The Confectioner's Vow

Marival Lenza is a shy but stubbornly independent sugar-glass artisan whose only focus is keeping her little brother, Teo, safe and fed. Her quiet life derails entirely when she wakes up inexplicably stranded inside a giant, defunct mechanical swan floating in the private courtyard of Jaro Dorza - the most scandalous, wealthy heir in the floating city of Oribel. Jaro is currently desperate; to secure a massive maritime trade deal, the conservative Guild Council demands he prove he has abandoned his playboy ways. He proposes a mutually beneficial charade: Marival acts as his respectable fiancée to fix his public image, and he fully funds Teo’s expensive tinkerer apprenticeship. Marival expects a cold business arrangement, but Jaro is bafflingly sweet. She catches him secretly bottle-feeding winged stray kittens at the local animal shelter, and he turns a charity ball tango into a breathless, terrifyingly real display of possessiveness when another merchant asks for her hand. The slow-burn charade shatters when Jaro suddenly purchases a sunlit estate perfectly matching the dream-home sketches tacked to her workshop inspiration board. When Marival finally reads the fine print of their Guild registry, she realizes her grave mistake: did this notorious rogue just trick her into a permanent, legally binding marriage?