A duke who's loved her since childhood. A lady who gambles in breeches under a false name. One card table where neither knows the other's hand.

Lady Theodora Hasting has spent years wanting a man who sees her as nothing more than a childhood friend. Her dead fiancé taught her one lesson: waiting for the Duke of Greystone is a losing hand. So she stopped waiting. Now she spends her nights disguised as Kit Barton, taking money from weathy peers at a popular gaming hell. She's free, she's winning, and she doesn't need anyone—until Wesley sits down at her card table.

Wesley, Duke of Greystone, has been the perfect duke since his father died—attending Parliament, managing estates, and ignoring his mother's campaign to marry him off to a woman who bores him senseless. The only place he feels like himself is a gaming hell where the cocky Kit keeps taking his money. The only woman he wants is the one he's loved since they were climbing trees together—Lady Theodora, who gave her heart to another man and never looked his way.

When one reckless kiss leads to a betrothal neither can believe, Thea must confess the secret that could destroy everything. And Wesley must decide if the title he carries like a burden is worth more than the wild, brilliant woman who makes him feel alive.

A Regency romance with sharp banter, years of longing, and a heroine who refuses to be tamed—even by the man she's always wanted.

Tropes: friends to lovers · secret identity · gaming heroine · pining duke · he fell first · ruined heroine · gaming hell · dual lives

Heat Level: Spicy Tone: Witty, Romantic, Emotional Series: Book 1 of 3 Ending: HEA POV: Dual POV, Third Person Content Notes: Explicit heat, prior intimacy with deceased fiancé, domestic abuse references (shelter subplot) Comp Authors: Tessa Dare, Julia Quinn