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I don’t mean that I like to torture men, or that I enjoy it when men are tortured.

Not really.

Not much.

Well, kinda.

Because, let’s face it, a little torture makes a man angry. Vindictive. Determined. Strong. Intelligent. A survivor. In other words, it makes him wounded, and darlings, there is nothing any woman loves as much as a wounded man. As Debbie Macomber said to me one time about the Phantom of the Opera — “He should have come to me. I would have cured him.”

Yeah, baby.

Remember THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO? No, not that unromantic novel by that guy (with the emphasis on guy) Victor Hugo. I’m talking about the movie with James Caviezel. The main character is an honorable man who gets involved in a scheme … oh, who cares? All I know is he gets thrown into a dungeon for twelve years, is beaten annually, is starved, descends into the depths of despair. He finally manages to escape, find a cache of gold, remake himself as the Count of Monte Cristo and return to avenge himself on his best friend who unjustly sent him to prison, and his former lover, who married said treacherous friend. But little does he know that the reason his former lover married the man who betrayed him is because … well, you really ought to get the movie, but if you’ve read one single Harlequin Presents, you’ll see the twist coming a mile away. Suffice it to say, his former lover has believed he was dead and she has suffered all these years — suffered, suffered, suffered — and with her eternal love, she heals his wounded soul.

Because that’s what women want. We all want to take a guy who’s been tortured and heal his wounded soul.

How about JR Ward’s LOVER AWAKENED, about vampire warrior Zsadist, kept as a sex slave for a hundred years?

Remember Jamie from OUTLANDER, a man in love with a female time-traveler, a man tortured, but never broken?

And Laura Kinsale’s FLOWERS FROM THE STORM, set in Regency England, with the brilliant, rake hero who suffers a stroke which leaves him unable to speak, and is committed to an insane asylum where he’s beaten by brutal guards and rescued by a Quaker woman … man, was that great stuff. I suffered along with Christian. I walked in Maddy’s shoes as she fought good guys and bad guys for his soul. I adored that book so much that when Rhapsody Book Club re-released it in hardcover as a classic romance, they asked me to write the foreword.

Why am I talking about tortured heroes during the week THE PRINCE KIDNAPS A BRIDE comes out? Well, you remember Prince Rainger in SOME ENCHANTED EVENING? Remember him in THE BAREFOOT PRINCESS? Remember the guy Crown Princes Sorcha was betrothed to in the cradle? The guy who, it is rumored, is dead?

Guess what? He isn’t dead, but he might as well be, for he spent eight years in the deepest darkest dungeon and emerged furious. Wounded. Strong. Wily. Willing to do anything — steal, cheat, kill, to get his revenge on the tyrant who murdered his father, tortured him, destroyed his friends, and stole his kingdom. Prince Rainger will even disguise himself, lie about his identity and seduce Sorcha in pursuit of his goal.

Sorcha is not amused.

THE PRINCE KIDNAPS A BRIDE, on the shelves now!

I’m always looking for recommendations, so tell me—who are your fav tortured heroes? And why? And more important—why why why do we love these tortured guys?