Approx. 100,000 Words. Sensual content.Stranded in a blizzard with a bounty hunter on his trail, Luke McKenna is desperate to find someplace safe for his young daughter. Sure to freeze to death in the Montana wilderness, Luke and his daughter are rescued by the only person within miles.School teacher Molly Lambert knows that letting a handsome, rugged stranger sleep in her house could ruin her reputation and get her fired, but she can't turn away the sweet child and her wounded father. Snowed in with the fugitive, Molly can't help but notice the tenderness he shows his daughter and the soft heart he hides beneath his tough exterior.The cold winter winds can't subdue the heat between Luke and Molly, but Luke knows he can't risk staying in Montana and being caught. He knows he must do the best thing for everyone and leave Molly and his daughter or risk putting them both in danger. But can love light the darkest places and overcome the impossible forces pulling them apart?

     Young Lord Nevinstoke enjoys every moment of his deep-gaming, hard-drinking, womanizing life. Then his father is killed in a drunken duel, and Nev inherits a mountain of debts and responsibilities. He vows to leave his wild friends and his mistress behind, start acting respectable—and marry a rich girl. Penelope Brown, a manufacturing heiress, seems the perfect choice. She’s pretty, ladylike, good at accounting, and looking for a marriage based on companionship and mutual esteem, not love. In fact, the only rash thing she’s ever done in her life is accept Nev’s proposal. When the newlyweds arrive at Nev’s family estate, they discover that all the respectability and reason in the world won't be enough to handle a hostile next-door neighbor, mutinous tenants, and Nev’s family's propensity for scandal. In way over their heads, Nev and Penelope have no one to turn to but each other—but to their surprise, that just might be enough.