Emily Chen has always understood that entering London's elite design scene would be difficult. Talented designer from a humble background striving to maintain her tiny studio, she is used to working twice as hard for half the recognition. What she never anticipated was that her most hazardous personal involvement would result from her greatest professional chance. Choosing Emily's company to build their new flagship hotel on the Thames will be a career turning point since quitting her secure corporate employment three years ago. The work might establish her name in London's cutthroat design industry and save her struggling company. One catch: James Blackwood. James Blackwood controls his family's empire with the same accuracy he applies to his fitted clothes, cold, dominating, and stunningly attractive. Beneath his cunning surface lies a man who has never failed at anything—except maybe at satisfying his strong mother. Renowned for his unrelenting concentration and emotional control, James finds himself more and more sidetracked by the gifted designer who questions his assumptions at every turn and perceives beyond his well built facade. Emily and James's professional conflict turns to an unmistakable affection as they closely collaborate on the riverfront project. Between early morning site visits and late-night design sessions, they find in one another what they never found anywhere else: someone who knows both their drive and their meticulously concealed weaknesses. But in the center of London's upper society lurks a network of unspoken rules: the Blackwood family. Lady Victoria Blackwood uses all her resources to split her son from a "common designer from nowhere" when she finds his increasing affection. Victoria has no plans to let her son shatter the Blackwoods' legacy of smart marriages and connections for decades. Out of nowhere, Emily's clients are vanishing, her designs are being turned down, and allegations of plagiarism endanger all she has created. A strange friend gives Emily unsettling knowledge as her world falls apart: her grandfather and the Blackwoods have a contentious past Lady Victoria will do all in her power to keep buried. Thirty years ago, another Chen sat across a boardroom table from another Blackwood. The result killed one family and raised the other—a secret that has influenced both dynasties ever since. Unknowingly reflecting this tragic past, Emily's creative creations mix classic English beauty with aspects influenced by her grandfather's artistic legacy. Emily has to choose whether her relationship with James is worth the struggle caught between her developing love for him and the murky history binding their families. James, on the other hand, must choose between his family's history and the woman who has aroused feelings he had long believed dormant.