"I ruin everything I touch. That has been my curse since the day I was born." Lady Annabelle Beaumont prefers books to ballrooms. With her elder sister married, she intends to avoid men until she's old enough to be put on the shelf along with her favourite novels. Unfortunately, when she's inadvertently discovered alone with notorious rake Jacob Barrington, she has two choices: enter an engagement with a man she loathes or be ruined forever. Jacob Barrington, newly minted Marquess of Sunderland and the "Devil of St James", plans to destroy his family's reputation in the most licentious way possible. An engagement is not on the agenda, especially to someone he detests. Instead, he offers to spend their fake engagement finding Annabelle a husband she prefers. But as their desire deepens into something more, she ends their deal and leaves London entirely. Alone, Jacob comes to a realisation: the devil does possess a heart. And she's just run away with it.