Catherine, daughter of the Earl of Ardleswyck, has had one purpose in life: to marry the son of her father's closest friend. To that end, she has been sent to the home of her father's mistress in Italy-to learn the art of seduction in total seclusion. Vincent Kenby has had one failure in life: being drummed out of the priesthood, judged to possess too many worldly desires. Desperate to prove the good fathers wrong, Vincent embarks on a chaste life of quiet study. Now the Earl's trusted advisor, Vincent is called upon to move Catherine to a convent when a feud dissolves the marriage agreement. He reluctantly heads to Italy, knowing he is but taking the sheltered girl from one prison to another. Seeing the precocious Catherine ignites the hunger that Vincent has tried so hard to deny in himself. At first wary of the guileless temptress, he soon discovers that there is nothing Catherine can teach him that his body doesn't already know-and crave…