The Heir's Proposal

Raye Morgan

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…

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.

The Heir’s Proposal

Raye Morgan

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

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 wa