The next book from Sultonna Nadine will be Lady Calloway.
In an alternate time-line of Victorian London, in a world where the church and state were two arms of the same body, Kerrick and Liora are having marital issues. Married for only a few months, Kerrick thought his wife should be over her shyness by now. But instead, it was getting worse.
When pressed, she finally admitted to adhering to an old version of the Church’s doctrines on sex within marriage–doctrines which forbade women to enjoy sexual relations, even with their husbands, or be guilty of adultery.
As an employee of a specialized department within the Church, Kerrick is faced with a problem. By law, he should turn Liora in as a heretic. But having seen what happened to people brought back into the faith, he couldn’t do that to the woman he loved. He couldn’t continue on the way they had been. And with the debate over Church and state raging, the Church was looking for anything to help solidify its power, leading to purges and forced confessions.
The one option he had left was to take the time they’d been shorted on their honeymoon and get his wife out of town before anyone found out about her heresy. Once safely away, he would try to help her understand and bring her beliefs into line with the current doctrine.
Can Kerrick seduce his wife–spiritually or sexually–and return home safe and satisfied?
How about an excerpt?
Suddenly wanting to know if she could show anything at all, he pulled her to him roughly,
one arm firmly around her waist, the other twined in her hair turning her face to his.
He kissed her savagely at first, his mouth hard on hers, demanding, and then more
sensually. At first she tried to struggle free, and then, for a brief moment, he felt the beginnings of awakening arousal, before she stiffened into her usual stance—endurance.
“Don’t, Kerrick,” she pleaded with him as he released her. “Please, never do that again. I
can’t bear it.”
“Can’t bear what? The thought you might feel something for me? You didn’t have to
accept my proposal of marriage.”
“Decent gentlewomen should not give in to the temptations of the flesh. Men can’t help
but fall prey to their desires, but women must not, for the sake of both their salvations.”
“Where did you learn such rot? I thought all those bizarre sects had disappeared decades
ago.”
“How dare you say such things? The Holy Writings of the Prophet teach us the pleasures
of the flesh are evil.”
“Yes, when indulged outside the marriage bed. But we exchanged vows, which changes
things considerably.”
“No, it doesn’t. Would you be married to a whore? Women, even married women, who
give themselves to carnal pleasures are whores, or just as good as. I should think a man
in your position would be happy to have a chaste, gods-fearing wife.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Kerrick stated in amazement. “You really believe this?”
“I do,” Liora responded.
“Then why did you even get married? Didn’t you know that sex was part of the bargain?”
“I married you because I love you,” she answered. “And one of a wife’s duties is to redeem
her husband, by keeping his lusts contained within the marriage bed, not out buying the
favors of prostitutes!”
“Might you not think the reason men frequent prostitutes is that they can’t find the love
and passion they desire at home, in the first place?”
“But why? All a man needs is to have his way with a woman, to satisfy his body’s desires.”
“I’ll bet you didn’t get that from your father, because it’s wrong. A man likes to know he can ignite passion in his wife and give her the pleasures she deserves as his lover. Not
have her lie there like a corpse, hoping it’ll soon end.”
“I will not prostitute myself for you, Kerrick,” she responded hotly.
“I don’t want you to prostitute yourself, I want you to be my wife. A prostitute is someone
who sells her body on the streets. Now if you start that, I’ll be exceedingly angry with you.”
“You’re being vulgar, Kerrick.”
“Well, I’ve got to do something to make you understand my position. So why, after three
months of marriage, are you pushing me away? Before, you simply endured my advances,
but you didn’t refuse or resist me.”
As Kerrick watched, she crossed her arms in front of her, bowed her head over them,
and tried to seem even smaller than she was.
“Liora? I’m waiting.”
In a voice that was barely a whisper, he heard, “I didn’t realize how difficult it would be.”
“How difficult what would be?”
“Resisting the temptations. The closer we become, the more time we spend together,
feeling your hand in mine, your kisses, the more difficult it is not to give in and enjoy the
forbidden land I dare not enter.”
Carew Castle
Mellie's Books 