Only when one stares down their pasts can they move forward into new directions...

When Alan Tattinger, sixth Duke of Averly, can't draw out his engagement any longer, he fights it to the bitter end. He doesn't want a wife; long ago he lost everything and hid his heart behind thick walls, but damned responsibility kept calling and he had to do right by the title, despite the fact that dark, carnal desires might pull him apart and forever brand him as depraved.

The Honorable Imogen Mattingly has been promised to Averly since she was a girl. Her father and his had struck a questionable deal for properties and illicit fortunes, but now her freedom is over—the duke has come to claim her. Beyond everything, she doesn't want to be a wife, especially to a duke of questionable morals. She has dreams of her own but trying to outrun her own secrets has cast a pall over any other prospects.

As their nuptial ceremony gets underway, the two are enemies from the start. Since neither of them wants the union, they vow to make each other's lives miserable despite forced proximity, yet those plans become more difficult as attraction crackles between them. Though healing hearts and perceptions aren't as simple as base needs of the body, when one night of understanding puts the couple on new footing, things change, but will the cost prove too high for broken spirits? Only they can decide how their future will look.

...or else mistrust and grief will destroy from within.