Clean Regency Romance: The Earl's Temptation (The Pure Heart Triumphs Series Book 1)

by Pearl Goodfellow

  Without over thinking it, Clara leaned over and kissed him, “I don’t want to go anywhere you big brute. I’m not afraid of you. You saved me; you were protecting me the whole night. I’m right where I want to be, and I feel safer and more looked after than I’ve ever felt before.”

  “I can’t guarantee that I will always have that humanity when I shift. It may have been a one-off. I could be a huge risk to your safety Clara.”

  “In my heart of hearts, I know that you could never be a risk to me, Big Boy” Clara offered, and brushed Jacob's hair back from his sad face.

  Now it was he who kissed her. It was hungry, passionate. Clara straddled him, taking off her clothes, just as urgently as the first time they made love.

  Jacob moaned into her mouth, his breath hot. Flipping her onto her back, he gently removed her clothing. Parting her knees with a firm push, he slid down the bed and dipped his head between her legs, to her waiting sex.

  His hands rested on her inner thighs, fingers just a mere breath away from where she so desperately wanted to be touched. With seeming great relish, Jacob kissed and licked her inner thighs; small, butterfly kisses that sent shock waves through the length of Clara's spine. She moaned deeply, unable to prevent the loud sigh from escaping her open mouth.

  Clara grabbed fistfuls of bedding, giddy with desire. His mouth was like fire on her inner thighs, as he licked up and down, torturously slowly.

  Just when she believed she couldn't take it any longer, Jacob climbed gently on top of her and entered her for the second time since they had known one another. Clara's orgasm was otherworldly. She clutched to Jacob for dear life, while she waited for her body to stop juddering. He looked down into her face, smiling. Pushing back a lock of damp hair from her forehead. Clara couldn't remember such care and tenderness from another man.

  She inhaled Jacob's scent deeply. Her body felt physically spent; she really believed that she wasn’t ever going to be able to move again. All her bones had turned to water - her arms and legs useless as they flopped by her side. For all that had happened, for the strange world that was her life - this particular love making session had definitely been worth it.

  They lay in a comfortable silence, idly stroking one another's glistening skin as they waited for their breathing to slow. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her.

  “Jacob. Where the heck is Matt?”

  “I might have shut him in the locked room downstairs.” He said sheepishly.

  “Oh my God, what are we going to do about him? He’ll tell everyone, your secret will be out, you’ll have to move…” Clara knew she was panicking but couldn’t help it.

  “It’s fine. He didn’t see me while I was the gorilla. I knocked him clean out before he could get a look. I was waiting to ask you what you wanted to do, whether you wanted to press charges. I wanted to kill him, you know? It took every restraint I had. I couldn’t call the cops last night and this morning well…I guess I got kind of distracted and forgot he was down there.”

  “I think I might go and release him from the chain room, with you standing beside me. I don’t believe we need to phone the cops, I imagine the bump on the head and being locked up all night should have scared him into learning his lesson, don’t you?”

  “I hope so. I might also have some of my people follow him for a while. I’ll tell him he’s being watched. If he tries that on anyone again, he’s going to wish I’d killed him last night.” Clara smiled, to be so cared for felt fantastic. She felt like nothing could hurt her anymore. Not with Jacob's Big Boy ape act supporting her every move.

  “Clara. I’ll still need you to chain me up tonight. I'll go and fix them once we’ve let Matt go. It’s not worth the risk, we need to be sure that my human mind will be functioning again when I shift tonight. It really could have been a one off. I’m delighted that you’re going to be staying here, but life will never be easy for you - having to tie me up every night, having to sleep alone. I want you to think hard and long about your decision.”

  “I’m staying no matter what,” Clara said firmly. “We’ll chain you tonight yes, though I don’t think we’ll need to. I’ve got a feeling that I unlocked some sort of natural protector in you.”

  “I hope for your sake that you’re right,” Jacob replied. “I don’t want you to make sacrifices of living a regular life to be with me when I’m this….thing.”

  She shushed him with a kiss. “Your gorilla form is not a thing to me. It’s you. Trust me, this is what I want. I’ve made up my mind.”

  Chapter 9

  “I’m so proud of you darling. Say hello to Jacob for me. Can’t wait to see you soon.” Both Clara and Jacob’s jaws fell open at Clara’s Mom signing off from the phone call. Clara hung up with a laugh. “Who knew my mother had it in her to say that?” She knew her Mom was incredibly shallow, but still, it was nice to hear her speak so kindly for once.

  “She should be proud of you. You’re awesome.” Jacob held his arms open, and Clara curled up around him. Safe and blissfully happy. She’d landed her first role last week - she was going to be working as a paid, bona fide actress. Not at on Broadway yet, sure, but the theater wasn’t that far away. Her Mom, having spoken to Jacob several times over Skype and having had a tour of the penthouse, had suddenly become infinitely supportive of Clara’s acting career. In the last few weeks, she’d been more at Clara's side than she’d been in years. It may have been late coming, but it was still nice. Plus, Clara liked to remind herself, she had begun to change before she’d told her mom that she had a billionaire boyfriend with a rock star penthouse.

  Matt had vanished from the acting scene. When Clara had next seen Emily at an audition, she whispered that Matt had had some sort of breakdown and had scurried back to his parents to work on their farm. “I haven’t heard from him since. He’s come off Facebook and everything.” She’d whispered with concern. Clara had assured her that he would be okay and that being on his parent's farm was probably the best thing for him. She hoped he’d stay there forever. She saw Emily much more regularly now. Emily had got herself a well-deserved role in Hamlet - the play that Matt had been about to audition for before he’d messed with the wrong ape. Nobody messes with Big Boy. Clara met with Emily met every couple of weeks for lunch or drinks. It was good to have a proper girlfriend in the city. She never heard from or saw Hateful Rachel again, which was nothing but a blessing.

  So what of her and Jacob? Jacob had made her chain him up every night for a week following the evening he’d saved her. Each night, even though his hands had been in cuffs, she’d cuddled up to his hulk of a frame once he’d shifted and she would peacefully sleep the night through, secure with her protector. Jacob had been nervous about losing the cuffs, worried that he would accidentally harm her in some way. It was nonsense. Sure, as a gorilla he had the ability to kill; the strength to rip a human apart in mere seconds, purely because of his sheer size and mass, but the bond between them crossed over to both of his forms. They had become best friends as well as lovers, and that counted regardless of whether he was beast or man.

  She’d done a decent job of convincing him, as that night, and every night since, her enormous, magnificent, regal beast of a bodyguard would fold himself around her like a giant teddy bear, so that she was safe from all threats. She’d sleep the night with her Big Boy by her side until sleep ran out.

  Her life was filled with weirdness and oddities, though to her, they were just ordinary happenings now. Strangeness aside, Clara's life was full, and meaningful, and ultimately full of large, hairy, muscled loving

  About the Author

  Pearl lives in Toronto, Canada with her lazy ginger tom, Charley-Farley.

  Raised in the mystical Westcountry of England, Pearl draws her inspiration from the legion of historical sites to be found in that beloved part of the world. She believes that history is romantic. And also mysterious. Which would explain her passion for Romantic Mystery!

  She invites you to find a comfortable nook -- a pot
of tea and lemon squares close by --and fall head over heels in love with the tales you read here.

  Oh, and keep in touch if you can. She'd love it!

  Yes, Please!

  @PearlGoodfellowbooks

  www.soarfreepublishing.com/pearlgoodfellow/

  Also by Pearl Goodfellow

  If you enjoyed this title, perhaps you’d enjoy checking out the previous one in: The Pure Heart Triumphs collection.

  The Regency Roses

  Excerpt from: The Regency Roses

  Several days later, Charlotte woke to the sound of her best friend's voice coming through her foggy reverie.

  "Diana!" she gasped, finally awake, and finally out from the grasp of the laudanum.

  "Sh!" said Diana. "I've come to tell you I have news from Phil!"

  "Is he all right?? Where is he? How did you find him?"

  "Hush! Listen, and I'll tell you."

  Diana had been talking to Gordon, she said, visiting him in the stables. Before the duel, he told Diana, Phil had arranged for Gordon to hide in the woods with Phil's horse, Gingerbread. If Phil ended up killing Sir Thomas, he wanted to be able to flee. The weird bird sound they had heard that morning was Gordon signaling to Phil that the horse was ready.

  But since Phil was so horribly injured, and refused to go to a doctor—who would no doubt discover that he was, in fact, a woman—there was a change of plans. Instead, Gordon led Gingerbread, with Phil on the horse's back, to Gordon's mother's little cottage across the valley. The woman, who was known in the village as a healer (and suspected by some to have magical powers) took Phil in. She was called Mother Bess.

  Phil had lost a lot of blood, but the bullet hadn't hit any critical organs, so the real danger was an infection. Mother Bess put a poultice on the wound to draw out the poisons and fed Phil her special tonic. There was a frightening night when Phil had run a high fever, and Mother Bess wasn't sure he'd live, but in the morning the fever broke, and Phil showed signs of improving.

  Hearing this, Charlotte wept softly. The relief was overwhelming.