SHE HAD PARADISE...BUT SHE NEEDED HIM.

The mannish, broad-brimmed hat hid the worry in Edwinna's lovely eyes. Looking at the aqua waves lapping the white sands, the sugarcane like green swords against a cloudless sky, she surveyed the Barbados plantation that she would inherit ... if she could find a man to marry within twenty-four hours.

And there waist-deep in the sea, shackled to a boulder, stood the man she had chosen. Drake Steel -- muscular, handsome, defiant -- was about to be executed as a pirate. Now Edwinna offered him marriage instead. It was a match made by the devil -- and, possibly to the devil himself! The headstrong Edwinna trembled with fear at the thought of this mysterious stranger's touch. Yet she felt the heat, the lushness, the perfumes of this tropical isle intoxicating her when she dreamed of Drake's kiss. Marrying him was surely madness, but loving him ... that could bring her either heartbreak or intoxicating endless passion.