Is it love or is it magic?

Betrothed against her will and magically fettered by her cruel fiancé, Emma V'Aubry runs away, determined to seek an audience with King Edmund and to have the engagement dissolved. Reaching the king seems an impossibility-until she throws in her lot with the notorious Duke of Wesserick.

A trusted diplomat, Wesserick has been banished for his attempt to ravish the foreign princess who will marry Edmund in a month. But the duke's desperate need to get to Edmund is strictly political. There's an error in the marriage accords that could mean war if the wedding takes place. As for his heinous crime, Wesserick can only describe what happened as madness. He hadn't even liked Princess Yasmin. Vibrant, out-spoken Emma is a woman more to his taste than the coolly reserved princess.

As it happens, Wesserick is the victim of treasonous magic. Someone has placed a spell on the princess that reaches through his diplomatic wards, making her irresistible to him. Even now, this obscure piece of magic is drawing him to her side.

Noting the growing bond between Emma and Wesserick, and knowing the spell can only be broken by running its course - a ravishment- a well-meaning mage tries to neutralize the magic by making its effects pass through Emma. Blended with her earthy sexual chemistry, the power of the attraction and the spell's malevolent intent become clear. Now every man in Esterland desires Emma. But making love to her means death to someone-Wesserick, Yasmin or Emma herself.

But Wesserick's passionate declarations inspire dizzying feelings inside her. Are these emotions the deadly snare of sinister magic? Or could they actually be love?