Surge And Submit. Undertow Sins, #41

The ocean doesn't drown you because it's cruel. It drowns you because you kept swimming toward the thing you were warned about. Thalia Kincaid is a brilliant, guarded environmental photographer running a covert operation to destroy her father's corrupt real estate empire from the inside. Her current mission brings her to the Pelican Point Marine Reserve, a raw and untamed stretch of the Big Sur coastline that her father plans to pave over.
But the coast is not unguarded. It is watched by Orion "Ry" Blackthorn, a deeply scarred, reclusive former big-wave surfer who serves as the fierce, self-appointed protector of the reserve. Ry knows exactly who Thalia is, and he views her as the ultimate threat. When a massive tropical storm makes landfall and cuts off the coastal roads, Ry makes a calculated move: he intentionally traps Thalia with him inside his claustrophobic, 12x14 foot concrete ranger station.
Forced into extreme proximity while the Pacific Ocean rages outside, their hostile standoff begins to fracture. Layers of deception are stripped away as Thalia discovers her deceased mother was the original marine biologist who fought to protect this very coast, intertwining their pasts and giving them a shared, desperate purpose. Trapped in the eye of the storm, the lines between captor and captive, enemy and ally, begin to blur.
What starts as a fierce, possessive fight to protect the natural world transforms into an unexpected, toxic, and undeniable connection.