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Informationen zum Autor The daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than one hundred historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West. Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a horse property outside Spokane. Published since 1983, Linda was awarded the prestigious Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 by the Romance Writers of America. She was recently inducted into the Wild West Heritage Foundation's Walk of Fame for her dedication to preserving the heritage of the Wild West. When not writing, Linda loves to focus her creativity on a wide variety of art projects. Visit her online at LindaLaelMiller.com and Facebook.com/OfficialLindaLaelMiller. Klappentext After twelve years, the headstrong Annabel McKeige is back in the frontier town of Parable, Nevada. Back to face the husband she left behind...the son she never saw grow to manhood...and the home where her heart broke when she lost a beloved daughter. But her intentioins regarding their marriage are soon clear -- even if her motives are not.Gabe McKeige loved Annabel too fiercely to let a chance like this slip away. But the iron-willed rancher is also too proud to beg -- he didn't twelve years ago, and he won't now. So, Gabe sets out to woo Annabel the only way he knows...with passion-filled kisses and sensual touches that conjure the sweet firestorm of their marriage bed. And Annabel is finding that the man she once left is unbearably hard to resist.... Leseprobe Chapter One Annabel Latham McKeige's return to Parable, Nevada, some twelve years after her scandalous departure, might have equaled the Second Coming for spectacle, if an angel or two had taken the trouble to show up. In the misleading chill of that Independence Day morning, 1878, Annabel's sky blue surrey, with its liveried driver and dancing fringe of gold, came trundling over the rise a quarter of a mile east of town, emblazoned like a living icon in the glorious aura of dawn. In attendance was a retinue that seemed to represent fully half the United States Cavalry -- a noisy multitude of blue-coated soldiers with brass buttons gleaming and the hooves of their horses raising billows of sun-gilded dust. Two huge black hounds trotted along on either side of Miss Annabel's rig, their fancy collars catching light. Einar Grubb, who mucked out the Samhill Saloon on a daily basis and served as night guard at the town jail, on the rare occasions when there was a prisoner, claimed ever after that he'd been the first to take note of the Approach. There were others who disputed this contention -- Miss Bethesda Deed, for one. An early riser by habit, she'd been standing at an upstairs window at the time, admiring the sunrise. She said the whole thing put her in mind of Hannibal crossing the Alps. Marshal Jacob Swingler, returning from a tryst with a certain pretty widow, considered himself to be the first witness, but he was less vociferous in the matter, for reasons of chivalry as well as prudence. In any event, it was Grubb who raised the alarm, sending the swinging doors of the saloon crashing inward and charging halfway up the staircase on the far side of the room before thinking better of the idea and stumbling to a halt on the first landing. "Gabe!" he bellowed, sounding plaintive, like a cow up to its belly in a mudhole. "Gabe McKeige! Godamighty, get down here quick -- she's come back!" A general racket erupted then, not only there in the gloom of the Sainhill but all over that small cattle town, as if the fuse on some giant firecracker had finally burned down to the powder. Whores with tumbledown hair and fading ruffled nightdresses lined the railing overhe...
