Raye Morgan - The Heir's Proposal

Praise for Raye 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

RAYE MORGANhas 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.

Raye Morgan

www.millsandboon.co.uk

This story is dedicated to Bets in Santa Fe.

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 .

“Yes,” she called back, surprised to hear how her voice quavered. “I’m here. What should I do? How do I get back to the other side?”

“Just hold on. I’m coming to get you.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. She was already in love with that voice. He sounded hard and male and sure of himself. Confidence . That was the key word here. Hopefully, the man would fit the voice and she would be safe. Hopefully.

Marc Huntington was growling softly as he began to pull off his jacket and then his long-sleeved knit shirt. This was not exactly the way he’d planned to spend his afternoon—rescuing one of the vultures who had come to Shangri-La, his family estate, to pick the bones clean.

He knew the situation. There was no money left. He’d come back home just in time to watch his heritage be destroyed. Unfortunately, his ten years in the military hadn’t equipped him with the kind of funds needed to pay the back taxes his mother had ignored for too long. Selling the entire estate seemed to her to be the only way to deal with the problem and she was the official owner. It was her call.

So Shangri-La was up for sale. His mother’s elaborate advertisements had produced a set of eight visitors here for the weekend, here to look the place over and come up with their offers. Every one of them was a grifter as far as he could tell. He could have cheerfully watched them all drown.

Well, not actually. His years as a Navy SEAL had ingrained the protective, rescuing ethic in his mind so thoroughly, it would take more than pure loathing to cleanse it from his soul. It was a part of him. How did you unlearn something like that?

“Talk to me,” he ordered the stranded lady he couldn’t see. “As I go through the current, it’ll help keep me on course.”

“Okay,” she called back, sounding less scared now. “What shall I talk about?”

He was growling again. What did it matter what she talked about? He wasn’t going to listen to anything but the sound of her voice. Her actual words weren’t important. Maybe he should tell her to recite the details of the terms she was planning to offer in buying out his family estate. Hah.

“Sing a song,” he suggested, looking down at his board shorts and deciding not to strip quite that far. He’d taken off the shirt and jacket because he might have to swim if the water was deep enough. But going down to his boxers wouldn’t help much. “Recite a poem. Whatever.”

He stepped into the icy water, feeling it wash against his legs even though the fog was so thick, he could barely see anything. Across the way, he could hear the woman beginning to sing something. She had a nice voice. He stopped and listened. Whatever that was she was singing, it had a familiar sound to it, like a Celtic folk song. Where had he heard that before?

He shook his head. It didn’t matter. If she could keep it up, he would find her soon enough. One last growl and he plunged into the current, heading for the high, clear voice he heard through the fog.

Torie heard him coming through the water. He was getting closer. Sweet gratitude surged through her system. She raised her face to where the sun should be and sang harder and higher, trying to give him a clear signal as to her location.

And then she heard splashing very close and in a minute or two she began to make out the dark shape of a man coming toward her.

“Oh, thank God,” she cried as he approached. “I was afraid I was going to have to spend the night out here in the cold.”

He didn’t speak and as he came closer, she could make out his features and she began to realize he had a familiar look to him. She frowned. Oh no! It couldn’t be.

He stopped a couple of feet away. “Mrs. Marino, I’m Marc Huntington. Marge is my mother. Just so you know I’ m not some random beach bum.”

Her heart began to thud in her chest. Marc Huntington. What was he doing here? It had been years since she’d seen him—at least fifteen of them. She’d heard he was overseas, in the service, fighting bad guys and raising hell.

But here he was, staring at her and looking none too friendly, despite his polite words. “How did you get out here, anyway?” he growled. “And why?”

He didn’t recognize her. That was a relief. But why should he? She barely recognized him—and wouldn’t have if she’d met up with him anywhere else. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been about half this size, a lanky, smart-mouthed teenager who probably didn’t even know she existed.

Now he was all corded chest muscles and wide shoulders, with dark hair that tended to fall over his forehead and crystal-blue eyes that seemed remarkably hostile. Bottom line—he was pretty much the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. She drew her breath in sharply and couldn’t say a word.

His brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. It took two tries before she could speak. “Uh…I’m…my name is Torie…But I guess you know that. I was just exploring the caves and the fog came in and…and…”

“Okay,” he said impatiently. “No problem. Your husband was getting excited when you didn’t show up for tea. Everyone is out looking for you.”

Husband? Husband? She didn’t have a husband. Oh. But she did have Carl Marino, and he was pretending to be her husband. She had to keep that straight in her mind.

“I’m sorry to be a bother,” she said, finally getting control of herself. The shock of coming face to face with the man version of the boy she’d had a crush on for years had thrown her for a loop, but she was getting her balance back. She had to remember he was the enemy, just like everyone else in the Huntington family—the enemy she’d come to slay like a proverbial dragon.

And now here was one of them, saving her from the cold. A bit awkward, to say the least.

“I lost track of time.”

He nodded, his blue-eyed gaze skimming over her bare arms and legs in the skimpy sundress she’d worn. “Next time, bring a jacket,” he suggested gruffly. “It can turn cold fast.”