A charming viscount. His best friend's untouchable sister. One reckless wager at a house party that changes everything.

Lady Georgiana Whitmore has spent six Seasons refusing every suitor the ton throws at her. No one knows why—not her matchmaking mother, not her overprotective brother, and certainly not the rake who has occupied her fantasies for years. A man broke her trust at eighteen, and she swore no one would get that close again. But when a house party wager puts her in dangerous proximity to Viscount Ashworth for a fortnight, she decides to take what she wants—his body, not his heart.

Louis Prescott, Viscount Ashworth, has perfected the art of never caring. His mother abandoned him at seven, and his father made sure the lesson stuck: love is a fool's wager, and Louis never loses. Women come and go. When his best friend asks him to look after Georgie during a house party, Louis agrees without a second thought—until she climbs into his lap and dismantles every wall he's spent a lifetime building.

Their secret arrangement was supposed to end when the fortnight did. No feelings. No complications. But when the man who shattered Georgie at eighteen arrives among the guests—threatening to ruin her or prey on another innocent—Louis discovers that protecting his best friend's sister means risking the one thing he swore he'd never feel.

Now the only thing more dangerous than their secret is the love neither of them planned for—because once her brother finds out, there will be hell to pay.

Tropes: brother's best friend · wager · house party romance · secret affair · he falls first · rake reformed · who hurt you · touch her and die

Heat Level: Steamy/Explicit

Tone: Bantery, Emotional, Witty

Series: Society of Scandal

Ending: HEA

POV: Dual POV, Third Person

Content Notes: On-page intimacy, past sexual manipulation (heroine backstory), on-page violence

Comp Authors: Scarlett Scott, Tessa Dare, Eva Devon