The Bride and the Beast by Teresa Medeiros

Instead of purveying such copycat fables, Medeiros would be better off sticking to the witchy romances she does best. After an awkward dénouement, the couple will move quickly to happily-ever-after. When he learns her secret, Bernard tells Gwendolyn he’ll spare her dad if she’ll marry him.

Heartbroken when she learns her sexy beast is just another guy, Gwendolyn rushes home, where she has spent much of her life tending to her mad father, the traitor Bernard has been seeking. To save Gwendolyn’s life, Bernard reveals himself to his people. Before she gets a chance to offer him her virginity, though, the villagers return to slay the Dragon themselves. He likes her curves, her spirit, and her intelligence. He doesn’t seem to mind that she’s a bit chubby. As the Dragon visits her under cover of darkness, so that she won’t recognize him, Gwendolyn falls in love with him. He’s afraid that if he lets her go, she’ll blow his plans for revenge. Bernard cuts her down and plies her with room and board.

The mention of innocent blood in one message leads the frightened glen folk to tie Gwendolyn to a stake in the castle courtyard, in case the Dragon has a taste for virgins. Bernard has kept his people away from Castle Weyrcraig by pretending to be the “Dragon.” He and his sidekick Tupper get their victuals by sending threatening shopping lists to the village.

The bride is Gwendolyn Wilder, the only maiden in a Scottish glen where most virginity is only a memory at 15 the beast is Bernard MacCullough, laird of the glen who has returned to his broken-down castle to find out which of the villagers of Ballybliss betrayed his parents to the English. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.A first hardcover in the warmed-over fairy-tale tradition of Jude Deveraux and Julie Garwood. Gwendolyn Wilder may not believe in dragons, but I intend to use all my sensual wiles to teach her to believe in something even more magical-true love. Little does she know that beneath this beast's gruff exterior beats the passionate heart of a man. Soon I found myself stealing into the moonlit tower just to watch her sleep.

After she informed me that she didn't believe in dragons, I had no choice but to make her my prisoner-or risk being exposed to those I had sought to deceive with my dangerous masquerade. My demands might strike terror in the hearts of men, but this bold beauty dared to defy me. Then one stormy night the superstitious Highlanders of Ballybliss decided to leave a helpless virgin bound to a stake in the castle courtyard to satisfy my insatiable appetites. I'd been prowling the crumbling ruins of Castle Weyrcraig for so long that I could no longer remember if I was man or beast.

The Bride and the Beast by Teresa Medeiros