He's hurt her once, and terrified her. He holds her future in his hands. Can she trust him with her body too? Desperate to escape her past and start over, Ashley McAllister cuts her ties with her old life and heads for the wild landscape of West Yorkshire, the perfect place to reinvent herself. And her carefully laid plans are working, until she encounters her nemesis—the one man she'd hoped never to see again. Tom Shore, the man she and a gang of thugs attacked and robbed, and who swore he'd make her pay. He owns the cottage she now lives in and adores, and now he wants his pound of flesh. So he takes it. Intimidated, beaten and dismayed by her sexy and dominant landlord, and totally confused by her intense physical response to him, Ashley needs Tom to guard her secrets. But will he, and his enigmatic and terrifying friend Nathan Darke, allow her to leave her past behind and start again? Having survived her first explosive and humiliating encounter with Tom, Ashley struggles to get her new life back on track. But Tom wants her. His demanding, persuasive, sensual charm is almost irresistible, his mastery of her assured. But—can she submit to Tom's dominance? Should she? Ashley has escaped one violent and abusive relationship. Is she about to be sucked into an even more dark and dangerous liaison? Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes including spanking, ice play, restraints. Warning: involves one scene of dubious consent that some readers might find distressing. There are also detailed, graphic scenes of violence and miscarriage, and allusions to domestic violence and rape. Note some of the characters present also appear in The Dark Side serial by Ashe Barker. This book is best read in sequence as part of a serial, and ends on a cliffhanger that some readers might find upsetting.