Former DEA agent Michael Ian Campbell struggled with civilian life after leaving the agency when his wife, Mari, was killed after blowing his cover with the Rodriguez Cartel. He'd gone in with the alias of Michael Smith, trying to get the intel needed to bring down the infamous drug ring. He'd worked his way up to only a couple of levels down from the ringleader, Roberto "Rojo" Rodriguez, when Mari posted a picture of him with their son, Brody, on social media, identifying him as her husband. He barely made it out alive the day he and his family were ambushed in a drive-by ordered by Rojo to take him out.

With his cover blown and Brody now motherless, he retired from the DEA and scrubbed all records of Michael Campbell from existence, so he could safely raise his son with the help of his sister, Cait. As a parting gift, the agency created a new identity for him, using only his middle and last name. In exchange for the anonymity, Ian used his new job as a high school English teacher to funnel information back to his former partner on the lower-level drug dealers in and around the San Diego schools. Until the day he got word that Rojo Rodriguez had escaped, when the rest of the major players in his cartel were captured in a raid in South Texas, that is. With limited resources keeping the DEA and local law enforcement from having someone in Heart's Destiny, Texas, actively looking for the cartel kingpin, Ian moved there with his family to capture the man responsible for his wife's death.

Charlotte Burleson didn't know the new English teacher she had to work with was actually a friend of her brother, Jake, and a former undercover DEA agent. She only knew him as a one-night stand she thought she'd never see again, and the most infuriating man she'd ever met.

After the most intense sexual experience of her life, Charlotte woke up to an empty bed with no information on how to contact the mysterious Ian for another round. Two weeks later, he showed up at her family's late Christmas celebration and acted as if they'd never met. He continued the charade of not knowing her when he started working in the classroom next door to hers at the beginning of January.

Ian wasn't sure how to deal with finding out the hot-as-hell one-night stand he had on the night he interviewed for his new job was with the sister of a man he'd worked with on a joint task force a few years back and considered a friend. He had to keep his cover and not let on to anyone in town that he knew Jake Burleson before moving there. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't tell his friend Jake that he'd slept with his sister. So, when the owner of the bed and breakfast, where he and his family were staying until their rental was available for them to move, insisted on taking them to a late Christmas celebration, Ian pretended he'd never met Jake or Charlotte.

When he started work and realized he was supposed to coordinate the seventh-grade lesson plans with her, Ian couldn't resist pushing her buttons to get a glimpse of the fiery passion he'd seen on their one night together. But even as hot as his time with Charlotte was, he couldn't risk getting burned if Rojo Rodriguez caught wind of his presence in town and went after her, the way he had Mari.

As danger loomed, the couple fought their instant attraction and growing connection, not realizing that standing together was the only way they could win in the end.

DISCLAIMER: This single dad, teacher, brother's friend, instalove, alpha male, romantic suspense book contains references to past gun violence and child abuse, as well as the kidnapping and rescue of a main character, profanity, and graphic sex scenes. It is...