Prologue

I never wanted to rent out the island house. Even after a year of doing exactly that, the very thought has me raiding my tiny stash of edibles before the panic attack hits. The island is my sanctuary. It's also the one thing in this world that is mine, all mine.

The island had been a wedding gift from Kit, and he insisted on signing it over after we split. The problem is that Hemlock House is not some tiny cottage perched on a sliver of land. It's a custom-built home on a five-acre private island in Lake Superior.

It's the sort of place that a guy like Christian "Kit" Hayes—CEO of his family's tech corporation—can afford as a getaway. It is not the kind of place his high school English teacher ex can afford to maintain… unless I rent it out. Unless I allow total strangers to invade my private domain. Allow them to move the chairs from my secret spots, to burn down my gazebo with a bonfire, to destroy my grandmother's coffee table with what are clearly canid teeth marks despite promising their dog would stay outside…

I told myself to stop being so sentimental. If I want this amazing place, I need to make concessions. Just keep my insurance paid up and be happy that the worst thing that can happen is a burned gazebo or a chewed table.

That is not the worst thing.

The worst thing is that someone now knows every inch of your private space, and they can do whatever they want to it—and, maybe, to you.