The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy – by Brigitte Knightley
Book 1 in the Dearly Beloathed duology

He’s an assassin with a secret.
She’s a healer with a grudge.

Osric Mordaunt, elite member of the Fyren Order, is dying—and the only person who can save him is the one woman who despises everything he stands for: Aurienne Fairhrim, a brilliant, no-nonsense healer and devoted scientist.

When a bribe forces them into a reluctant alliance, sparks fly—and not just from their bitter banter. As they investigate a deadly plague re-emerging across the land, their uneasy partnership turns into something far more dangerous: undeniable attraction.

With lives on the line, secrets unraveling, and their Orders at odds, Osric and Aurienne must navigate their growing feelings while staying alive. Because in this world, falling for your enemy may be the most lethal risk of all.

✨ Tropes: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, slow burn, morally gray assassin x woman in STEM, hypercompetent idiots in denial
✨ For fans of The Love Hypothesis, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, and The Serpent & the Wings of Night
✨ Book 1 in the Dearly Beloathed duology — where fantasy meets sizzling tension, intellectual rivalries, and emotional depth
✨ Features a gentleman assassin who falls hard, a sharp-tongued healer with no time for nonsense, and plenty of “evisceration as a love language”

"The only thing more dangerous than his touch… is how much she wants it."