Damiano's Return by Lynne Graham (HP 2163)

Back Cover:

Missing Husband Found Alive!

Darniano Brnganzi is back! Darniano - the husband whom Eden had thought she'd never see again....

Eden and Damiano had been married only a short time when he disappeared, and things had not been good between them. So, though Eden knows her love for Damiano is as strong as ever, she fears that he will want a divorce...unless she can overcome her hang-ups in the bedroom....
  

Spoiler Warning: All my reviews contain spoilers to some degree  

Favourite Scene: (the heroine sees the hero after five years of him being missing, and runs to him)

She couldn't breathe. Then was just this massive explosion of crazy joy inside her and she didn't notice herself moving forward at first hesitantly and then breaking into a run.
Damiano let her run to him. He just came to a halt about thirty feet from the helicopter. Later she would remember that, wonder about it. But at that instant she was all reaction and no thought. Every prayer answered, every fear for that moment forgotten, Eden just hurled herself at his big powerful frame, heart racing so fast she reeled dizzily against him as he closed his arms around her.
'You missed me, cara?' His rich, dark drawl wrapped round her, shutting out everything else as he bent his head down to her level.
Her face was squashed into his chest. He smelt so good, he smelt so familiar and she drank him in as if he were life-giving oxygen. 'Don't joke...please don't joke!' Eden sobbed into his shirt, clinging to him with both hands to stay upright.
 

Another Fav Scene: (his shock at learning she's a virgin is just funny, he groans out loud!)

'I'm an upfront guy, cara. And, at my age, I cannot imagine having a relationship without sex—'
'Well, I'm not planning on having a physical relationship with anybody until I get married!' Eden shot back at him between gritted teeth.
Damiano was so shattered by that accidental admission which he had provoked her into making that he shot the car to a mud-churning halt outside her home and turned to scrutinise her with openly incredulous eyes. 'You're kidding me?'
Releasing her seat belt, as desperate now to escape him as she had been to be with him earlier in the evening, Eden scrambled out of the car. 'Goodnight!'
Damiano sprang out of the driver's seat and intercepted her before she could reach the door. 'You're still a virgin?'
Nobody had ever spoken that word to Eden's hot face before and she could think of nobody she could have wanted to hear it from less. He said it in the same tone of disbelief which some people reserved for UFOs.
'Urgent re-think...possibly the concept of enjoying out mutual passion tonight was slightly premature,' Damiano groaned with unashamed regret.
   

My Review:

I loved the flashback scene of their first meeting, the hero is basically delirious and his first thought upon seeing the heroine (his rescuer) is to call her an angel and feel for her fingers to see if there are rings, asking her if she's single.  He was captivated instantly by her. Interesting premise for an HP: so often the heroines are virgins or almost-virgins who fall into a wild sex-life with their hero, here the heroine doesn't have an "orgy of a honeymoon" with the hero, she's a virgin with inhibitions.  The hero thinks that while he was missing for five years the heroine slept with this guy Mark.  It's an unique perspective to see a hero coping with a wife's potential infidelity (while he has been faithful), and wanting to have sex with her but also being torn up about the proof stacked up to make her seem guilty.  I loved these two together, there was no ick factors, they eventually felt really secure in their love and trusted each other, even though they had a hellish time with interfering relatives undermining their relationship. 

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars, lots of emotion and caring in this one, fidelity, and it was pretty unique for an HP.  I might label this a KEEPER just because fidelity is so rare that it's nice to see.