MILLS & BOON

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      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CHAPTER SIX

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      CHAPTER NINE

      CHAPTER TEN

      CHAPTER ONE

      DOMINIC GIRAUD finally came upon the tiny historical museum and store. He’d been told he would find it about twelve miles outside of Laramie, Wyoming. A busload of tourists appeared to have laid siege to the place.

      Though he pulled his topless four-wheel drive to a stop, he didn’t immediately get out of his vehicle. Instead, he took advantage of the beautiful, warm June evening to look around him.

      The rugged beauty of this Western landscape was so at odds with the skyscrapers of New York City where he lived, or the Mediterranean ambience of his French birthplace in Vence, he could hardly credit he was on the same planet.

      However, because he’d been born in the land of the orange tree, jasmine and lavender, he could appreciate more than most the aromatic scents of sage and Indian paintbrush in the dry air wafting past his nostrils. A man native to the sunny French Midi, he thrived under this cloud-dotted blue sky where the sun had disappeared below the horizon some time ago.

      Realizing it might be a while before he could talk with the person running the place to discover the name of the owner, he decided to go off-road and explore the property behind it. He needed this section of land to link the two neighboring properties for a project he’d undertaken in the last year, and probably wouldn’t see completed for several more years at least.

      The idea of running a bullet train from the east to the west coast of the U.S. had consumed him for years. Now it was on its way to becoming a reality, thanks to a seminar he’d attended in England celebrating the completion of the Channel Tunnel, an unrivaled engineering feat.

      Those without vision had said it couldn’t be done.

      They were wrong. Just as they would be wrong about the eventual completion of his bullet train.

      At that momentous conference he’d met two Americans, a geologist from New York, Alik Jarman, and an engineer from San Francisco, Zane Broderick. They were men who dreamed the same kinds of dreams Dominic dreamed.

      Each being pressed because of heavy work schedules, the three of them had only intended to stay in London for the day, the length of the conference. But once the other two heard his idea, all other commitments were put on hold.

      For three weeks they spent literally twenty-four hours a day in a hotel suite working out the intricacies of such a massive project, one that had caught hold of their imaginations and wouldn’t let go.

      No longer alone with his ideas, Dominic could concentrate on raising the money and procuring the land while he marveled at the genius and speed with which the others put their scientific contributions to paper. Those weeks marked the turning point in all their lives. They came out of the experience not only firm colleagues in the greatest adventure they would ever undertake, but best friends.

      Because of that chance meeting in London he was here now, doing his part to ensure the realization of their dream.

      Shifting gears to four-wheel drive, he drove around the back of the store where he discovered a small barn and a vintage one-horse trailer. Nearby, a blue compact car stood parked. In the adjacent corral, a saddled chestnut sorrel quarter horse munched on some hay. All the land beyond the two buildings was an untouched vista of sage, grass and wildflowers.

      The place looked lonely, or maybe he only thought that because there was this strange sense of loneliness he’d been feeling since driving out here from town. It echoed somewhere deep inside of him, disturbing him in ways he didn’t care to analyze…not when he’d thought himself totally fulfilled by his work.

      Impatient, he shrugged it off and headed toward a ridge he could see in the distance overlooking the river.

      By the time he reached the top, his mind was once more immersed in thought over his future plans, and he reacted too slowly as his vehicle began the descent. Almost colliding with a medium-size boulder, he swerved to avoid it, then swore softly when the right rear tire caught the side of it. The next thing he knew the world was spinning and he saw lights.

      Hannah Carr frowned when the sound of the departing tour bus faded and another sound took its place. Someone’s horn was honking and wouldn’t stop.

      She finished changing her little niece’s diaper, then walked outside the museum to see if the car was anywhere in sight. That’s when she realized the noise was coming from the river area behind them.

      Someone was out on her