"Gwen Fagan is a driven young black professional, living in Atlanta, who doesn't much care that her social life is nearly nonexistent. To the rest of the world, she's formidable, imperious, and utterly focused on professional success. But this is a carefully cultivated front designed to hide the vulnerability and pain that stem from her troubled past, one marked by personal trauma and family tragedy." "Gwen's ordered world is upended when she learns that a figure from her past - ex-basketball star Xavier Dean - is joining her firm. The two are forced into intimate proximity when Gwen's unwitting supervisor assigns Xavier to work on a project that Gwen is leading. Distrustful of Xavier, Gwen is guarded to the point of hostility, but she's continually struck by the courtesy and respect he extends her - and by his good looks." "Xavier is unaware of their shared past, but as he develops an attraction to Gwen (an attraction to which she gradually warms in response), she steadfastly hides their past connection - how in college, ten years before, Gwen was brutally raped by NBA star Terry Stuart, Xavier's friend and teammate, a memory she has tried desperately to repress. As her relationship with Xavier deepens, Gwen finds it harder and harder to cope with having buried so much of the unresolved pain that resulted from her rape. When Terry Stuart reenters Gwen's life, returning to Atlanta with his NBA team, events build to an explosive pitch that will change all three of their lives forever."--BOOK JACKET.