Sequestered Passion

Blurb

Judge Eliza O'Brien has always lived her life under the harsh, unforgiving spotlight of public approval, dedicating herself to serving the letter of the law. Until the night she meets Joseph Acosta and forms a passionate, sensual—and private—relationship, discovering a part of herself she never knew existed.

To publicly admit her love and need for Joseph—a man with a reputation for enjoying alternative sensual delights—will jeopardize everything she's worked so hard to achieve in her life. The time has come when she must choose to live in the kaleidoscope of life-giving passionate color she has discovered with Joseph or suppress her desires and return to the emotionless black-and-white publicly acceptable boundaries of courtly justice. Common sense tells her there is no way to meld the two parts of her life into one fulfilling whole...

Excerpt

Her Honor, Judge Eliza O’Brien, strode back into her private chambers, eager to release the mantle of authority. She sighed as she removed her robe and hung it back in the small closet. It had been an exhausting fourteen days of trial. The defendant’s counsel had been one of the more flamboyant, aggressive types, loving center stage. It had taken all her patience to keep control, when what she’d really wanted to do was reach out and strangle the damn popinjay. She fully expected an appeal of the verdict. She’d given the maximum sentence in this case because she’d thought it well-deserved.

A shiver raced through her as she pulled her navy blue wool suit jacket from the hanger and slipped it on over her white silk blouse.

He had been in the courtroom today. The room had been too packed for her to actually visually locate him, but she’d known he was there, sensed his presence. It had taken every ounce of control not to halt the proceeding just to discover exactly where he was. She’d felt a shift in the air, like invisible tentacles reaching out across the room. She’d attempted to ignore it as best she could.

He’d never come to her courtroom before. It sent a tingle of pleasure through her at the thought he’d been there today, so very close. It was followed by the usual zing of fear.

What would she do if he actually confronted her in public? Laid claim to her in front of everyone? How would she respond?

She knew deep in her heart she feared that happening and what everyone would say if they knew about her need for Joseph and the lifestyle they practiced in private. Yet she also wanted it. Wanted the subterfuge to be gone. There were times when she wanted to shout out loud, I belong to Joseph Acosta and I adore him!

God, he made her feel so alive, so real. She wasn’t just a sexless figurehead whom the world demanded remain emotionless and impartial as well, like some statue of justice on the courthouse steps, completely without feeling.

With Joseph there was nothing but feeling, sensations that drove her beyond any possibility of control. And wherever he wanted her to go, she followed willingly. No, she amended. She followed willingly as long as they were in private. When she thought of that qualification, it felt like a weight settled inside her chest. By making that distinction she knew she failed him, but to do otherwise could put everything else in her life in jeopardy. She simply had to maintain the separate identities or risk losing all she’d worked so hard to achieve.

After that first night, they’d talked. She’d been so confused by what he made her feel. And so afraid. To give in to her attraction to his dark, magnetic personality went against everything her life had been about up until that night. And she knew his reputation for engaging in erotic, alternative relationships. It would be tantamount to professional suicide to enter into a relationship with him.

Knowing Daimaen and Sylvie socially was a different matter. She’d always been surprised at Sylvie’s ready acquiescence to Daimaen’s control in their relationship and had never quite understood it. Not so long ago she’d had lunch with Sylvie and had been unable to stop herself from asking Sylvie about her relationship with Daimaen.

Sylvie had offered her a secretive kind of smile and told her it wasn’t something she could really explain—it was just that Daimaen made her feel like no other man ever had and what he gave her was something she didn’t plan to throw away. When she was with Daimaen, she experienced everything more intensely—sunlight, a rain shower…sex.

Eliza had come away from that lunch not exactly jealous, but envious. No man had ever made her…well…more than what she was. She had wondered what it would be like. If a momentary feeling of emptiness suddenly struck her, she quickly suppressed it. That type of relationship was definitely not for her.

Then she’d met Joseph.