Shadow Lover

Book excerpt: Victim. Lover. Both? His dark game is seducing her-- just as it was when they were young. How can he still have that power over her? Eighteen years ago, she saw him die. Wealthy, selfish, and greedy, the McDowell family raised Carolyn McDowell--a foster child--like a modern Cinderella. Neglected and ignored, good-hearted Carolyn adored scion Alexander despite it all, though even he tormented her. When Alex ran away one night, Carolyn followed and witnessed his murder, though she never told anyone. Her beloved Alex died when he was seventeen. There was no doubt. Eighteen years later, Carolyn returns to the decadent milieu of the McDowell clan to care for her dying foster mother, Sally. As greedy relatives gather to claim their inheritances, a stunning stranger arrives, claiming to be Alexander. To Carolyn's utter shock, Sally greets her "son" without question, and no one but Carolyn believes he's a fraud. As she delves into the mysteries of both the past and present, Carolyn quickly realizes that the resurrected Alex is a dangerous combination of seduction and power. Is this stranger after the McDowell fortune, or is he really, somehow, the Alex of old, come back to claim her? How can he be an imposter and yet know family secrets only the real Alex would remember? Was someone helping him? What would you do if the boy you loved returned almost twenty years later, and you fell in love with him all over again--even if you were sure it couldn't be him?