At ease making life-and-death decisions, maître d'armes Nicholas Pasquale proposes marriage to a beautiful and desperate stranger. A woman who offers comfort to his irascible young charge.

Though pledged to the church since infancy, Juliette Armant must save her family in the only way possible — by marriage. Once she is wed, she will claim an ancestral chest and protect its secret contents from her twin sister, who wants the treasure all to herself.

Juliette never dreamed such a practical arrangement could unleash the sensual woman within. But someone is determined to stop the wedding, willing to go to any lengths to claim the chest, plunging Juliette into a fight to claim a legacy and a love worth any price.