Reckless Desire
by Thea Devine
Kalida Ryland can never remember a time she hasn't despised her neighbor, Deuce Cavender. He 's a man who always gets what he wants, and he wants her --- and, even more, he wants the prime Ryland rangeland that will be hers someday. And her feckless father has already given his blessing in exchange for being invited to join Cavender's cattle syndicate when the deal is done. He'll allow nothing to prevent it, not even Kalida's fervent promise that she will save them somehow.
Deuce Cavender has been half in love with Kalida since she was fifteen. Now she's a woman who hates him with the ferocity of a mountain lion --- and a woman who could love with equal ferocity if only she'd let herself. But she believes he and his cattle syndicate are only out dominate all of southern Montana --- and her. The Ryland ranch is the last impediment his ambition, and Deuce's price is non-negotiable: Kalida will be his wife. Even as she swears she will never ever marry him, she's caught in a web of betrayal which can only lead right into Deuce's arms --- and his bed.
Originally published January 1988 by Zebra Heartfire Romance.
Thea Devine's Bio
She’s the author whose books defined erotic historical romance. Romantic Times calls her “The Queen of Erotic Romance,” Affaire de Coeur: “… the divine mistress of sensual writing …” She’s Thea Devine (yes, it’s her real name), and she’s the author of 18 steamy historical romances (with three more to come), as well as contributing novellas to Kensington Books’ USA Today best-selling erotic historical romance anthologies, CAPTIVATED, FASCINATED, and TAKEN BY SURPRISE. She’s also written a handful of sexy contemporary romantic novellas for Kensington and Leisure Books, and she made her debut in full-length contemporary romance in 1999 with NIGHT MOVES, for Harlequin Temptation “Blaze”. She lives and works in Connecticut (and summers in Maine), but more to the point, she really lives that secret life readers sometimes think she does: for the past twenty years, she’s also been a professional manuscript reader. She was married to John and after 50 years of love and companionship, her husband passed away in December 2016, and has two grown sons, Michael and Thomas; and two sister felines, Charlotte and Emily Bronte Cat; and two dogs: mini-doxie Midgie, who recently joined the family; and the headstrong, stubborn and wilful black lab, Maggie, who has, Thea says, all the qualities of a good heroine.