Gambled away to a man she doesn't know...

All Carey Murphy wanted to do was keep her head down. She counted down the days hoping her father would drink himself into an early grave. All she worried about was when the next beating would come—until the day her father bet her on a game of chance and lost.

After losing his wife years ago, John O'Grady never thought he'd find himself in another relationship, let alone married to a blue-eyed girl with a bruise on her cheek. She was given to him as the spoils of a poker game, and he had no intention of keeping her.

When heated looks give way to passionate kisses, neither of them notices the danger which looms around the corner.