I BOUGHT HER TO SETTLE A DEBT SHE CAN NEVER REPAY. Miranda Twain is no longer a woman of the people. She is my property. Her father traded her soul to save his own, and now she belongs to the Duke of Darcy. She thinks her common blood and defiant spirit will protect her in my world of cold stone and rigid expectations. She is mistaken. I will lace her into the finest silks and the tightest corsets until she learns to breathe only when I allow it. Every rebellious spark in her eyes is a challenge I am more than willing to meet. When she seeks comfort in the arms of rivals or dares to defy my commands, she will face the weight of my hand. I am a man of discipline, and my lessons are as painful as they are necessary. The creditors are at the gates, but I will not let them touch what is mine. I will bind her to me in the chapel and break her in the gallery. She will learn that her only safety lies in total surrender to my whims. I will strip away her pride and replace it with a devotion that burns hotter than any shame. She is my silent prize, my mastered duchess, and my eternal obsession.