He lives by routine. She lives on instinct. But when a killer returns to finish the job, Axel and Erika must work together in this edge-of-your-seat romantic thriller. Always be prepared—that's Axel Steele's motto. While his brothers were busy throwing punches and taking risks, Ax was the quiet one, the planner, the one who kept everything from falling apart. A former special-ops Marine with a need for control, Ax lives by routine … until the day he finds a woman trapped in the woods, and in desperate need of protection. With tattoos as bold as her attitude, Erika Zajac is everything he's not—free-spirited, reckless, and impossible to ignore. She's hiding the kind of secrets that get people killed. But Ax is a man used to pressure. What he's not used to … is her . As Erika’s enemies close in and long-buried family tensions threaten to explode, Ax finds himself in the middle of a storm he can't control. And the biggest threat of all may not be the man hunting her— But the woman daring him to feel again.