September 1, 2001
Standalone Women's Fiction
Lucas stands to inherit a ranch, but to claim his inheritance, he must get married.
Lucas and Jackson MacIntyre stand to inherit the saloon, gold mine and ranch that define the town of Defiance, Colorado. There's just one problem: the uncle who has left them the properties created a clause in his will stipulating that both brothers must marry if they want to claim their inheritance.
Emily Smythe knew she'd likely never marry, and she's moved to Colorado to prove her independence from her family. She has a shrewd business sense, so when she approaches Lucas about turning the saloon's vacant upper level into a hotel, he sees the logic in the idea. Lucas has a proposition for Emily, too: become his wife in name only so that he can claim his inheritance, and she can run her hotel in his saloon. But though the marriage may be a business arrangement, Lucas soon finds it difficult to resist his new wife…