In Jessie Denton’s world, she is battered and nearly molested by her step-brother Martin on a regular basis.  Her internal dialogue starts out the same way every day – “I only need to make it through one more day – just one more day, and I can leave this place.” 
Her way of life, as she knows it is pathetic and deplorable, hardly being a notch above the street rats that scurry at her heels for food. The bruises on her face will fade…because they always did, and she always managed to get by.
UNTIL THE NIGHT SHE MET HIM.
It started out the same as any another night-cheating and stealing at cards. But when her hand brushed against his-all hope became lost for her.
Sir Lucian Hawthorne would rather have been anywhere else that night.  The Mate’s Table was a dive bar on the Mercy River and he met his friends for an innocent night of playing cards.
That is until his eyes held the sapphire ones of the waif sitting on his right. He knew the cocky lad cheated, and it angered him. So he waited for him, concealed in the shadows in a darkened alley.
Now everything had changed for him. 
What he assumed to be a disheveled boy, turned out to be a beautiful young woman. Now she and her blue eyes tormented his dreams nightly, and he struggled to erase her from his mind.
Can their chance encounter survive the disparity between two contrasting lives and cause love to grow? Or will betrayal, secrets, and lies tear them apart forever?