Damien Morton is madly in love. Unfortunately, it’s with his best friend’s widow, Lady Danver. Damien is not worthy of Celia. Or so he thinks. Desperate to escape his feelings for her, he plans to leave the country at the first of the year. Celia treats him as a family friend and nothing more—until they share a heated kiss beneath the mistletoe…
Celia is shocked by the passions that surge within her at her dear friend’s kiss. One touch and one taste aren’t enough to satisfy her cravings, and she is startled into action. Damien has stirred something inside her that she never expected to experience again, and she must have more. Full of shameless desire and emotions newly discovered, she decides to pursue Damien and won’t be deterred. Will she be able to convince him to stay—both in her heart and life—forever?
Damien is so in love with his best friends widow but he knows that there are many things standing in their way of being together. For this reason he just knows that he can’t tell Celia how he feels about her. He plans to head off to France because he just can’t take being around her and not showing her his love.
A chance meeting under the mistletoe has Celia and Damien kissing. Celia discovers that the notice that she’d taken of Damien in the past few months is not just notice but attraction and real feelings for him. But what will he do if she tells him and he rejects her? Should she take a chance.
Both hero and heroine are afraid to confront the other but they soon learn that there is more to their kiss under the mistletoe than the other thought.
This was quite a short story but just a lovely little piece. We got a great introduction to the Merry Widows series that Erickson will be coming out with and we also got a short but sweet romance.
Damien is just tortured and since he’s the son of a servant he believes that he can never be with Celia as she was a Countess and the mother of a future Earl. But Celia, as well as the current Earl (Celia’s father-in-law) both show him that it can work out.
Besides the feelings and short romance we also got some smoking sex scenes. Erickson never lets us down with her sex scenes in her contemporary novels and she didn’t in this historical either. I loved seeing the inhibitions of both main characters fly out the window once they got together. Just good stuff.
I’m looking forward to reading more in this series.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I have come to like Karen Erickson's writing a lot! She really seems to be able to say well whatever she is thinking and her stories just don't seem to bog down like some others. Of course, she isn't perfect–nearly so, possibly — but I think this looks like a fun read.
Dr. J – No, her stories don't bogged down and I like that about her. This was a good one – I think you'd like it as well.