On the run and badly wounded, the half-breed known only as Kade closes his eyes and waits for death. Riding the outskirts of her South Dakota ranch, Norrie McDonald finds a man lying in the dirt, unmoving, his shirt covered with blood. Thinking him dead, she decides to return home and send someone back to bury the body, but discovers he’s still alive, so she takes him back to the ranch to care for. As Kade recovers, he learns that the McDonald ranch is heavily mortgaged. A neighboring rancher covets the McDonald place and Norrie’s father suspects him of stealing their cattle and scaring off their hired hands in an effort force McDonald to sell. Against his better judgment, Kade, who has a reputation as a fast gun, agrees to stay on after he recovers, partly because he’s got nowhere else to go, partly because he owes the McDonalds his life, but mainly because he’s attracted to Norrie. Although Norrie is also smitten with Kade, she is reluctant to admit it. He’s a drifter, a fast gun with a price on his head. But love is stronger than fear and Norrie decides to follow her heart, no matter the consequences.
Author
Madeline Ruth was born on 1963 in California, where she raised. She married her high school sweetheart and they have three sons, all handsome enough to be cover models. Growing up, her favorite pastimes were going to the movies and going horseback riding on Saturday mornings at Griffith Park. Madeline has always been "horse happy." A horse was the one thing she asked for on every birthday and every Christmas. Many years later, that dream came true when she bought an Appaloosa mare named Candy—because she was so sweet. Madeline loves animals. Over the years, she's had numerous dogs, cats, fish, mice, hamsters, turtles and birds, and her horse, of course. The most exotic pet was a crocodile that belonged to one of her sons. Currently, she has a terribly spoiled Pomeranian named Teddi, six goldfish, a catfish, and a betta. When she's not writing, Madeline enjoys going to movies and the theater. Her favorite plays are The Phantom of the Opera, The Scarlet Pimpernel and her all-time fave, Beauty and the Beast. She also loves reading, going to lunch with her best friend, collecting Star Wars, The Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast memorabilia, and playing with the most beautiful, adorable, brilliant grandkids in the world. Madeline started writing when her children were still at home, and she wrote for several years, finding time to write after her children were in bed and her husband was at work. In true cliché fashion, she wrote the books and put them under the bed, never telling anyone what she was doing, until one day she let a friend read one. Encouraged by her friend's comments, and armed with a copy of Writer's Market supplied by said friend, Madeline began sending out query letters. After six years and 31 rejections, Leisure Books bought Reckless Heart, and she's been writing ever since. After writing several Westerns, Madeline decided to try her hand at something else and wrote her first vampire romance. It was a short story titled "Masquerade" for an anthology. She loved writing that so much that she wrote her first full-length vampire romance, Embrace the Night, and thus Amanda Ashley was born. One of her dreams had been to write for Harlequin, and she accomplished that in 2003 with the publication of her Silhouette Romance novel, Dude Ranch Bride. Madeline loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her online at DarkWritr@aol.com or by mail at PO Box 1703, Whittier, CA 90609-1703.
