Luciano “The Philly Brawler” Antonelli was a fighter. He fought on the streets as a kid, he fought in business as a man, he fought in the ring as a world champion. As his gift graduated, so did his way of thinking. His fighting never stopped, just his methods. Twenty odd years later and he’s found himself fighting for something entirely different - the heart of a woman he’s wanted from the first moment he heard her voice. The second opportunity knocks, he takes a leap composed from faith and bravado, succeeding. Perhaps a little too much. Now he’s thinking up lullabies and trying to determine how to convince radio star Samara Blackwell that he wants her for more than just the life they've created resting on the inside of her ever growing belly. Is this one battle where he’ll have to call a draw? If the behavior of his obstinate little media queen is any indication than it just might be. But he’d never backed down from stepping in the ring with anyone. And he’s not about to start now.

Ashleigh Thyne was a man haunted by a bevy of things, most of them the hollow echo of memories he'd buried long ago. The other ghosts rattling the frame of his bed at night consisted of his ex-fiancé Mackenzie Rogan's unshakable image and the sound of their daughter's laughter. For three years he's tried and failed at compartmentalizing the day that she packed up every possession she had and left him. Polite, distant and aloof had become the basis of their relationship. But with each phone call and holiday spent together, accompanied by dreams that leave tents in his sheets come morning, Ashleigh begins to realize that polite, distant and aloof aren't working anymore. Adding insult to injury is Mackenzie's engagement to someone that Ashleigh hates on principle alone. What's a man to do when the first and only woman he'll ever love is attempting to replace him and his pride is finally on its last leg? Ashleigh doesn't know, but he'll be damned if he allows someone else to claim what belongs solely to him and always will. After all, barbarians weren't exactly known for giving up without a fight, now were they?