Romantic Secrets #15

Ann takes a job that feels wrong from the start—she's paid by a coworker to deliberately win the heart of Vic Sawyer, a promising oil-field engineer, only to reject him so the coworker can swoop in. But when Ann meets Vic, she discovers he's nothing like she expected, and her carefully calculated scheme begins to unravel as genuine feelings threaten to overtake her cold bargain. Now Ann faces an impossible choice between the money she desperately needs and the truth of what's growing between them.

In "Saga of the Sage," Montana Leeds—a drifting gambler with cards as his only trade—wins Ed Seiber's ranch in a poker game, earning the fierce hatred of Ed's fiery daughter Nan, who sees him as a coyote preying on her father's weakness. When Montana chooses to let the Seibers manage the property instead of selling it, Nan begins to glimpse a different man beneath the card sharp's exterior, and his unexpected generosity starts to soften her heart. But Montana's mounting luck and property—earned at the card table—have made a bitter enemy in Skinner Jones, setting the stage for a reckoning neither Montana nor Nan saw coming.

A lover braves winter's bitter cold and storms of doubt to reach their beloved's door, seeking shelter and solace in a heart that might guide them home. This illustrated love poem captures the yearning of devotion—a soul adrift in longing, hoping to find safe harbor in love's embrace.

Ella's impatience to marry Tom clashes with his commitment to finishing his architect training, but when his brother Joe and Joe's wife Martha return home broke and move in, Ella seizes the moment to pressure Tom into abandoning his dreams for immediate work—only to watch her own selfishness unravel everything around her. As Ella's resentment hardens into cruelty toward Joe and her control over Tom tightens, she discovers that using love as a weapon leaves deeper wounds than any patience could have healed.