The Devil in the Saddle

A devil in her path...

No one cheats on a Prince and gets away with it. And Hallie—Texas socialite, would-be ballerina, and the only daughter of the renowned Prince family—is ready to give her two-timing fiancé a piece of her mind. But fate plants hot, sexy ranch hand and ex-Army Ranger Rafael Fontana quite literally in her way. Her childhood friend is all grown up. He’s sexy, he’s handsome, and suddenly, after all these years, Hallie is taking notice.

A princess in his heart...

Rafe has been in love with Hallie since they were kids, but he was always the help—and she was glamorous and popular, seemingly off-limits to a lowly cowboy. But now he’s back at Three Rivers Ranch to help his family and Hallie is there too—and she needs his support. Soon long-buried feelings boil to the surface, and the desire between them is hot and palpable and undeniable. Rafe realizes he wants Hallie—and her adorable puppy—for keeps… he just has to convince her to give true love another shot.

The Princes of Texas

Everything is bigger in Texas—bigger ranches, bigger money, and bigger loves. The extended Prince family of Cimarron County epitomize this— they are the type of rich land barons that rarely exist anymore. They own the vast Three Rivers Ranch, a western palace and home of the Saddlebush Land and Cattle Company. The extended family is heavily involved in state politics, have accumulated planes, townhouses in San Antonio, apartments in New York and a beach house in Cabo. You can’t live life any bigger than the Princes do.

But with that kind of money comes big scandals and love affairs, and the Princes have been part of some of the juiciest gossip over the years. Like Lily Prince, who eloped with a Union soldier, or Jimmy Prince, who married a girl from south of the border when that was taboo and then fathered six kids. In more recent history, the news was filled with the big society wedding of Charlie Prince and Cordelia Applewhite. Charlie was a big, strapping rancher who took big risks with his land and his heart, and brazenly pursued high society beauty queen Cordelia until she could no longer deny that he loved her, and she loved him, too. But Charlie had a roving eye, and their forty-year, on-again, off-again marriage produced three children and a lot of scandal. They loved each other fiercely and fought just as hard, up until Charlie’s philandering ways and hard-living caught up to him on the fourteenth hole and he dropped dead of a heart attack, a stogie still clamped between his teeth.

At his funeral, Charlie’s family learned some new things about dear old dad—like the fact that he had a son with his long-time assistant. And that he had a gambling problem that led to some shady deals and could mean they aren’t as rich as they thought they were.

In spite of the new revelations, Charlie and Cordelia taught their children the best and worst of true love—it’s passionate, it’s hard, it can get dirty, but ultimately, it is the best thing to ever happen to them.

Hallie Prince

Rafael Fontana