To love is to burn…. Having been set on fire once, Zan is unwilling to repeat the experience. Personal attachment goes against his code of looking out for number one. The universe’s oldest rebel, Zan has turned his back on the pampered life of luxury and made his own way aboard a living ship he and his pirate crew use to take from the privileged and sustain themselves. It’s a good, dishonest life, but he’s gone far too long without the feel of a woman’s embrace. Alone on an alien world, Gia longs for physical satiation, something none of the empaths can give her without a more lasting connection. Zan is the only man willing to see to her needs and though it shames her, her body responds to his on a level she has never experienced before, an intimate connection that reaches beyond sex and into the ashes of her withered heart. Bliss, until her health guard fails at a critical moment, exposing her to Zan’s memories. Now she’s saddled with a space pirate who won’t take no for an answer. When the universe is out to get you, paranoia is just smart thinking.