The costume ball held all the enchantment of a fairy tale, and courtly Dusty Mitchell seemed truly a prince among men, sweeping Victoria Jones clear off her synthetic glass slippers. For a single mom used to moonlighting to make ends meet, playing princess on a moonlit veranda was breathtakingly magical.... Until Victoria detected something hauntingly familiar in her mysterious cowboy's resonant voice--and fled into the night.

Left holding a solitary shoe, Dusty pursued his Cinderella with the vigor of a storybook hero. But when his quest led him to the woman who'd just put a curse on his career, he wondered if a happy ending was, indeed, the stuff of fairy tales--grim fairy tales.