What doesn't kill you might make you stronger unless it forces you to become what you hate...

Alexander Sutcliffe?the 8th Duke of Ravenhurst?has finally returned to England after a twenty-year absence, and he wants the man who destroyed his life punished. At the age of twenty-two, after being forced to witness his parents' brutal murder, he was kidnapped from his bed in London and shanghaied onto a ship to toil in the English navy. Finally able to escape that life and the complications therein, he's back and he has revenge on his mind.

Miss Madeline Hardesty will marry the Marquess of Inglehart in a week. Yet one rainy night she's taken from her bed and kidnapped by Ravenhurst, the man she used to harbor a secret tendre for. When he disappeared from London and society, her brother spun her horrific tales about him, and she promptly forgot him out of necessity. Now that her less-than-savory brother wishes to marry her off to Inglehart, she wonders if everything she's ever been told has been a lie.

Once Ravenhurst kidnaps her and takes her to his country estate in Cornwall, he intends to ruin the hell out of her, ransom her off to the highest bidder so he can restore his neglected properties, and wash his hands of his revenge, but he didn't count on Maddie being a spirited fighter or an accidental support. Attraction clashes with resistance until one stormy night when secrets are discovered, and they finally give into desire. As the weeks go by, feelings and outlooks change, but unless they make peace with themselves and start living for a future they were denied years ago, nothing will change.

...yet there are many paths to redemption, but only if you take the first step.