Architect Hadley James is a woman on a mission. Leaving a string of shattered hearts and broken engagements across Europe, she returns to Chicago to put her playgirl image behind her and focus on her career. And she intends to do it alone - no men, no angst, no problem - but when she crosses paths with a client, one hell-bent on claiming the bad girl, all bets are off. Scott Barlow knows what he wants. He wants Hadley James in his life, his bed and under his thumb. A strict disciplinarian and advocate of tough-love for women, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. There is another who watches and waits, someone from her past with a deadly agenda, someone who will prove that before a heart can be shattered, it must exist.