The Inferno Club, a scandalous gathering of wealthy libertines and highborn rakehells devoted to their wicked pleasures. Or so they are known to London society. Little does the world suspect the true purpose of the Inferno Club - or the unseen threat looming over England, which these select, powerful lords are secretly sworn to fight.

Recruited as lads from noble families, trained in an array of deadly arts, they are the operatives of a covert order so mysterious that few beyond the crown even know it exists. As dutiful peers of the realm, however, they are expected to take wives - and marriage may prove their most perilous mission yet! For it takes a lady of uncommon spirit to love an especially dangerous hero.

With the war against Napoleon winding down, the Marquess of Rotherstone decides it's time to restore his family's tainted reputation. But as a member of the Inferno Club, he knows there is only one way to redeem himself in society's eyes: marry an impeccable young lady of beauty and breeding, whose behavior is well beyond reproach.

Someone quite unlike Miss Daphne Starling. True, she is temptingly lovely, but a whiff of scandal suggests the blond beauty may be a jilt who enjoys toying with her suitors' emotions. Still, Max cannot resist her allure - or the challenge of proving London's gossips wrong. Pursuing her with a spy's cool, calm calculation, he is soon swept up in the chase. He would do anything to win her hand...and prove that even a very wicked marquess can become the ideal husband.