A titan of the underworld with a forgotten past. A damaged lady that needs to disappear. Can a chance reunion unlock long hidden secrets in this steamy historical? On the run from the man that nearly killed her. Bruised and battered, Nessia Docherty is in desperate need of a safe haven, and she finds one in one of London’s most notorious gaming hells. Somewhere safe to heal, to recover, if only she can convince the owner of the club, Talen Blackstone, to let her stay—a man she is astounded to find she knows from her childhood. He rules his area of the underworld with wits and fists. Talen Blackstone earned his reputation the hard way, with grit and determination and bloodied fists. Feared in his area of the rookeries, he keeps his powerful empire in tight order, and the unwelcome arrival of a beaten young chit in his office cannot be tolerated. But favors must be repaid, and taking in Ness satisfies one favor he’d like to erase from the books. A lost past exposes long hidden secrets. Ness is positive she remembers Talen from long ago, but he insists he isn’t the boy she remembers. Not that he actually remembers his past. But he cannot deny the heated sparks between the two of them, and when a vicious threat from Ness’s past appears, he’ll do anything—including facing the past—to gain the future he’d never imagined. A future with Ness.