The rain is mean, the dry cleaner has been closed since 2019, and Valentina Cruz is done paying rent in bruises. She is twenty, sharp-mouthed, and not innocent. She knows what a body like hers is worth to the wrong kind of man.

Daniel Mercer is the other kind. Thirty-six. A lawyer who still does community theater. Newly separated, with a seven-year-old daughter he only gets on weekends and a spare room he does not know how to offer without sounding like a problem.

He buys her a grilled cheese. He gives her a lock. He says there are no expectations.

Vale believes him. That is the problem. Kindness is more dangerous than meanness, and she has a filthy mind, a good ass, and a stubborn need to turn a gift into something she chose.

Taken In, Part One is a contemporary erotic romance about a runaway who will not be rescued and a careful man who will not collect. Explicit. Consenting adults. The story continues in Part Two.