He was the last man she should love. She was the one woman he could never forget.
He’s a prizefighter’s son. She’s a baron’s daughter. They’ve been provoking each other since childhood—until one tender and impulsive kiss tears them apart… seemingly forever.
Jonathan Robins has been living in Italy for the last eight years, but now he’s returned to England dressed like a gentleman with a silk handkerchief in his pocket. Grace Pemberton had forgotten about his cheekbones… and his muscled shoulders… but she has not forgotten that she despises this clever and exasperating man. No one argues with her like he does. No one vexes her in quite the same way. And certainly no one can make her lose her composure as he can with just one glance.
Jonathan has a multitude of things to do—a business to build, a place to secure in a world that still holds him at arm’s length. What he does not need is Grace Pemberton’s rosy cheeks and rumpled curls lurking around every corner, disrupting his focus and his carefully ordered life. She is just as he remembers her—presumptuous and full of herself and entirely too difficult to ignore. And yet, for reasons he’s not willing to examine too closely, he cannot help noticing that she’s still unmarried.
But Grace is not without admirers, and not everyone is pleased to see Jonathan Robins in her life. When jealousy curdles into something more sinister, Jonathan does not hesitate to take matters into his own hands. Now he must decide whether protecting Grace means finally claiming the one thing he has never allowed himself to want.
This is a steamy, historically grounded romance set in England in 1832, featuring a Black British hero.
