Augustus Michael Notley—Baron Twinsfield—has reformed from scandalous activity—mostly. Though he’s still fond of gambling, drinking, and taking beautiful ladies to bed, he has grown bored with his lifestyle. Since the war ended years ago, there simply isn’t any more excitement left, until he agrees to steal a valuable diamond necklace on a dare for a duke… and runs into a woman who captivates his imagination, for she is everything he is not.
Miss Diana Fortescue is more than just an unwanted spinster. She’s been dispatched by her brother at the Home Office to slip a rope of diamonds from the neck of a visiting heiress, for that same piece is slated to be sold to fund distasteful shipping ventures in Kent. In memory of her younger brother, she won’t fail this mission like her last… except being tempted into scandal with a dashing stranger might prove too much of a distraction.
After that one summer afternoon of pleasure, suddenly the baron and Diana are pitted against each other on opposite sides of a much larger issue than ownership of a diamond necklace. But the longer the pair skulk about in the hopes of stealing the gemstones, the greater the risk of detection grows, and once the man who orchestrated the theft is apprised of the delay, Augustus and Diana are in his sights. If the two enemies to lovers can’t manage to work together toward a common goal, they might be forced to forfeit the most valuable discovery of all—a love they never knew they needed.