One youthful indiscretion has left Kit Wexford with a reputation in tatters and an unfortunate nickname-Wicked Wexford. But it was her father's financial ruin that altered her life irrevocably and saw her scrubbing floors in her cousin's country home. Treated worse than the servants, she tolerates the lowering existence because to do otherwise would see her brother and herself in the workhouse. But when a stranger arrives in the small village of Lofton, claiming to be the long lost heir to the late Lord Hadley, things take a turn from bad to simply strange. Malcolm Bryant never wanted to be a Lord Anything. As an American, the rules of English high society escape him. What hasn't escaped him are the numerous restrictions enumerated by the solicitors on the bride he must choose in order to maintain control of the late Lord Hadley's fortune. She must be of good family. She must have local connections. She must be gently bred. They never said she had to be chaste. And after one brief, charged encounter with Miss Katherine Wexford, he knows that no one else will do. Ruined and impoverished or not, he'll have her as his wife. Then he'll show her just how glorious it can be to be wicked... and wanton.