Just before leaving for her beloved younger sister’s wedding, widow Lily Manning decides to throw caution to the wind and go to the notorious Donville Masquerade for one night of fun with no consequences. She ends up meeting a masked man, the Ares to her Aphrodite, who not only plays her body like a musical instrument but also creates a connection neither are expecting. Still, she’ll likely never know her mystery man’s identity, let alone see him again, and she can accept that.

Everyone’s favorite rake, Viscount George Lockhart, is about to marry by arrangement and he is struggling. He never would have rushed this wedding but for a promise he made to his beloved mother, and now he finds himself at the country estate of his parents, getting ready to pledge himself to a woman he hardly knows and feels nothing for. But this is the way of his world…isn’t it? And there’s no way out even if it wasn’t.

When Lily arrives for the wedding and meets George, one thing becomes abundantly clear to her. He is the man she spent her one night of passion with, but since she was masked during the powerful encounter, he doesn’t recognize her. Now she’s in a terrible situation, both trying to keep the truth from coming out and working to discover if this man is a cad or just someone trapped by circumstance. But the closer the two become and the more and more secrets come out, the harder it’s going to be for either of them to do what Society would label as right.