The greater the defeat, the sweeter the ultimate victory...Miss Melissa Sumner had only ever wanted to be an apothecary, someone who helps people. Instead, a mysterious entity called the Viper is menacing Melissa for money and the intimidating Earl Hades Harding, a man whom she danced with just once at her only ton outing, imprisons her in his house.For Hades, catching the Viper for the War Office and holding them in his home was easy enough. But infuriatingly, the alluring individual begins to take over his decidedly male domain. She makes friends with the kitchen staff, rearranges the furniture and, worse, outside the bodies still pile up.As Hades' potent proximity continues to unsettle Melissa, she knows that she must escape his house, and in so doing offer Hades what every man has wanted from her. But Hades has other ideas. Determined not to be defeated by anyone, he must work out just who exactly the Viper is, whilst playing for the ultimate victory of them all, the ownership of his heart...