After backbreaking years spent building up his Outback cattle station, Matthew Carlyle was ready for family life. With little time for courting, he'd advertised in the paper, and one reply in particular stood out. Why was the beautiful Cassie Stirling, of all people, applying to become his wife? He knew her privileged background and, although he believed her claim to want marriage -- children -- as much as he did, he couldn't imagine her adapting to isolated Outback life. Besides, Cassie deserved the best and he was a man with a scandal in his past. But then, Cassie was hiding a secret of her own...