When Patience Kincaide learns she's being forced to wed for a third time, she's desperate to compel her husband-to-be to stay away from her. Both her previous husbands were shockingly cruel, and she holds no hope this time will be different, especially since the man is known as the Savage Slayer. Her plan is simple: pretend she's crazy. But what happens when the man she thinks she wed turns out to be hiding behind a facade cleverer than her own, one that conceals passion she didn't believe possible and tenderness she never dreamed existed? What's a lass to do when the very man she successfully drove away is the only one she's ever wanted near? A second son relegated to life in the shadows, Highlander Brodee Blackswell left home to serve as the enforcer for the King of Scots, longing to one day govern his own lands and castle. And now that Brodee has become a legendary warrior, the king grants him exactly that. But even rewards have a price. The castle comes with a broken, albeit beautiful, lass he must wed. Yet for a man with no desire to marry, a woman lost in her own world might just be the best possible option. Except Brodee quickly discovers who Patience truly is, and the complicated, caring lass is awakening parts of himself he'd rather leave dead. The potential of a dazzling future dangles just within reach for Brodee and Patience, but dangers they never conceived consume them, threatening their fragile, newfound trust. Their only hope of survival is to shed their meticulously crafted masks and relinquish the pain of the past to embrace the promise of healing, enduring love.