When an impoverished southern belle becomes the mail-order bride of a rugged cowboy… If Annabelle Lane is going to fling her penniless self into a dreadful marriage of convenience, it’s going to be on her terms, and that’s that! Unfortunately, her options are desperately slim these days. She can: (1) Either marry the old codger who claims it’s the only way he’ll forgive her late father’s debts, (2) Or sign one of those infernal mail-order bride contracts her boarding house roommates have been prattling on and on about. She chooses option two and soon finds herself on the run to escape the clutches of option one. She can only pray her intended groom is a man worth running toward. Ethan Vasquez is known as the most ruthless range rider in the west. He’s good at protecting livestock from bears, wolves, and rustlers. Unfortunately, it’s a life that leaves no time for courting, no matter how determined he is to have a family of his own someday. When a dare from a fellow range rider has him scrambling to send off for a mail-order bride, he never imagines how quickly she will arrive or how much trouble will follow. It’s a good thing he knows a thing or two about handling predators. He can only hope she finds his heavily scarred hands—once joined with hers in holy matrimony—worth having and holding after the danger is past.