Kansas McKay could feel Cole Slater's desire stirring her own buried passions. But she couldn't forget the heartbreak and humiliation of running from the town and the man who'd always see her as a whore's daughter.

Here in Virginia City, where she'd escaped to make a new life, her grace, her style, and her .22-caliber derringer made her place, the Kansas Palace, into the greatest gambling hall in the most notorious town this side of the Rockies. Beautiful and generous, she'd won the love and respect of the rough Nevada mining town. Still it wasn't enough. She longed to be a lady of virtue in the eyes of the only man she'd ever love.

Then the new sheriff rode into town, Cole Slater. A man tough enough to tame this lawless boomtown...and tender enough to stake his claim on the love of Kansas McKay...