Beautiful and defiant, Kristen Haardrad met the icy fury in her captor's crystal-green gaze with defiance. She was the prisoner of Royce, Thane of Wyndhurst, but his slave she'd never be. This powerful Saxon lord had at last met his match in the Viking beauty--his equal in pride, in strength... and in the fierce, hot hunger of insatiable desire. But Kristen could not know the torment that divided his soul; how he ached to hold her soft, supple body, thirsted for the ringing joy of her laughter--yet hated her for an ancient crime that was not her own. But her golden loveliness drives him mad with desire, her fiery eyes taunting him, compelling him to claim her. Until, in wordless surrender, they cast aside the shackles of doubt and distrust to unite forever in the searing promise of all-consuming love.