A Flaming Love (Completed)
Anthony Stratford, the Duke of York, is utterly exhausted by the relentless demands of the ton. As a powerful Phoenix shifter, he has lived through centuries of ash and rebirth, yet true peace and genuine connection continue to elude him. Forced into the glittering cages of the London marriage mart, he dreads the shallow machinations of high society. Anthony wants a companion who sees the man beneath the title-not just a powerful creature to be bartered for-and he is ready to scorch the earth to find her.
Miss Cassandra Grafton has spent her entire life hidden away as a shameful family secret rather than celebrated as a rare Phoenix shifter. Bound by a severe astigmatism that blurs her world into a haze of shapes and shadows, she has endured years of cruel taunts from her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, who treat her failing vision as a tragic defect. Forced onto the social stage for her grand debut, Cassandra is terrified of the judgment awaiting her, yet she secretly longs for a love that will accept her imperfections and rescue her from her family's suffocating cruelty.
When a chance encounter at a crowded ball brings them together, Anthony doesn't see a flawed debutante-he recognizes a brilliant, kindred fire, while Cassandra's heart perceives the Duke's noble soul clearer than her eyes ever could. But in a ruthless society governed by strict rules, and with a stepfamily determined to extinguish Cassandra's light, their bond will be tested to its limits. To claim the peace and acceptance they both crave, they must fight the shadows of envy together, proving that a love born of true vision can always rise from the ashes.