by Lora Leigh
Part of Breeds, book 10
First published 2007
Charity possesses a natural gift for love and acceptance that defines her very nature. She encounters Aiden, a man whose survival required him to harden both his heart and soul against the world. The forces of survival and destruction battle within the deepest recesses of human consciousness, where the beast within cannot be controlled and the drive to survive runs deeper than conscious thought. Aiden built walls around his emotions as a matter of life and death. His cruelty became armor, protecting him when gentleness would have meant destruction. Now Charity has made sacrifices that challenge everything he believed necessary for his survival. She offers him the love and acceptance that flow naturally from her spirit. The question becomes whether the human heart can adapt as readily as the survival instinct. Can Charity extend her inherent compassion to someone whose very existence depended on emotional brutality? Can Aiden abandon the cruelty that kept him alive when faced with her sacrifices? Time and the fundamental forces of human nature will determine whether love can overcome the hardened defenses that survival demanded.
Genres: fiction, romance, adult-fiction, contemporary-romance
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
228 pages · Paperback · Ellora´s Cave Publishing Inc
Content warnings: emotional-abuse, violence