All about Passion

Gyles Rawlings, fifth Earl of Chillingworth and an honorary member of the Cynster clan, is determined not to marry for love.

To that end, he makes an offer of marriage, sight unseen, to the niece of an old friend. He believes he's chosen a docile, biddable lady who will bear him an heir and leave his emotions uninvolved. He arrives for his own wedding without having ever actually met his fiancé--and at the chapel's altar is astonished to discover that he's offered for the wrong woman. His wife is the cousin of the woman he thought he was marrying. The two ladies share the same name but the woman he has married is a passionate female that makes his head spin. Francesca isn't docile, certainly not biddable and she has no intention of settling for anything less than her husband's heart.

The battle lines are drawn in this war of love, with both parties well aware of the stakes. Will Giles continue to barricade his heart or will Francesca's love and loyalty tear down the walls that keep him from her? And if Giles can't thwart the strange threats to Francesca's life, neither may live to see the end of their contest of the heart.