He’s an amiable young man on his Grand Tour. She’s the spitfire he can’t soon forget. Will he have to become a rake to tame the shrew?

When the always amiable and well-behaved David, Viscount Penton, departed England with his relatives for a Grand Tour, he didn’t expect to be the only bachelor when they reached their final stop—Rome. Now that everyone but him is married, he’s determined to break out on his own. First he has to attend the come-out ball for his brother’s niece-by-marriage, though. Perhaps this is where he can be a bit of a bad boy. Where he can act like a rogue.

Good habits are hard to break, though. Especially when he pays witness to what he thinks is an assault on a young lady during a ball. When he discovers she has turned the tables on her assailant, he finds himself wishing she would join him in an alcove. The dark-haired beauty is a spitfire!

Lady Vittoria has lived a rather sheltered life thanks to her overprotective father. She's also been raised to believe all men are rakes, so she's ready to defend herself against the likes of one known as Lord Diavalo. When he pulls her into an alcove during her come-out ball, she's halfway to dispatching him when a handsome English gentleman intervenes on her behalf.

Doesn't he realize if they're caught, she will be forced to marry the Lothario? Has she been saved from a rake only to be ruined by a rogue? Surely the viscount will lose interest if she behaves like a spoiled aristocrat. After all, who wants a shrew for a wife?