Tara Smith and Nick Bryant had been through a lot of adventures together--a shipwreck, being stranded on a Pacific island and then dramatically rescued--so perhaps it did not come entirely as a surprise to her when he asked her to marry him. But the reasons for his asking her were quite plain--he wanted a mother for his little girl.

Nick's expression was unreadable as he asked, "Just why did you agree to marry me, Tara?"

Because I was in love with you, Tara wanted to say, although now she wasn't so sure. She hadn't love THIS man; she'd loved the person she had imagined him to be.

But this man was her husband. And all she knew was that he had the power to hurt her as no one ever had before.