The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale

Dark, dark and darker but rather than subject the reader to graphic descriptions of abuse, Kinsale smartly leaves the specifics to the imagination (and mine is apparently a very grim one). A story in which an unwilling physical attraction to an innocent young woman leads the hero to suffer even greater emotional torment, while the heroine who, though uncertain of the source of her lover's pain, embraces it to absorb into herself creates a near perfect darker romance. I say "near perfect" because the plot is somewhat thin.

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