In this steamy romance by "the mistress of sizzling sensuality" (Romantic Times), eighteen-year-old, defiantly tomboyish Jessie Lindsay is left at the mercy of her wicked stepmother Celia upon the death of her beloved father. Beautiful, vampish Celia can have any man she wants, and when devilishly handsome stranger Stuart Edwards turns up amongst their aristocratic Mississippi plantation society, she wants him.

What Celia doesn't know is that Stuart is a con man and a fortune hunter, and when he marries her it is to gain control of the plantation, Mimosa, that Celia inherited from Jessie's father. Jessie hates Stuart on sight, but he takes pity on the hoydenish young woman and is kind to her. An unexpected friendship develops between Stuart and the spirited, late-blooming Jessie as he steps in to protect her from evil Celia, then helps Jessie transform from an ugly ducking to a swan -- and in the process awakens feelings in Jessie that are like nothing she has ever experienced.

Stuart never imagined that he could fall for Jessie, but the desire that blazes between them is impossible for either of them to resist. Will the dark secret Stuart has been keeping tear them apart as they fall recklessly into a scandalous, forbidden love? Can Jessie trust the man she has come to love with all her heart?

New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller Karen Robards is the six-time winner of Affaire de Coeur’s Silver Pen Award for favorite romance author.