Orphaned, penniless, and determined to keep her family together, Elise St. John hastily arranges to marry the half-Apache Missouri landowner, Blade Lonewolf, who has agreed to adopt her younger sister. It is a marriage in name only, intended to make the unconventional adoption acceptable.
But as they try to form a family—a Baltimore debutante who can’t even cook and an outcast Indian whose heart is closed to love—they are beset by needs and desires they never anticipated. Living with Blade becomes a sweet torment.
His vitality awakens Elise in a desire that’s too dangerous to acknowledge—but just as impossible to ignore. For Blade, true love becomes a tantalizing promise held just out of reach. It is only when they are in greatest danger of losing everything that they find the fulfillment of their most splendid dreams.