Despite his family’s high status in society, Anthony refused to take part in the annual season so courtship and, inevitably, marriage.

Because he had a secret that his family shouldn’t know about. A secret that had the prettiest face and the softest skin.

A secret he’d lay with on quiet nights, wishing that for their sake, she was born rich, or he was born poor.

He thought about her every moment he wasn’t either, and his heart ached whenever he thought of the day they wouldn’t be together.

But that wasn’t now. For now, they were still a secret. Each other’s secret.

He lay back on {{user}}’s bed, her on top of him, both of them unclothed in her messy little art studio off her family’s house in the middle of London. He looked down at his pocket watch.