The Falcon's Prize

Then he was close, a finger placed gently beneath her chin. “Nell,” he breathed, his voice low. She craned her head to look into his amber eyes, which blazed like the Texas sun. “There is a chance I may never see you again.” His eyes searched her face as if he were trying to memorize it and lingered on her lips. “You’ll always belong to Bennet, but this moment, this moment is mine, and I’d be a fool not to take it, so you’ll have to forgive me.”

He grasped her shirt with his other hand and gently drew her to him, lowered his head, and took her lips in a fierce kiss. Her heartbeat quickened. She was helpless to withhold and kissed him back just as fiercely, her hands winding into his midnight-black hair.

They were alone. This was not a kiss for show, not a kiss to fool strangers into believing they were lovers soon to be married. There was undeniable need and tension in the way he held her and touched her, the way his strong hand cradled the back of her neck, and a thrill shot through her. She was pierced by her own hot, pulsing need, flooded with the taste and scent and feel of him, wanting more. But all too soon he was gone, slipping into the rocky shadows of the canyon below, where danger lurked….

Book Description
Texas Hill Country, 1869

Diego Chandler Armijo, a man they call The Falcon, isn't the law and he isn't an outlaw. He's somewhere in between. Possessing an instinct for self-preservation and a knack for administering justice, he rights wrongs when others have given up. He's been sidetracked by a bloody civil war and a woman who brutally betrayed him, but now he's finally closing in on his ultimate prey—his father—a vile man he's been trying to locate for years. The trail has led Chandler to the small town of Castell, nestled in Texas Hill Country, bordered by Comanche territory. Unfortunately, a promise he made to his best friend Bennet, blinded during the war, is going to slow him down. Chandler needs to escort Bennet's mail-order bride, Nell Bradford, through Comanche territory to Bennet's cattle ranch before he can resume his quest for revenge. Chandler plans to take care of the task of guiding the spoiled, wealthy, St. Louis socialite across the plains as fast as he can and be done with it. But he finds himself intrigued by the feisty, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman with secrets, a woman who possesses a fighting spirit and thirst for adventure that nearly matches his own. He doesn't have time to fall in love with a woman who is off limits to him and he can't afford to with the life he's chosen to live. Protecting his broken heart and wounded soul will be one of the hardest tests he faces as he yearns to be with the woman promised to his closest friend. In the wild, untamed American West, Chandler's past and future collide. Which will he choose? A life and a love he never imagined? Or will he ride away from what he's come to love to fulfill a vow of revenge he made when he was just a boy?