Hart's Desire — Chloe Flowers

THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK OF A THREE BOOK SAGA. Rakishly handsome and equally exasperating Landon Hart is a Freedom Runner-part of a network of people moving runaways to a new life up North. He's in Charleston for two reasons. The first is to smuggle a recently escaped group aboard his ship. The second is to uncover the purpose of a clandestine meeting his late business partner had set with a Commodore Grey. When he meets a sword-wielding, fiery-haired temptress on the way, he isn't prepared for the impact she has on his tightly guarded heart...nor the trouble she manages to attract. Fiercely independent and equally impetuous Keelan Grey acts the dutiful daughter on the outside, but inside, she's determined to avoid marriage to a cruel neighboring plantation owner even if it means taking the most desperate measures. Everything changes when a deathbed confession from a loved one plunges her into a dark plot of deception and revenge. Desperate for help, Keelan finds an unlikely ally in the antagonistic but irresistible sea captain, Landon Hart. But while she might trust him with her life, can she trust him with her secrets?