Daring and desperate to win Morgan's love, Olivia Breedlove embarks on a reckless folly. But everything backfires when Morgan remains one step ahead of her and the game ventures down a path of duplicity and murder.

A decade ago, Morgan was a heartbeat away from taking Olivia's virginity. Her father, Thaddeus, intervened and threatened to meet him over pistols if he so much as looked at his daughter again. But now, Thaddeus is dead and Morgan has no intention of ignoring the ravenous hunger he's harbored for the blasted woman for ten years.

One way or the other, he will quench this burning desire and make her his forever.

REVIEW

Olivia Breedlove and her brother, Cain, are surprised by their father's will in that he has given Olivia an ultimatum. She must marry a man of reputable character within six months or she will receive no inheritance. In fact, she will be at the mercy of her brother's goodwill. Her brother assures her she need no be concerned for her future welfare as he considers her happiness paramount. Olivia, being strong-minded, decides that she will not be dictated to. She enlists the help of her childhood friend who also happens to be her brother's best friend, Morgan Gatewood. Olivia has been in love with Morgan for years. An unfortunate incident years ago concerning Olivia's virtue caused a rift between Olivia's father and Morgan that led to Morgan leaving the country. Morgan returns years later, still in love with Olivia but respects her father's demand that he steer clear of her. Olivia, being a woman, believes Morgan left her and never gave her a second thought. Olivia decides to avail herself of an opportunity to acquaint herself with the more sordid part of a man's life; that of visiting a brothel in order to force Morgan's hand. As expected, nothing goes as planned because unexplained murders are being committed around Olivia, and it appears she may be next.

I read this story not necessarily expecting a mixture of suspense and mystery. I was pleasantly surprised at what the author had in store. The relationship between the main characters was not only believable but riveting. I liked that the author wrote the scenes from several points of view so the reader is not left to their own conclusion vis a vis others' perceptions. The twists and turns of the plot keep you guessing. A couple of times I thought I had it figured out only to find out I was wrong. The author writes a delightful love story of long-denied love that culminates in an mixture of mystery and devotion rarely seen.

Simply an amazing book.

EXCERPT

Olivia stared, arrested by the raw male potency emanating from the man seated across from her. Had he just challenged her, knowing she hungered desperately for what she’d witnessed tonight? Damn the cad. He didn’t think she had the courage to take this to the next level. Or did he mean he didn’t give a fig’s leaf if she relinquished her virginity to another man? At that possibility, her heart sank.
“How poetic,” she said without missing a beat, still trying to decipher the meaning of his words. “Do you read poetry?”
“Hardly.” His gaze narrowed. “Why . . . do you?”
“I adore Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love sonnets.”
“So Cain tells me.”
At his dour response, she continued. “Do you want to know what I observed?”
“No.”
“But I have questions.”
“Ask your nanny.”
“Pardon?”
“You heard me.”
“You know perfectly well I no longer have a nanny, and why are you behaving so rudely?”
“I’m tired.”
“Well, bear with me, we’re almost home. The questions couldn’t possibly make a man of your repute uncomfortable, and I’m thoroughly baffled.”
He blew air through his lips. “Very well, what is it?”
“Why is it so smoky in there, and what’s that sweet smell accompanying the smoke, and—”
“Opium.”
“Opium! Good heavens, Morgan, you took me to an opium den?”
“No, I took you to a fucking den, at your request I must remind you.”
She blushed and directed him back to the subject at hand. “The woman smoked it.”
He shook his head. “You really are such an innocent, Olivia. Of course she smoked it. They all do.”
“Why?”
“It’s pleasantly stimulating, enhances the sex.”
“Oh, I had no idea.”
“What else? You said questions.”
“The first couple—”
Obviously caught off guard, his eyes widened. “You watched more than one?”
“Two,” she said, feeling quite superior. “And therein lays the problem. The second couple, including the man I recognized, performed exemplary, comparable to the pictures I’ve seen.”
He rolled his eyes.
“I mean to say, they progressed as I imagined.” Here, she paused. “Until he spanked her.”
Morgan swallowed hard. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you, Liv?”
“Most certainly not.”
“Did you imagine he was spanking you?”
Concentrating on controlling her breathing and mistrustful of her voice, she shook her head. His inflection had changed on the last question along with the sensual line of his lips when he pressed them together.
Recovering from the sudden rush of dizziness and all in favor of goading him further, Olivia continued. “Then, they, you know, did it. Beyond ravenous, he flung her onto the bed and took her from—”
He shifted in the seat, his voice thin. “What is your question about the first couple?”
“Well they never consummated it. He merely . . . .” She licked her bottom lip, Morgan’s proximity searing her senses. Talking to him about such intimacies and feeling the way she did about him unnerved her, yet she pushed onward. She’d touched a chord; she sensed it, her intent from the beginning. Pressing on with her heart in her throat, she blurted, “He pleasured her without using his penis—thoroughly, I might add—and he still paid her.”
“Thoroughly, did he?”
“Without question”
“Continue, Olivia, I know you’re going to tell me every tawdry detail, whether I want to hear them or not.”
She leaned forward, softening her voice for effect. “He suckled her first and next, placed his head between her thighs.” She searched his eyes to read his thoughts, but his magnificent features were staid. “Finally, he licked her—”
“Enough, I get the picture.” He lifted his hand between them. “What, exactly, is your question?”
“While there can be no doubt she was wholly, unconditionally satisfied, what did he get out of it?” Shifting back into the seat, she paused. “I mean, why did he squander good money to do such a thing without, you know . . . ?”
“Without fucking her, Olivia, isn’t that what you mean?”
Her nipples hardened, and a shudder raked her. “You needn’t be so crude. I just wanted to know why he bothered.”
“Because he likes that! Jesus!”
“Don’t be such a ninny, Morgan, you’re no such thing, but you did promise Cain you’d tutor me, take me under your wing, so to speak.”
“I’m reneging on that part of the bargain,” he replied briskly. “I don’t want to tutor you, hear all about your voyeurism. I’ll make sure you get to the next appointment in two weeks and safely home again and that’s all. I don’t want to hear every blasted detail of what you saw. Do you understand me, Olivia?”
“Perfectly,” she said.
The carriage rounded a corner on two wheels, eliciting a scream from one of the horses. “Something must have spooked one of the—”
The transport swerved. Hurtled from the seat, Olivia ended up on the floor at Morgan’s feet. He reached for her and pulled her into his lap until her legs straddled his hips, her breasts pressed firmly against his chest. Whatever had happened outside, the driver apparently had everything under control.
How Olivia wished she did.
Their eyes locked and time stopped on the periphery of some distant plane. Morgan’s hand tangled in the long hair at the back of her head, and he drew her to him, his mouth demanding and ravishing. Her heart quickened. His tongue parted her lips and swept through every crevice as if to memorize the taste of her. She pressed her body against him, reveling in the feel of every hard muscle of his chest and the strong thighs beneath her. He quit her mouth and bestowed breathless, titillating kisses along her neck and throat, sending tremors through her blood.
“You like that, don’t you, Olivia,” he whispered against her ear. “And this,” he said, slipping a hand down her pants to massage the juncture between her thighs with his fingers.
She clenched her teeth and stifled a moan, her pleasure peaking in a delirious state. Oh, God, yes, she almost moaned aloud.
His fingers caressed the outer folds of her sex, bare flesh against bare flesh. Mindlessly, she twisted beneath him and clung to his shoulders, her nails digging into his taut skin. She had to stop this or soon he’d take her on the seat of the coach. She strained her hips away from him, but he would have none of that. His erection prodded her belly, and his free hand slid to the small of her back. He held her immobile and forced her to acknowledge his physical desire. Guiding her hips in a slow rotation, and with his fingers still stroking her sex, Olivia’s body throbbed and quivers of ecstasy surged through her.
“Morgan, please, you must stop,” she groaned.
“Isn’t this what you wanted? Isn’t it why you went to Immortelles?”
“No . . .. I mean, yes.”
“Touch me, Olivia.”
God help her, she wanted to.
“Do it,” he said.
She allowed her hand to wander between their bodies and close around his manhood through his trousers. She gasped, the sensation of touching him both shocking and delicious.
“Say it, Olivia. Say you want me inside you. Give in to your desire. Admit you lust after me like I lust after you.”
It was perversely erotic, she on his lap with him caressing her most private parts and she stroking his manhood.
The carriage stopped abruptly. He removed his hand from her pants and gently set her back onto the seat with an all-knowing smirk. For Olivia, it was like a dream. It couldn’t have happened, yet why did she burn all over, hunger for more?