Fierce by Lark O’Neal

A full-length stand-alone romance.

Distance. Chelsea Anderson uses it to flee a violent past and escape into the welcome anonymity of travel as she backpacks around the world. But when an explosion derails her train and strands her in the middle of nowhere, Chelsea, her travel buddy Madeline, and the fiercely sexy Alec McRae are forced to camp out in a tiny mountain village in the Alps. Fighting to escape the dark memories that surface, Chelsea finds herself sharing a very hot kiss with the brooding Alec—but flees back into the safety of distance.

If Alec McRae had invented the perfect girl, she would have looked like Chelsea, and the more time he spends with her, the more he wants her. A simmering sexual tension burns between them, but Alec, too, is using distance as a buffer to hide two secrets: the shame of a life spent in brutal poverty, and guilt that someone in his life made a supreme sacrifice to give him a fresh start.

When the group escapes the Alps, Chelsea and Alec share a magical week in Venice, where the lovers are confronted with everything they’ve tried to leave behind. Will they take a stand and embrace their love or let distance destroy everything?