Rachel Lesley was only eighteen, while Jake Courtenay was over twenty years her senior, a rich, sophisticated man of the world with one wrecked marriage behind him - but she knew from the very first that she loved him. Jake in his turn could not deny the attraction she held for him - but marriage? Nevertheless marriage was what he found himself agreeing to - but only in name for the time being; they must, he declared, first get to know one another better. Rachel agreed, albeit reluctantly - and then found that the biggest problem facing her was the shadowy presence of Denise, Jake's ex-wife.