Professor Abigail Burn's only hope of avoiding layoffs from the university is to publish a provocative research paper in the near future. To this end, she gets a job as a secretary at the notorious BDSM club “Dark Skies”, planning to secretly observe what is happening. When the owner calls on her to help with the demonstration, she is horrified. But it lends itself to charm. Under the unyielding hands of the master known as Milord, she discovers her need to become more than just an observer. His late wife was the center of his life, and Xavier Leduc wants no one else. But when his new secretary does her best to keep an emotional distance from him, he becomes intrigued and decides to dig deeper. She's charming. Intriguingly smart, beautifully submissive, sweetly vulnerable. He soon realizes that her defenses are keeping her on the edge of her sexuality—and her life. As he engages her more fully, she unconsciously does the same to him. She begins to fill his world. From the very night she met Milord Xavier, Abby questioned everything she knew about herself. She falls in love with the stern owner of Dark Skies and thinks he's starting to care about her... until the day he finds out why she's at his club.