Jury consultant Alana Benton had made sure she was so busy traveling that she barely had time to think. Then a desperate plea from a childhood friend brought her back to Galveston, the memory-laden hometown she had fled so long ago.

Attorney Sylas Kincaid was an excellent judge of character. Working with Alana, he quickly detected the pain behind her gutsy facade and brittle poise, and he sensed that masculine cruelty had put it there. But surely the love of a better man would bring her vulnerability-and her heart-out of hiding...