Battered and sitting in jail, Beatrice Maxwell is having a rough night. A few years earlier, a teenaged Beatrice had promised Deer Creek's sexy sheriff of that she would never trust strangers again-especially not after a joyride-turned-speed-chase found her in the back of a stolen vehicle...and then over the sexy sheriff's knee. Despite living her life as an upstanding citizen since that fateful day, Beatrice has broken her stranger-danger promise, and she now finds herself in trouble with the law again, but this time for attempted murder. Sheriff Tom Clayton knows his deputy only arrested Beatrice to keep her safe-not only from her own self-incrimination, but from the dangerous man she opened her front door to greet. Eric Cartier is on the loose in Deer Creek, and there is no way Tom is going to let Beatrice out of his sight before the suspect is apprehended and put in jail. Until then, his little felon is on custodial lockdown...with him. Tom sweeps Beatrice away to his cabin where he is determined to not only keep her safe, but examine their turbulent past and secure their future.