the Diplomat and Florist

Adrian Vale has spent his career finding the precise words that prevent negotiations from collapsing. Sami Haddad believes flowers reveal what people are trying not to say.A senior Swiss diplomat, Adrian arrives at a secluded Alpine hotel to mediate a fragile humanitarian summit. The objective is urgent: reopen a medical corridor and secure the exchange of detained civilians. With opposing delegations watching every gesture, nothing can be allowed to distract him from the agreement.Then he meets the florist.Lebanese-French botanical artist Sami has been commissioned to transform the hotel's formal rooms with living arrangements that communicate resilience, remembrance and hope. He is perceptive, unconventional and entirely unimpressed by diplomatic authority. Adrian's unexpected knowledge of plants soon draws them into conversations neither man intended to have.As negotiations become increasingly tense, late-night encounters in the glasshouse and a nocturnal walk through the surrounding forest bring Adrian and Sami dangerously close. Sami sees the man beneath Adrian's immaculate restraint, while Adrian discovers how much of his life has been shaped by duty rather than choice.But Adrian is being considered for a prestigious posting in Vienna, and the summit leaves no room for personal scandal. With careers, reputations and vulnerable lives hanging in the balance, they must decide whether their connection can survive once the negotiations end and the doors open again.Set among winter gardens, Alpine forests and the discreet world of international diplomacy, The Diplomat and the Florist is a sophisticated M/M romance featuring forced proximity, mature heroes, botanical symbolism, emotional intimacy, professional boundaries and a guaranteed happy ending.Book Four in the Behind Closed Doors series of connected standalone romances.