After one reckless mistake destroys her reputation, Lady Kyra Sterling withdraws from society, trusting only her flowers and botanical art and refusing to risk her heart again.
Rafael de Villafranca, a wounded war hero, comes to his English uncle's neighboring estate hoping for quiet, some easing of his guilt over cousin Jack's death in battle, and time to turn his Spanish grandmother's notes and recipes for Theobroma cacao into a book.
He does not expect the shy neighbor he finds sketching in the woods, but Kyra's watercolors draw them into an unforeseen closeness over art and chocolate.
That fragile bond is threatened when the man who ruined her returns, set on her dowry and prepared to revive the scandal unless she marries him.
Kyra must choose whether to make herself vulnerable and seek Rafael's help, or let the past crush any hope of happiness.
