He lived alone, far from a world that had treated his mother, born a servant, with disdain. Silent. Gruff. Always ready to expect the worst, especially at gatherings. He rarely bothers to explain himself, with a touch of bitterness in every step.

Since her father had been turned away from a ball and humiliated in her childhood, Miss Lavender Latrice had been consumed with one thing and one thing—becoming a part of the nobility that had scorned them.

But while wealth could buy some things, a title surely wasn't one of them.

Or at least that's what Lavender believed until her brother stumbled upon a near-penniless bare-knuckle boxer—one Austin Thomas, the Earl of Derby.

On his sister's behalf, her brother cut a deal with the Earl, offering him the money he sorely needed to repair his failing estates—but unbeknownst to Lavender's brother, the Earl of Derby was no gentleman.

He was a hermit and a brute—determined to stay far away from a society that he felt had alienated his servant-borne mother.

It is only through a desire to save his estate that the Earl of Derby even considered Miss Latrice, expecting to find nothing more than a vapid socialite obsessed with her reputation.

But what Lord of Derby did not expect to find was a growing affection, one that might, if he were unlucky, even result in love.