Lucia has loved Derringer Westmoreland for years though he's never shown any interst for her. When Lucia hears that Derringer was badly injured after falling from a horse she just goes to his house to see how he is, despite they're being more like casual acquaintances than friends. Arriving there, she finds Derringer in a haze from the many painkillers he's had. When a clearly drugged Derringer hits on her, she decides that this might be her only opportunity to be with him. And being nearly thirty and still a virgin, what better way to loose her virginity than to the man she's always loved? So she goes ahead, even though she knows Derringer hasn't even realized who she is, and leaves the next morning thinking that was all she'll ever have of him. But Derringer is obsessed with the woman he made love with and is determined to find her... Besides, they had unprotected sex, so she's possibly carrying his child and that's one more reason to hunt her down, right?

When a story starts with such a bad premise, you believe things can only get better from that point. Unfortunately, they got even worse for me. I saw a heroine who not only used a drugged man, but proceeded to have unprotected sex with him repeatedly after that without ever considering the consequences. She also has a nervous habbit of bitting and licking her lips in front of the hero, which of course drove him nuts, but she was too 'innocent' to realize that (although we'd already established her innocence when she forgot to consider the results of unprotected sex). Finally, the author hastens to assure us that it wasn't just her looks that made her attractive, but also her inner beauty and to this point has her confessing to the hero during their first date that she participates in many charities and fund raisings.

Had it been a historical romance, I could have accepted the heroine's innocence straight faced. For a thirty year old woman living in the 21st century however, I cannot make such allowences; I can only assume she's extremely stupid and naive. The rest of the book is pretty much ordinary and flat; had a few hot scenes and that was that. Even the hero for whom I had nothing bad to say until then, proceeds to have his own act of stupidness near the end, destroying the only redeeming quality this book had to offer until that point. A complete waste of my time.