Passion Wears Pearls by Renee Bernard

Author:Renee Bernard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, Inc.
Published: 2012-03-05T23:00:00+00:00

It was a long, lonely carriage ride home. Eleanor was awash in confusion, and even more uncertain of her feelings now that she’d achieved another taste of sin. Her mother had told her that when she met the right man, she would simply know and that everything would peacefully fall into place just as it should; that there would be a calm resolution that would erase all doubts.

But nothing about Josiah evoked calm.

He unsettled her senses and challenged everything she knew of reason and balance. He looked at her and she forgot all the rules of etiquette and social restraint that had been drilled into her since she could first walk. Nothing about him conveyed quiet resolve or muted affection. Instead, there was the promise of an exotic sanctuary in his eyes, and when he kissed her, she didn’t care about anything else.

She was falling in love. The attachment was overwhelming, but tangible. It just didn’t seem to match a single sentiment described by Lady M. Eleanor had overstepped infatuation into deeper waters, and every instinct heralded that drowning was a very real danger. But instead of frightening her away, the acknowledgment made her only want to run like a madwoman back to him and throw herself at his feet and beg him for some merciful resolution that would restore her mind.

Or just beg him to kiss me until I don’t care what any of it means. To touch me until there is nothing of this anxiety and hunger left.

From the moment he’d rescued her, Eleanor’s ideals of what it meant to be a man had morphed into Josiah until she couldn’t see anyone else. Every gentlemanly gesture and charitable act had laid a foundation of trust, and instead of seducing or mistreating her, Josiah had kept himself in check. She was in the odd position of holding the reins on her own fall.

I’d have yielded to him completely today, if he’d pressed me. But he saw the fear in my face … and here I am again, sent back to the Grove to recover my senses and decide what to do next.

He’d said he had no secrets. But Eleanor knew better. And it wasn’t just that mysterious note about the Jaded.

There was something wrong with his vision. She was more and more sure of it. The intensity of his gaze gave way to the habits of a man who looked as if he were trying to peer around something or constantly working to get something out of his field of vision. Unless something was directly in front of him, it was as if it didn’t exist. At any new sound, he turned his head to look, never leading with his eyes.

He’d spilled the paints more than once and overturned more glassware than any man had a right to, and when he’d fallen in the park, it had been another clue. He’d even said something about being more clumsy “these days,” as if it were a new experience and not just part of his general physicality.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.