Micah and Risa...

Risa has had a tough life... (from a previous Lora Leigh book) her evil father the Senator along with his doctor/scientist friendhad kidnapped 18 year old, virgin Risa and two other women, had them injected with Whores dust and allowed the doctor/scientist to rape her in front of him, both furthering their abuse by telling her she was so ugly that her father could not sell her, and her rapist took her from behind so that he didn;t have to look at her face... she was freed fairly quickly, but put in a sanitarium by her father for 2 more years, wher the doctor/scientist experimented on her as he tried to reinvent the Whores dust (recipe /inventor lost when Risa rescued)... when the other woman victim 's story is told, they also come to realize that Risa's father was evil, and they rescue her from the sanitarium...

Micah, aka David, Mossad - father American CIA mother Israeli Mossad - wonderful, strong, gentle, loving, honorable people/parents... and when his mother is does not stop an investigation of human trafficking that is centered on the doctor/scientist, the doctor/scientist sends Orion to kill her... Orion is CIA and freelance assassin, who kills by tying his victims to a table, and slashing the wrists of the women and the throats of the men... and following Micah's mother's death, his father dies a few months later as he throws himself on a suicide bomber and dies... and a few years later Micah has tracked Orion onto a ship, but Orion is warned and shoots Micah, thinking he has killed him... he only grazed his temple, but Micah went overboard, and was rescued by Navy Seals... and he sold his soul to Jordan's Black Ops team for the opportunity to get revenge on Orion.

and six years after her release from the sanitarium, Risa has been working on getting her life back... she still fights the effects of the Whore's dust feeling intense sexual feelings and she has begun to remember some of the details of her rape... and the doctor/scientist is afraid she will remember him, so he contracts with Orion to kill her... somehow word of the contract gets out, and Jordan's black ops is on it... Micah (who has been aware of Risa the last few years as he has visited common NavySeal friends/wives) volunteers to be the point man as they make a plan to protect Risa/use Risa as bait to draw out Orion and to pose as Risa's lover... Risa is introduced to her Seal wife's friend's Micah at a night club... Risa, thinking this as just a blind date, had decided that she will have sex with the man they are setting her up with...

Tough Micah connects with her in the beginning using his eyes to reassure her... and when she has a nerve attack and rushes to the bathroom, he is waiting for her, and challenges her, and reacts to her attraction, and kisses her... and takes her back to his apartment, where they have sex - but as she reaches climax, her fear controls her and she doesn't allow herself ot feel it fully - and when he does not climax, and leaves for a minute, she rushes out of the apartment believing she is too not good that he couldn't even come with her - though he wanted a minute to regain control and then planned to continue...

the next day, the CIA and the special ops meet with herto tell her of the contract out on her life, and their plan... they also tell her of how the whore dust is still affecting her, and she reluctantly agrees to go along with thier plan...

So she and Micah are living together; he has a plan for seduction (the sensual parts of the book) - to help her overcome her fears and to enjoy the pleasure... he sleeps with her, getting used to his touch, and he bit by bit helps her to be comfortable with her body's reactions, and teaches her to pleasure him, buys her attractive, sexy clothes, pushes her limits, and to allow him greater liberties, until they make love... and he holds her when the nightmares come, and to him she is truly beautiful, and as her inner beauty grows others see the outer beauty more readily, and though he knows he will leave her, and she knows he will leave her, they come to love one another... though he only tells her is hebrew, trying to protect her feelings...

Pushed by the doctor/scientist, Orion tries to take her after 'fixing' the steering and brakes of his car on the freeway - and he almost succeeds, but Risa fights him and Micah, though concussed, shoots him in his foot...

Then Micah forces her to a party of doctors, of her father's friends, where she meets up with the doctor/scientist, who is her grandmother's escort - and she remembers that it was him... and they leave... but by the time the team gets to the doctor/scientist, Orion has killed him (he's tired of the blackmail and wants to retire), and then Orion goes for Risa... and for whatever reason, though he terrifies her and ties her to the table (after diasbling her guard), he does not kill her - believing that Micah will leave him in peace because of this offering...

and it takes 8 weeks for Micah & the team to locate and kill Orion (which they do with a minimum of fuss)... and Jordan does not release Micah, knowing that the only way for them to work is for him to take it... and with his own desperation, and Noah's (Jordan's nephew who in a previous story spent 18 months on whores dust, and had body reconstruction as part of the healing of his beaten, starved body, who returns to protect his wife, not letting her know who he is - and then she figures it out, and though he keeps his committment to Jordan's black ops, he just takes his wife back) encouragement, he simply tells Jordan the way it is, and returns to Risa - who is pregnant, and struggling to make a life alone and yet so lonely... until he returns and they finally fully stake their claims on one another...