Her pride. His prejudice. Their passion. As headstrong as she is beautiful, Lady Cassandra Vernham defied convention when she refused to marry the man who had compromised her. Now, estranged from her family, Cassandra struggles to make ends meet. A recent auction of her jewels has brought her a modicum of relief, but one of the most valuable lots was never paid for by the highest bidder: handsome, rakish Viscount Ambury. Cassandra needs that money badly, and not to buy a new hat. Ambury has only to look at Cassandra to begin imagining her in his bed . . . He has not settled that outstanding debt for a reason. He suspects that the expensive baubles were stolen, perhaps even by Cassandra herself. Erotic fantasies about her notwithstanding, the vixen is not to be trusted, for she has already destroyed his good friend--the man she refused to marry who later lost his life in a duel, which Ambury suspects was fought over Cassandra. But nothing is as it seems . . . As the seductive lord and the scandalous beauty are drawn together, the passion that flares between them will illuminate shocking secrets that will change both their lives forever . . .