Emma Harrington is an intelligent, confident, sweet and sassy woman. Or she was...before him. Emma sets out to rebuild her life and find the person she once was. A wrench is thrown into her plans when she meets Phoenix West, a sexy as hell, smooth-talking tattoo artist. As soon as Nix meets Emma, he knows he's found something special. He can't deny their connection and despite her reluctance, Nix slowly works his way through her hidden scars and into her heart. Just when Emma starts to breathe again, her fear resurfaces, threatening her hopes for the future. Will she ever be free to live the life she truly wants? Or will her torturous past finally catch up to her?

Ten seconds can change everything. I fell in love with him twelve years ago when I was little more than a child. In the blink of an eye, he went from my best friend’s big brother to Tucker – the boy who made my heart beat faster with just a look. But he never saw me as anything more than family and I was forced to let him go. Years later, all it took was one kiss, ten seconds of his lips pressed against mine, to knock my world off its axis and resurrect every old feeling I had buried so long ago. Now, there’s only one thing that I want and his name is Tucker Harrington. Something is holding him back. There’s a darkness inside him that sometimes clouds his eyes and erases every piece of the fun, mischievous boy I fell in love with. His secrets haunt him and if he’s not willing to fight, how will we ever survive?

Fate. I’ve been running from it most of my life – doing everything I can to avoid the future it had dictated for me. If I had learned one thing from the hell I went through as a child, it was that I never wanted to go back. Until I ran into someone who was running from her destiny just as hard as I was. And it just so happens that she’s one of my best friends. One night, emboldened by alcohol, she does something that has me questioning everything and it doesn’t take me long to realize that maybe instead of running away from something, I’ve been racing to her all along. But there is fear in her eyes and I know that her fate won’t be so easily shaken. Will I ever be able to work past her fear to show her everything we could be? Or am I destined for the same kind of desolate life I’ve been fleeing from since I was a kid?