A Scandalous Melody. Linda Conrad

desire.”

      Chase stared down, mesmerized by the sparkling colors of the precious stones placed in the golden egg-shaped setting. With his new inheritance and the money he’d made from the casinos and the other businesses he’d bought and sold over the years, he could easily afford to buy his own jewels.

      But if this was something that should be his heritage… Well, it would be a thing to be proud of. Something to take back and hold out to show that he was a somebody.

      “Tell me the whole story of what my grandmother did for your family,” he said as he dragged his gaze from the egg.

      But the old gypsy woman was gone, and he was once again standing on a deserted street corner—all alone.

      One

      “You won’t believe who’s back in town.”

      Her secretary’s words should not have caused a shiver to run along Kate’s nerve endings. After all, there were many people who could’ve come back to Bayou City. But Kate Beltrane knew instinctively who it was that had finally come home.

      “I don’t have time to guess, Rose. Tell me.” She said the words with a small shrug, as if she didn’t care. As if the chance to see him again wasn’t the one thing she’d dreamed about every day for the past ten years.

      “Chase Severin,” Rose said in a whisper. “I was only twelve when he left. But I remember him as one juicy hunk of a guy. All the girls had such a crush on him.” She fanned herself, acting as if the very thought of him had made her hot and sweaty all of a sudden. “I wonder why he’s come home now? His father left town nearly five years ago. He doesn’t have any family here anymore.”

      “How do you know it’s him? Did you see him?”

      “Mrs. Seville told Sallie Jenkins he checked in to the B&B this morning. The word’s all over town.”

      Kate looked up from her work and noticed that Rose was eyeing her carefully, waiting for some kind of reaction. “We don’t have time for gossip,” she told Rose in a mild tone.

      She knew the old rumors about her and Chase were bound to resurface now that he was back in town. “Lunchtime is over,” Kate continued. “And we still have a lot to do if we’re going to be ready for our appointment with the new owner of the mill this afternoon.

      “I don’t suppose Mrs. Seville mentioned anything about a stranger checking in, did she?” she asked Rose, trying to deflect any more conversation about Chase Severin.

      Rose shook her head, pulled her reading glasses up from their spot on a chain around her neck and placed them on the bridge of her nose. “No. But maybe the new owner will come here first and then check in there after the meeting.”

      Seville’s B&B was the only place in town for visitors to stay. People did sometimes drive down from one of the motels in New Iberia, and even the hotels of New Orleans were not all that far away. But if a person had business in town, or if they’d come to do a little fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, the deluxe accommodations of the bed and breakfast would be the one and only spot to overnight.

      Kate wondered which one had brought Chase back home after all these years. But she didn’t have time to dwell on him right now. Getting these files straightened out for the new mill owner was much more urgent.

      Later, in the deep dark stillness of night when the wind whipped through moss-covered live oaks and alligators stealthily slipped through coffee-colored waters hunting for a meal… Later, in the same quiet and sleepless hour of the night that had become Kate’s constant and dearest companion… Later. That’s when she would take the time to guess about him…and to remember.

      “Go back to work, Rose,” she said with a heavy heart. “We only have a couple more hours before we can stop guessing. When the man gets here, we’ll know for sure.”

      Two hours after her discussion with Rose, Kate took a minute to pin up a few loose strands of her unruly curls, readying herself for the appointment. She’d tried hard over the past few years to dress in a more businesslike manner. It wasn’t in her nature to wear dress suits. She was a bayou girl at heart. And any shoe with closed toes was not to her taste.

      But recently she’d begun to feel as if she owed it to her father—no, check that. She owed it to the town and its dependence on this mill—to look professional.

      In a matter of days, the mill could be shut down for good. And with it would go the history, dreams and hopes of every one of Bayou City’s twelve hundred residents.

      With a quiet sigh, Kate smoothed her hair and inspected the stacks of files on the desk before her. She’d done her best.

      The man who would arrive today was from the corporation that had bought the mill. He would be the one to make the final decision about whether this mill could be put into a good enough position to emerge from bankruptcy, or if the place should be torn down. The future of the mill and the town was out of her hands.

      Not that it had ever really been up to her, anyway. No, her father had seen to that.

      And to top off a truly miserable day, Chase had come back to town. It figured that he would choose one of her worst moments to show up.

      After all this time, it was hard to imagine that he was actually close enough for her to feel his presence. She’d waited so long to see him again.

      If she closed her eyes, she could still hear his laughter after ten years. She could still experience the low, rough rumble of his sensual whispers as he’d spoken to her of love on that wonderful June night so long ago.

      The most wonderful and the most horrible night of her entire life.

      Kate swallowed hard and opened her eyes. Positive Chase’s reason for coming home had nothing to do with seeing her, she nevertheless still longed for just a glimpse of him.

      It would be better for both of them if they didn’t have to face each other—face the hard truths of their shared past. But she would give her right arm for one last look into the quiet gray eyes of the man she had loved since she was ten years old.

      Kate heard the anterior reception door open as Rose spoke softly to whomever had just arrived. So…the new owner of the mill was a few minutes early for his appointment. The man must be eager to begin dismantling what little was left of her ancestors’ dreams.

      Curious, Kate stood and moved to the partially open door between her office and Rose’s. Maybe she could catch a glimpse of the corporation’s man and try to judge his intentions from his looks.

      She peeked through the crack, and had to twist around so she could see past Rose’s desk to find the stranger. Over her secretary’s shoulder, Kate caught her first view of the man she had been expecting.

      But with a soft gasp, she froze. It wasn’t her appointment. No, just to devil her today—just to make her life more of a living hell than it had been for the last ten years—it was Chase Severin, live and very much in the flesh.

      He was talking to Rose and smiling down at the secretary with the same boyish grin that had driven Kate wild as a girl. It wasn’t the boy that she saw now, but a man. A man dressed in a blue blazer and tan slacks, who looked somehow taller, broader and sexier than the eighteen-year-old of her dreams.

      Sudden erotic flashbacks of scraping her nails against that broad back, of dragging her fingers through the hair on his chest while he pleasured her lips—and all those other more delicate places—drove a deep breathtaking ache through her body.

      Not now. Please don’t come around to make me lose my mind today, Chase. Not today of all days, when I’m trying to stay so strong.

      Her back to Kate, Rose started to get up from her desk. Just as suddenly Chase raised his eyes to Kate’s office door and for one crazy moment his gaze met hers. Kate’s hands trembled at the sight of the dark-gray eyes that she hadn’t forgotten for one day in the past ten years.

      He