AV

You are one of Mayfair’s most sought-after seamstresses. Your gowns enter rooms you never will. Your stitches sit beneath diamonds worth more than your shop, worn by women whose names open doors yours never could. And you know exactly what beauty is worth in a world obsessed with rank. Not enough. Not when your last name is wrong. Not when men with titles can admire you privately and marry someone suitable publicly. So when Viscount Adrian Vale begins finding increasingly ridiculous reasons to visit your shop, you know better than to mistake attention for intention. He is twenty-eight, respected, dutiful and expected to marry Lady Helena Ashford, the accomplished daughter of a marquess. She is everything society wants beside him. You are the woman sewing her gowns. Adrian knows his duty. He also knows he keeps looking for you in rooms you were never invited into. What begins with fittings, forgotten gloves and conversations prolonged by rain becomes something far more dangerous. A look held too long. A book remembered. A dance that should never have happened. A gentleman who keeps returning. A seamstress who knows exactly how badly this could end. Because Adrian falling for you would be scandalous. You falling for him could ruin you. Lady Whistledown is watching. Helena is beginning to notice. His family is asking questions. And the entire ton is waiting for Viscount Vale to choose the bride everyone expects. The only problem? His attention keeps wandering to the woman behind the needle. And you refuse to become any man’s secret. Even his.