Nick is back. After eight years of facing public scandal and private humiliation with her head held high, Isobel's courage fails when the man she never stopped loving returns and asks her to marry him. Once he discovers her secret, he won't visit her bed more than once. And she can't bear his rejection. Nicholas, Marquis of Cardington, is confident he can cope with the baggage Isobel carries from her first marriage. It doesn't matter that the beautiful widow once left him to elope with another man. After all, he was partly to blame for that disaster. All that matters is he has always loved her, and now she's free to accept his proposal. Only on their wedding night does Nick learn the terrible secret Isobel has harbored for eight long years. To win his wife's trust will take every ounce of tenderness he possesses-when what he really wants is to show her the passion he saved for her and her alone. But just as Isobel begins to believe her heart is safe with Nick, the blackmailers who drove her first husband to suicide reappear. And they want their pound of flesh. Isobel must finally trust Nick will all her secrets-and her life-or their enemies will destroy them both.