The Silenced Bride

I signed my name on a stranger's ranch and sealed it with a kiss I didn't choose. Rafael Cortez moves cattle by day and contraband by night. He wants a wife about as much as he wants a rival at his gate. But the men who took my brother made me part of the deal, and I have learned that fear and fire look a lot alike in Texas. He keeps me behind fences and tells me it's for my safety. Then he watches me across the firelight like I'm the only water in a hundred miles of drought. His hands are marked with rope burn and worse. When the rival family offers to trade my freedom for his life, I stand in the dust and choose the man who never asked me to love him. The attack comes at dawn. Blood in the corral. A bullet meant for my heart. He stepped in front of it. I'm not letting him walk away now.