Despite her unconventional upbringing -- she'd been adopted off the orphan train by the local ''madam'' -- Emma Chalmers was the most prim and proper young lady in all of Whitneyville. Why, she wouldn't even permit Fulton Whitney to kiss her, and they were practically engaged! But when Steven Fairfax landed in her home, wounded in an explosion at the town's raunchiest saloon, his lazy smile made Emma's blood race. Slowly, Steven stilled her fears with his gentle, insistent caresses...until at last she gave herself unashamedly to the splendid passion that was their destiny. Yet now Emma faced a new terror -- for the drifter she loved so desperately was a wanted man, and his past was about to catch up with him!