"In the wealthy MacDowell family, adopted daughter Carolyn Smith always felt like an outsider. But as she tends the dying MacDowell matriarch, Aunt Sally--the only mother she's ever known--Carolyn hopes her aunt will find peace. Then Alex MacDowell walks into their lives. Wild and spoiled, Aunt Sally's son Alex ran away eighteen years ago. Now he has returned--to his loving mother, and to a large inheritance. The headstrong bad boy of the family always sitrred mixed feelings of jealousy and desire in Carolyn, but her heart holds a deadly secret. This compelling man can't be Alex--because on the night Alex 'disappeared', she saw him murdered. Held in terror, Carolyn kept silent for years. Now as she works to expose his true identity, she uncovers a tangled web of hidden secrets and lies. But Carolyn suspects that the seductive power of this dark and dangerous man could be the biggest threat of all...."--Back cover.