Lily Highfill has spent eight years in Colorado, exiled from her wealthy, high-society Boston family. With a long-awaited invitation to return home finally in hand, she's doing all she can to secure her betrothal to a charming and cultured gentleman. But with just a few weeks left at her grandfather's fossil expedition, a rugged and handsome stranger rides in on horseback, stirring up trouble . . . and excavating a place for himself in her heart. Free-spirited journalist Mason Donnelly came to the frontier to cure his writers' block, unaware the badlands offered such tempting distractions. Lily is as breathtaking as a Western sunset. But she's also as delicate as a bowie knife. The more Mason digs up about the suspicious bone-hunters she works for, the more the feisty heiress derails his plans. If he exposes the priceless secrets hidden deep in the desert, will he lose his only chance with the sensuous diamond in the rough?