Let the Bastard Games begin. A group of less than noble gentlemen hold a competition pitting their bastard and third born children against one another to determine whose seed is best. The winning son gains a fortune, a title from the king, and a pre-chosen, well-born wife. Sebastien Deville, the bastard son of a duke, is strikingly handsome, jaded and sinful. He coldly recognizes the extraordinary opportunities that winning will give him - power, revenge, sponsorship and the deed to his deceased mother's lands - the only place he has ever felt at home - purchased from under him long ago by his hated father.A consummate bad boy and rake, Sebastien meets a beautiful widow during the competition and puts his best hunting skills to use. What he doesn't expect to find is a woman who chips away at his shields and captures his heart. But the contract for winning is all or nothing. And in the end, he has to choose between the land, power and respect he has always craved, or the woman he has come to love.