After returning home from adventures in the Orient, James Lindford, Viscount Farley, causes quite a stir in London society. The viscount's womanizing past has caught up with him, and he decides he must take his illegitimate children into his household to raise. Doing the right thing, unfortunately, costs him both his fiancée and his political aspirations. With the gossip hounds soon on the prowl, he escapes to the calm of his country estate. But between his rowdy children and the beautiful woman next door, James is not about to get any peace.
Phoebe Churchill's quiet life of raising her niece and tending to her cottage is quickly upended upon the arrival of her new neighbor. When she discovers his daughter is stealing from her, James entreats her to be the children's governess. It is a job Phoebe accepts with great caution. Though she yearns for the viscount's kiss, she cannot ignore her mother's warning—that all men are lustful creatures not to be trusted . . .