it’s true, Alessandro—the legend of the Salus Totus? Do you think it really is a book of healing? Do you think it a coincidence that it was found here?’
He took her hands in his own. ‘I think you are the healer here, Grace. You came to an island where a monster resided, where only darkness existed. You lit up that world and shook it until your light and your love chased the darkness and the monster away. And I will love you for it for ever.’
He kissed her as tears sprang to her eyes. Tears of love. Tears of joy. Tears for the wasted years, and tears for all the years that were yet to come.
Years they would spend together.
The Reluctant Queen
CAITLIN CREWS
About the Author
CAITLIN CREWS discovered her first romance novel at the age of twelve. It involved swashbuckling pirates, grand adventures, a heroine with rustling skirts and a mind of her own, and a seriously mouthwatering and masterful hero. The book (the title of which remains lost in the mi- of time) made a serious impression. Caitlin was immediately smitten with romances and romance heroes, to the detriment of her school social life. And so began her lifelong love affair with romance novels, many of which she insists on keeping near her at all times.
Caitlin has made her home in places as far-flung as York, England and Atlanta, Georgia. She was raised near New York City, and fell in love with London on her first visit when she was a teenager. She has back-packed in Zimbabwe, been on safari in Botswana, and visited tiny villages in Namibia. She has, while visiting the place in question, declared her intention to live in Prague, Dublin, Paris, Athens, Nice, the Greek Islands, Rome, Venice, and/or any of the Hawaiian islands. Writing about exotic places seems like the next best thing to moving there.
She currently lives in California, with her animator/comic book artist husband and their menagerie of ridiculous animals.
Look for Caitlin Crews’ latest exciting novel, The Replacement Wife, available in July.
Dear Reader,
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of an ordinary woman, going about her ordinary life, only to look up and find herself face to face with her destiny.
If it involves far-off kingdoms, thrones, and a dangerously compelling hero, all the better.
That was my premise for The Reluctant Queen. I wondered what my heroine would feel when she found herself caught up in a fate she’d thought was little more than a childhood dream. And I wondered what her long-lost betrothed would be like, so determined to win back the only woman who’d ever captured his heart—and who he must convince to marry him if he is to take the throne that was always meant to be his.
I hope you enjoy travelling to their distant kingdom, Alakkul, and falling in love with Lara and Adel. I loved telling their story!
Happy reading!
Caitlin
CHAPTER ONE
“HELLO, Princess.”
It was a dark voice, low and deep, and echoed hard and deep in Lara Canon’s bones—making them sing out in recognition. She turned without conscious thought, as if compelled, searching for the man responsible, though some part of her knew at once who he must be. Her gaze flicked across the parking lot of the unremarkable supermarket in her Denver, Colorado, neighborhood, scanning out from the side of her car where she’d stopped still.
She found him at once, unerringly, as if he’d commanded it. Her heart began to beat wildly, even as her skin prickled.
He was even more compelling than his voice, tall and broad like a warrior, with jet-black hair and deep gray eyes above a hard, unsmiling mouth. He held himself with an ease she knew at once was deceptive—he was too watchful, too ready. He wore a black, tight shirt that strained against the tautly packed muscles of his broad chest and flat abdomen, and trousers in the same color that clung to powerful legs and lean hips. He was beautiful in the way that dangerous thunderstorms were beautiful, and Lara discovered that she was breathless.
He was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen, for all that he was the most arresting. And more than that, she recognized him. She knew him.
She had thought she’d never see him again. She felt her pulse pound beneath her skin.
“I did not expect that you would grow to favor your father,” he said, those remote, storm-colored eyes seeming to see right through her, shocking her, looking straight into the past she’d long denied. The shopping bag in her