Dr. Alexander James Reid has built his career on structure through a devotion to Byzantine architecture and the rigid expectations of academia. Newly returned to Boston as one of Harvard’s most formidable art historians, his future hinges on one thing: securing the coveted Getty Award, his final step toward tenure.

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Dr. Charlotte Scott is brilliant, fearless, and every bit as ambitious. Her groundbreaking research on women’s art and forgotten female masters has placed her among Harvard’s most promising scholars, with a future she’s fought hard to claim.

The last thing either of them expected was to be standing across from each other again, eight years after a night neither had ever truly left behind.

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Forced to collaborate on the Getty proposal, their professional partnership begins to fracture under the weight of unfinished business and unspoken desire. Long nights of research give way to blurred lines between professional colleagues and old flames. Now with Charlotte’s brother’s wedding drawing her to the sun-soaked vineyards of Napa without a date, Alex unexpectedly offers to step in as her plus-one.

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What begins as colleagues racing toward tenure becomes a convenient arrangement, then ultimately something far more consuming. Shared flights, close quarters, and memories of London leave no space to hide from the spark that never faded. When longing refuses to stay buried, one question lingers: Can two people devoted to preserving art resist creating a masterpiece of their own?