After five long years on a prison ship, Sean O'Toole, Earl of Kildare, makes his escape in order to exact his plan of revenge upon the Englishman who killed his brother and framed Sean for the crime. While imprisoned, Sean honed his body to rock-hard perfection, steeled his will against all sentiment, and filled his mind with thoughts of retribution against the man he had hated for years. But at night his dreams were filled with memories of his enemy's daughter - the half-Irish, half-English Emerald, whose fiery beauty had beguiled him when they met, and whose bold and fearless spirit he had never forgotten.His memories of Emerald are not enough to prevent Sean from going through with his plan to use her as a pawn in his quest for vengeance. His scheme: to kidnap Emerald and bring her to his home, where he will keep her long enough to sully her reputation and bring disgrace upon her family. Sean is shocked when, instead of the defiant temptress he once knew, the memory of whom kept him alive for five long years, he finds his quarry is now a timid, fearful woman afraid of her own shadow. Has she too become a victim of her father's corruption? Determined to go through with his plans, he steals Emerald away to his family's estate, where he slowly gains her trust - only to betray her with his lies.Locked in prisons of their own making, Emerald and Sean must find a way to break free of their bonds, or risk losing themselves - and each other - forever. Read Less