Pride & Passion

by Sarah Roberts

Book OneScorned, left desperate, by her late husband's will.'To Charlotte Viscountess Ogden, my wife, the sum of one hundred pounds for services rendered...'The new viscount’s lost love.Betrayed by his cousin. Spurned by the lady. He is bitter over the past. Yet honor demands that he provide for his cousin's widow.Lady Ogden makes a dangerous mistake.She wakens the fury - and hot passion - of the new Not for the fainthearted. Lots of hot sex.“Is there any chance you might be breeding?”A flush sprang into her cheeks. She lifted her chin. “None, my lord.”“Then there is nothing to be done for you.”His hard gaze bored into her own. He spoke slowly, very deliberately. “Unless, my lady, you were brought to bed of a child within the year of your mourning.”Lady Ogden stared into his unreadable eyes. But I have just informed him -Then - when the incredible import dawned on her - she went hot and weak. The echo of his words taunted her through the chambers of her astonished mind. The air shuttled in and out of her lungs in rapid, shallow breaths. She wondered why she did not faint. But he waited, still watching her. Hating him, hating herself, she was sickeningly aware of the traitorous tempo of her heartbeat. She made herself answer him. "Y-yes, that is true.""Then you know what you must do."Book TwoTwo damaged souls. A secret affair. A second chance at love?She once rejected his offer for her hand. She chose security over the former soldier's love. It was a mistake.Betrayed. Bitter. But he loves her still.Lord Vincent Ogden intends to correct the wrong done to the lady’s fortune. Then she tries to force his hand. It's an unbearable slap to his chivalry. In a fury, he strikes a dishonorable bargain. It might well destroy his life and everything he holds dear - when she becomes his unwilling mistress. Not for the fainthearted. Lots of hot sex.“Did he make intoxicating love to you?”“Pray do not be ridiculous!” Her heart was beating fast. She did not know what he might say or do if she admitted that Sir William had kissed her. The prospect alarmed her.It looked as though he would say something else. But instead, he tightened his lips, biting back whatever it was. Then abruptly, he released her and stepped back. There was patent anger in his controlled inflections. “This is neither the time nor the place for this discussion.”“We will not discuss Sir William at all, my lord!” she said defiantly.He looked at her, thin-lipped. A betraying tic jumped in his jaw. “You are correct.” There was an unmistakable threat implicit in his roughened tone. She was sensitive to it and it made her anxious. He ran his deliberate, fiery gaze over her figure, seeming to strip her of her clothes. A fierce blush flamed her face. She shivered, whether from dread or anticipation, she did not know. His conduct belonged to the dark, overwrought passion of the night. My God, we are in the drawing-room! And the door stands open!Lord Ogden reached out to snag one of her hands. He turned it over and pressed a burning kiss into her curling palm. His teeth nipped the soft flesh at the base of her thumb, making her gasp. When he let her go, she whipped her hand back and clasped both of them at her waist in a protective gesture.

412 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 6, 2020

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Reviews

[T from Istria 💛💚 · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty I should not like this, I don’t particularly like erotica but it was more of a HR with very steamy scenes (some disturbing), the story was unusual and I couldn’t put it down so OK read. Especially the first half of the book sucked me in. It reminded me in the beginning of my favorite Austen, Persuasion, except here the heroine rejected the hero and married another and then the captain returned when the husband died. And the ugly business begins and any similarities to Austen are gone:-.

Charlotte is a viscountess, a recent widow who is left penniless and homeless. She begs the new viscount, Vincent, for help and he makes her strike a bargain. His motives are revenge for her turning down his proposal some years ago.
The shocking actions in the first chapters, the things Vincent does, how he hurts her and how cold and unfeeling he is after and all just because she said no to him, stay with the reader throughout the book and make everything from then on confusing. He is strong and considerate and protective but then we remember the bargain he keeps over her head and we remember how they sealed that bargain and how he seemingly only cares for taking advantage of her and it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t fit his character, the things he puts her through, and then, the things he said and threaten her with towards the end - when he only wants to marry her - it is so stupid.

Except for Vincent the hero, the characters were either good or bad, very one dimensional saints or sinners. The writing was ok, a bit too detailed, or slow, the dialogue was very theatrical at times, and the bedroom talk (he spoke dirty to her) was not sexy at all but funny and I don’t suppose it was meant to be, it reads rather silly but what do I know, maybe they talked dirty like this in those times (“My thick tool throbs with the force of my desire. I ache to explore your hot honeyed depths”).