Falling Leaves and Falling for Heroes

The rich aroma of coffee awaits you beyond the front door, but you take your time and savor the briskness of the breeze as it kisses your cheeks and you follow the lazy path of a falling leaf. The crimson, curled flesh that once bedecked a favorite tree’s limb flirts with a few blades of grass before being whisked away by another puff of wind. Your pulse is calming and you draw in a deeper breath and then blow it skyward.

Your journey is through, unlike the journey ahead of Eve Morneau.

A journey dependent upon her trusting a stranger who beguiles and puzzles her.

The following is an excerpt from my historical erotica romance, TORMENTED.


Charles pulled the straight-backed chair beside the rice bed. “Once you’ve removed your stocking, dangle your leg over my lap.”

A gasp half escaped her pretty mouth before she caught the tail end and swallowed it. “Very well.”

In anticipation of his request, she’d already rolled the leg covering to her knee.
He checked a smile. The stocking whispered as she slipped it from her leg.


Dignity and fine materials became her.

But so would bareness and the emergence of her seductive side.

He sat down and held out his hands. She laid the stocking aside and brought her lower leg within reach.

“I promise I won’t pinch you.” He winked and cupped her heel.

A smile flirted with her full lips. “Never said you would.”

And he never said he wouldn’t be tempted to pull her off that rice bed and kiss her until she couldn’t see straight. But where did that pencil near his right foot come from?

Only Adelaide wrote letters to her family on occasion and she always used quill and ink.

He glided his finger over Eve’s swollen flesh. The afflicted area measured approximately the size of a silver dollar. A pinprick demarcated the center of the wound where the beetle had bitten her. Similar to the gauge of a sewing needle.

Poison tented the reddened skin. He positioned his thumb and forefinger on either side of the bite and squeezed gently. Some of the poison swam near the surface but the rest had sought her bloodstream for transport throughout her body.

She cleared her throat. “What? Can you lance my leg and draw out the poison?”

Another rub of his finger made her wince. “It’s too late for that. But what I will do is make a tiny incision, an “x” if you will, in the middle. That will allow any surface poison to drain when you next bathe. And also ease the pressure building at the wound.”

“Do whatever is necessary.” Teeth gritted and head held high, she set her sights on the door.

His fangs would puncture her flesh with greater precision but she wasn’t quite ready to learn that secret. He could sneak a nip during her bath. If he pinched the area around the wound in the proper way she would barely feel the fleeting piercing.

From his vest he secured a small pocketknife and made two cuts—one vertically and one horizontally. A bead of blood shivered on the surface. His own skin stretched tighter over the bones and muscles. Eve removed a hankie from her bodice and dabbed away the droplet.

He let her go and stood. “I’ll swab a bit of medicine on there. Then I’ll reveal your surprise.”


Wishing you many happy reading moments,

Shawna Moore
TO HELLE AND BACK AGAIN -- Ellora's Cave
TORMENTED (Recommended Read) – Ellora’s Cave
ROUGHRIDER – Ellora’s Cave Exotika
HELLE IN HEELS – Ellora’s Cave Exotika

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