When Marcus King and Temperance Palmer first meet, they are battling each other in court. At twenty-five, she's the youngest public defense attorney in her hometown, the small, desert town of Death Hollow in Nevada. He's the brand-new district attorney fresh out of Portland, charging in to save the day after the previous DA, his grandfather, passed away unexpectedly. But Temperance's life unravels, and her world is turned upside down when she discovers her mother has been alive for almost twenty-five years, imprisoned in a maximum-security mental hospital in Utah and carrying a heavy secret about an Irish crime boss. Although Marcus seems to be the man of Temperance's dreams, he brings with him secrets of his own, along with a mysterious and seductive presence. Can Temperance handle Marcus' sly wit and the sexual tension between them? Or will she give into his charming advances?