When bestselling romance author Ellie Aarons finds herself with chronic writer’s block, she’s pretty sure all she needs is a change of scenery. A beautiful lakeside cottage with her cat seems like a good idea. But she’s wrong. She needs more than a change of scenery—she needs a muse.

And that's why it’s so irritating that she’s drawn to the enigmatic but grumpy Duke of Windermere, who owns the estate she’s staying on. They don’t get along—not in the slightest. They could not be more different, which is why it’s so irritating that Max seems to be the muse she’s been looking for. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t help but picture him as the hero in her next book. Oh well. There’s really not a lot she can do about it—the muse wants what the muse wants—except Sir Winston Purrchill keeps exploring the goat barn, and Max’s delivery of him for the fiftieth time means he sees her manuscript open on her laptop. He knows instantly that she’s writing about him. The story she’s written reflects their entire relationship until now...but that spicy scene? That hasn’t happened—yet.

Max is ready to compromise: he’ll give her the inspiration she needs for her novel, but she has to stop asking why he’s so against the relationship his grandmother desperately wants him to have. With her deadline looming, Ellie has no other option but to agree. She just hopes that she won’t do what her heroine is doing—and fall in love with the duke.