Antonie Ramirez could ride and shoot as well as any man-and better than most. Now, the headstrong beauty had come to Texas to honor her father's last words: find the cattle rancher named Royal Bancroft and repay him for saving lives long ago. Royal Bancroft didn't know who was behind the outlaws trying to drive him off his land, but he would fight to the death rather than lose it. Yet with his sister and brother kidnapped, he felt defeat run through him like a chill wind…until a girl with cornsilk hair and a steady gunhand rode into his life. Antonie was wild, hard, and hurting inside, and Royal knew from the moment he saw her that, if he tried to tame her, he'd break her spirit. Instead, he would let her ride with him as an equal partner, fight beside him for a future, and come to him as a woman on fire for blazing love….