After losing everything in a series of bad decisions, Roarke Desmond is dependent on his horrible cousins for an allowance. When they ask him to do something horrible: spy on their stepmother, the Duchess of Sidmouth, he doesn’t want to. But what he could provide to his terribly ill mother with what they’ll pay him is hard to avoid. So he agrees, hating himself all the way. But when he sees the duchess, the beautiful Flora, everything is turned upside down. Flora loved her late husband, despite the difference in their ages and the contempt of his adult children. When he died, she resigned herself to the life of a young widow, never looking for love again. When Roarke Desmond steps into her life, her thoughts on the subject begin to shift. The two keep coming into contact, with Roarke more and more captivated by her and feeling worse and worse about the lies he’s telling even as Flora’s feelings and desire toward him grows deeper. But when the truth comes out and the lies become danger, they’ll have to overcome the walls between them to save each other and maybe form a life together.