“If this is to work, we must appear madly in love.”
Phoenixflare Week || Day 3: Pretend Relationship / Fake Dating
Joshua Rosfield & Dion Lesage + The Duke & I/Bridgerton AU
Joshua Rosfield—Duke of Rosaria—recently returned from his travels to proper Valisthean court intent on avoiding his mother's intentions to introduce him to every high-born match available, in hopes of finally marrying him off. Yet, during the first ball of the season, an encounter with his childhood friend Dion Lesage—the now cast-off Prince of Sanbreque—provides him with another option.
If Prince Dion agrees to a fake courtship, Joshua can deter his mother from a parade of marriageable prospects being placed before him—while Dion (whose prospects were reduced to all but the lowest houses when his true-blood brother Oliver was born) might once again see his prospects and reputation soar. Despite being a match between two of Valisthea's strongest families, a romance between two high-ranking men of the realm is unprecedented—and too interesting for society not to watch with rapt interest.
The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of Valisthean elite, there is only one certainty: Love ignores every rule.