Vanilla et Motricium Oleum

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>My entire life I've been bound by loyalty - first to my family and then to my country - arrogantly confident in my decisions and instincts.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Finding my wife engaged to another man obliterates the foundation of everything I've ever held true. Our divorce pushes me down a spiral of doubts and second guesses I nearly pay for with my life.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>It's only fitting I end up back home in Lost Hope - a small town in the heart of snowy mountains and lush green forests.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>My wounds start to heal here. They scar with each day passing by. Nine years later all that remains is a gruesome picture of the culmination of my worst decisions carved on my body. My only reprieve is HER and her sweet vanilla scent.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The quintessential good girl - and painfully beautiful - she's the town's sweetheart and the balm to my shriveled soul.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I'm as hopeless as the town's name when my cruel past breaks us apart... until she returns pregnant with my child and thinking the worst of me.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>My loyalty demands that I keep her close while my darkness whispers she cannot be trusted. She left me once when I needed her the most. She'll leave again when I least expect it.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>We strike a feeble truce for the sake of our unborn baby. But our truce forces us together and my heart doesn't stand a chance against her.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The instincts pushing me to keep my distance fade into nothingness with every stolen kiss and healing touch.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But is she strong enough to stand at my side when the ghosts of our pasts threaten to obliterate our feeble foundation once more?</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>Vanilla et Motricium Oleum</em> is the second book in the Lost Hope series of interconnected standalone novels. It's a surprise-pregnancy romance with a pinch of suspense complete with HEA and a cliffhanger introducing book three of the series. This book is intended for readers 18+ with explicit scenes mature language touching on sensitive topics and more.</strong></p><p><br></p>