She came to betray him...

No one could have known the truth: that the beauty who swept into the elegant ballroom was a pirate queen with a treacherous plan--to save herself from execution by identifying an infamous privateer attending the ball in disguise. Only Maureen Hawthorne could expose the double life of Julien d'Artiers, the toast of the ton. After all, she was his wife....

But he caught her heart unawares...

Julien was stunned when he beheld the love of his life, the wife he'd presumed dead. But here she was, her turquoise eyes blazing across a crowded ballroom, a woman determined to bring about his complete ruin. She blamed him for her father's death, swore to see him hang. But he took her into his arms and made her dance instead, tormenting her with memories of the passion they'd once shared, determined to make her love him again...willing to do anything to keep from losing her again.