Jake Tyrell had promised his dying brother that he would always take care of his family. Now that his brother’s wife is dead also, the children have traveled to California to live with him.

Amanda Collingsworth has run away from her brother’s fanatical control of her life, but during her flight she stumbles across three children who have been abandoned by their nursemaid. She rescues them and poses as their mother to avoid capture by the detectives her brother has hired.

Jake has smoldering good looks, and at times he can be caring and thoughtful, but the only thing he wants from a woman is lust, for to him love only exists in the fairy tales that Amanda reads to the children. He also believes a woman’s place is in the home--but not his home, for he never intends to marry. The only reason Amanda is there is to care for his brother’s children.

Amanda believes in love, but she finds herself on the verge of giving herself to Jake--a man she barely knows, a man she barely likes, simply because her body craves his touch. She tries to persuade Jake to open his heart, and not just his home, to his brother’s children. But she doubts that there will ever be room in his heart for her even though her own feelings for Jake burn far deeper than lust.