A chance meeting. An improbable connection. An exquisite attraction. Trent Hettinger's turbulent formative years transformed him into a cynic-and into a man who realized he required something outside himself to control his temper. Something he found as a Dom-at least for a while. But he allowed himself to trust a woman once and was slapped back into reality with a vengeance and now devotes all his energy into building his real estate empire, raising his teenaged daughter…and avoiding anything resembling authentic attachments. Melody Rodriguez kept her head down for years-working hard, making her own money, trying to get ahead with every deck stacked against her. She's determined to move beyond the ugliness that haunts her without anyone's help. When a mutual friend sets her up with Trent, she's determined to have some fun with him and move on. A man with nothing left to lose. A woman hiding behind her past. When two lives spent in emotional denial collide, it's a perfect match-at least on the surface. But neither Trent or Melody are prepared for the full force of their true feelings, once fate intervenes and blows a cold breeze into their white-hot relationship.