Despite the unshakable attraction between them, Maeve and Lucian are uninterested in love and marriage; especially since they hate one another and couldn't think of a worse match.
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London, 1815
Maeve Langston's aversion to the opposite sex has...
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Maeve wasn't ready to go out in society again, risking meeting the baron. Barely a week had passed since their kiss, and she couldn't face him yet. Her skin still tingled when she recalled how his hands had been pressing her body, and her mouth still remembered the raspy touch of his tongue. It was too soon for her to see him and not blush all over.
She didn't have a choice, though. The party tonight was held by a very close friend of her parents. They were here to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of Wolfgang Schwarz, a renowned violinist and composer, who used to mentor her father in his youth. From what she had understood, the old man had played a role in her parents ending up together.
Maeve knew the Schwarz family well. They had a daughter barely older than her, Anita, and she was her closest friend. They both shared a talent for music and had grown up together. When Mrs. Schwarz had become ill, about four years ago, the three youngest Schwarz children, including Anita, had all come to live with them for a while. When the unavoidable had happened, and the poor woman had passed away, they had stayed a while longer, their father being too devastated by the loss to care for his family. He had lost his muse, his musical partner, and the love of his life.
Now that the mourning was done and the pain had passed, Mr. Schwarz solely lived for his children and his art, producing some of his best compositions, which he all dedicated to his late wife.
Maeve was actually excited to see her best friend, whom she hadn't seen in six months. As soon as she arrived with her parents and her twin, she scanned the crowd to find Anita.
Of course, chance would have it differently, and the first person she recognized among the guests was Worthington. She looked at his profile from afar, and she felt something flutter inside of her. As if drawn by her eyes, the baron turned to her, and before she could look away, their eyes met. She broke the contact first by averting her eyes swiftly, embarrassed by her body's reaction to the man. The exchange hadn't lasted longer than a second, but she had felt her skin burn from the intensity of his gaze, and she knew an obvious redness was rising from her cleavage, all the way to her cheeks.
Why couldn't she have controlled herself? Why did she have to let him kiss her and kiss him back? Now she was feeling like a loose woman, having accorded him such intimacies.
The room was crowded, and she had the faint hope they could spend the entire evening without crossing each other's path. Before she had the time to dwell on it, a feminine form wrapped her arms around her from behind. Recognizing the lavender scent, Maeve turned around to face her friend.
"Oh, Maeve!" Anita excitedly exclaimed. "You have no idea of how much I have missed you."
Maeve hugged her back, holding her tightly against her chest. Anita was blonde, with a slender silhouette of average height. She was pretty, rather than beautiful, but there was a certain something to her that made her positively charming.
If Anita hadn't found a husband yet, it was because she held a complicated place in society. Her family held no title nor great riches, but they frequented the highest spheres. It was hard to find a suitor when most girls around you were more appealing to eligible bachelors.
