The Secrets of the Heart

IN A SOCIETY WHERE INTRIGUE WAS A DANGEROUS GAME THEIR PASSION WAS A WILD CARD

LORD CHRISTIAN ST. CLAIR: Tall, eloquent, he was the ton's most prized bachelor--and a fraud. His elegant manners hid hip alter ego as the mysterious Peacock, champion of Britain's poor. Now his midnight raids were bringing him tantalizingly close to the noose. And Gabrielle Lawrence, the beautiful nobody his influence had elevated into the toast of the London Season, was the snare that could get him hanged.

GABRIELLE LAURENCE: Her red hair unfashionable, her dowry nonexistent, she owed her popularity to the fickle social lion, St. Clair. Feeling like a mouse toyed with by a cat, she despised this rake's power over her status--and her senses. She needed to land a wealthy husband, and her country upbringing left her wary of London's intricate flirtations and artful seductions. But her dance of desire with St. Clair was whirling her toward a fate she never expected--and a love that was defiant, dangerous, and beyond her deepest dreams.