No.1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindseys passionate tale features the mysterious Degan Grant from One Heart to Win, a dangerous gunfighter running from his past, who finds his future with a beautiful outlaw at the gallows.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsey's passionate tale features the mysterious Degan Grant from One Heart to Win, a dangerous gunfighter running from his past, who finds his future with a beautiful outlaw at the gallows.

When a US Marshal calls in a favor, all Degan Grant has to do is apprehend three outlaws. Easy enough, he figures, for a man no one wants to tangle with.

But then a bold young woman crosses his path. Pretty Maxine attracted so much unwanted attention in her Texas hometown that events spiraled out of control. Now she will try anything to stop the handsome, enigmatic gunfighter from turning her over to a corrupt sheriff.

Saddled with a sassy, spirited outlaw who insists she is innocent, Degan must hunt down a vicious killer and keep an old enemy at bay. But soon his desire for his beguiling prisoner sparks into a wildfire of passion, and he can no longer deny they must risk confronting their pasts for a chance at a future in each other's arms forever.

"If readers need to remember why they are Lindsey fans, she delivers every reason in this spinoff of One Heart to Win. She incorporates her signature captive/captor plotline with sassy dialogue, plenty of verbal sparring, lots of heat and a bit of humor, all in perfect proportions."

Autorentext

Johanna Lindsey (1952-2019) was world-renowned for her "mastery of historical romance" (Entertainment Weekly), with more than sixty million copies of her novels sold. She was the author of nearly sixty nationally bestselling novels, many of which reached the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list.

Klappentext

1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsey's passionate tale features the mysterious Degan Grant from One Heart to Win, a dangerous gunfighter running from his past, who finds his future with a beautiful outlaw at the gallows.

Zusammenfassung

1 New York Times bestselling author Johanna Lindsey’s passionate tale features the mysterious Degan Grant from One Heart to Win, a dangerous gunfighter running from his past, who finds his future with a beautiful outlaw at the gallows.

When a US Marshal calls in a favor, all Degan Grant has to do is apprehend three outlaws. Easy enough, he figures, for a man no one wants to tangle with.

But then a bold young woman crosses his path. Pretty Maxine attracted so much unwanted attention in her Texas hometown that events spiraled out of control. Now she will try anything to stop the handsome, enigmatic gunfighter from turning her over to a corrupt sheriff.

Saddled with a sassy, spirited outlaw who insists she is innocent, Degan must hunt down a vicious killer and keep an old enemy at bay. But soon his desire for his beguiling prisoner sparks into a wildfire of passion, and he can no longer deny they must risk confronting their pasts for a chance at a future in each other’s arms forever.

Leseprobe
Wildfire in his Arms

Chapter One

“THOUGHT YOU’D LEFT THE territory, Mr. Grant.”

Degan looked down at Sheriff Ross, smiling up at him. He leaned forward to soothe his horse before it reared up. The palomino didn’t like strangers standing so close to it. Gunshots it didn’t mind, strangers it did.

“I’m leaving today. Just making sure no shots get fired in the church.”

“Don’t need to worry ’bout that. The feud ended last week, soon as the happy couple agreed to get hitched. So you’re coming to the wedding?”

Degan looked at the church at the end of the street. The two families getting joined today, the Callahans and the Warrens, were already inside it. People from town were still heading toward it to witness the happy event—and steering clear of Degan, who was sitting on his horse in the middle of the street. As much as he might like to do something as normal as attend a wedding, he knew what his presence would do. And he’d already said his good-byes.

So he shook his head at the sheriff. “No need for anyone to be nervous on a day like this.”

Ross chuckled. “I think folks here in Nashart know you well enough by now—”

“That’s the trouble. They know me.”

Ross got a little red in the face. It was odd for a sheriff to treat Degan so affably. Usually as soon as a sheriff learned who he was, the sheriff asked him to get out of his town. Ross hadn’t done that, likely out of respect for Zachary Callahan, who had hired Degan to keep the peace until Zachary’s son’s wedding. Of course the wedding wasn’t guaranteed to happen when the Warren bride had been raised in the East in the lap of luxury and was to marry Hunter Callahan, a cowboy born and bred here in Nashart, Montana, whom she’d never met. And Tiffany Warren had definitely tried to get out of the arranged marriage. At the Callahan ranch she’d even pretended to be a housekeeper so she could find a way to end the feud between the two families without sacrificing herself on the altar.

Degan had liked Tiffany from the start because she reminded him of home, a home he was never going back to. But he’d guessed she wasn’t really a housekeeper. She’d tried so hard not to be prim and proper, but she just couldn’t help it. The elegant and sophisticated real Tiffany constantly slipped out, although she’d made him question his intuition when she’d befriended a baby pig and made him her pet. That had really thrown him off. It had tickled the hell out of Hunter, too. No wonder Hunter had fallen in love with his future wife before he knew who she really was.

Degan had been hired to be a deterrent to bloodshed between the two feuding families. It had worked, his job was done. It was time to move on. But the sheriff was getting that same look on his face he’d had a few days ago when he’d gotten up the nerve to ask Degan to temporarily take over his job while he went back East to find a wife. Weddings in town seemed to have that effect on single men, made men who had been looking for a wife want one even more. And unattached young women were hard to come by in the West.

Degan had declined the sheriff’s offer, and now he stopped Ross from making it again, remarking, “If I ever became a sheriff, it would have to be where no one knows me.”

“But it’s your name that will keep trouble away,” Ross insisted.

“No, it’s my name that will bring trouble. You know that for a fact, Sheriff. Until gunslingers are a dying breed, there will always be fast guns wanting to prove they’re faster than me. Now go on or you’ll miss the ceremony. I’m just waiting to see the bride and groom leave the church before I ride out.”

“Well, you’ll always have a home here if you want it, Degan Grant. And my job if you want that, too!”

Degan almost smiled as the sheriff moved off. He’d never had a hankering to settle in one place until he’d come to Nashart. Of course he wasn’t usually in one place this long, either. And he definitely wasn’t used to being treated like a member of the family as the Callahans had treated him. They’d even given him a seat at their dining table and a bedroom in their house. Usually his employers wanted him as far away from their families as possible. They certainly never socialized with him. He had considered the sheriff’s offer, briefly, because he did like the people around here and was going t…