Four years ago, Dimitri Petrov had his leg blown off by a landmine while in military service. Suffering from PTSD, he doesn’t do crowds, and he doesn’t do people. If he had his way, he’d never leave his house at all. Dimitri’s sister, Irina, runs a dating agency, and despite that it would be better for business if they had a pretty woman working the front desk, Irina insists Dimitri’s the man for the job.<br><br>In a whirlwind of pink shirts, flapping hands, and outrageous flirting enters Elian Hubert. Elian needs a date. Invited to speak on love through time in fiction at a Valentine dinner, there is no way he’s showing up alone. When Dimitri tells him The Single Pursuit is unable to help on such short notice, Elian suggests Dimitri be his date.<br><br>Dimitri doesn’t do dates, and he doesn’t do dinners, but Elian’s made him happier in the last few minutes than anyone’s been able to do in years. He might not do Valentine's, and he might not do gatherings, but maybe he can do Elian ... a favor and accompany him to his presentation? If things go too badly, he can always hide behind a curtain and pretend he’s somewhere else.

Be Still, My Heart

“Yeah, some love triangle gone wrong. It was quite a scandal. A woman and two men were together, as in a relationship, but they robbed—I can’t remember what they robbed, the bank maybe. What else did you rob back then? They hid in Ashington Hall but started fighting. The woman shot one man, which had the other man try to kill her, and when the police stormed the place, they killed them all.”


“You’re joking.” Would the police shoot two people? Dimitri narrowed his eyes, he guessed they could.


Irina leaned forward between the front seats. “In what room?”


Elian shrugged. “I think in one of the bedrooms, but…I can check later. I have a book at home about Ashington Hall.


“God, you sound boring when you say things like that.” Irina huffed.


“If I weren’t boring, you wouldn’t know we’re about to enter a house with three ghosts in it.”


She huffed again. “I don’t believe in ghosts.”


“Me either.” Elian gazed out the window. “Imagine vacuuming all those rooms.”


Chapter 22