by Katie Dowe
Adam
Could they start a relationship despite their feuding families?
A sexy forbidden love romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club.
Amber Gardner and Adam Whitmore come from two very different families involved in a feud that spans generations.
But when Amber meets the Whitmore family’s handsome heir, Adam, she’s determined to let the feud end and become best friends!
And when their friendship turns into a passionate and romantic affair, she is willing to forsake her family’s past to create a future together…
But Adam’s family will make sure that never happens!
And they are even willing to drive a knife through their own son’s heart…
Will Amber and Adam’s love be strong enough to withstand those who want to tear it apart?
Find out in this emotional yet sexy romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club.
Suitable for over 18s only due to sex scenes so hot, you'll want your own forbidden lover!
Tip: Search BWWM Club on Amazon to see more of our great books.
Free: Get Jason from the Members From Money series where YOU'RE the star!!
Hi there. As a special thank you for buying this ebook, for a limited time I want to send a copy of Jason free of charge directly to your email! It's a personalized story, meaning you'll add a few details about yourself (these won't be shared with anyone else) and you'll become the star of the story!! :D
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Copyright © 2019 to Katie Dowe and AfroRomanceBooks.com. No part of this book can be copied or distributed without written permission from the above copyright holders.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
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Chapter 1
Sometime in the late 1900s…
“It’s going to be fine, Maggie girl,” Jonathon Gardner assured the seventeen-year-old wisp of a girl in his arms. He was trying more to convince himself than he was trying to convince her. Margaret Elizabeth Whitmore was from old money and was a genteel beauty who was way above his social reach, but he had been the carpenter at the palatial Whitmore estate and that was when he had met her three months ago. She had been unlike her parents and her older siblings who treated him like the help but had gone out of her way to offer him refreshments when the maids or the rest of her family were not looking. He had shunned her kindness at first but had come to discover that Maggie Whitmore was a very determined young woman and also a kind one as well. In spite of himself, he had started to have feelings for her and before long those feelings had burgeoned into something stronger, so much so that he had to stay away from her. She was way out of his league and that much was glaringly obvious! She was delicately beautiful with creamy white skin and jet black hair and was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had a glow to her that came from the pureness of her heart. He was not only poor and not her social equal, he was black as well. The odds were so stacked against them that it was laughable! He knew how her family felt about black people. They never outright called him the ‘n’ word, they had too much class for that, but he had seen the way they treated the servants who worked for them. The black race was making strides in terms of being recognized as people, but they were a far way from being regarded as equals. The Whitmores were incredibly powerful and owned most of the resources in town as well as elsewhere and provided employment for thousands of people! It would be foolhardy to risk their ire and even though Jonathon knew that he was in love with Maggie, he was also smart enough to know that their love was doomed from the start. He also knew that he could never ask her to abandon her lifestyle and run away with him. He could not afford to provide for her the way she was accustomed to. But the more he tried to stay away from her, the less he was able to do so, and when he discovered that she felt the same way, it made things worse. Their passion, the same passion they had tried to fight, was getting out of control and one day when the large sprawling house was quiet for the night, she had snuck out and come to him. They had made love beneath the large oak tree near the barn that housed the many horses. He had taken her innocence and they had declared their undying love for each other. They had continued seeing each other after that, spending stolen moments together. Years after, he would beat himself up and tell himself over and over again that he had been twenty-three and she seventeen and he should have known better, but he had been caught up in the romance of it all and the love he had for her so he had not been thinking straight! Now lying beneath their favorite tree as she broke the news to him that she was pregnant, he had no idea what to do. He could not leave her to tell her parents alone and he dreaded standing before the rigid Mr. and Mrs. Whitmore and telling them that he had impregnated their seventeen-year-old daughter and wanted to marry her.
Maggie raised her head up, her thick jet black hair falling like dark waterfall around her beautiful face as she looked down at him. She had been fascinated by him the first time she saw him repairing a stool in their kitchen. He had rolled up the sleeves of his cream lawn shirt and had been so intent on what he was doing that he had not noticed her at first. She had stood there studying his dark, handsome face and the way the muscles rippled in his arms as he brushed the sandpaper against the wood and could not take her eyes off him. He had finally looked up and saw her, and she had seen when he stared for a moment and then looked away. That had not stopped her and she had come into the kitchen and stood there looking at him. “What are you doing?”
He had looked up at her with a slight frown and not answered, but she had persisted, offering him something to drink which he had reluctantly accepted and he had answered her questions. It had started after that. He would come to the manor and she would come and find him and they would talk. Before long, she had realized that she had fallen in love with him. She was terrified of her parents, but the love she had growing inside her was much stronger. She was a Whitmore which meant that her husband had already been chosen for her, just like they had been chosen for her other sisters and wives chosen for her two brothers. They would never agree to her marrying a black carpenter! She took his hand and placed it against her stomach. “Whatever happens, we will love this baby and make sure he or she knows that they were conceived in love.”
He nodded, trying to quell the panic he was feeling. He came from a family of carpenters. His father was one and so were his two older brothers and they were very proud of what they did. He had plans to build a business and make something of himself and that thought had become stronger since he had met her. He would never be in the league of the Whitmores, but at least he would make something of himself and be able to provide for Maggie and his child. “They are going to want to send you away,” he told her, trying to keep the helplessness from coming forth. He did not want to scare her, but he knew that they faced an insurmountable task and it would take a miracle for them to accept him and he did not believe in miracles of that magnitude.
“I will not go!” she told him fiercely, placing one small
hand on his chest. He lifted a hand and placed it against her soft white cheek, and could not help but noticed the startling contrast of his dark skin against her alabaster skin. She was delicate and beautiful with silvery eyes the shade of the sky when it was set to rain. Her eyes were expressive and so beautiful that one could get lost in them. He had told her that it had been the first thing he had noticed about her that day when he had seen her. She also had an ethereal beauty that had him worried about her ability to carry a child full term. His heart twisted as he realized what he had done to her. She was too young and he should have kept his passion in check. He should not have been with her that way and he knew that he deserved whatever the Whitmores were going to do to him when they found out that he had despoiled their beautiful daughter. He should have waited until he was worthy of her, but somehow he knew he would never be worthy of her in their eyes. He was of the wrong color and from the wrong side of the streets. He did not stand a chance! He closed his eyes and felt the fear shooting through his body at the thought of losing her! Because of his looks, he had been with several women, but they were chambermaids and a few women from the brothel a few blocks from his tiny home. Margaret Whitmore was the first lady he had ever been with and he had fallen head over heels in love with her! Whenever he left her and went home, he could smell her on him and he would think about her every single night. He found that he could not wait to see her the next day and his brothers and his father had been inquiring about his scarcity, but he could not share anything with them. They would hit the roof if they found out what he was doing! He wanted to marry her! He knew he was young, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to be with her and he would have moved heaven and earth to make it happen! “We will find a way,” he reassured her.
*****
But fate intervened before either of them got a chance to say anything. It was a few nights after they had spoken when it was noticed that she was not quite herself. Maggie had endured the seven-course meal and the meaningless chatter of her sisters as they went on and on about some Parisian gown they had seen in a magazine and her father and brothers talked about the business of acquiring some more land and she had barely picked at her food. She had been forcing herself to eat to avoid suspicion but was finding it very hard to keep the rich food down. This evening, the chef had served pheasant with a particularly rich sauce and she was having a hard time not racing from the table to throw it up. The Whitmores had a strict policy: the dinner table was a time for the family to bond together and to get things out in the open. It was time for them to be a family and absolutely no one was going to be excused from it. They also had to stay for the entire tiresome meal which sometimes took up to two hours! But Maggie was tired and nauseous and just wanted to go to bed. She would not be seeing Jonathon that night as he had something to do. He had assured her that they would break the news to her family tomorrow and she was not looking forward to it. Her father was soft on her because he doted on his beautiful daughters, but her mother was a different story altogether! Mary-Ann Whitmore was as cold and as unbending as steel and ran her household with an iron hand! Everyone was terrified of her and tried their best not to get on her bad side. She was tall and erect with a legal bearing and had come from a moneyed background. Her family was not as powerful and wealthy as the Whitmore family, but she had descended from royalty. Maggie had often wondered if her mother loved her father because she had never seen an ounce of sentimentality between them. They never touched in public and she wondered if they touched in private. Abraham Whitmore never disagreed with anything his wife said in regards to the running of their household and they all had a feeling that he was a little afraid of her. Maggie loved her father! He was tall and darkly handsome and she had inherited his jet black hair and beautiful silver grey eyes. She was counting on the fact that he loved her enough to accept what she had decided to do and support her decision.
“Child, are you okay?” Her attention snapped to her mother as the question was thrown at her. Mary-Ann’s light green eyes were staring at her curiously. To Maggie’s dismay, the conversation had ceased around the dinner table as all eyes were turned on her.
“I am sorry, Mother,” she said formally. “I am not really hungry.”
“The pheasant is your favorite meat,” her sister Victoria pointed out. She looked like their mother the most with the same ash blond hair and light green eyes. She was two years older than Maggie and was betrothed to the only son of a banker. Emily, a year younger than her, was set to marry an Earl. The matches for all of them had been carefully selected and very soon it would be her time!
“I just do not have an appetite,” she said, forcing a smile.
“Are you ill?” Her mother looked at her with a frown, her eyes going over her pale face.
“No!” she said hastily, feeling panicked at the sudden interest in her health. She knew her mother and knew that if she did not feel satisfied that she would summon the family physician to check her out. “I am just tired that’s all.” She looked at her father pleadingly. “May I be excused?”
He smiled at her gently and nodded. “Go on to your room, my dear.”
“Abe, she is not finished,” her mother said coldly. For a minute, Maggie thought her mother would get her way and force her to stay for the entire meal. But this time, her father stood his ground.
“The girl is tired, Mary-Ann, let her go,” he had said firmly.
“I am coming up to check on you,” her mother said resolutely. Maggie had made an effort to walk sedately from the room, but as soon as she cleared the dining room, she had fled to her suite of rooms and closed the doors behind her. As soon as she did, she headed for the bathroom where she had retched until she was heaving. She felt horrible and just wanted to be with Jonathon. She stumbled to her feet and rinsing out her mouth with water from the sink, she made her way slowly back to the bedroom. In the past, her delicately decorated bedroom suite with the pale pastel colors had always been able to comfort her but not tonight. She had a feeling that her time for seeing Jonathan was at an end and she could not bear the thought of never seeing him again. She had told him that she would never let her parents send her away, but the truth was that they held the authority over her and she would bend her to their will, if necessary. Her mother was determined and was not given to sentimentality. Maggie knew she could not prevail on her emotions as she feared that Mary-Ann Whitmore did not give into such things as emotion. Her telling her parents that she was in love with a lowly black carpenter would not endear him to them and she knew that without a shadow of a doubt. They were going to send her away and probably destroy the love of her life! She could not afford that to happen! She was lying on her bed, staring up at the flimsy material that covered the canopy when she heard her door open and her mother calling out. Maggie sat upright in a panic which was intensified as she saw the large florid face man right behind her, with his large black bag.
“Dr. Englewood has done me the extreme favor of coming out at such short notice,” Mary-Ann said as she came into the bedroom. “I have asked him to do an examination.”
“Mother, I am fine!” she cried out in panic as she stared at the doctor frantically.
“I am afraid I am not going to be able to take your word for it,” her mother said firmly. She nodded to the doctor and gave her permission. “I will wait in the sitting room until you are finished.”
Maggie was so petrified that she was actually shaking! She was about two months pregnant or more and the examination was going to show that she was and then everything would be over. Dr. Englewood was a very thorough physician and held the wealthy family in very high esteem. Mary-Ann Whitmore sat on a number of charities which included the research he was doing to find the cure for the common cold so there was nothing he would not do for her. Maggie knew that and even though she refused at first to give him a urine sample, he stood there and waited for her to do so. It was over and it was time for her to tell them and hope for the best. She had hoped tha
t Jonathon would have been there to help her through it, but he was not and she had to face it on her own. After the examination and the doctor had spoken to her mother briefly and left, she had approached her and said that she had something to tell her and she would like it if the family gathered together when she did.
*****
All of them stared at her as if she had grown another head. Maggie had stood there with her hands clasped together as she told her family that she had allowed a black carpenter to lie on top of her in the most intimate manner there was and place his seed inside her. Not only was she a slut, but she was a careless one at that and incredibly stupid! There were the looks of scorn and derision on her siblings’ faces and shock on her father’s. Her mother’s face was expressionless as she stared at her youngest daughter. She wanted to slap the girl until she was unconscious but she managed to curb the urge to do so.
“How could you?” her father asked her, his pained expression tearing at her heart.
“I love him, Father!” she said tearfully.
“Love!” her mother scoffed. “What on earth does a child like you know about that particular emotion?”
“He loves me too and wants to marry me!” she had said defiantly, causing her family to stare at her as if she had taken leave of her senses. “And I want to.”
“You have shamed the family, Maggie!” Victoria burst out, bright tears in her light green eyes as she stared at her sister. “We will never be able to live down the scandal! How could you?”
“I am sorry,” she said desolately, the feeling of guilt invading her pores as she faced her condemning family. They all looked at her as if she was beyond redemption! She had been so wrong! Not one of them would ever understand what she had done and championed for her. She was on her own and she felt her stomach churning. She just wanted to lie down! They were all sent to bed shortly after and Maggie spent the rest of the night lying on her bed and wondering what her fate would be!