She vowed never to settle. He doesn’t believe in love. Neither expected the one person who could unravel it all. An Army mechanic. A dreamer with everything to lose. One unexpected marriage deal that could change everything. Iris Matthews has sworn never to settle. Even when eviction and exhaustion close in, she clings to her dream of becoming a writer—and to the epic love she’s promised herself she won’t compromise on. Sergeant Phoenix Hastings has never believed in love. Raised on the example of a hollow marriage, duty and stability are what he knows. But when Iris stumbles into his life, her relentless hope for something more forces him to confront the dream he buried long ago. Determined to give her the security she needs, Phoenix offers a practical solution: marriage, nothing more. But Iris’s heart demands more than security—it demands a love that’s epic, the kind that can’t be arranged. When conviction and circumstance collide, can two people who swore they’d never bend discover a reason to risk everything