Unexpected love... Derek MacDougal is not looking for love. Content to train with his men and bed a very willing female, Derek wants nothing more until he finds an unconscious woman in a clearing. Not what she remembers... Annabelle MacAlpin is pledged to wed a neighboring laird. Although she is against the match (her intended is old enough to be her father), she is bound by duty and an unrelenting father to wed where she is contracted. On her wedding day, her new husband is poisoned and she fears the same fate. She flees, only to collapse in a clearing. She awakens, with no memory of recent events, in a strange bed in the arms of a strange man. Compromised, they are forced to marry. Although Annabelle believes she is betrothed to another, she cannot fight her growing attraction to Derek. But she quickly realizes that Derek seems to have a woman at every keep in Scotland She can wield a dirk and ride a horse as good or better than any warrior, but she does not believe that she can tame her philandering new husband. Derek finds out who Annabelle really is and what has happened. He vows to protect his new wife at all cost until they find the culprit, because honor demands it of him, and desire compels him. He realizes that this strong willed and feisty woman is exactly what he had not known he wanted. But will betrayal and danger tear them apart?