Laura Kincaid had loved Cash Wycliffe, the tenant farmer's headstrong son, since childhood - even though she knew he was the last man on earth she should want. A ruggedly handsome gambler and shameless womanizer, he was everything a well-bred Kentucky lady should avoid. And while Cash —who had sought his fortune in the West and returned a wealthy man— was more exciting than ever, his eyes were fixed on Laura's aristocratic cousin Sallie, a Southern belle as dazzlingly beautiful as she was coldly calculating. But Laura let her heart rule her fate...and amid the tumult of the Civil War and its aftermath, she surrendered to her desire for a man who made no promises beyond the pleasure of the moment...armed only with a woman's sense that love was destined to flower where passion flamed...