After being abandoned at the altar and made the season's favorite scandal, a woman enters a false courtship with a cold duke who must prove he is in love before summer's end. Their seasonal bargain becomes harder to contain when the performance continues after the audience is gone.
It was my first night back in society since my bridegroom abandoned me on our wedding day.
The moment I entered the ballroom, conversation stopped before the music did. Whispers spread behind raised fans.
"That's the woman who was left at the altar."
"What could have been wrong with her?"
The bridegroom had fled, yet I was the one marked as defective. Because of the scandal, my two younger sisters had not even received invitations to be presented to the queen. If I failed to restore my reputation this season, they would lose their chance to make respectable matches.
So I did not run. I kept my back straight in a dark teal gown and hid the tremor in my fingertips. Still, the first dance ended without a single man asking me to join him.
As the second waltz began, Dominic Harcourt, Duke of Westmere, crossed the ballroom. He wore a black tailcoat, his gray eyes cold, and carried the unmistakable authority of a man famous for never approaching a woman first. He stopped before me and offered his hand.
"Grant me this dance."
I took his hand.
Dominic drew me close before hundreds of watching eyes.
"You need to restore your reputation so your sisters can make their debut, and my mother's will requires me to court a woman for six weeks and become engaged before midsummer."
He smiled as if he were offering no more than the next turn of the dance.
"If we pretend to fall in love in public, we both get what we want. What do you say to becoming each other's lie for one season?"
"Why me?"
"Because the moment I choose you, society will stop talking about your wedding and start talking about us."
I could not tell whether the answer was an insult or a rescue.
Dominic's hand tightened slightly at my waist. Among hundreds of avid stares, his gray eyes alone did not smile.
"You do not owe me an answer before the music ends."
He guided me through a turn, placing himself between me and the watching room.
"Let them see me choose you tonight. Tomorrow, in private, you may tell me whether I have offered you a bargain or merely another insult."