Martha Bexley is the daughter of a master goldsmith, heir to a workshop she cannot legally own. James Castle is her father's senior journeyman, newly elevated to Master... but without the capital to buy a shop or the raw gold for a royal commission.
Together, they are a perfect equation. Separately, they are ruined.
The contract marriage is one of cold logic: shared profits, separate beds, and a clear boundary between the forge and the bedchamber. For four weeks, the arrangement works. They work the anvil, beat the gold, and keep the Guild inspector at bay.
Then a historic heatwave traps them in the workshop, stripped of their usual professional armour. When a jar of gold dust spills, the only way to recover the King's weight is to remove their clothes, and every boundary they have carefully maintained.
The King's Gold is a slow-burn historical erotic novella about two artisans who discover that the heat of the forge is nothing compared to the heat between them. Expect explicit consent, meticulous period detail, and a love story forged in gold and sealed in sweat.
Includes: Neurodivergent-friendly sensory grounding, explicit verbal and non-verbal consent, forced proximity, competent heroine, villainous Guild inspector, cathedral gilding, and an earned epilogue.
For readers who believe competence is the most attractive quality of all.
Approx. 25,600 words
