Enjoyable story with a hero suffering from his mother's rejection. There was a huge mystery surrounding the reasons behind the mother abandoning him as a child but when finally revealed, they didn't seem so horrible to warrant the terrible treatment. However, they do reconcile eventually. Pierce, of course, tried to hide his intense pain behind a roguish veneer and a league of mistresses, but he finds an understanding mate in Camilla, also abandoned as a child, who finds herself torn between her loyalty to Lady X, said mother and employer, and her longing for Pierce. There's lots of sexual build-up but only one scene of the actual deed, which was rather disappointing since their chemistry was hot. The ending was rather rushed and convenient, but the epilogue was charming enough to make up for it. Four stars.
