Lucas O'Reilly did things his way… and as founder and mayor of Thunder Canyon, he answered to no one—he liked it that way. Except lately, now that he owned one of the bigger spreads, and richer mines, under the wide Montana sky, he'd been thinking a wife would be nice. Maybe an agreeable little woman to brighten his house—and warm his bed. A mail-order bride would be one special delivery, he decides. But what he got instead was a surprise package with a firecracker inside named Jennifer Alston. Sassy and opinionated, she was not what he'd expected—but exactly what he needed, in spite of himself!

To help those in need was the highest virtue to the Arapaho soul, and Black Sun ever honored the ways of his people. He could not turn away from a woman in need, pregnant, alone and barely alive. No, not even if the woman was white. He would help Charity Bennett bring her child into the world here in Thunder Canyon, the sacred site where, legend told, springtime was born, though it broke tribal taboos and resurrected his nightmares past. Still, her grit and courage, along with her love for her infant daughter, showed Black Sun that here was a worthy woman—yet one forever out of his reach.

Nick Harding had seen enough of life's darker side...and bore the scars—inside and out—to prove it. Plus, years of tracking reprobates had hardly improved his opinion of his fellow man. Yet some spark of hope remained in him, he suspected. Why else would he have agreed to settle down in Thunder Canyon as a sheriff whose man job was seeing that the saloons remained respectable? But the quiet life proved elusive whenever he and Lily Divine crossed paths, for the feisty owner of The Shady Lady seemed hell-bent on stepping out a woman's "proper" place...and into his wounded heart!

He sought justice—with a lie Nick Baron knows it was wrong to buy trust with a falsehood, but there was no other way. His reputation as the most dangerous bounty hunter west of the Rockies terrified even decent folks, not just the outlaws he hunted. So he sure as hell wasn't about to let a spitfire fugitive from a sporting house know he wasn't the US Marshal he claimed to be—no matter how appealing she was. Especially when she holds the key to his best friend's murder. And particularly when she'd not only shot him—but saved his life right after! Things with Ellie Watson could get complicated.