Enjoy a fun, flirty, guardian-and-ward, beauty and the beast romp from a New York Times bestselling author! Miss Matilda Dodd refuses to be any man's property. She's a month shy of her majority, and cannot wait to live life on her own terms. Rather than meet her unwanted new guardian as instructed, she attends a ball and comes kiss-to-kiss with an adorably befuddled handsome lord instead. But the grumpy, sexy stranger turns out to be the new guardian, hell-bent on marrying her to someone else! Titus Noble, the Earl of Gilbourne, is an emotionless, rigid automaton who lives for predictability and order. There is no room in his exacting schedule for a ridiculous matchmaking festival, and there is no room in his peaceful life for an unexpected ward. The only solution is to marry the chit to the first fool willing to take the beautiful hoyden off the earl's hands. That is, if Titus can keep his hands off his maddening, kissable ward...