York: The Renegade

Description from the book back cover: A spirited woman pierces a renegade's paradise ... Some men are made to fight dragons, Sierra Smith thinks when she meets York Delaney. The rebel roamed the world for years before finally calling the wild, rough mining town of Hell's Bluff home and so he isn't thrilled to discover that Sierra Smith has dared to penetrate his own personal refuge. Worse, she awakens a savage and tender possessiveness he has never suspected in himself. Sierra has known loneliness and isolation too - enough to realize that York's restlessness has everything to do with finding out where he belongs. Can she convince him that the refuge he's looking for is in her arms?

York Delaney wasn't allowed to run too fast, nor play too hard, nor stress himself in any way--because he wasn't gonna live past puberty. At least, that's what everyone (including him) thought. So when he outgrew his heart ailment, he went totally wild & reckless--with a very bad case of wanderlust. Eventually, he settled down at the family's Hell's Bluff copper mine. Sierra Smith is the girl-friday at Brady's Traveling Vaudeville Troupe, which plans to make a killing at Hell's Bluff. However, Sierra has to put on a 'lost waif' act (no trouble since she looks so fragile) so they can get permission to perform from York. Sierra thinks she's a plain brown hen to York's peacock good looks-- & completely unsuitable. Nevertheless, York lusts after her & has his fiercely protective instincts aroused. From the first, York's enthralled by Sierra's eyes--eyes that look like Rising Star's portrait, & feels a connection to.