Jessica Ardem seizes a rare round-trip ticket to Isia so she can finally study the planet's fauna in person instead of working as a xenobiologist from Earth.
On arrival she is delivered to Trench, the Sian man studying the deadly creatures of the Shadow Zone, and the assignment starts to matter less than the man himself.
Trench applied for a bondmate once, and it went badly enough that he swore never to try again; an outpost full of dead things is no place for a human woman, until the Saints send him one who fits too perfectly.
Her three-month contract will send her back to Earth, and getting too close could break her heart if she refuses to break its terms.
They are both smart enough to know that giving in should end badly, but the pull between them does not follow logic.
