Lydia has always tried to play by the rules: work hard, be honest, get good grades, and good things will come. For the most part, it’s gotten her far. She’s entering her senior year at Aegis and is on track to get her brother a decent lawyer and out of prison, while their grandfather is still well enough.
Soon after catching her boyfriend fucking her mentor, the Fortuna Nike informs her of the rules and conditions of her scholarship that weren’t even hidden in the fine print: an arranged marriage with whatever member they choose.
If she complies, her brother’s freedom is guaranteed. It should be an easy decision, but the thought leaves her shaking with dread.
Just as she resigns herself to the demands of the Fortuna Nike, Dorian Knox, a well-known playboy of the Fortuna Centurions, approaches her with a mutually beneficial—if insulting—offer: pretend to date him and bypass the Society’s matchmaking.
Unfortunately, Dorian is also the asshole who got her fired.
Dorian knows what he looks like, what he drinks like, what he fucks like, and most importantly, what he plays like. He revels in every wild party and vicious check into the boards as it’s the closest he’ll ever get to telling the Society to fuck off.
After his center’s high school sweetheart romance falls apart, the Society decides that Dorian needs a rebrand to help manage the fallout of the Centurions’ image. Threatened with losing everything he’s worked for and the freedom of his younger sister, he decides to play along… to the very letter of the Society’s laws.
He just needs a woman to play at being his girlfriend who won’t catch feelings and will do as she’s told.
The irritatingly no-nonsense maid who sets his blood on fire will have to do.
