The Heir's Proposal
Torie grew up as the butler’s daughter on the Huntington estate and she’s back to clear her family name – not to fall for enigmatic Marc Huntington all over again! But to succeed she must learn to trust this hard, suspicious man, whose years as a Navy Seal have left him wounded and wary…
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Praise forRaye Morgan
“Morgan’s latest is a delightful reworking of a classic plot, with well-drawn characters—particularly tortured hero Max—and just the right amount of humourto offset his tragic past.”
—RT Book Reviews
on Beauty and the Reclusive Prince
“This is a fun story with interesting characters. Despite the fantasy setting, Morgan brings a serious twist to the story as Kayla and Max deal with painful events in their past.”
—RT Book Reviews on Taming the Lost Prince
Dear Reader,
Memories. They light the dark corners of our minds. They warm lonely nights. They make our thoughts rich with detail and fill in the colours of our lives. And, best of all, they’re full of lies.
Little white lies—the good kind—but lies nonetheless. We remember the high points, and even the low points, but do we remember the truth? I would say not so much. Haven’t you ever had this experience? You’re remembering how great everyone looked at that Halloween party fifteen years ago—or what a hero your son was up at bat in the final game of the season—and you just want to experience that joy again. So you get out the videos from the past and there it is, pretty much as you remember it. Only you’d forgotten how embarrassing Harry was in that caveman costume—and did your son really miss that easy catch? Misty watercoloured memories tend to shade over those things.
I say let nature take its course. Keep the videos locked away and enjoy the memories the way you remember them. They’ll always be better that way.
Torie Sands and Marc Huntington have a lot of memories between them—memories they will need to sort through to get to the truth before they can truly let love into their lives. Some memories will be more helpful than others. But in the end how they learn to accept and embrace their mutual past, letting go of old anger, facing past mistakes, will determine their future—and their chance for happiness.
I hope this story conjures up a memory or two for you. All the best!
Raye Morgan
About the Author
RAYE MORGAN has been a nursery school teacher, a travel agent, a clerk and a business editor, but her best job ever has been writing romances—and fostering romance in her own family at the same time. Current score: two boys married, two more to go. Raye has published more than seventy romance novels, and claims to have many more waiting in the wings. She lives in Southern California, with her husband and whichever son happens to be staying at home at the moment.
This story is dedicated to Bets in Santa Fe.
CHAPTER ONE
TORIE Sands was shivering so hard her teeth clattered together. Not only was she cold, she was—well, sort of scared.
What in the world was she going to do? She’d come out onto this spit of land when the sun was still shining, California-beach style, and she’d gone on a sentimental journey around the rock, looking for her childhood in the caves. She’d forgotten how quickly the weather could change out here—not to mention the water level.
Now she was stuck. The spit turned into an island at high tide. And the fog had come in—not on little cat feet, but like a wild herd of ghostly mustangs, silent and deadly, sweeping in with a vengeance.
She remembered now. This sort of thing was called a killer fog when she was a kid and living up on the cliff above, the only child of the Huntington family butler. She knew she should be able to swim or wade to the shore, but she couldn’t see land and the current was running hard toward the open sea. If she got caught up in that…
A crack of thunder made her jump. Great. Now it was probably going to rain.
How was she going to get out of here? She hadn’t told anyone where she was going. Her cell phone was telling her No Service. She hadn’t brought along any flares. Could she possibly spend the night out here? No!
And then she was eaten by the slimy sea monster…
The phrase came sailing into her head from some long-forgotten campfire story from her childhood. Ah, memories. She shivered that much harder.
Okay, time to call for help. She hadn’t seen another soul as she’d come sashaying down through the dunes and across the wet sand bridge, but just in case…After all, what other option did she have?
“Help!” she yelled as loudly as she could. “Help! I’m caught out here on the island. Help!”
Nothing. Just the sound of water slapping against the shore in rhythmic waves. In the distance—the far, far distance—she could hear the lonely call of a foghorn. She pulled her arms in close and winced as the wind slapped her hair into her eyes. This was no fun and she was bordering on hysteria.
“Mrs. Marino?” A deep male voice came arcing through the gloom. “Are you out there?”
She gasped with relief. Human contact! Maybe she wasn’t going to die out here in the cold after all.
It took her a moment to register the name, though.
Mrs. Marino? What? Oh. That was the name she was going under so as not to alert the Huntingtons as to who she really was. She shouldn’t give out any hints that it was a phony
