The Pretenders (Paperback)

Also Available as an eBook

Gentle Reader,

At the time it seemed like a good idea. Reeve and I had been friends since childhood, so when he needed to persuade his trustee to turn over his inheritance, we decided to pretend to get engaged. Reeve was the Earl of Cambridge, after all. It wasn't fair for him not to have his money.

Who would have thought that Lord Bradford would insist we actually marry before he handed over the dibs? Who would have thought that my feelings for Reeve would change so radically, that I would want him as a lover as well as a friend? And who would have thought that someone would be trying to kill me before I even made it to the altar?

Deborah Woodly

Outside The Cave, The Thunder Crashed.

Reeve looked down at me. His face was wet. Drops clung to his lashes. He said, "Do you know, I've been thinking, Deb, that perhaps our getting married wouldn't be so terrible a thing after all." I stared at him in astonishment.

"Think about it yourself," he urged. "I would get my money, and you"-he gave me a charming, crooked smile-, "you would get all the horses you wanted to ride."

I pulled his wet jacket more closely around me and said impatiently, "Reeve, there is more to marriage than that."

"I know there is." The sound of the rain beating on the rocks of the shore was very loud. Reeve took out his damp handkerchief, took my chin in his hand, and carefully dried my upturned face. Then he said coaxingly, "I think you and I would deal together very well in other ways, too, Deb."

He bent his head, and a crack of thunder split the heavens...

A writer you can count on to both send shivers down your spine and thrill your heart, Joan Wolf is an author whose work has been consistently acclaimed by critics and colleagues alike. Now, in The Pretenders, Joan Wolf once again proves she is simply one of the best-a master of romance and suspense.