Hot Winds From Bombay (34 page)
Read Hot Winds From Bombay Online
Authors: Becky Lee Weyrich
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #General, #FICTION/Romance/Historical
She leaned back, letting him encircle her shoulders with his arm. She tensed for a moment when his fingers touched her breast. But it felt wonderful. She relaxed and closed her eyes. She began at the very beginning and told him about everything—Cyrus and Birdie’s game, his marriage to Hannah, his use of the servant Indira, his brutal attacks on her, the murders he had committed.
“He was not in his right mind. The night you came for me, he meant to kill himself and have
suttee
performed. I was to be burned alive on his funeral pyre,” she explained. “For a time that night, I was totally under his control. It seemed I had no choice but to die with him.”
“Persia darling, you’ve been through so much.” Zack cradled her in his arms, never wanting to let her go, wanting to protect her from the world always.
“We all have,” she answered quietly.
“And that’s why you’ve pushed me away all these months? Because you couldn’t bear thinking about the terrible things that had happened. Why did you turn me away when I came for you?”
“I had no choice. They had a gun on you. I had to keep you away. The thought of your being killed… It was just too awful! He also threatened to sell little Sindhu into white slavery if I made a false move. Thank God you’re both safe from him now; you here, and Sindhu with a good family.” She paused as if her thoughts were drifting. Then she shook her head and continued, “Afterward, it seemed that a barrier to love had come down. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“And now?”
His hands were cradling her cheeks, and his lips hovered over hers, so close that she could feel his words on her face.
“Oh, Zack,” she said softly, feeling her body warm to his. “Kiss me.”
When he answered her demand, Zack found her lips parted and ready to accept him.
Persia felt no need to draw away. She answered his velvet probing with hungry thrusts of her own. A new need arose within her, but it was nothing to be feared. This longing was good and true and spawned by love.
Gently, he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, holding his breath for fear she might protest. But she snuggled close to his chest, showering little kisses on his neck and sighing softly.
When he placed her on the bed, she cast aside her wrapper and asked timidly, “Would you help me with these little buttons?”
Zack’s fingers trembled as he worked at the tiny things. And he felt a rush of need when she moaned as his fingers brushed her bare breasts.
When she lay before him, ready, he took great care to love her slowly, tenderly, throughly. And when he entered her, she clung to him, sighing his name and whispering her words of love.
Suddenly the world was filled with sound of bells. It was Christmas! The most wonderful Christmas Persia had ever known. She needed no carolers to serenade her; the song in her heart was the sweetest on earth. And there was no pretty wrapped gift that could be half as precious to her as the gift of Zack’s love.
There was peace on earth and in her heart.
And there was love…
true love
… forevermore.
When beautiful Zephromae watched her brother taken away as a tribute slave, she knew she must rescue him. Her childhood sweetheart, the noble and courageous Alexander, followed to protect her. But he couldn’t save her from a ruthless king, the lust of a savage prince or the fury of a spiteful queen who had power over them all.
But Zephromae possessed a secret strength that no one could have possibly imagined—and she would not hesitate to use it. Set in Crete in the heart of the Minoan culture Captive of Desire sweeps the reader into an ancient world of adventure and romance.
Lilah Fitzpatrick’s childhood sweetheart broke her heart when he married another woman. She never thought she’d find the kind of love she lost. Then Steele Denegal—a fearless Yankee soldier—swept her into his world of passion and captured her heart.
Suddenly Steele disappears, leaving Lilah alone and vulnerable to a treacherous man who’s determined to destroy her, along with the memory of Steele’s love. Will the promise in their passion find a future, or will Steele return before it’s too late?
While vacationing in Egypt, Pia Byrd finds herself transfixed by a miniature crystal pyramid. Roused by her intrigue, a handsome Greek sailor purchases it and, before she can protest, breaks it in two. Suddenly she finds herself plunged back through time and into the body of a queen. Standing before her is a golden-eyed Darius, a man with features—and the yearning—of a god.
Caught between her life in the present and the primal desires of her past, Pia will find a love both passionate and primitive, but can it exist in two ages?
When Scarlett Lamar returns home to Savannah to restore her mother’s ancestral mansion, she has no idea the antique mirror that she’s been captivated by since childhood is actually a window to her past.
Before long, Scarlett becomes the target of a passionate rivalry between two men from her past. While Allen Overman, both charming and seductive, wants Scarlett enough to pursue her across the rivers of time, Bolton Conrad has loved her since he first saw her walk into her first Cotillion ball—on the arm of Allen. Now Scarlett is back in Bolton’s life, setting off a series of events that will either join their hearts or tear them apart forever.
The grand plantation of Swan’s Quarter still echoes with memories of another time. It is there that Ginna Jones meets Neal Frazier, a recovering plane crash survivor. Young and handsome, but disturbingly familiar, Ginna is instantly drawn to this mysterious man.
When a walk in the garden sends the pair spiraling back through the veils of time, their fates become entwined with those of two young lovers separated by the Civil War. Plunged into another century, Ginna and Neal will discover destinies still waiting to be fulfilled, and a flame of passion that not even the passage of time can extinguish.
In the arms of Union Soldier Hunter Breckinridge, Clair Sumner finds love both true and impossible. In a century that isn’t her own, she lives another woman’s life, and loves another woman’s husband. As she’s haunted by visions of an eerie moonbow, Clair must risk her past and future for a passion that spans two worlds, and a love stronger than time itself.
In the city of New Orleans, Desiree La Fleur, a dark-haired Creole beauty, arrived with the purpose to celebrate her “Sisters of Sin,” the fallen women whose lives began and ended on a street known as The Scarlet Thread.
But deep inside Desiree, hiding just beneath the veil of purity, is a forbidden desire for a man who doesn’t want a wife. Armed with unwavering determination and proud innocence, Desiree will soon find herself in a world as enticing at it is dangerous.
When her mother is condemned as a witch and sent to the gallows, Alice Wiggins flees her English homeland to escape the same fate. In the colony of Maine, an inheritance awaits her— as does Christopher Gunn, an arrogant stranger who ignites a restless sensuality deep inside the young beauty.
In the splendor of the Northeast woods, headstrong Alice is brought to blissful surrender by a desire too powerful to resist. But as she fears that Christopher’s heart isn’t hers alone, she’ll challenge the violence of war, the hazards of nature, and even death for his love.
Captain Damien Clay, a fearless, freewheeling member of Morgan’s Raiders, disguises himself as a woman to help win the war for the Confederates. But beneath the veil of his charade, he is all man.
Lavinia Rutledge cut off her striking red hair to go undercover as Private Vinnie Rutledge of Thunderbolt Plantation. But under the façade is a voluptuous, hot-blooded woman.
When this unlikely pair find one another, sparks fly and the flame of forbidden passion ignites.
Nicolette Vernet discovers the passion of true love that she’s always dreamed of in the arms of the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte. Equally enthralled with the young beauty, Jean wants nothing more than to bask in the purity of Nikki’s love.
But Nikki’s father has betrothed her to a ruthless, greedy man, and Nikki and Jean must fight for their lives, and their love, to hold onto the precious rapture they find only in each other.
Orphaned as a child, Pandora Sherwood grows to be wild, fierce, and independent—the scandal of Galveston society. Her rebellious spirit, however, appeals to one man: Ward Gabriel, a self-made adventurer who vows to have her as his own.
But the visions that haunt Pandora’s dreams compel her to seek out the answers to the questions of her restless soul. She flees to Europe and gains fame through her art, but along her journey of self-discovery her heart remains in Galveston with Ward.
Yearning to return to the man she loves, Pandora must unveil the mystery of her dreams and the secret that tore her from her home—and from Ward’s embrace.
From the first moment Charlotte sees the magnificent Mateo perform in the dazzling Gypsy show, a passion ignites inside her. Both of them alone and penniless in the small circus town, Charlotte knows she’s found the man for her. But even as Mateo returns her ardor, fate wrenches them apart before their love can be truly realized.
Condemned by an ancient curse that will force him to marry another, Mateo must find his way back to his beloved Charlotte without going mad beneath the fiery light of the Gypsy moon.
When the virile young Nero first spots the exquisite Acte, illegitimate daughter of Emperor Claudius and a royal household slave, he knows he must have her. But even as Acte finds her deepest desires awakened by the magnificent Nero, she fears his sadistic nature.
Though she has been fated to serve as Nero’s carnal playmate when he becomes Emperor of Rome, Acte finds the true love she dreams of in Sergio, a handsome gladiator. But in a loveless world where lust and power rule side by side, her secret obsession with Sergio might cost Acte her heart—and both their lives.
When Anna Rose leaves her beloved family in Scotland to set off to America with her new husband, she has dreams of roads paved in gold and an exciting new life. Instead, she finds herself widowed, penniless, and pregnant.
So begins Anna Rose’s saga of survival and determination as she struggles to elude a life of servitude, reunite her family, and recapture a love lost.
When a fatal car accident sends Angela Rhodes floating toward heaven, she discovers the hard way that there is, in fact, life after death. But back in the land of the living, she’s left behind some unfinished business: a husband and daughter.
At heaven’s gate, Angela is granted the opportunity to look after those she loves, but she must first prove herself worthy of such a responsibility. With the help of Al, her handsome spirit guide, Angela embarks on a journey through time that allows her to untangle the web of her many lives.
As she weaves together the pieces of her past, Angela hopes to find the key to everlasting peace. But, even more, she hopes to be able to pass it onto the family she left behind.
Julianna Doran experiences her first heated spark of desire in a haunted Hudson River mansion. Though she knows the days of pirate ships are over, she cannot stop yearning for the enticingly handsome and boldly dangerous Brom Vandersee, the ghostly sea captain she gets but a mere glimpse of while playing with a Ouija board.
Years later, even as Julianna prepares to wed, she still dreams of the achingly forbidden specter of her past. Seizing her last chance to understand her longing heart, she returns to the place she first saw Brom and is granted an exquisite night of passion with him before he disappears again.
Determined not to lose him again, she crosses the boundaries of her world to join him in his, and solidify their love— this time for good.
When police business brings renowned psychic Carol Marlowe to sultry New Orleans, an enchanted ride through the bayou sends her deep into the past. Soon, Carol finds herself in the body of a Creole belle, and in the arms of her handsome, renegade lover.
Carol is at the mercy of a world rife with scandal and intrigue, caught between her own time and the forbidden passion of the past. But even amidst the dangers of her new world, she finds a love destined to last forever.
