Gust And Gouge

He carved me a door, then stood in front of it. I never asked him to move.

Haven Sinclair, a brilliant museum curator, is sent to a remote, uninhabited island in the Kodiak Archipelago to acquire the works of a reclusive woodcarver. When a violent storm destroys her boat, she is stranded with Roarke Thorne, a scarred and deeply guarded man who carves magnificent totems from raw spruce but vehemently refuses to sell his art.

As the days blur in the endless amber light of the Alaskan summer, Haven's forensic eye notices anomalies: a hidden skiff, a deliberately sabotaged radio, and a locked shed. She realizes her captivity is no accident.

Roarke is a former art authenticator consumed by grief, secretly building a federal case against a ruthless billionaire artifact trafficker who murdered his brother—the very same billionaire who funds Haven's museum. He needs Haven's insider knowledge to bring the empire down, and he'll go to any lengths to keep her on his island until she agrees to help.

Trapped in a weathered woodworking shop surrounded by dark spruce forests and crashing ocean waves, Haven must decode the dangerous truths Roarke is hiding. But as the intense psychological tension mounts amidst the rhythmic strike of a chisel and the smell of cedar, the lines between captor and captive crumble. Forced proximity ignites a dark, consuming passion, forcing Haven to decide when a cage becomes a home... and when a captor becomes a choice.