I’ve experienced the ways love can change a poor man into a rich one, a sinner to a saint, and make people beg for redemption. Yet nothing I’d ever done was as profound as marrying the woman I love. Every mission I took was a risk worth taking knowing I'd go home to her loving arms. What I didn’t know was in my quest to right all the wrongs of the world, I was destroying the only part of it I’d die for - my marriage. The ripple effect of miscommunication and the sin of my omissions would change all of our lives. And it would be my wife who would pay the price.

When linguistics expert Iris Cunningham met Samuel Akin, she fell irrevocably in love. She nursed a crush on her best friend's cousin. From an instant attraction, it grew to something much more during four long years at college. She hid despair. He didn't feel the same. Computer savant Samuel Akin denied his feelings for Iris until it was almost too late. Every time he was with her, a flood of emotion swept over him. He craved her yet feared he couldn't be with her. She dragged his sense out of self to sea. Their lives irrevocably entwine when love guides them first to an alliance, then marriage and family. They submerge themselves into a sworn existence few are privy. Validating the half-truths demanded by the terms and conditions of their livelihood, threads of honor and integrity that bind them are tested. Yet while alternately maddened and delighted by the other, they take an opposing side over a fundamental disagreement. They regret little about their lives together, but this? When faced with accusations of betrayal, can they stand firm together against the waves crashing against them during the tides? Or will their love be swept away in a wash of heartbreak?

Parker “Thorn” Thornton can never discuss exactly how he spends his days. That’s been the story of his life for as long as he can remember. That is until yesterday when crap hit the fan, and his personal and professional lives clashed in a way he never anticipated. Now, the self-righteous, arrogant, sexy former SEAL has no choice but to spill his guts to a roomful of strangers. To provoke his peace of mind, the people demanding answers seem to want to focus their questions on the one subject guaranteed to send his blood boiling—the woman he loves, Bethany McCallister. As day turns to night and the grilling continues, the intrusiveness of the questions asked knows no bounds. No topic is left off the table, forcing Thorn to concede his relationship with Bethany has hit its fair share of troubled water. Even though Thorn’s determined to protect Bethany, will he be caught between shielding Bethany and admitting the truth? That he’d kill to protect her. Again.