Winner of the Affaire de Coeur Reader's Choice Award for "Outstanding Hero."

In this award-winning western romance, widow Maggie Cayton's Wyoming ranch is drawn into a deadly range war. She turns to hired gun, Seth Sackett, to protect her home and her family. But who will protect her heart from the dangerously handsome stranger?

From the time she was a bride of seventeen, Maggie Cayton had worked alongsider her husband to carve their White Raven Ranch out of Wyoming's harsh and unforgiving wilderness. Then suddenly he's dead – murdered – and Maggie suspects wealthy rancher Big Ben Tate is out to drive her off her land so he can claim it for himself. Maggie has faced too many odds and fought too many battles with man and nature to give up without a fight. She's also experienced enough to know she needs an equalizer, a professional gun. She hires Seth Sackett, believing he is a necessary evil, a man who is no better than the person who killed her husband. She discovers he isn't what he appears to be. He might cast a shadow of danger, but his bold kisses evoke a desire she never thought she would feel again.

In truth, Seth lives in a private hell of memories and harbors an ugly secret that haunts him day and night. He thought the White Raven Ranch would be just another job, but as he falls in love with the indomitable Maggie, he dares to dream of a life he never believed himself worthy of having. The only chance he has of seeing those dreams come true is to reveal to Maggie the truth of his past...and risk losing the only love he's ever known.