For Marie-Laure Vernet, serving as a scullery maid to a bored, aristocratic family isn't without its dangers. Trying to avoid the unwelcome predations of the men and their guests is one. Keeping the china in one piece is another - especially when she finds herself serving Viscount Joseph d'Auvers-Raimond. Only Marie-Laure knows that Joseph is also a smuggler of forbidden books who'd once fallen ill in her late father's bookshop. That fateful meeting led to an innocent flirtation, fuelled by a shared passion for books and ideas, but it had awakened desire that changed Marie-Laure forever. Joseph hasn't forgotten the encounter either. His papers are littered with drafts of an erotic story about a girl who bears a distinct resemblance to the servant spilling his tea. While pleasuring the jaded women of the aristocracy, he'd pictured this girl with the coppery hair and the ink-stained fingers who could indulge both his intellect and his most feverish desires. Now the only way to save her from becoming his family plaything is to seduce her first, and the lady seems extremely willing to comply...