Secret Hearts

by Alice Duncan

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 to strip off her dowdy disguise and surrender to her hungry, yearning heart?

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 12, 1998

About the author

Also writes as Emma Craig, Rachel Wilson, Anne Robins and wrote two books under the name of Jon Sharpe (Pecos Belle Brigade and California Crusader).