A ruined wallflower with a head for figures. A scarred Duke with a heart of stone. One scandalous contract that could save—or destroy—them both.Honoria Westcott is invisible. As the "e;practical"e; sister of a reckless Earl, she has spent three years balancing her family's crumbling ledgers in the shadows of London's ballrooms. But when her brother gambles away their final farthing to a predatory creditor, Honoria is forced to make a deal with the most formidable man in England: Benedict Thorne, the reclusive and "e;monstrous"e; Duke of Ashworth.Benedict Thorne is a man of jagged edges and bitter silences. Burned by a past betrayal and physically scarred by fire, he needs a respectable fiancée to silence the vultures circling his estate and to ward off the marriage-minded harpies of the Ton. He doesn't want love; he wants a shield.