He was supposed to protect her… not fall for her.

Carson Remington has one rule: don’t get attached. As the chief investigator for his family’s high-powered law firm, he knows better than anyone how messy love can get, especially after growing up in the midst of his parents’ brutal custody battle. He and his siblings made a vow long ago: no relationships they couldn’t walk away from.

Then Cresley Dane comes into his life.

She’s brilliant, beautiful and completely out of his league. A high-profile client with everything to lose with a young son who slowly, unexpectedly steals Carson’s heart. One minute Carson is doing his job. The next, he’s teaching Ty to surf, cheering him on at hockey games and counting down the minutes until he can see the woman who’s become impossible to forget.

Cresley doesn’t want casual. Carson doesn’t believe in forever.

But the deeper he falls into their world, the harder it becomes to hold the line. As his brother Julian goes all in with Isla and her kids, the Remington siblings’ long-standing vow begins to crack while secrets from Carson’s past threaten to shatter everything he’s building with Cresley and Ty.

Contentious is a swoony, emotional contemporary romance featuring a protective hero, a strong single mother, an adorable child, a found family and a hard-won happily ever after.