Later she’s devastated to discover that he’s betrothed to her cousin. But when Mark insists that their affair continue after her visits to the Crystal Palace end, it leads to her becoming more and more invested in their relationship until she knows she’s fallen in love with him. She understands that it’s a temporary arrangement and thinks she’ll be okay with that.

In doing so, he takes her to heights of ecstasy she thought never to reach. When she meets Mark at the Crystal Palace, he reignites a flame she thought had burned out a long time ago, and she can’t resist indulging in a little discreet pleasure. She learned to shut down that side of herself and in the two years since, she’s been the dutiful widow, handling family and other obligations, but never allowing herself to think of having a man in her life again. She always knew that she had a passionate side, but her marriage left her unhappy and sexually unfulfilled. Passion had a loving upbringing, but she lost her mother at a young age and then helped raise her two younger sisters. But when Passion discovers that his betrothed is none other than her own beloved cousin, she can’t bring herself to continue their affair, leaving them both brokenhearted. Mark plans to do what he must to protect his family, while hoping to keep Passion as his mistress. But the price that’s being exacted from him is nothing short of marriage to the vile blackmailer’s daughter. He doesn’t care much about the woman who birthed him, but if the information gets out it would hurt his brother as well, something he’s determined not to let happen. But Mark is being blackmailed by a social-climbing commoner who has dirt on his mother. Soon, their encounters deepen far beyond mere sex until they both know that they don’t want to live without one another. When Passion’s visits to the Crystal Palace come to an end, Mark insists that they must continue to see each other and starts climbing the trellis to her bedroom window every night. They make love right there in the museum and make plans to do the same for the next few days. His mere touch inflames her in such a way that she can’t resist the pull of his allure, so when he draws her behind an ornate screen, she eagerly accepts all that he has to offer.

While browsing the exhibits at the Crystal Palace one day, she’s rescued from being clobbered by a falling potted palm by a man who awakens a side of herself she’d thought lost. She’s also a widow who endured an unhappy marriage. Our heroine, Passion, is a commoner, the daughter of a vicar. Passion is the first book in Lisa Valdez’s Passion Quartet.

Passion by Lisa Valdez