Leah Barnett can't believe how far fate has carried her: from Boston to the towering Colorado Rockies...and into the life of an angry, ruggedly sexy man. Ryder Damien is not about to welcome this beauty with open arms, however, especially since Leah was the one who won the affection of Ryder's late father and now may inherit, his considerable wealth. But when she stands before him in the flesh -- proud, vulnerable, and intoxicatingly lovely -- desire replaces hatred in Ryder's heart. Yet can passion survive this wild land and its dangerous men...and the most breathtaking peril: untamed love?

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### Amazon.com Review

Oh, what a tangled web we weave! Try to keep up, readers, as we board the roller coaster that has become beautiful Leah Barnett's life. Following her beloved mother's death the previous year, Leah inherited the Black Swan, a Boston tavern servicing sailors of color, where Leah scrapes to get by. On his deathbed, her mother's longtime lover, Louis Montague, convinces Leah to marry him in order that she might inherit the estate he abandoned when he left Colorado 30 years earlier. What Monty neglects to tell Leah until after the simple ceremony is that he abandoned two sons--half-brothers Ryder and Seth--there as well. Accompanied by Monty's best friend, Cecil Lee, Leah boards a train to Colorado to claim her bequest, enduring petty prejudices along the way. But nothing prepares Leah for her first encounter with Ryder Damien, her half-breed stepson who blames his absentee father for his illegitimate birth and his Cheyenne mother's tragic death. Determined not to care that the hostile Ryder thinks her a shameless gold digger, Leah nonetheless cannot deny his devastating attractiveness. Even Seth Montague, Monty's smooth-talking, legitimate Creole son, can't hold a candle to the longhaired Ryder. But Leah's arrival in Denver is further plagued by a 30-year-old court judgment that might cost Leah not only her inheritance, but her very freedom if she can't raise the additional money to pay off Monty's creditors. Enter Ryder, who offers to give Leah the funds she needs--if she'll give herself to him. And the dance begins! Accomplished author Beverly Jenkins creates a captivating tale of passion, distrust, and evil in disguise that keeps readers flipping pages until the end. *--Alison Trinkle*

### About the Author

Beverly Jenkins has received numerous awards, including five Waldenbooks/Borders Group Best Sellers Awards, two Career Achievement Awards from *Romantic* *Times* Magazine, and a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer’s Guild. Ms Jenkins was named one of the Top Fifty Favorite African-American writers of the twentieth century by AABLC, the nation’s largest on-line African-American book club. She was recently nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Literature.