When her bookish and noble fiance and lifelong friend, Geoffrey, Earl of March, is lost at sea, Lady Aurora Demming, daughter of the powerful duke of Eversley, believes she has lost her only chance to be free of her abusive father and her fear intensified by his having arranged a marriage for her with a controlling man twice her age. An opportunity for freedom arises when Nicholas Sabine, an American about to be hanged for murder and piracy, asks her to marry him for just one day and one tempestuous night. His money will give her independence, while her title will enable her to guarantee that Nicholas's raven-haired half-sister, a love child born out of wedlock will be accepted by British high society. Aurora's new life as a London widow and the guardian of her new ward is shattered when Nicholas appears at a masquerade ball, explaining how he escaped death and desiring to claim her publicly as his wife. Although she is desperately attracted to him, Aurora fears marriage to a man so passionate about danger, life and love will trap her as completely as did life with her father. Just as Nicholas seems to be persuading her of their mutual love and rightness for each other, the long-lost fiance turns up, obviously not drowned at all...
Jordan aptly maintains the tension between Aurora and Nicholas, while moving the plot smartly along with lively dialogue and interesting secondary characters.