Lady Katherine rode through a fierce storm to her dreaded destiny: a wedding with the cold-hearted Stephen Bartingham. She had promised her dying brother she'd flee to a convent instead, but her father's will prevailed. She went unwilling, determined to remain chaste ... Taking shelter at a roadside inn, Katherine felt the first stirrings of a traitorous desire as a coarse, rugged stranger swept her into a wanton embrace. But shame engulfed he as she realized that the man she thought a peasant was, in fact, her betrothed ... And that the demands of her own passion threatened to rule above all.