Promised in marriage to a brutal Norseman, Nora MacTorkil flees in terror the night before the wedding. The daughter of the richest merchant in Dublin, she knows she must hide—but where? In the moonlight, she makes a desperate run along the dock hoping to conceal herself aboard one of her father’s ships. Until Nora trips and tumbles into the River Liffey, her cry for help cut off as the dark water closes over her head.
Many drunken nights have passed and still, Niall O’Byrne cannot free himself from memories of the woman who betrayed him and broke his heart. The brother of Ireland’s most infamous rebel, he rode away from Glenmalure in a wild attempt to escape his misery and vowed to never love again. Yet a half-drowned damsel in distress moves Niall so fiercely that he’ll do anything to protect her from the beast who would claim her.