Dabney Adams, dubbed Adonis in the society pages and gossip columns, is as enigmatic as he is jaw-droppingly handsome. Not even his closest friends know what caused an estrangement with his family. As the 1821 Season draws to a close, most of those friends have found love and happiness. Unfortunately, Dab knows he is not cut from the same cloth. He’s probably not even capable of fully trusting a woman, much less falling in love. Still, there should be no reason he shouldn’t marry the heiress who desires it and simply move on with his life. Circumstances change when he learns his father is dying. Dab must either choose to forgive the mistakes of the past or live with the consequences. Miss Theodora Martel has known little but tragedy in the last year, and now her half-brother is selling the family home and forcing an unwanted marriage on her. When she is unexpectedly thrust in Dab’s path, he feels an overwhelming and uncharacteristic desire to come to her rescue. Theo is unlike any lady he has ever encountered. She is a brave, spirited and yet innocent. She makes him want to be a better man.

It was only months before that he’d made a Christmas wish to feel more … and then came Theo.