Beloved Stranger — Janet Miller

Marrying his match was easy. The hard part will be keeping her.

A Gaian Story

Roan Duman is six months from the end of his sentence at Ares Five mining colony, and he doesn't plan to go home to Gaia empty handed. He's going with a wife. The only way he can get one? Purchase her from an illegal marriage meet.

Ironically, he ends up in the one thing that landed him here in the first place. A fight over a woman. The one he wins -- sight unseen -- turns out to be as stunning as she is innocent.

Or so she seems.

Six years ago, Sonja escaped from Ares Five, forced to leave her sisters at the mercy of the slavers who sold them into the marriage meets. Now she's back to rescue them, even if the only way to get access is to marry one of the prisoners.

She plans to get in and out with her sisters and be well away before Roan figures it out. She hadn't counted on the annoying fact that her husband's talent for scheming exceeds her own. Or that his sense of honor is the key that unlocks her heart -- and the one thing she can't leave behind.