Gil Archer was a man of the world--the high-pressure, high-society world of international finance and diplomacy. Cecilia Vargas, his daughter's riding instructor, was a woman outside that world, but he saw in her the warmth and love his grand estate lacked, and he took it for himself. She had married him for love--he taught her the meaning of ecstasy. But Gil still hadn't learned that love was not something to be acquired and ignored--and the price of the lesson might be the loss of Cecilia.