Chapter 12
Cara Summers
He’s turning her fiction into fantasy…
Legend has it making out under the MacPherson Castle arch guarantees you will find love. But author Nell MacPherson has a better plan, which is fueling the plot of her next book—tapping into the arch’s magic to locate the last piece of a missing family heirloom. And since every book needs a sexy subplot, she’ll save some of that magic for hot one-on-one time with her childhood crush.…
Secret Service agent Reid Sutherland is determined to protect Nell from the recent threats aimed at her and her family. Which means no fooling around. But damned if the arch isn’t doing its thing, because suddenly he and Nell can’t keep their hands off each other. With every touch and late-night liaison, they’re heading for big trouble…and this time, Nell won’t be able to write her way out of it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Was CARA SUMMERS born with the dream of becoming a published romance novelist? No. But now that she is, she still feels her dream has come true. And she owes it all to her mother, who handed her a Mills & Boon Romance novel years ago and said, “Try it. You’ll love it.” Mum was right! Cara has written over forty stories for the Blaze line, and she has won numerous awards, including a Lifetime achievement award for Series Storyteller of the year from RT Book Reviews. When she isn’t working on new books, she teaches in the writing program at Syracuse university.
To my three sons, Kevin, Brian and Brendan. As you have grown into fine young men, I have watched you cherish and protect the ones you love. You have inspired my heroes for over forty books. My wish is that you continue to care for each other and for your families, and I know that it will come true.
To the best editor in the world, Brenda Chin. Thanks for everything, especially your unwavering belief in me.
To Dr Tucker Harris. Thanks for everything.
Glen Loch, New York, summer 1812
ELEANOR CAMPBELL MACPHERSON sat in the gazebo that her late husband, Angus, had built for her and frowned at the sketch on her easel. This had always been her favorite place on the castle grounds to draw and to think. But today neither was going well. The story she was telling in the picture wasn’t completed and neither was her mission.
Since his death a year ago, Angus had been visiting her in dreams and sending her visions that were helping her to right an old wrong. But for the last two months, the dreams hadn’t been so clear. And she was anxious to finish. Wasn’t she?
Or was she afraid that, once she buried the last of the Stuart sapphires, Angus would be lost to her forever?
When the pain around her heart tightened at the thought, she set down her pencils and walked over to sit on the stone steps that led into the garden. She missed him so much, and there wasn’t anyplace on the castle grounds she could go that didn’t bring back memories.
The gazebo had originally been her idea. She and Angus had chosen the spot for it together, because it offered views of the lake, as well as the castle and the stone arch, both of which he’d built to fulfill his promises to her. Of course, Angus, impulsive as always, had designed the gazebo and started construction immediately. He’d used stones for the foundation and chosen the sturdiest of woods for the benches, the railing and the roof. It had been his gift to her on their first anniversary.
Looking out on everything that Angus had built for her and everything that they’d created together, she recalled that long-ago day when the castle had still been under construction and the gardens had been in their infancy. It was their anniversary, and they’d placed the last stones in the arch together, stones that Angus had brought with him to the New World when he’d stolen her away from her home in Scotland.
He’d built the arch in a clearing at the far end of the gardens, just before the land sloped sharply upward into the mountains. It was almost an exact replica of the stone arch that had stood for hundreds of years in the gardens of the Campbell estate in Scotland. According to the legend that her mother and two older sisters had told her, the stone arch had the power from ancient times to unite true lovers. All you had to do was kiss your lover beneath the arch, and that was it. A happy ever after was guaranteed.
Well, she’d certainly kissed Angus many times beneath it. And she’d never forget the night she’d met him there for the last time. Having been promised to another man, she’d snuck out of the ball celebrating the engagement. She had been wearing her fiancé’s gift to her—a sapphire necklace
