Some people need to be tied down to feel free. Tampa homicide detective Alex Reed is one of those people. On the job she is fiercely intelligent and tougher than any of the men in her department, handling her high-stress job with ease. Off duty, however, she explores her darker side through her highly erotic novels of bondage and submission. She hides her shameful desires behind a pen name, Victoria Tarlatan, and no one has any idea of her longings to be sexually dominated.
Detective Cole Berkley is Alex's longtime partner and best friend. They have seen each other through her father's suicide and Cole's own devastating divorce when his wife left him. When things get tough on the street, Cole knows he can always trust Alex to get his back. What he doesn't know is anything about her secret hunger to be mastered, but he's about to find out.
Somewhere in Tampa's urban sprawl a serial killer is working his dark magic, transforming wicked women into works of erotic art. The killer's MO is always the same--his hapless victims are found tied to the bed in classic bondage poses, strangled and tortured in unspeakable ways.
In order to crack the case, Alex and Cole will have to go undercover in the BDSM community, posing as Master and slave, Dominant and submissive. But can Alex hold on to her secret while being forced to play out her most private fantasies with her partner? And can Cole handle the change in his tough-as-nails partner from one of the guys to a woman with deeply erotic needs?
The friction between them will soon be the least of their worries. Because the killer has a list of intended victims, women who must be punished for daring to share their fantasies with the rest of the world. And the name Victoria Tarlatan is on it, making Alex next in line for the killer's transformation.
Will she pay for her Dangerous Cravings with her life?
