She is ready to live again. But not to love.

Four years after her husband’s death, Lady Rosie Granville decides she has mourned long enough. Standing before his tombstone, she makes three promises to herself:

To build a charity in her own name.
To host the most dazzling party of the season.
And to have another child.

Remarriage is not part of the plan.

Gregory Montagu has always been her friend — steady, familiar, uncomplicated. The one man she never had to guard her heart against.

Until suddenly, she does.

What begins as harmless companionship shifts into charged glances, lingering touches, and a desire neither of them anticipated.

Rosie refuses to risk her hard-won independence for another husband. Gregory never imagined he would want to hers.

But when friendship deepens into something far more intoxicating, they must decide whether the safest choice is truly the right one — or whether some wishes demand far more than they intended to give.