Love Matters — Christiane France

Cain Carpenter has it all -- looks, money, a beautiful home, and a successful business. What he doesn't have is someone to share it all with, someone he loves and who loves him in return.

In spite of the belief that if Cain kisses enough frogs he'll eventually find the prince of his dreams, the search is proving far from simple. As owner and manager of The Peony, the town's classiest restaurant, Cain doesn't have much time for a social life. He's tried all the usual avenues for meeting people, including a dating agency, and he's about given up...

But then Cain accepts an invitation to a singles masquerade party and meets a masked man in an elaborate headdress of black feathers who sends his thoughts and senses reeling with excitement. The stranger invites Cain to dance, and from the instant they touch, Cain truly believes, at long last, that this is the special man he's been waiting for.

A few minutes later, however, the man answers a phone call, mutters something about an emergency and disappears, leaving Cain in a complete panic. The rules of the masquerade include no removal of masks and no exchange of names. If you can't somehow figure out the identity of the person who sparked your interest, you lose. And Cain doesn't want to lose, but without the man's name and no idea what he looks like, he feels hopeless. All he knows about “Black Feathers” is that he's a little taller and heavier than himself, but that could describe half the town's male population.

Will Cain be able to track down the alluring stranger in order to determine if they're truly destined for a future?