When Alex is booted on her ass on a small run down ranch, she is forced to prove her worthiness of her respectable name. She had to be able to take care of herself, since she refused to wed the man of her father's liking. Her inheritance was riding on her success, but Alex didn't like the sun and she wasn't too keen on the idea of running a ranch. When a stout, overeager man welcomes her to his neck of the woods, she takes advatange of his southern hospitality and sets him to work. Bored and alone and living next to the McSwains, wasn't something she thought was possible. Especially when she sought sightings of Darren McSwain. He definitely wasn't the kind of man her father wanted her to wed, but she could put his muscles to use. The only trouble with Mr. McSwain, was his southern hospitality ended with southern belle princessess'. Can she convince the tightlipped, cocky man to be a little helpful or will her ranch suffer at the hands of little southern boys?
Darren McSwain never cared for women, and he definitely wouldn't care about his newest neighbor either. He avoided spoiled brats as much as he could, but even if he hated to admit, they were more apart of his world than he liked. When he falls out of the loop of a respectable family, Darren's life starts to spiral out of control. Normally, he wouldn't have cared, he wasn't a high society man and he wasn't raised to be, but his future was riding wedding the farmer's daughter. Thrust onto little miss perfect's ranch, he hopes she has some even tempered sister's he can tolerate, because even if she wasn't respectable, her name was.
As Claire aims to leave her oppressive stepfamily behind, she befriends Zion. Will he be her ticket to freedom or a distraction in achieving her dreams?
*****
Claire Olsen has had a crush on Zion Petrakis since the first time she laid eyes on him, but he never noticed, instead only having eyes on the school's it girl, Maddie Jennings. Knowing she couldn't compete with Maddie, Claire hid her feelings for Zion, satisfied with admiring him from afar. However, when a series of events led Claire closer to Zion, her feelings for him grew from infatuation to love. And despite fighting hard to keep her feelings contained by distancing herself from Zion, he was determined to show her that he's earned a spot in her life.
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