A woman who becomes a gambling prize discovers that thing is more seductive, or dangerous, than love... When her father auctions her off to pay his gambling debts, Melissa Seacourt vows that she will be man's bought bride. Desperate to escape her fate shackled to someone she could never love, Melissa instead is forced to hor and obey the seductive stranger who comes to her rescue. Purchasing a wife for 20,000 guineas wasn't the end game Nicholas Barrington envisioned when he walked into the torious Newmarket gambling club. But the incent Melissa arouses much more than his protective instincts. It will take all of Nick's skill and daring to best a cunning adversary hellbent on his destruction. With two lives w hanging in the balance, Nick's playing for the highest stakes of all: his future with the woman who won his heart.