I've always believed you only get one: health or love.

After years trapped in a hospital bed with a mysterious illness no doctor could name, I've finally clawed my way back to life. But there's a cost. I keep my distance. I don't let anyone close—not when fear the darkness will return and drag me under again.

Then I meet Christian Chiasson.

He's all heat and danger, with eyes that see straight through my armor and a voice that turns my name into something sinful.

And he wants me. Every broken, hidden, guarded piece I've buried beneath a smile and a polite "I'm fine."

And just when I start to believe I might be worth that kind of love, something far darker than my past rises from the bayou. Something ancient and relentless, something that doesn't just want to hurt me...it wants to use me.

Christian swears he'll protect me. That he'd walk through fire, through Hell itself, just to keep me alive.

But the real battle isn't surviving what's coming.

It's surrendering to the one thing I've always feared more than death—wanting him.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Donna Grant returns for another sultry story in the bayou.