To escape an arranged marriage, Emma must get married.... Emma's father, Senator Schooner Tremaine, has struck a deal with the devil. He's agreed to marry Emma off to the son of an oil and natural gas magnate, the rakish Gray Taylor, as a business transaction. There's no way Emma will marry the rude, cold, domineering Gray, and, with some unexpected assistance, Emma runs away in the middle of the night, ending up in Duck, North Carolina. She's safe for the moment, but she knows she has to come up with a contingency plan, something to make certain that if Schooner comes after her, he can't force her to marry a man she doesn't love. In walks Reese McConnell, and Emma has an answer to her dilemma. All she has to do is convince Reese to marry her....