Lisa Adamson and her friend are spending the last few days before school starts on the beaches of North Carolina's Outer Banks. When a good looking man approaches, Lisa is struck first by familiarity, then by a powerful force drawing them together. She thinks of herself as a married woman, though her husband fell in the fighting for control of an Iraqi village two years ago. Now, she thinks maybe the time is right to move on. That is, when she can think at all. It's not easy when she's around the alluring Bran Douglas. His tight abs and muscular thighs are more than enough to fuel her imagination of what he would be like in bed. She's not sure how much longer fantasies will be enough to sustain her -- or how long she can maintain her loyalty to Mark.
For years, Bran Douglas heard Mark Adamson brag about his beautiful wife. Having seen picture after picture, Bran would know Lisa anywhere. But he's shocked to look up and find her enjoying a beer in the hotel lounge, just a few yards away. In the remote Iraqi desert, Bran had half fallen in love with the idea of Lisa, and for that reason, he'd kept his distance in the two years since Mark's death. Now, seeing her in person, he knows those feelings were more real than he'd imagined. He knows from Mark's stories how sweet she is but the photographs didn't begin to show how hot she is. As though mastered by an invisible puppeteer, he finds he can't resist going to her. Yet how can he face her, knowing what he does about Mark and his death?