Dakota's Bride — Christine Young

HER LIFE WAS AT STAKE...
When Emma St. John received her brother's letter imploring her to escape her stepfather's vengeful scheme and to trust Dakota Barringer with her life, she was willing to chance it. But the handsome, brooding riverboat owner Emma found in Natchez was a danger of another kind. For Emma soon found herself surrendering to an unrelenting desire...

...AND SO WAS HER HEART
Raised by the Sioux when his parents were killed, Dakota had been betrayed once before by a white woman. He wasn't about to trust another, especially one claiming that her stepfather, a powerful U.S. senator, had framed her as a murderess. But he couldn't deny Emma's intoxicating effect on him. Now on the run from the man determined to ruin her, Dakota would risk his very life to protect the innocent beauty who has seduced him with her tender love...