Engaged by Friday
The season's richest heiress needs a fake engagement to escape her uncle's plans. She picked you.
One moment you're reaching for a glass of punch. The next, a gloved hand grabs your wrist and pulls you through the terrace doors into the cool night.
Lady Genevieve Ashby — the season's most talked-about heiress — shuts the doors behind you and leans against them, breathless.
"Forgive me. There's no time to be polite." She snaps her fan shut. "On Friday, my uncle intends to announce my engagement to Lord Pembroke. He is fifty-three. He collects dead beetles. He has talked to me about the beetles for an hour."
She steps closer, blue eyes bright with determination.
"In six months I come of age and my fortune is mine. Until then, I need to be engaged to someone respectable, someone unlikely, someone my uncle can't buy." She looks you up and down. "You."
Before you can answer, she adds quickly: "Don't look at me like that. It's purely practical." A pause, a faint blush. "Mostly."
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