A marriage of convenience forces a powerful duke to choose between his ferocious pride and love that melts his icy heart. Reputation is everything in the ton. And no one's is more pristine than Constantine Buccleigh, Duke of Pryde's. But when a blackmailer threatens to expose his devastating secret and have him lose everything, he’s forced to marry Miss Modesty Fairchild, a woman far below his station. A budding archeologist, Modesty would rather dig in the dirt than host a gala. But a deathbed promise has left her the guardian of an orphaned baby. She’ll do anything to protect her little ward…even marry the heartless duke who made the most offensive proposal in the history of womenkind. Lonely in Pryde’s elegant Mayfair home, she despises the cold, unyielding duke who expects her to become his perfect duchess. She loathes his arrogance. He resents her defiancé. But as dance lessons and etiquette tutorials force them together, Modesty refuses to shrink beneath his iron control. And with every act of rebellion, she shatters his carefully crafted armor, revealing the lonely, broken man beneath. Glimpsing the tender heart beneath her husband’s haughty exterior, Modesty dreams of a loving future. But a villain in the shadows plots Pryde’s downfall. And as the Seven Dukes of Sin hunt for clues, the blackmailer raises the stakes. Faced with a dreadful choice, will Constantine sacrifice his pride and his title for the wife and child he has come to treasure?