For historical romance fans, Sharon Cullen’s The Reluctant Duchess ignites as a shy country girl and a hotheaded duke surrender to dangerous temptations. Then it’s on to Scotland for USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Haymore’s Highland Knights and the first book in this new series, Highland Heat, an electrifying tale of class warfare, fierce loyalties, and forbidden love.
I don’t want this month to end! But the good news is December is upon us with more fabulous Loveswept titles. Until then…
Happy Romance!
Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Read on for an excerpt from
Once Crossed
An O’Brien Family Novel
by Cecy Robson
Available from Loveswept
Chapter 1
Melissa
I stare at the nameplate perched on my father’s desk: DISTRICT ATTORNEY MILES FENSKE. It proclaims his position and allows those who read it a glimpse of what he’s accomplished. Yet it’s only a glimpse. It’s not a true representation of all he is, and all he means to me. Nor does it adequately paint the portrait of a man who’s been so kind, who saved me from tragedy, and who gave up his happiness in exchange for mine.
The nameplate is cheap, unlike the generous soul who looks back at me with the same gentle gaze he’s carried since the first moment I saw him. What are you thinking, Melissa? he signs to me, moving his hands in beautifully fluid motions.
We’re alone in his office. He doesn’t need to sign to keep our conversation private. He could whisper, and I would still be able to read his lips. But he knows I’m more comfortable communicating with my hands, probably because American Sign Language is one of the many things we learned together. As a child I considered it our very own secret language, something he and I could share away from the hearing world.
That you’re making a mistake, I sign back.
My comment earns me a smile, but I can see his concern, despite the crinkles around his eyes that deepen when he grins. “You’re going to have to trust me,” he says aloud.
I let out a breath. He knows I trust him. How could I not?
I was brought to the Lehigh Valley District Attorney’s office when I was about four years old, after my biological mother had attempted to sell my innocence in exchange for drugs. My mother probably thought it was a brilliant plan. Being born almost completely deaf, I couldn’t speak, couldn’t communicate, couldn’t understand. Which meant I couldn’t tell anyone what was about to take place.
Yet that didn’t mean I couldn’t feel pain when she slapped me, or that I was numb to the terror when she shoved me into a room naked with those men. My primal instincts ordered me to run, that this was wrong, that I was in danger, so I did—thank God I did. I kicked and fought, dodging the hands trying to grab me and scurrying out my window.
To this day, I remember the way the cold metal grating of the fire escape felt against my bare feet, and the way my mouth struggled to form what I thought were words as I banged on my elderly neighbor’s window. Miss Lena, the lady with too many cats and twice as many grandchildren, yanked me into her apartment when she saw me. She called the police, but by the time they arrived, the men were gone and so was my mother. I never saw them again.
Not that I regret it.
I was placed in foster care, confused and frightened about what was happening and certain I’d eventually return “home.” Instead, I was brought before the young assistant DA Miles Fenske. He was supposed to handle my case, dispose of it, and move on. He was never supposed to welcome me into his heart. Yet that’s exactly what he did.
“Melissa,” he says. His words sound muffled; my hearing aids can only do so much, but I hear enough to sense the emotion in the way he speaks my name. “Why are you so sad?”
I raise my chin. “Declan O’Brien will never be the man you are. He’s not the right DA for this position.” I shake my head. “He belongs in the Trial Unit, Arson, Fugitive—anywhere else but where you’ve placed him.”
“I know you don’t like him…”
I raise my brows.
“…and that your first encounter wasn’t a positive one…”
“That’s because he was an asshole,” I mumble.