The Bequest — Candice Proctor

"Your mother could handle men better than anyone I've ever met. She knew exactly what she was doing. You don't."

"I can learn."

"Can you?" He came at her with that lean-hipped walk she found so intimidatingly masculine. "What are you going to do time a man stalks up to you and puts his hand on you like this?"

At his touch she went rigid and sucked in an audible gasp of air.

"What if he backs you up against a wall?" He pinned her against the soft velvet of the door curtain.

"You have made your point, Mr. Hays...."

When Gabrielle Antoine arrives in the rough mining town, the convent-bred beauty is shocked by the decadence finds there--and stunned to learn she has just inherited a bordello from the mother she never knew. Worse, her mother's business partner, Jordan Hays--a rugged, cynical loner--embodies everything Gabrielle fears ... and secretly desires. Determined to transform the house of ill repute into an honorable enterprise, Gabrielle soon locks horns with an unscrupulous rival. And as Jordan seeks to shield her from this unexpected danger, Gabrielle finds herself swept away by a passion as tempting as sin itself ....