Emer Nugent and her family are evicted from their home at the height of the Potato Famine in Ireland. Forced to emigrate to Canada, they endure a harrowing journey on board a coffin ship bound for Grosse Ile in Quebec.
Emer, working as a cabin boy to help her family’s financial situation, meets the enigmatic Dalton Randolph, the ship’s only gentleman passenger, who is not all that he seems.
They fall in love, but darker forces are at work against them. Emer’s duty to her family forces her to choose between her beloved and her parents and siblings. Yet as hard as she fights to give up the man who stirs her heart, the powerful attraction between she and Dalton cannot be denied. Will they ever be able to overcome the obstacles in their path to a happy future together?
“Watch out, it’s going to fall!” Emer cried, as she pushed Dalton onto the deck and threw the suitcases aboard.
The gangplank spun violently as the rope gave way. Emer leapt for the ship’s deck, landing on her elbows and chest as the wooden board fell twenty feet and crashed down onto the cobblestones below, splintering into fragments.
Her legs kicked as she tried to find a foothold to push herself up to safety, but there was none. The splinters from the deck tore into her palms, and her nails shredded as she clung on.
Emer couldn’t even call for help, for the wind had been knocked out of her by the impact of her fall.
“I’ve got you, Emer, I’ve got you,” a deep voice reassured her as she felt her hand grasped in one of Dalton’s massive ones.
More splinters dug into her forearms and elbows as he dragged her onto the deck to safety.
Then he turned her over on her back and helped her to her feet.
Before she could stop him, he flicked up the bottom of her shirt. “I’m sure you must have broken your ribs with that fall. Let me have a look.”
She shook her head, her eyes widening.
He placed his hands right on her breasts. Both started back in surprised dismay.
“Good God, you’re a woman!” Dalton gasped, deeply shocked and embarrassed.
One of his hands still stayed under the shirt, and moved to clasp her about the waist, while his other hand plucked the sea cap from her head, allowing her cascade of lush burgundy hair, which Emer hadn’t had time to plait that morning, to tumble down around her shoulders to below her hips.
“What difference does that make? Would you have let me to fall to my death if you had known?” Emer wheezed sarcastically in an effort to hid her discomfiture.
She stepped back from Dalton’s grasp, and managed to conceal her burning hot cheeks as she bent her head to tie her hair back and bundle it into her cap again.
“No, not at all, I just mean I would never have presumed to…. Oh hell, you know full well what I mean,” he barked.
“I’ve rescued your suitcases, so we can get underway,” she said glibly, scooping them off the deck, before making her way below to hide her blush.
She only hoped Dalton would have the sense not to follow her after what had just happened. Her cheeks flamed, but even worse, she hated to admit how much she had enjoyed the feel of his big strong hand around her waist, touching her hair….
Good Lord, I must be coming down with some sort of disease, she thought to herself with a groan as she went back out for the rest of his boxes. Hell, I don’t even like the man. A more ill-tempered, smug…. handsome man she had never met in her life, nor was ever likely to again….
Hunger For Love
Book 1 of The Hunger of the Heart Series
Shannon Farrell
Setting: Ireland and Canada, 1847
Word Count: 82,000
Rating: Sensual
Click on the link to read the first chapter:
Hunger For Love
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