Happiness Not Included

Alanna did everything in her power to gain her parents' approval: wore the right clothes, dated the right men, attended the right parties, and made enough money to get them through the doors of high society that had long been out of their reach.

Instead of a thank you for all she had done, she was blamed for reacting the wrong way to finding out her husband had been cheating on her with her younger sister-and her family wanted her to accept it because it was "true love."

When Alanna decided she was done vying for her parents' approval and started feeling isolated, an old classmate came to her with an offer she couldn't refuse: marry him and join one of the most powerful families in town. The catch? Intimacy was off the table. Any plans for future children would be done through surrogacy or artificial insemination.

Deciding this was the only way to regain her dignity, she agreed. But her growing attraction to her new husband made the no-intimacy rule all the more unwelcome.