A harmless lie. A vengeful earl. A love neither of them saw coming.

Colin Burke, the Earl of Heatherton, has no intention of surrendering his bachelor freedoms. Marriage might be inevitable someday, but he sees no reason to rush toward it. Then a chance encounter with Lady Mariah Thornbeck—his best friend’s younger sister—reveals that she shares his fondness for dogs. For the first time, Colin finds himself looking at Mariah as more than the girl who has always hovered at the edges of his life. Unfortunately, he soon discovers her supposed affection for his four-legged friends was nothing more than a misunderstanding…and decides a little well-aimed revenge is exactly what she deserves.

Mariah has adored Colin for years, despite his stubborn refusal to see her as anything but his friend’s sister. So when an innocent mistake finally earns his particular attention, she can’t quite bring herself to correct it. Instead, she lets the misunderstanding stand and devises a plan of her own. Surely if she can convince Colin to spend enough time with her, he might finally discover the woman she has become—and perhaps even return the feelings she has tried so hard to hide. But revenge and romantic schemes have a troublesome habit of going awry.

As their plans repeatedly throw them together, Colin begins to realize Mariah is nothing like the deceitful woman he assumed her to be. She is clever, kindhearted, fiercely loyal—and increasingly difficult to resist. Yet just as Colin begins questioning his devotion to bachelorhood, Mariah starts questioning something of her own: whether winning the man she has always wanted is the same as being loved for who she truly is. With secrets unraveling and hearts on the line, Colin and Mariah must decide whether to retreat to the comfortable lives they have always known—or risk everything for a love neither of them planned.