After one unwanted grope too many, Mallory Dawes levied charges against her politically powerful boss - and soon experienced the same vicious blowback as so many other victims of sexual harassment. Hounded by the media, made the target of endless sly innuendoes and salacious jokes, she jumps a plane for a long-dreamed of vacation to France - only to find her problems have followed her. A lost passport. Missing Travelers checks. A rental car swept out to sea. And a mysterious, if intriguing man who always seems to turn up just when she was in trouble.

Cutter Smith - code name Slash - has tracked the beautiful blonde from D.C. But as his interests in her veer from the professional to the intensely personal, he realizes the cost of falling for this woman would be high indeed. And he would have to pay the price.