Heath Bartlett doesn''t want to believe that his childhood friend had any part in the dastardly crime he''s investigating—but the bewitching, intoxicating beauty is certainly hiding something. And he will do whatever necessary to uncover the truth.

The ton sees her merely as the castoff of a disreputable rake. In truth, Lady Tess Golding is protecting her own secret, so she dares not surrender to Heath''s intimate temptations—even though, when Heath comes within arm''s reach of Tess, passions flare. Despite that the danger to the Crown is too great, and the threat to their vulnerable hearts even greater . . . when a passion this heated is unleashed, sometimes even the strongest must submit.