A bold beauty in no-man's land.

A swindlers' lechery and greed drove luscious Treasure Ryan, 17, out of Tennessee in search of a new life with her kin down in Natchez. Only getting there meant a perilous trek down the wild and lawless trail they called the Natchez Trace. True, golden-haired Treasure knew how to ride and shoot, but she was innocent of the ways of men -- until a cocksure adventurer named Fortner Copeland, 25, came along.

With his bare fists, Fortner fought for Treasure's honor, rescuing her from a mob of cutthroats. He was gallant and kind, but at night, under the open skies, his hard body lying so close to hers taught her passion -- and torment. For how could she love a man she thought a highwayman, a man she was sure had a mistress, a man who embodied everything her mother had warned her about? Yet soon, on a blossom-scented Natchez night, she would yearn for his lips, ache for his touch, dream of the day he would claim her in spirit and flesh...