Desperate to escape her leering uncle Hugo, lovely young Juliet Darcy fled a forced marriage, only to find herself aboard a ship of mail-order brides bound for California and promised to a man she had never met. Darkly handsome, savagely sensual, Rodrigo Delgado had no intention of claiming a husband's rights--until he looked into Juliet's flashing azure eyes. Here was a woman who set his passions ablaze, a woman he must take for his own, no matter what the cost. Bound to another by hastily spoken vows, torn asunder by fierce pride of an aristocratic Californian family, they battled all odds to consummate their burning love.