Megan Hart - Selfish is the Heart

Selfish is the Heart is the 3rd Order of Solace novel by Megan Hart. This series is set in a fantasy/historical-like setting where special Handmaiden's of the Order provide `solace' to their patrons. (Usually men!) On their journey to provide their patrons comfort and peace they often find themselves submitting and giving them sexual comfort. However, in this story we are treated to a new look into the Order. Selfish is the Heart focuses on a novitiate who enters to train to become a Handmaiden. Annalise is smart and bold. But she is attempting to join the Order with an ulterior motive. She wants to avoid an arranged marriage. Although she cares for her fiancé she does not love him and to complicate matters further he is gay! Annalise respects herself and realizes her marriage would be a lie and she wants a relationship that is real and filled with love if she does marry. She plans to stay a novitiate until she is no longer eligible (pressured by her family) to marry. On her way to the Order she meets a mysterious and handsome if brooding stranger who points her in the wrong direction. Frustrated and irritated with him she is shocked to discover he is one of her assigned teachers at the Order, named Cassian. They soon challenge each other and their heated and often repressed attraction for each other flares. But Cassian has secrets of his own and staying in the Order has allowed him to hide his pain behind a cold and indifferent mask. However, Annalise is determined to befriend him because this tortured man fascinates her. But just when a relationship between them may blossom their fragile relationship is jeopardized as their past relationships return to haunt them.