Simon Blackwell carries his terrible past the way he carries his scars: with deep intensity, wrapped in raw pain, and with fiercely guarded secrecy. His world may be dark, but he has at least figured out a way to get through it all. Loss has a way of changing a man.

It seemed Lady Annabel McBride was forever landing herself in trouble. As a child, outspoken and impetuous, she was the girl who feared nothing or no one. As a woman, she's certain she has tamed such reckless ways forever. But then one mistake—and an irresistible fascination—and she is plunged headlong into marriage with a mysterious man she scarcely knows. And for the first time in her life, Annabel is afraid of her venture into the unknown. Because love has a way of changing everything.