Rose had lost everything.​ Impoverished and alone in the world, she’d been forced to enter the workhouse, slaving away in exchange for a meagre living in filthy conditions. Her only wish was to visit the place where she felt closest to her deceased brother. She never expected to find another mourner there. ​ ​Griff had only wanted to pay his respects to his closest friend.​ After discovering his friend’s sister was in the workhouse, Griff, the Earl of Harpenden, knew he had a duty to help—but he never expected duty to turn into something more. The injured, half-starved woman he carries into his house blossoms into a woman who commands his attention—and his submission. ​ But soon his responsibilities—and his promises—come crashing down on them, threatening to tear them apart. Is their love strong enough to weather the storm, or will the differences in their stations prove too much to bear?
When you want something out of life, you’ll have to fight for it.​ ​ Lewis Stapleton, eighth Earl of Lethbridge is a man hovering on the edge of breaking. Between his mother pestering him about finding a bride of high social standing, maintaining his estates and title without enough funding, and worrying over his brothers, he requires an outlet. Anger and grief haven’t been dealt with since his father’s death two years prior, so he works through those emotions while in the boxing ring. His father was a prize fighter so matching his over-large footsteps is difficult, but something must give else he’ll explode. ​ Miss Cecilia Dawson is tired of being an object of ridicule or allegedly not good enough for anything beyond a quick tryst. With an affinity for numbers, she keeps the books for her father’s shipping company, but is desperate for a way to defend herself against the coarse and crude men she encounters in the office near the docks. The day she steps into the Stapleton Boxing Salon while disguised as a boy rapidly becomes both the best and worst day of her life. ​ Despite the instant attraction between them, Lewis ignores it in favor of teaching Cecilia how to box for protection. As the summer days slip by filled with an illegal fight or two as well as activities that come far too close to courtship, the attraction spills into forbidden desire that lands them both into scandal. Distracted, they never see danger coming that puts them into a corner of peril.
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