New York Times bestselling author Liz Carlyle continues her enthralling historical series with the story of an impetuous, illegitimate beauty and the forbidding nobleman who protects her—while fighting an obsession to possess her.

Miss Zoé Armstrong is beautiful, charming, rich— and utterly unmarriageable. So, while she may be the ton''s most sparkling diamond, her choice of husbands looks more like a list of London''s most unsavory fortune hunters. Since a true-love marriage seems impossible, Zoé has accepted— no, embraced— her role as society''s most incomparable flirt and mischiefmaker... until in one reckless, vulnerable moment, her future is shattered.

Stuart Rowland, the brooding Marquess of Mercer, has been part of Zoé''s extended family since she was a child. As dark and cynical as Zoé is lively, Mercer has always known they would be the worst possible match... until his scapegrace brother Robert does the unthinkable, and winds up betrothed to Zoé. Now, secluded on Mercer''s vast estate to escape a looming scandal and the ton''s prying eyes, Zoé and Mercer may find that a dark obsession has become a tempestuous passion that can no longer be denied...