The dark-eyed, raven-haired governess haunts Mr. Isaac Pierce’s waking and sleeping dreams. And she’s right next door. But the prim and proper young woman rebuffed his attempts to make her his mistress. He has tried to forget her. Yet he can’t. He aches to possess her. One glance at the tall, gorgeous merchant prince and Miss Abigail Francis finds herself irresistibly attracted to him. The ironclad control over her emotions and expectations had seen her through years filled with deprivation, disappointments and loss, begins to slip away.
A domestic crisis brings them into close, daily contact and she begins to see the man behind the handsome face, gorgeous body and scandalous reputation. When he shares the truth of his greatest loss and grief with her, for the first time, her heart is touched by a man. Now she knows what it is to crave a man as much as she craves air to breathe. But she’d best be careful. Her livelihood and that of those she loves depend on her stern discipline and spotless reputation. After a life directed by prudence, responsibility and duty, Abigail finds herself questioning her life choices. She is tempted to be indiscreet. Just once. And no one would ever know or be hurt.
But Abigail doesn’t realize that the repercussions of her newfound freedoms might just prove dangerous in a way she least suspects. Who protects the protector?