Coda Mercer has not found a woman interesting beyond a roll in the hay for many years. Recently, though, his new bar manager, Beth Hale, has piqued his interest. The widowed mother of two sweet girls is not the quiet, sweet, go-along-to-get-along woman she pretends to be. He has seen fire beneath the haunted shadows in her eyes. He has no idea why she is concealing her inner she-wolf, but he intends to find out.

Although Coda is not accustomed to being put in the friend zone, he senses that what Beth needs most is someone she can trust. He wasn't ready for her and her two little charmers to bury themselves deeply under his skin; he wasn't prepared to want to protect and shelter them.

Things with the beautiful Beth are going great until he tries to discuss her life before she moved to the tiny town of Mercy, Wyoming, where the cattle outnumber the people. Suddenly, she becomes evasive and reaches for well-rehearsed lies. He can feel the truth somewhere inside every touch, making her old lies easier to bear.

By providing her two girls a safe home and stability, Beth can now explore whether she can live the quiet life she fought so hard for. She doesn't need to act on the heated promises she sees in Coda's intense blue eyes because the gruff, sexy cowboy stars in her heated dreams. But this only means that Coda is becoming even harder to resist.