Miss Phoebe Toogood has never wanted children of her own and, at nine and twenty, has spent a decade avoiding matrimony in her efforts to remain happily childless. But now that her potential suitors have turned toward widowers seeking mothers for their children, Phoebe is growing increasingly desperate.

The bastard son of an earl, Christopher Moore has been both criminal and spy in his time. Now that his connection to his half-sister, Lady Emma, is public knowledge, he knows he must polish his dreadful reputation lest it taint hers, too. For that he needs a damned wife. Not just any wife, but a proper lady from a respectable family to ease him into a society that will not accept him otherwise.

When Phoebe’s family moves into the house next door to Chris’, they forge a secret friendship between them. Neither wants to be married, but they need each other nonetheless—so they strike the perfect deal. A marriage of convenience, to the benefit of both. At least until their convenient marriage becomes somewhat less than convenient…

Lord Rafe Beaumont has loved Lady Emmeline Prescott for nearly half his life. She is the widow of his former friend, his younger sister's closest companion…and she doesn't even know he exists. For years he has contented himself with his position at the very periphery of her life, knowing it is the closest he can ever allow himself to be.

Emma has made a life for herself taking in and raising London's less fortunate children. They fill the void left by the children she was never able to have—but she is still lonely. Though she has no desire to remarry, she resolves to take a lover to fill her empty nights. Someone she doesn't know; someone who poses no risk to her fortune or her reputation.