For Honor's Sake

Bartered Bride! Desperate to escape her leering Uncle Hugo, lovely young Juliet Darcy fled a forced marriage--only to find herself aboard a ship full of mail-ordered brides bound for California and promised to a man she had never met. Darkly handsome, savagely sensual, Rodrigo Delgado had no intention of claiming a husband's rights--until he looked into Juliet's flashing azure eyes. Here was a woman he must take for his own, no matter what the cost. Bound to one another by hasitly spoken vows, torn asunder by the fierce pride of an aristocratic Californio family, they battled all odds to consummate their burning love. From inside front cover: "I won you in a poker game." Rod paused for her gasp of outrage and was not disappointed. "A young man named Kevin O'Brien paid your way to San Francisco. He and I met in a poker game several weeks ago. O'Brien lost heavily and in the end wagered the only thing he had left of value...you. His hand was good. But not good enough." "You were the man Kevin O'Brien lost to," Julie whispered. "Did you cheat the poor man out of his possessions?" Rod exploded in a whirlwind of anger. "I do not cheat at cards! Kevin O'Brien was a young fool who wagered a fortune on a turn of a card. As it turned out, you were the one to come out the winner. O'Brien was not the man for you." "And I suppose you are?" Rod turned thoughtfully, suddenly certain that he was exactly the right man for the little hellion. She needed someone to match her fire, a man capable of taming the wild streak in her. He was convinced their coming together would be more like an explosion than an act of love, and his tense body yearned to be the first to elicit those cries of ecstasy from her full red lips...