PROLOG Aku terus berlari hingga aku tak lagi merasakan lelah di kedua kakiku. Hutan gelap ini menjadi tempat pelarian yang harusnya pantas kulalui. Napasku terengah-engah. Dengan sekuat tenaga aku berusaha melenyapkan diriku dari kejarannya. Dia masih berada di belakangku, mengejarku dengan beringas dan membuatku ketakutan setengah mati. Akhirnya kusadari dia telah sangat dekat dan hampir dapat mendahuluiku. Aku menyerah. Kini kurasakan letih di sekujur tubuhku dan kakiku terkulai lemas. Akupun terjatuh dan tersungkur di tanah yang hitam basah dengan napas tersengal. Kini dia berhasil menjangkauku dan menatapku dengan wajah kakunya. Aku menangis ketakutan. Hutan ini begitu suram dan tatapan matanya menerkamku. Aku berusaha menjauh darinya yang bahkan sudah pasti sia-sia. Dia menginjak ujung gaun hitam di kakiku -- mencoba menghentikan tubuhku yang berusaha merangkak menjauh darinya. "Kenapa kau lari dariku, Sayang?" suara dinginnya mulai menembus telingaku.

In the era where swords rule, where women consider their modesty their greatest virtue. Where a man would kill to find his wife warming another mans bed, a time when women would consider it the greatest of adultery or fornication to warm a bed other than her husbands. A time when an honorable man guards his gaze, for his gaze is solely for his wife alone, as well as his heart. He's feared, ruthless, cold, heartless, manipulative, cunning, a rake. Or so they assume... She's beautiful yet silent, not by a defect, she simply dislikes to mingle with gossip.Yet she has emotional scars that no one sees behind her smile, but a few. Cover by @forcade

NOW PUBLISHED BY SOURCEBOOKS FIRE! Sixteen-year-old Jackie Howard knows nothing about her new guardian Katherine Walter when she moves from New York to Colorado. After discovering that Katherine has twelve boys, Jackie fears that living in the Walter house isn't going to be easy. It's just icing on the cake that the boys look like models... Cover design by pizzazz-