Product Description New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh sweeps us back in time to an age of scandal and glittering society—and brings to life an extraordinary family: the daring, passionate Huxtables. Katherine, the youngest sister—and society’s most ravishing innocent—is about to turn the tables on the irresistible rakehell sworn to seduce her, body and soul....
In a night of drunken revelry, Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, gambles his reputation as London’s most notorious lover on one woman. His challenge? To seduce the exquisite, virtuous Katherine Huxtable within a fortnight. But when his best-laid plans go awry, Jasper devises a wager of his own. For Katherine, already wildly attracted to him, Jasper’s offer is irresistible: to make London’s most dangerous rake fall in love with her. Then Jasper suddenly ups the ante. Katherine knows she should refuse. But with scandal brewing and her reputation in jeopardy, she reluctantly agrees to become his wife. Now, as passion ignites, the seduction really begins. And this time the prize is nothing less than both their hearts.…
Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is twenty-five years old and bored. He is London's most notorious daredevil and much admired by his male peers. He has never lost a wager, though he has taken on some hair-raising ones. But there seems to be no new challenge left to him and life looks empty and dreary as it stretches before him. He is also very drunk following his birthday celebrations-as are all his male friends. And so from the depths of the forbidden a new challenge is both suggested and accepted. Jasper is to seduce a virtuous female within two weeks, something beyond the pale of decency even for him. And the virtuous female is to be Katherine Huxtable, the beautiful, virtuous, and naïve sister of the new young Earl of Merton.
It seems like a wager too easy for his considerable skills. When Jasper sets out to win it, though, he finds the challenge far more difficult than he had expected-though not for any predictable reason. Chagrined and humiliated at his failure, he withdraws to the country and does not encounter Katherine again for three years.
At the start of this book they meet again to mutual embarrassment and hostility, though soon there is a new wager between them more challenging than anything Jasper has ever experienced or Katherine contemplated. Even that pales into insignificance, however, before a growing scandal that erupts into open disaster and threatens to ruin both their lives.
