Summoned like a serving girl to the king, Laura Cambridge was hired as nanny to Richard Blackthorne's secret child. Rumors about this hulking recluse didn't daunt Laura -- her beauty-queen past had taught her the inner person didn't always match the facade. But Richard's heart was as painfully scarred as his chiseled features....

To Richard, lovely Laura was like candy dangled in front of a baby -- he was offered the sweet, but denied the taste. Yet sometimes grizzly bears enjoyed a taste of honey...and in fiction the disfigured Mr. Rochester won the love of Jane Eyre. So Richard dared to woo his green-eyed goddess, gambling that -- like Jane -- Laura would one day declare, "Reader, I married him."