"Clay!" Paula Olsen screamed in horror. One second her little blond two-year-old had tumbled headfirst out of the Red Flyer wagon onto the asphalt. In the next second, a stranger plucked him away as a snarling black Lab in the town's Dog-Walkathon lunged forward to sink his teeth into her little boy.

It was all over in an instant. The man more or less thrust Clay into her arms, giving her a glimpse of darkly lashed green eyes. She looked her son over. Except for a red bump on his head from the fall, she didn't see a mark on him. "How can I ever thank you?" she called out to the man.

But he'd disappeared without saying anything, making it impossible for her to thank him properly. It was no use calling him back. He moved like the wind and was already gone.

She heard a male voice in the crowd say, "Ooh-eee! I believe that was J. W. Cody's son! I thought he was still overseas!"

Two and a half years ago a pregnant Paula had done the master plan for the landscaping of John Walker Cody's spectacular new ranch house, the latest addition to the famed Cottonwood Ranch built on their 600,000 acre spread outside Markton, Wyoming. The fabulously wealthy Codys were the premier family of rodeo in the northwestern part of the state. She was aware he had a daughter and four sons, all rodeo champions, but she'd never met any of them.

If her recollection was correct, one of them was an officer in the Marines. Could that be Clay's rescuer? If so, he was out of uniform.

He'd been tall, maybe six foot two or three and in his late twenties, but she only caught a brief view of chiseled male features. For some strange reason she couldn't get rid of the fleeting impression that he'd looked…hau