"I HAVE NO INTENTION OF ALLOWING YOU TO BESPORT YOURSELF IN A MANNER LIKELY TO PROVOKE GOSSIP."

Newly returned from the Peninsula after the death of her father, Emma Beringer is shocked to find that her appointed guardian, Sir Julian, is not the octogenarian she anticipated, but an arrogant and disturbingly handsome rake. Much to her surprise, she is also an heiress. So her new guardian, in his notoriously heavy-handed manner, takes it upon himself to protect her from myriad fortune hunters and false friends.

As for Sir Julian, Emma's arrival in London has set his well-ordered household and romantic life into an uproar. He'll have to keep a sharp eye on her, he has determined, even as she has decided quite the opposite. And when a young lady unafraid to speak her mind meets a stubborn lord, unafraid to follow his desires, anything can happen....