Secret Hearts

He was everything she ever wanted -- and could not touch . . .

By day she was Claire Montague, prim, demure housekeeper of Partington Place. By dark of night she wrote the wildly popular dime novels that had made frontiersman Tuscaloosa Tom Pardee a household name. Suddenly her new employer, the heir to Partington Place -- and the real-life hero of her novels -- stood before her in the flesh. Claire had transformed Tom Partington into a legend, but never in her wildest dreams had she conjured the real man, who melted her resolve with his blazing blue eyes and knowing smile. With one look, Tom Partington had penetrated Claire's secret, passionate soul.

She yearned to be in his arms, yet she held him at bay. He'd never forgive her if he learned that she was Clarence McTeague, author of his unwanted fame. She couldn't tell him the truth any more than she could deny the passions that risked exposure of her double life. But how long could she continue this charade now that Tom had issued the ultimate challenge: to strip off her dowdy disguise and surrender to her hungry, yearning heart . . . ?