Doris Lemcke

Welcome fellow The Wild Rose Press author Doris Lemcke to Visit With My Friends…

 

Introducing – The Passion’s Legacy Series!

One man’s unforgivable sin and one woman’s sacrifice in the name   of love haunt generations of Georgia’s founding, Langesford family. From the   heart of New Orleans’ Vieux Carré, to Georgia’s rich cotton fields, New   Mexico’s sacred Taos Pueblos, and into the jungles of Cuba, this amazing   family takes life and love to the limit …and never looks back.
The Passion’s Legacy Series is the realization of dream that   began a loooong time ago, after I became hooked on historical fiction back in   the 4th grade. Of course there was “Gone with the Wind”.  It made me wild about romance and the War   of the Rebellion. And through John Jakes’ Bi-Centennial series, “The   Americans”, I fell in love with the Family Saga. From authors too numerous to   name, I have followed the lives of many a beloved family through generations,   even centuries. My heartfelt thanks to Kathleen Woodiwiss, Jude Devereaux,   and Belva Plain! I devoured their fabulous books until I finally told myself, “I   can do that.” Of course I couldn’t do that…at first. So I set about learning   how, and achieved my dream of publication in 1993. It was a dream that faded   too quickly when the publisher cancelled the line and I became an “orphan” in   the publishing industry. But the Langesford family wasn’t finished with me.   Not even Georgia’s founding family can keep their secrets hidden forever.   Those brave and passionate characters who risked everything for love,   demanded their stories to be told, baring their secrets—and sins, to the   world: Flora, the beloved quadroon servant from New Orleans whose   secret enslaves her; Camilla who pays dearly for trying to escape the faded   dream that was “The South”; Sean, whose untamed spirit yearns for the freedom   of the West; Lily, the musical prodigy who dreams of being the next Lily   Langtry—but must help free a nation first. Through war, betrayal, love and   loss, this brave and passionate family leads us through the physical and   cultural expansion of our great country, into a new century—and beyond. I am blessed to have a second chance at my dream of writing   historical romances through The Wild Rose Press, and to introduce The Passion’s   Legacy Series, beginning with PASSION’S SECRET and PASSION’S SPIRIT. It is   my wish that you enjoy reading their stories as much as I enjoyed writing   them. Visit my website www.dorislemckeauthor.com I’d love to hear from you, and invite you to contact me   through my email at books@dorislemckeauthor.com, Facebook, or Linkedin.

Buy links

www.thewildrosepress.com

www.amzon.com

www.barnesandnoble.com

BOOK ONE – PASSION’S SECRET – 1866  Jeffers, Georgia

She’d never give in…Camilla Langesford has no intention of letting her ailing father’s new Yankee partner steal their plantation. But Patrick O’Grady isn’t like other carpetbaggers. His pewter-gray eyes speak of a dangerous past. And his soul-searing kisses melt her frozen heart—until a deadly secret shatters it.

He’d never give up…Langesford Plantation is the former Pinkerton agent’s last chance to solve a mystery that’s haunted him for four years. But he didn’t plan on the chestnut-haired virgin with smoldering, green eyes and a fiery temper, dogging his every step. And after a secret tryst in a hot-spring grotto, he discovers a treasure worth more than a cache of gold bars—until one night changes everything.

EXCERPT

Patrick talked to her from the other end of the pool as he bathed, his deep voice young and carefree. “I’ve heard of hot spring pools, but never thought I’d enjoy one in private with a beautiful woman washing my clothes,” he chuckled.

“Just your shirt, Mr. O’Grady, and this is an emergency situation.” But Camilla couldn’t forget the sight of his bare chest, the corded muscles defining his strong arms, or his soft voice when he’d called her beautiful. Suddenly, she ached to reach out to something, or someone.

But certainly not a Yankee! She shouldn’t have brought him to her secret haven where she could lay on the fresh grass and dream of far away places. Now, the position of the sun told her it was well past luncheon.

“You better hurry,” she called. “Or we’ll be late and my honor will be severely compromised.”

“We wouldn’t want to do that, would we Camilla?” warmed her ear, and her neck tingled from the caress of his breath. She turned to meet his smoldering gray gaze and wide smile. A heartbeat later, she was in his arms, her palms resting against the still-damp, curling hairs on his chest.

Her heartbeat quickened at the feel of his warm, moist skin against her fingers, his strong thighs pressing against hers through the thin, cotton dress. And when he kissed her, his lips suckled hers, top lip first, then the bottom, while his tongue tickled them into a smile.

She knew she should stop him, but the heat that spread though her body wouldn’t be denied. She’d never felt anything so…right. With her eyes closed, the curves of her body molding against the sharp angles of his, her hands slid up the rugged landscape of his chest and her arms wrapped around his broad, sinewy shoulders. Then her lips parted to taste him.

 

BOOK TWO – PASSION’S SPIRIT – 1892 – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Untamed Hearts, Worlds Apart

Raised by Santa Fe missionaries, half-Apache orphan Elena Santiago has vowed to avenge their murders the Apache way. But first, she must masquerade as a white woman to deliver a dangerous message across the country, into the land of her enemies. But more dangerous than the warning she carries, is her heart’s response to the untamed spirit behind Sean O’Grady’s smoky grey eyes in a body that reminds her more of an Apache warrior than a soft, white “gentleman”.

Sean O’Grady has always dreamed of exploring the Wild West, but at 25, he’s put aside his dreams to run his family’s Georgia plantation and wed his neighbor. When Elena arrives looking and speaking more like a Spanish lady than an Indian mission girl, he wonders if she’s really who she say she is. Is she a virgin or a vixen? The question taunts him as he struggles with feelings he’s never felt for a woman before. Feelings that could get them both killed.

Excerpt

When Sean pulled away, Elena looked into his eyes wondering, is this what love feels like, or is it only lust? She decided that nothing as beautiful as the moment they’d just shared could be evil. But it could never be love, either. She had felt his passion press against her and ached for him to fill her. Now she was grateful that he hadn’t. They were from different worlds that still warred against with each other. He could never survive in her world and she refused to live in his.

As if he read her thoughts, he leaned into her, whispering so close to her ear that it could have been a kiss, “Why can’t you be Mary Louise? And I the Apache brave who will eventually claim you?” Then he turned to stare at the stream that patiently followed the course nature had carved out for it.

The question echoed in Elena’s mind. For a moment, his heart had beat to the rhythm of hers. The curves of her body had melted into the angles of his as they breathed the same breath and tasted each other’s souls. For a moment, they had truly been one body and one soul.

Now separated, the chilly breeze that stirred the pine needles at their feet told her that when she was with him, even angry, she was whole. And though he changed his moods faster than the mountain gods and was promised to marry a weak and silly white woman, part of her would always belong to this loco Gringo.

She also turned her gaze toward the river. “We can only be who we are.”