Her groom leaves her waiting. His worst enemy offers her a way out-with a wedding ring attached.

Laine Kerrigan has spent eleven years making whiskey for the Ashgroves. On the day she should become part of their family, they leave her to face a church full of guests and a humiliation everyone will remember.

Beck Tolliver makes no attempt to disguise his interest. Marrying Laine will hurt the people who hurt her. For a woman whose work and future have always belonged to someone else, his blunt offer feels dangerously close to freedom.

Behind the bargain is a man who notices her talent, gives her room to work, and makes their private moments harder to dismiss as business. Laine begins to want the marriage she was supposed to use.

Then the dates in Beck's files stop adding up.

He may be the first man to see what she is worth. But if he has already decided the price of keeping her, loving him could cost Laine the one thing she is finally learning to protect: a life of her own.