When his cousin’s death puts Leo Westrop in line to inherit a marquessate, he suddenly becomes the target of every matching-making mama in London, including his own. To save himself, Leo offers his hand to the angel who delivers him from a compromising situation—Lillian Gower, the daughter of well-known antiquarians, who could finally help Leo secure a dig of his own.

Lillian, in town chaperoning her younger cousin, doesn’t have a romantic bone in her body. She knows Westrop is desperate, and she’s shrewd enough to bargain: she’ll go along with the pretense if he helps her publish her study of the lady’s slipper orchid.

It’s not part of the bargain for him to escort her to balls and gardens. She doesn’t need his help organizing her uncle’s library. He certainly oughtn’t be winning over her cousin. And it’s a mistake to bring him to meet her parents—but an even bigger mistake to agree to help him with his own excavation. Because the attentions of the delicious Leo Westrop could make even the most sensible botanical illustrator lose her head.

An undeniable passion draws them together even when they both know their betrothal of convenience must end. But when Lillian learns what he’s been after all along, what can Leo do to persuade her the feelings between them are real?