After the woman he loves rejects his marriage proposal, Edmund Crenshaw, Viscount Escher, has sworn off women. If he can't marry Mrs. Katherine Brighton, he'll marry no one. When he discovers a daring debutante in his coach, intent on seduction, he'll do anything to protect his bachelorhood. He must remain uncompromised or doom himself and the lady to a loveless marriage. Because his heart always has, and always will, belong to only one woman—his Kat.

Katherine must escape her younger sister's insidious grasp. This season, she has a heart of steel and a plan for independence. As the secret author of a popular out-of-print book, she will convince the publisher to reprint it and fill her coffers with funds enough to live on her own. The publisher agrees—if she writes a new book as well. But with every moment of her day spent helping her sister, she desperately needs a muse.

And Lord Escher, the man whose marriage proposal she reluctantly rejected two years ago, sparks her imagination like no one else. To write her book, she must stay near Edmund. In exchange, he requires her help ridding himself of a persistent miss. They'll solve both problems in no time. If they can keep their hands off each other. Can she protect her heart and her freedom, or will the cheerful viscount tempt her to say yes this second time around?