It was to be a grand adventure for Melissa MacGregor - an escape from the wilds of her Scottish home into the whirl of the London social season, and far from the stifling protectiveness of her mother's sixteen strapping, somewhat bumbling brothers, six of whom are named Ian.
There the bewitching lass is sure to find a suitable husband who will not be intimidated by her suspicious uncles and who is more appealing than the many local suitors whom her uncles have already deemed unworthy. But before she begins her pursuit of a new life, Melissa is distracted by an intriguing gentleman stranger she encounters on her grandfather's lands.
Lincoln Ross Burnett is no stranger to Scotland, however. The seventeenth Viscount Cambury, Lincoln once called this fair land home - until as a boy of twelve he was sent away to live with relatives in London after his father's death. To stay would surely have meant his own demise, for a bitter feud was raging around him, marking young Lincoln as a target of a brutal gang of "savages" who went by the name MacFearsons.
Now as he restlessly roams the countryside he so loved as a child, Lincoln can feel the anger and bitterness returning - only to be dispelled by the beauty of the lady who stands before him. Though they part after but a few spoken words, the damage has been done: Lincoln's heart has been claimed forever, and he will never be complete again until Melissa MacGregor is his bride.
Though destiny is carrying them along separate paths, Lincoln knows he will pursue Melissa to London . . . and to the ends of the earth, if necessary. But ties of blood and duty have made his heart's obsession with the enchanting beauty not only desperate but quite dangerous. For the woman Lincoln must have is the niece of those who, even now, are sworn to his destruction, and who are willing to dog his every step, even following two yearning souls fated to be lovers into the glittering world of the London ton.
The long-time feud is raging hotter than ever before - and even the irresistible shared passion of Lincoln and Melissa may not be powerful enough to withstand its devastating fire.
