Colin Thorne kept a wall around his heart no one had ever breached. His two younger brothers were lost to him, perhaps forever, and now a dark mission of revenge had brought the ruthless ship captain to England. Penniless aristocrat Mercedes Leydon was beautiful... and desperate. Colin Thorne was claiming the estate of her dissolute uncle, the Earl of Weybourne, as payment for a gambling debt. She was treated as a servant at Weybourne Park, but it was home to her and the earl's children. Now Mercedes would use anything—lies, promises—even her own body—to stop Thorne from destroying their lives. A man consumed by the fires of vengeance. A woman determined never to love. An unexpected passion that could damn them both...