Jada Michaels has been lusting after Detective Ryder Lemaster for two years, but failed to get more than a passing nod from him at the police station. Then an opportunity arises to further her career by investigating the murder case of a friend of Ryder’s on the sly. After he tries to dissuade her by making a bet and losing, Jada agrees to let Ryder tutor her in order to attend a private party with all the suspects invited as guests. Ryder struggled against his attraction to Jada because he could have sworn the IT technician didn’t possess a submissive bone in her sleek, well-toned body. To his astonishment, and hers, she responded without fail to every hard slap and every dominant demand. But after losing his wife to cancer, he swore off relationships and refuses to let his need for Jada go any further than their short foray into the investigation. It takes seeing another man come on to her and a risk to her life to open his eyes to what has been right before him all along. As the murderer is revealed and secrets on Magnolia Island unearthed, the Lemaster men and their women have to come to grips with the betrayals surrounding them.