Free Royal Seduction by Donna Clayton

picked up her wineglass, took a sip and stared out the window into the darkness, suspecting that regret had a lot to do with her misery.
    People usually described her as lively and vivacious. A private-school math teacher, Carrie was loved by most of her students. She had a knack with kids, a knack for teaching. She loved her little apartment back in San Francisco, loved living in California, and most of all she loved being close to her son, Jason, a student at UCLA.
    Carrie should be on top of the world.
    But she wasn’t.
    Her story was a long one, but tonight she was in the perfect mood to rummage around in the complexities of it. Sheslipped off her shoes and tucked her bare feet up on the couch.
    It hadn’t been that long since she’d realized that something was missing in her life. Something profound.
    A name had been placed to that something back in the late spring. She’d been in San Francisco, a nasty cold having kept her home from work. Lying on the couch in her robe and fuzzy slippers, she’d been flipping the channels on the TV when the sight of her ex-husband shocked her to the point that the remote control had slipped right out of her fingers and hit the floor with a thump.
    Richard Strokudnowski.
    She’d given up her search for him nearly twenty years ago. Yet there he was, plain as day, on the television commercial, promoting his lifestyle and fitness seminars.
    Yes, he’d grown older. The silver streaks in his hair were certainly proof of that. But who hadn’t been changed by the passing years? She certainly had. Inside and out.
    The man on the screen, she remembered, seemed to have mastered the art of the hard sell, almost to the point of being cloying. However, even back in college, Richard had possessed an unmatchable charm—he’d certainly charmed her right out of her panties very soon after they’d met—and that charisma was what had alerted Carrie that the man on the commercial really was her ex. Well, that magnetic personality had been one clue, and those warm brown eyes of his had been another.
    As long as they’d been divorced, Carrie had never been able to forget the way Richard’s dark eyes could make her flush with yearning.
    It had taken her several moments to work it all out; he’d changed his name from Strokudnowski to Strong; he wasadvancing toward his goal of becoming famous; he’d become the veritable fitness guru in the Pacific Northwest.
    Her whole life had changed as she’d stood there in front of her television, and it had gone through myriad twists and turns since, too—twists and turns that had finally landed her in Portland, Oregon.
    At first, Carrie hadn’t told anyone the news. Not her friends, and certainly not Jason. Her son didn’t need the upset. At least, not until she could gather more information on the man who now called himself Dr. Richie.
    And gather she had. She’d spent the next few weeks combing the Internet when she should have been grading papers. And the more facts she’d discovered about Dr. Richie, the angrier she’d become.
    Somewhere on his trek up the celebrity ladder, Richard had tweaked and adjusted his past until his life had become a complete work of fiction. What nerve it had to take for someone to do such a thing!
    There was no mention anywhere that he’d attended university in Florida. Or that he’d been married to his high school sweetheart. There was also no mention that he’d completely abandoned his wife and baby.
    Now, now, a voice in the back of her head chided. Richard didn’t know anything about Jason when he left. It isn’t fair to hold that against him.
    Yes, but it hadn’t changed the fact that he’d left without a backward glance, or that he’d taken half the money they’d worked so hard to save. That thought had her taking another drink from her glass of merlot.
    But he wouldn’t have left had you not backed him