He hadn't come to Tucson for his health. Hunter Manning wanted revenge. Stacy Rylan looked into the eyes of the man who meant to ruin her father. She had made a bargain -- agreed to marry him if he would stop his threats. With a coolly possessive air that defied protest, his hands settled on her small waist and moved slowly upward. How could she go through with it? She despised him. His touch made her tremble with outrage -- and desire!

    But what was the worth of life as a fine English lady ...what was the use of a fortune if her wild gypsy heart forever longed for a love that could never be?

    That alone was enough to put Alexis Palme forever in debt to the eccentric Count and Countess de Chambord and the dark, brooding Dr. Edouard Lautrec. But now the shipwrecked beauty was up to her lovely neck in their dangerous game of smuggling and treason, courting the guillotine in Napoleon's France and playing the beautiful-but-dumb decoy to the vainglorious enemy, colonel Barouche, who vowed to have her--or see her dead. Alexis was left with only her wits, her charm, and the reluctant help of Edouard, the only man who refused to be her pawn.