Claire Bedard, a young, successful marketing director in Boston, is completing her morning run in the Common when the man of her dreams quite literally crashes into her. The man, Ryan James, is an aspiring chef restaurateur in the city, and has been in love with Claire since he first saw her. His plan to casually meet her goes awry, but ends with a request for coffee the following day. They immediately fall in love, and together begin a beautiful relationship.
What Claire doesn't know is that Ryan saw abuse at an early age, and those tendencies run deep in his personality. As his love for Claire grows, so does his domineering nature and urge to control her. Knowing Claire pulled him from his 'darkness,' founded in the childhood loss of his mother and recent loss of his girlfriend, Ryan will do anything to keep Claire in his life, anything to keep at bay the darkness that always haunts him.
What Ryan doesn't know is that Claire is a woman of strength, both professionally and personally, and can see through his pain to the man he truly wants to be. Together, they progress down a dark path filled with abuse and memories of the abusive father Ryan detests, but is slowly becoming. Will Claire be able to rescue Ryan from the evil shadow of his past, or is he doomed to become the very man he abhors?