Shadows In Silk (In Silk #4)

The last of the powerful Duke of Moorland’s offspring has grown up. However, this daughter of the shadows, the child with his former mistress Juliana, has been the most difficult relationship for the duke. His guilt at hiding her, his care of reputation and his expectations for her, have done more damage than he realized. Juliana, now at last wed to Moorland, has no less the guilt and more the shock, when the beforehand poised and self-contained Adriana flees from the family to Paris, after an emotional refusal to have a second season.

The brothers, Raven and Xavier, the brother-in-law ex-pirate Desalle, and all the ladies, are concerned, for no one knew Adriana as anything but a composed young woman—raised with expectations of a Duke’s daughter once the affair was public knowledge. However, the women discover a journal from her first season, a shocking seduction by the worst sort of cad—thus the whole family joins together to try and rectify their relationship with the youngest Myric, to convince her they love her no matter what—and to bring her back into the bosom of her family.

As for Adriana, she is devastated by her youthful indiscretion, the betrayal of the cad, and she fears the lofty duke, her mother; the entire family will cast her off. Accepting she will always be the bastard daughter of the duke, her love of art gains her an envied chance to work under a reclusive artist in Paris. Sworn to never again be a fool, she does not realize that her family, Desalle mostly, is going to put into her life a mysterious and dangerous man, a man of shadows and secrets that has death awaiting him at every corner. Adriana, no longer a foolish girl, determined to find her own way, discovers her own life, but is drawn to the forbidden man who awakens desires and hungers in her, showing her the difference in the “great mistake” of her season, and what Rev’el de Argues makes her feel. In every way, Rev’el too knows his life is uncertain, and even were it not, his background, his mixed bloodlines, everything makes anything with her impossible. Nevertheless, numb for so many years, a life of tragedy, danger, and not allowing himself to feel, to touch or be touched, suddenly rushes upon him. As Adriana grows into her mature skin, the web gets more tangled between herself and her shadowy lover, the family starts to suspect the truth. Their art and poses are sensual, telling, and too raw to hide the passion those settings ignited between them.

In the end, can love survive in the Shadows, or will Rev’el’s past steal even his secret passion for one woman? Everything forbidden, everything masked—will the very things that heal Adriana’s relationship with the duke, her family, destroy the one thing the love of her life and herself can steal in forbidden hours? Will Moorland use his power and influence against even the family's wishes, to tear the lovers apart, save the family reputation? Can everyone learn from the past mistakes, that love will not be denied? Or will the lovers themselves, risk everything, to take what life they can in the shadows and forever sacrifice the relationships of those of Adriana's blood?