Ceremony of Innocence — Daranna Gidel

Lucy Clare longed for a future far removed from her desperate beginnings in a Texas small town. She had learned early that men could be sweet-talking liars, and couldn't forget it when she met rugged loner Ellis McLeod. She was afraid that their searing passion could destroy her; she didn't know that Ellis was heir to a world-class fortune, or that she had become the pawn in the secret games of a woman called Juliana. In the scramble for the family money, Juliana planned to use Lucy to satisfy a twisted desire of her own. From the backroads of Texas to, the glitter of Manhattan to the breathtaking heights of the Rocky Mountains, this sensational saga sizzles with love and violence, as innocence is lost to the deepest hungers of the human heart....