When Chloe MacDaniel is called in as geological consultant on the Rye Beach Complex, she assumes she'll have no trouble winning over the town's residents to the ecological point of view -- they already distrust the project deeply. She's prepared for a little professional rivalry from the developers, the Hanson Corporation, but what she isn't prepared for is Ross Stephenson: president of the firm, but more importantly, the man who swept Chloe off her feet over a decade previously . . . Chloe isn't the person she was eleven years ago, however, and neither is Ross. Gone is the scruffy beard, the faded jeans, the bear-like combination of strength and affection. Now Ross is all refinement, all self-control: smart, suave and persuasive, he's determined to have his way over Rye Beach, no matter who stands in his way. Can Chloe find the strength to oppose the man who was once everything to her?