Clair Coulter is a linguistic for CommOptima, struggling to support herself and her brother, while trying to find the finances he desperately needs for a kidney transplant. Judged first by her extraordinary beauty, and hurt by a previous lover, she chooses to lead a celibate life.

Jack Hughes is the owner of the financially troubled Dark Horse Ranch. Unwilling to share his secret and be judged as a freak, he moved away from his promising high society life and engagement. Jack has personal reasons for not wanting to go to Medicine Valley, a secret buried so deep within his subconscious that even he doesn't understand the metaphysical change it had on him.

Clair agrees to take an assignment, backpacking into Medicine Valley, rumored to be a mystical Native American land. When she arrives at the ranch and from the first touch of her leg by her boss, Tobias Benton, tells her that her skills are not the only reason she was given the job. He expects sexual restitution for his financial promise. He desires her at a psychotic level, and using her brother's ill health as leverage, he means to get his full money's worth from her.

Jack isn't pleased about being anybody's tour guide into Medicine Valley. He hasn't been there since he was thirteen years old. Before he announces his decision, he finds Claire in the barn with his ailing race horse and realizes she isn't the usual debutant. She shares with him her special ability. She feels an animal's emotional state and sees images they project. Her uncanny reading has Jack worried. If she touches him, will his secret be revealed, his second nature? Whatever the outcome of this trip, she mustn't touch him.

As Claire fends off her boss's advances, Jack and she realize that more than just physical attraction lies between each other. There is respect and a feeling of safety even as her boss becomes more jealous and dangerous. Is this the meaning of the mysterious tarot cards and the curse that has already taken the life of her best friend?

Patricia Simpson does a wonderful job at blending nature, mythology, and character into her novel THE DARK HORSE. Reading it, I was finding myself surprised at the unpredictable ways she used common events and still had them be logical and suspenseful.