The Damsel

The Honourable Mr. Robert Stanley is heartbroken. After losing the love of his life to another man, he stumbles into a public house looking to drown his sorrows. The last thing he expects is to be approached with a scandalous proposition. When Lady Cassandra Lane offers him one night in an upstairs room with her, he leaps at the chance despite her stipulation that he submit to her every whim. He wants nothing more than to lose himself and forget his pain; allowing someone else control seems a small price to pay for it. Little does he know that one night will have the power to change everything.

Lady Cassandra Lane is in a constant state of rage. After her brutal assault at the hands of a lord, she’s had her name and reputation dragged through the mud. Her family and friends have turned their back on her, and she’s become a social outcast. In the midst of it all, the anger and fear caused by the theft of her innocence rules her existence, and Cassandra has had enough. Deciding to take control of her circumstances, she sets out to find a man with whom she can overcome her anxiety over physical intimacy. Robert Stanley seems like an ideal choice—someone she can use for her own ends and discard once she is done. However, she never anticipates that their one encounter will lead to a craving for more. Robert cannot understand why he responds so readily to Cassandra’s dominant nature, or the cruelty fueled by her anger. Nevertheless, he is drawn to her like a moth to a flame—despite the possibility that she will only hurt him in the end. As he falls rapidly under her spell, he begins to uncover Cassandra’s deep, dark secrets, as well as her hidden pain. Even though she pushes him away at every turn, he finds himself unable to walk away—especially when it becomes clear that one of her secrets might just be the death of her. She doesn’t need a hero but if she’d let him, he might just be her saving grace.