He wants a lady, not a temptation...

When Alejandro Vasquez sends for a wife from Mexico City, the glittering capital of New Spain, he imagines a lady of refinement and breeding—not an enchantress who tests his iron will. With secrets to protect, he's determined to resist her allure and keep his carefully constructed life from falling to pieces.

The California frontier is nothing like home...

Josefa expects to find adventure and a long-awaited family to call her own when she agrees to marry Alejandro. But Alta California is shockingly unrefined—no society, no watercolors, no books. At least her husband is the perfect gentleman... and utterly distant and unapproachable, in and out of the bedroom. Josefa refuses to settle for anything less than the passionate union of her dreams, and she'll do whatever it takes to set her husband's heart free.

But secrets and danger lurk, threatening to tear their newly formed bonds apart. Will they cling to their safe illusions about what love should be or dare to seize a future beyond their wildest imaginings?