Logging manager Matt Shaw is wary when Kayla Edwards, the owner of Mountain Specialty Spices, hires his firm to harvest timber on her Appalachian property. It's a place he knows better than the back of his calloused hand—it's his family's old homestead, lost years ago in a painful foreclosure. He's hauled himself up from dirt-floor poor since then, and resolves to stay professional…but Kayla's vivacious beauty makes it hard to focus on his job.

Home. That's how army-brat-turned-foodie Kayla feels about her new mountain hideaway. What's more, the hottest lumberjack ever to swing an axe has agreed to manage her timber crop and get the old maple syrup operations back on tap. Matt's ruggedly sexy ways and passion for the land have her falling hard.

The heat between them grows wild…until Kayla discovers that Matt hasn't been up front with her. She feels devastated and, worst of all, used. How can Matt prove it's her he wants and not her land?

60,000 words