He demanded order. She was the chaos he couldn't control.
Commander Nicholas Sterling runs the Vanguard with cold, ruthless precision. In the depths of space, there is no room for error - and certainly no room for stowaways. When he discovers Amanda Raine hiding in a cryo-pod, his duty is clear: treat her as a hostile variable and purge the threat. But Amanda is no ordinary prisoner.
A brilliant xenolinguist on the run from a corrupt corporation, she possesses intelligence that rivals his own and a defiance that shatters his icy composure. Instead of breaking her, Nicholas finds himself obsessed with containing her. When a pirate attack cripples the ship, the strict boundaries of captor and captive dissolve in the vacuum of space. Forced into a cramped escape pod to survive, the tension between them ignites into a desperate, forbidden passion. Stranded on an alien world with enemies closing in, Nicholas must choose between the military discipline that defines him and the woman who has claimed his soul.
