Book Details

Harlequin Enterprises,
Mass market paperback, January 2007, ISBN# 0-373-77289-0

Wheeler Publishing,
Large print hardcover, August 2005 ISBN: 1-597-22010-8

Harlequin Enterprises,
HQN reprint, April 2005 ISBN: 0-373-77080-4

Harlequin Enterprises,
Original publication: Temptation, Blaze # 736, June 1999 ISBN: 0-373-25836-4

Chapter One

Dead with no hope of revival. Samantha Reed climbed out of what the rental company had called their best mid-size luxury car. She didn't bother turning the ignition key one last time. That final grinding sound had made things perfectly clear. Although she disliked leaving the car in the desert to rot, she had no choice. Reliable Rentals would just have to send a tow truck for their useless automobile. Too bad no one would be sending a search and rescue squad for the driver, she thought.

Drawing in a deep breath of dry air combined with dust, she took one last look at the car hugging the side of the empty, not-another-car-in-sight-for-miles, desert road. The vehicle looked an awful lot more comfortable than she felt at the moment and obviously had no intention of moving any time soon. She had no choice. The Arizona sun had begun dipping below the distant mountains and if she waited around much longer, she'd be hiking in the dark. Not that she wanted to hike at all. She certainly wasn't dressed for a jaunt through the desert.

What was that saying about the best laid plans? Oh, yes. They always fell apart before you could follow them and this was no exception. She grabbed her purse, left her luggage and gave one last tug on the hem of her newly acquired tiered silk skirt. A skirt she'd bought for it's ease and coolness in the dry desert heat. Of course she hadn't counted on a prolonged outdoor excursion while wearing it. This outfit had been a mistake. She hoped she couldn't say the same for the upcoming week.

If all she had to look forward to was a marriage as bland and dry as this god-forsaken desert, she intended to cram a lifetime's worth of fun, lust and excitement into the seven days before her conference. Next weekend, she'd head for the seminars on risk management and financial gain at one of Arizona's exclusive resorts, but first, she'd take some calculated risks of her own. She deserved that much considering her life was to be the sacrifice that saved her father. Years of compliance and acting like the obedient daughter had brought her to the brink of marriage to a man she didn't love. A man nearly fifteen years her senior. A man she had little in common with other than business and her upcoming nuptials.

She got out of the car, wobbled on the heels of her 1970's styled shoes and was forced to smooth down her mini- layered skirt once more. There may not be another car in sight, but she'd be damned if she'd moon the Arizona wild-life. She glanced over her shoulder at the wide expanse of ground behind her. She didn't ask herself what she was doing here. She already knew.

In one month, she'd kiss her dreams of happily ever after goodbye, but she wanted something to keep her warm on the cold married nights ahead. She would never experience what her parents had shared, an all encompassing love ... to the exclusion of their only daughter. But she could experience passion and fun before she gave up her life on the marital altar. Only now, when it was too late to change things, did Samantha realize she'd spent the past twenty-nine years on a mission of pleasing her parents and winning their love. A futile exercise. They loved her in their own way. It just hadn't been enough. In search of more, she'd given everything she had in return.

When she'd promised her dying mother she'd look out for her father, she'd been drawn into her family circle for the first time. Her mother had reached out to her and she'd given her word freely and unconditionally. She just hadn't counted on the extent to which one promise would change her life. Her stockbroker father had hit a downward turn. As a grieving widower, he'd begun neglecting his business, then to compensate, he'd advised risky ventures for his clients in the hopes of quick gain before he lost their business for good. Things hadn't panned out. To make matters worse, he'd invested personal capital as well. He'd spiraled into debt so deep it threatened his future and because Samantha had it in her power to fix things, she would.