriend called it quits on their so-called relationship, she forgot who she was. She lives each day in a perpetual routine, stuck in the confines of her normal, safe life. If she doesn’t take a risk, she won’t get hurt—right? Then she meets Pete—or Pistol to his friends. He’s blunt, arrogant, and straight forward about what he wants. And as it turns out, he wants her. Should she take a walk on the wild side, risk being burnt, and lay her heart on the line? Something in the way he makes her feel tells her ‘yes’, but her friends aren’t so sure this emotionally shut-off man has a place in her life. Why should she listen to them, though? After all, they don’t know a thing about him ... ... do they?

“All they’d ever known was how to get things the easiest way. It wasn’t always legal, and it sure-as-shit most times wasn’t moral, but they’d been taught from a young age, that if your heart was set on something, you risked it all to get it.” Pistol may have got the girl – but it doesn’t mean he won’t have to work to keep her … Steph faces one of the biggest challenges of her life; deciding if the man she’s attracted to for all the wrong reasons is worth enough to risk at all. When her heart is involved, how exactly does she decide when to draw the line? Impossible to tell, isn’t it … Pistol can’t stop himself from satisfying his own needs first – at the risk of Steph’s safety. He wants her with him … at all costs. But is he simply blackmailing her to stay? Or has she truly made the decision for herself? Will he ever know … The dark depths of Pistol’s life before Steph surface when his mother arrives to claim what she believes to be hers. Is an insatiable need for each other enough to keep love alive through such troubling times …

\\\ DARK ROMANCE \\\ “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” \- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Life is dark for Steph. After swearing never to be her own worst enemy again, she’s forced to battle her demons once more as events in her life push her to the absolute limits of self-preservation. And she needs to do it alone. Pete is back in the place he swore never to return to, all in the name of protecting Steph from the dangers of his past. But are yesterday’s ghosts the only threat they face? When true intentions are laid bare, can Steph find the fight within to pull herself out of the darkness? Can Pete close the last doors on his past, or will he realize what is truly important, too late? Their history may shape the people they are today – but nobody said it had to define their future …