*include explicit content* plot: It began in the heat of a Texas summer, when the Dutton plantation was alive with the hum of cicadas and the crack of horse whips. Rhett Dutton was the pride of his family—handsome, charming, and raised to believe in the order of things: land, blood, and power. He had a wife who fit the Southern mold—elegant, obedient, and devoted. To everyone around him, Rhett had everything a man could want.