She had a list. He wasn't on it. Until he was. Lady Madeline knows precisely what she wants: an earl, status, stability. Derek McKnight offers none of it. Raised a farmer's son, now Baron Ainsworth by royal decree, Derek carries his title with integrity and grit-but not polish. One misstep, one chivalrous mistake, and suddenly they're married. Neither planned it. Neither is pleased.

She thinks he's beneath her. He thinks she's unreachable. And somehow, they both begin to see the truth. Madeline wasn't meant to fall for a man with dirt under his nails. Derek wasn't supposed to want a woman who judges before she listens. But behind her pride is vulnerability. Behind his bluntness is a heart ready to be seen. And slowly, against their own expectations, the walls they've built begin to crack.

They thought they knew what love looked like. They were wrong-and wonderfully so. What begins as indignation softens into fascination, then into something far deeper. Because sometimes life doesn't go according to plan-and that's the very thing that saves you. In the unexpected, in the inconvenient, in the places you swore you'd never look... love waits patiently.

She wanted an earl. She married a baron. And her heart never stood a chance.