Phoebe ashdown cannot believe her luck. only she could run into the cad who jilted one of her closest friends while attending a christmas ball in a foreign country. other than his false identity and the trail of broken hearts he scattered across london ballrooms, he is just the sort of gentleman she should marry. she wants to hold on to her loathing of him but there's something dangerously appealing about him now and it's not just the alias he uses. the gentle folks of genoa have been forced to turn a blind eye to the illegal activities going on beneath their noses for years. but as an undercover investigator for the royal intelligence office, vernon wright cannot. his orders are clear: find the source of the slaves being funneled into london and report back. when he unexpectedly crosses paths with a former acquaintance, a woman he was secretly attracted to since her coming out, he must use all his powers of persuasion to keep her from blowing his cover. after phoebe's sister goes missing, she is forced to turn to vernon for help. sparks fly as well as bullets as they search for her sister. they will have to rely on each other if they hope to make it back to england in time for christmas.