Stolen dreams, stolen promises, and twin brothers torn apart by a betrayal long ago. Now one of them, the golden one, the one everyone loves, is dying. The only man who can save him is the one person he cannot ask, the dark twin--the dangerous one. World-renowned thriller writer Jesse Falconer lives on a clifftop estate in remote Hawaii. But temptation--and torment--will arrive on his doorstep: the chance to save his twin's life . . . and the allure of the woman who comes to plead that dying brother's cause. On a storm-ravaged night cardiac surgeon Caitlin Taylor makes the treacherous drive to Jesse's retreat. It is then, there, that the truly perilous journey of this mender of hearts begins. To love. With him. Jesse Falconer. The plunderer of promises himself. The ransacker of dreams. The fierce and sensual . . .Thief Of Hearts.
LOS ANGELES
APRIL TWENTY-FOURTH
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO
My darling Caitlin,
Today is your sixteenth birthday. How grown-up you are. How
mature. And yet, sweet girl, in matters of love -- romantic love,
that is -- you are quite innocent. Which is lovely, the way it should be.
It is your lovely innocence that compels me to write rather than speak
my confession of romantic love. Someday, I pray, I will speak these
words to you. When you are forty-six perhaps, and I am eighty? What a
splendid dream to have had all those years together. But I won't live to
be eighty. We both know that. My heart grows weaker with each passing
day.
And tonight I feel such urgency about writing this
confession, as if -- Margaret Taylor halted the anguished thought,
drew a difficult breath, and willed her trembling fingers to be calm as
she wrote anew.
My will to live is not fading, despite the weakness of my
heart. If determination were enough, if love were enough, I would be
with you always. I will be with you, Caitie-love. Always.
My confession is about your father. I have told you, quite truthfully,
that we knew each other only briefly and that he never knew about you.
But I have misled you greatly about our feelings for one another. I have
said that there wasn't enough love for the three of us to be a family.
And that, my darling, could not be farther from the truth.
You have accepted the truth, and the lie, without distress, and I wonder
if I should just let it go. But as my heart grows weaker it becomes
oddly stronger as well. You need to know this, Caitlin. You need to know
about the love.
Your father and I met aboard the Queen Elizabeth during the
transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York. He was younger than
I, and so handsome. And although it was of no consequence to me (but of
consequence nonetheless) he was infinitely wealthy as well.
That sounds like a fairy tale, doesn't it? The dashing aristocrat and
the thirty-four-year-old spinster. Cinderella and her prince. I wasn't
truly Cinderella, of course. No wicked stepsisters had tormented me.
There had been no wickedness at all, only love, and my own fairy
godmother, your great-aunt Caitlin.
Your father's life, too, had been filled with love. But for him, a child
of privilege, there was the heavy mantle of responsibility, of choices
that were not his. He was a musician, Caitlin, so gifted. At dawn
in the Grand Ballroom, he played the piano and sang to me. He would have
shared his wondrous talent with the world had not fate intervened.
It was an extraordinary fate, for at the same time my life was shattered
by the passing of your great-aunt, his world was shattered by his
brother's death. He had to soldier on, supporting his parents
emotionally even as he assumed the weighty obligations of their wealth.
He was the heir now. He had to carry on the family name.
He did all that and something else, yet another filial duty. He married
his brother's fiancée.
Yes, he was married. (And prepare yourself, my darling, for there is
even more.) The fact of his marriage will upset you whether you are
sixteen or forty-six. You are so principled, my sweeting. But so am I.
And so was he. What we did was wrong. But it was also terribly
right.
Reviews
Rocky Mountain News...
"Fast paced, exciting . . . hard to put down."
Southern Pines Pilot(SC)...
"Romance, suspense, and memorable characters make for good reading."
Publishers Weekly...
"Few fans will remain unmoved."
Rendezvous...
"Something to talk about. . . . These characters are easy to love. . . . Ms. Stone delivers on all counts. . . . The Stone magic makes these books such a pleasure to read and to share."
About the Author
Katherine Stone is the author of sixteen novels, including Thief of Hearts, Bed of Roses, Imagine Love, Pearl Moon, and Twins. Her work has been translated into nineteen languages. A physician who now writes full time, she lives with her husband, novelist Jack Chase, in the Pacific Northwest.
