Hello everyone,

I read a book about 10 years ago that I absolutely loved, but I was only 15 so my mother made me throw it away, and I have been trying to find it ever since as it was one of the best romance novels that I have ever read.

The book takes place in California in the late 1800s.  There is a young woman(she is hispanic) who for some reason or another ends up "stealing" a horse from a very rich hispanic plantation owner.  He tells her that she has to come work for him on his plantation as punishment.  She is very fiery and rebellious and gives him a fight the whole way, but goes with him.  Basically, while they are on the ranch, their attraction grows.  However, someone is trying to hurt the ranch owner because he is in a fight with people in the United States who are trying to take his land (it was given to him by authorities in Spain).  Because these suspects are trying to hurt him, they hurt her instead which of course makes the ranch owner jealous, and makes him realize his strong attraction the young woman even more.  He fights the attraction because he had a wife and son who were killed and he blames himself for not being at home to protect them.  Eventually they sleep together, and in this novel, she even gets pregnant before they get married.  There is also part of the novel that deals with the ranch owner being bethrothed to someone at his birth in Spain.  The novel hints that this woman (his captor) could be that baby that he was promised to, but it turns out that it's not.  I think that the woman's name is Gabriela, but I can't be sure.  Also, he calls her "querida" all throughout the book.  I thought the title was Untamed Heart, or Unchained Heart, but I could be way off.  I'm pretty sure the book was published by Zebra, and it had to be before 1998.  If anyone has any suggestions whatsoever, I will be eternally grateful!

Krystal