A summer storm, a gravel road, and a woman done being handled. Mira Lark knocks on the last lit house before the forest, leaving a fiancé who turned generosity into a leash.
Eli Garner—widower, rancher, thirty-seven—opens the door and offers coffee, a towel, and a boundary: under this roof, your rules. Heat flickers, low and relentless.
She needs time and a phone that’s truly hers. He gives safety without strings. The past answers with a white SUV and a smiling emissary who won’t say whose errand he’s on.
Work becomes anchor: fences, horses, paper trails. They draft a living agreement and learn a language of yes. The first kiss is asked for twice, then kept.
Desire turns deliberate—every touch invited, every answer power. When danger circles, they choose truth over theater, law over leverage, and each other over fear.
As threats lose their teeth, the town gathers close. A small fund is born for women resetting their lives. The house stops being a pause and starts being chosen ground.
But closing doors is never simple. To keep this life, they’ll have to define mine so it means belonging, not ownership—and live it out loud.
Tender, suspenseful, and scorchingly intimate, this is a love story built with tools: ask, listen, praise, protect. The last lit house becomes home.
Storm-Shelter Meeting
Consent & Aftercare
Slow Burn to Scorching
Age Gap
Small-Town Sanctuary
Protective-But-Respectful Hero
Stalker Suspense
Found Family
Contemporary Western Romance
Romantic Suspense
Steamy Romance
⚠️ Contains steamy scenes, adult language, and dark themes. For readers 18+
Eli Garner—widower, rancher, thirty-seven—opens the door and offers coffee, a towel, and a boundary: under this roof, your rules. Heat flickers, low and relentless.
She needs time and a phone that’s truly hers. He gives safety without strings. The past answers with a white SUV and a smiling emissary who won’t say whose errand he’s on.
Work becomes anchor: fences, horses, paper trails. They draft a living agreement and learn a language of yes. The first kiss is asked for twice, then kept.
Desire turns deliberate—every touch invited, every answer power. When danger circles, they choose truth over theater, law over leverage, and each other over fear.
As threats lose their teeth, the town gathers close. A small fund is born for women resetting their lives. The house stops being a pause and starts being chosen ground.
But closing doors is never simple. To keep this life, they’ll have to define mine so it means belonging, not ownership—and live it out loud.
Tender, suspenseful, and scorchingly intimate, this is a love story built with tools: ask, listen, praise, protect. The last lit house becomes home.
Storm-Shelter Meeting
Consent & Aftercare
Slow Burn to Scorching
Age Gap
Small-Town Sanctuary
Protective-But-Respectful Hero
Stalker Suspense
Found Family
Contemporary Western Romance
Romantic Suspense
Steamy Romance
⚠️ Contains steamy scenes, adult language, and dark themes. For readers 18+