Colorado detective Ryan Darnell found the quiet of his small mountain town shattered when a young, hearing-impaired boy witnessed a brutal murder. With the help of the boy's summer guardian, Marian Richards, protecting the child became his first priority. Yet as he closed in on the truth behind the crime, Ryan found that sharing long days and even longer nights with the beautiful, brown-eyed Marian was a temptation he couldn't resist. As both the investigation and the summer drew to a close, Ryan knew it was only a matter of time before Marian returned to the city?and left him wanting a future he'd never imagined possible.