At Blackthorn Lodge, the rules are simple: consent is specific, safe words are absolute, and everyone is expected to know the difference between surrender and danger.

Cass and Wes Ferrier arrive at an invitation-only kink weekend expecting rope, restraints, awkward workshops, great sex, and the usual chaos that follows their friends.

They do not expect Theo March to collapse during a private scene.

To an outsider, the explanation seems obvious. BDSM went too far. A safe word was ignored. Someone failed to stop.

Cass knows better.

Theo wasn't trying to stop the scene. He was trying to tell them something was wrong.

Now, Cass, Wes, Vera, Dani, Romy, Priya, Miles, and Trent must untangle old relationships, financial secrets, private grudges, and one carefully chosen lie before a killer's version of the truth becomes the only one anyone believes.

Sexy, funny, smart, and unapologetically adult, Safe Word is Book Three of The Lifestyle Mysteries, where the most shocking thing in the room is rarely the sex.