Desire swept through the Colorado hills like wildfire, determined to claim both a woman’s land—and her heart—in this unforgettable western romance from New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard, author of A Lady of the West . For five years after her father’s death, Dee Swann has fiercely protected her Angel Creek homestead and her independence. Surrounded by the rugged beauty of the high country, she vowed that no one would ever take her land…or her freedom. But drought has left the valley desperate, and when Lucas Cochran returns to Colorado, he has his sights set on Angel Creek. The water running through Dee’s property is the key to turning his Double C Ranch into the cattle empire he dreams of. Ruthless in ambition and determined to succeed, Lucas is ready to battle the stubborn, black-haired, green-eyed woman who stands in his way. Yet the passion that sparks when Dee and Lucas meet is as fierce as any fight over land. Drawn together by desire and divided by pride, they must face a dangerous path—where dreams could be destroyed, lives could be lost, or love could blaze as wild and untamed as the Colorado frontier itself. Linda S. Howington is a bestselling romance author writing under the pseudonym Linda Howard. She has written many New York Times bestsellers, including Up Close and Dangerous , Drop Dead Gorgeous , Cover of Night , Killing Time , To Die For , Kiss Me While I Sleep , Cry No More , and Dying to Please . She is a charter member of Romance Writers of America and in 2005 was awarded their Career Achievement Award. Linda lives in Gadsden, Alabama, with her husband and two golden retrievers. She has three grown stepchildren and three grandchildren. From "Chapter One" Lucas Cochran had been back in town for almost a month, but it still amazed him how much the little town of Prosper had lived up to its name. It would never be anything more than a small town, but it was neat and bustling. A man could tell a lot about a place just by looking at the people on the streets, and by that standard Prosper was quiet, steady, and -- well -- prosperous. A boomtown might be more exciting than a town like Prosper, and people could make a lot of money in such places, but mining towns tended to die as soon as the ore played out. Prosper, on the other hand, had started out as a single building serving triple duty as general store, bar, and livery for the few settlers around. Lucas could remember when the site Prosper now occupied had been nothing but bare ground and the only white men for miles had been on the Double C. The gold rush in 1858 had changed all that, bringing thousands of men into the Colorado mountains in search of instant wealth; no gold had been found around Prosper, but a few people had seen the land and stayed, starting small ranches. More people had meant a larger demand for goods. The lone general store/bar/livery soon had another building standing beside it, and the tiny settlement that would one day become Prosper, Colorado, was born. Lucas had seen a lot of boomtowns, not just in Colorado, and they were all very similar in their frenzied pace, as muddy streets swarmed with miners and those looking to separate the miners from their gold: gamblers, saloon owners, whores, and claim-jumpers. He was glad that Prosper hadn't been blessed -- or cursed, depending on your point of view -- by either gold or silver. Being what it was, it would still be there when most of the boomtowns were nothing but weathered skeletons. It was a sturdy little town, a good place to raise a family, as evidenced by the three hundred and twenty-eight souls who lived there. All of the businesses were located on the long center street, around which nine streets of residences had arranged themselves. Most of the houses were small and simple, but some of the people, like banker Wilson Millican, had already possessed money before settling in Prosper. Their houses wouldn't have looked out of place in Denver or even in the larger cities back East. Prosper had only one saloon and no whorehouses, though it was well known among the men in town (and the women, although the men didn't know it) that the two saloon girls would take care of any extra itches they happened to have, for a price. There was a church on the north end of town, and a school for the youngsters. Prosper had a bank, two hotels, three restaurants (counting the two in the hotels), a general store, two livery stables, a dry goods store, a barber shop, a cobbler, a blacksmith, and even a hat shop for the ladies. The stage came through once a week. The entire town was there only because the Cochran family had carved the big Double C spread out of nothing, fighting the Comanche and Arapaho, paying for the land with Cochran blood. Lucas had been the first Cochran born there, and now he was the only one left; he had buried his two brothers and his mother back during the Indian wars, and his father had died the month before. Other ranche