A proper gentleman. A desperate lady. One little indiscretion that will change their lives.
Carew Harcourt Fitzwilliam—Duke of Edenthorpe—is dreadfully dissatisfied with his life. Engaged since childhood to a woman unsuited to him, he feels trapped and hopeless. What he needs is a distraction. Too bad a possible jewelry heist comes with his best friend’s sister, now a beauty he can’t banish from his mind.
Miss Leah Haddington, only child of the deceased Baron Langley, can square with being overlooked by men in the ton due to her auburn hair and freckles, but being left penniless by her father’s gambling is beyond the pale. There’s only one man who can help retrieve a stolen bauble—her brother’s best friend. It matters not that a forbidden attraction is brewing between them.
As they plot and plan their way through ton ballrooms and rooftops in a bid to snag a missing tiara, that desire ignites. A passionate mistake, to be sure, for he’s to wed someone else in mere days, but when the theft goes awry and danger is brought to bear, they must both decide what they want more out of life—staid security based in expectation or unpredictable scandal born out of unexpected love.