The Wallflower Identity: Lady Be Vengeful by Dawn Brower

Lilah Stevens first season was the worst a lady could ever have. She hadn’t been a mere wallflower, she’d been the Wallflower. The one that had ended up with her name on everyone lips and a ruined reputation. Before that fateful day no one had ever noticed her. Afterwards, she couldn’t show her face in society without the whispers being uttered at her mere presence. It had been enough to make anyone run and hide, but she refused to allow him that satisfaction. She would make that infernal viscount rue the day they had ever crossed paths, even if it made her reputation terminally unrepairable.

Henry Collins, the Viscount of Harcrest had always been a consummate rake. He didn’t see any reason to change. He loved his life and it was a grand one. As far as he was concerned, he didn’t have a care in the world, and he liked it that way. He doesn’t pay any attention to rumors, but after that fateful encounter he wonders if perhaps it is time he should. Surely, he couldn’t have done what she suggested. Even he wasn’t that depraved…

Lilah wishes she could once again embrace the identity of a wallflower, a role she used to hate, but that is a past she can never reclaim. But somehow, she starts to wonder if she had it all wrong and it might be enough to lead her to a place she never expected: love.

Excerpt

Lilah headed to the library. She’d been unaware that Lord Harcrest followed close behind her until she reached her destination and found him following her. “What do you want?”

“I thought to hide in the library,” he said, as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

“There aren’t very many places to hide in this room.” She narrowed her gaze. “What are you up to?”

“Me?” He blinked at her with an innocent expression on his face. “I’m playing hide and seek. What game are you playing?”

Lilah sighed. He was incorrigible. He had some scheme planned. She’d wager on it, and likely win. Lilah didn’t like it. Not one bit. “Do as you please. You always seem too anyway.” She did her best to ignore him and went to the nearest shelf. She found a book of sonnets and sat on the settee.

“Are you not going to hide?” he asked her as he moved closer to her.

“Why bother,” she said in a preoccupied tone. Lilah flipped open the book.

He snatched the book from her and flipped it open. “Shakespeare?” Lord Harcrest turned the page. “Not even one of his plays…but poetry?”

“I like poetry,” she said, a little insulted. “What is wrong with poetry?”

“Nothing,” he said, then shrugged. “It just seems too frivolous for you.”

“Lord Harcrest,” she said contemptuously. “You do not know me well enough to make such assumptions.”

He continued to ignore her. Lord Harcrest sat on the settee next to her. “Perhaps I should read one to you. Would you like that?”

“No,” she said a little irritated. “I’d like to read them myself. Quietly.”

“Don’t be silly,” he said in a flippant tone. “Poetry should always be read aloud. That is the only correct way to appreciate them. I think this one especially should be heard.”

Oh, bother… He was going to do this, anyway. Maybe if she allowed it, he would leave her alone. She waved her hand at him. “Then by all means, my lord, impress me.”

He grinned, and it did funny things to her. His smile was devastating to behold. It made her stomach lurch and an unexplained tingling to settle there. “I intend to,” he told her a little too confidently. Then he began to read. Those tingling sensations spread throughout her body. His voice was soothing and seductive at the same time. She felt herself drawing closer to him, and when he spoke the last lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet Eighteen…Lilah almost sighed in contentment. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Lord Harcrest met her gaze. What did this all mean? Why was he being so nice to her?

She cleared her throat. “That was lovely.”

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