Alyx Miller is a smart, quiet high school student with a raging attraction to Cash Smith: the wildly popular quarter back with model boy hair. When his English class anonymously swap their favourite books with each other for an assignment, Alyx discovers that maybe one of his classmates is a bit more profound than he originally thought... And maybe, just maybe, his crush isn't quite as hopeless, either.

Ethan tries to leave one life for another: probable death for a possible life. But what he leaves behind doesn't necessarily want to let him go. Shackles from the past bind his wrists while promises of a better life scare the hell out of him. How could someone possibly want him to be a part of their life and their family? What he thought was his chance for salvation, in the form of the firm roles of a BDSM relationship, proves to be a very different story altogether. Marc Matthews, a Dom at a local club, turns Ethan's life upside down without the help of a whip. While Matthews tugs at his heart, Ethan remains determined to raise the walls inside his chest to protect what is left of a hollow existence.