The hero, Ethan, is a very damaged man. His supposed motive in the story is revenge - which is never an honourable motive for a hero. But looking deeper I think he's really trying to prove himself worthy of the love his mother never gave him. When he gets his revenge it doesn't satisfy because deep down that's never what it was really about. This gave me more sympathy for him basically exploiting the heroine's highly vulnerable state at the start of the story.
The heroine, Noelle, is a former child prodigy pianist, long exploited for her financial value and betrayed by her mother once she was no longer an asset. Both hero and heroine have disastrous relationships with their parents and it's only once they find each other that they have someone to love and be loved by in return and who they can trust. This makes for a very intense relationship between, as they are all each other has now.
A very sexy romance with good character development. There's no easy fix for the characters once they are together, but a feel that they both finally have someone they can rely on not to betray them and who will give them the support and love they've been deprived of for so long.