A beautiful young woman is dead. In life she was drawn to celebrity artists, dark thrills, and forbidden pleasures, a hunger that NYPD detectives believe led to her self-imposed, possibly accidental demise.

But reporter Cass McCray is not willing to accept that her former friend’s death was a suicide or the tragic result of a sex game that went too far—and her investigation is leading the determined journalist deep into a secret world nestled in the shadows of the downtown New York City art scene. Here, where sexual submission is graphically celebrated and pain is fine art that sells for millions, Cass will discover a side of herself she never knew existed. Fearing the need yet unable to resist it, she gives herself willingly to photographer Mike Chernak, who will be her guide through a sexual playground of the creative and powerful. But surrendering to her curiosity—and to something far greater—could prove to be a most dangerous game for Cass McCray, as it pushes her to the erotic edge … and over it.