“Hello, Katherine.”

That deep, dangerous voice…

The humidity closed in despite the air-conditioning and cut off the words in Kate’s throat. Sweat beaded at her temple and on the back of her neck. He was still the best-looking man she’d ever seen.

“I, uh,” she stammered. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin. “Hello, Chase. You took me by surprise. It’s been a long time. How’ve you been?”

“Considerably better than last time we saw each other, chère.”

“All right, Chase. What do you want here?”

It took a few seconds for him to answer. She couldn’t breathe.

“Everything, Kate,” he finally told her. “I want it all.”

A Scandalous Melody
Linda Conrad

www.millsandboon.co.uk

LINDA CONRAD

Award-winning author Linda Conrad was first inspired by her mother, who gave her a deep love of storytelling. “Actually, Mom told me I was the best liar she ever knew. And that’s saying something for a woman with an Irish-storyteller’s background,” Linda says. In her past life Linda was a stockbroker and certified financial planner, but she has been writing contemporary romances for six years now. Linda’s passions are her husband, her cat, Sam, and finding time to read cozy mysteries and emotional love stories. She says, “Living with passion makes everything worthwhile.” Visit Linda’s Web site at www.LindaConrad.com or write to her at P.O. Box 9269, Tavernier, FL 33070.

This is for my niece, Christine Norris,

a most terrific wife, mom, sister and friend!

Thanks for all your support!

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Prologue

Dark, dangerous street corners and after-hours sounds of jazzy blues playing eerily in the distance meant nothing to Passionata Chagari.

She stood quietly in the shadows, awaiting the arrival of the lost heir to the gypsy legacy, Chase Severin. His grandmother, Lucille Steele, was long buried in her grave. Yet just today, Chase had been informed of his status as heir to her fortune.

Now, after a long night of revelry, Chase would receive a bequest that was much more valuable than all of Lucille’s money. Passionata patted the deep pocket in the long, flowing silk of her favorite scarlet dress and smiled.

This young man would be the most difficult one to help, she knew. Yet Passionata had given her father her word. No matter what the circumstances, the lost Steele heir was to receive the gift that was meant for him.

Chase Severin wandered out of the French Quarter bar right at closing, mulling over the events of the last couple of days and feeling staggered by everything he’d learned—and perhaps by that last straight shot of bourbon.

He wasn’t just the wayward son of a small-town drunk as he’d believed for all of his life. Son of a—

He had actual relatives and shared family trees. And on top of the new fortune, Chase had also inherited an exalted social standing.

Stopping at an empty street corner, Chase lit up one of his long thin cigars and blew a fragrant, gray circle of smoke out into the darkness. He’d meant to quit this nasty habit, and had cut way down. But just now he needed all the help he could get.

His whole life…everything he’d ever believed about himself…most of it simply wasn’t true. The secrets and the misunderstandings were still not all clear to him. But he knew things would be different from now on.

Still cloaked by the darkness, Passionata read his mind. She chuckled at the thought of just how truly different this young man’s life was about to become.

“Celebrating, Severin?” she said aloud as she stepped into the yellow lamplight. “You have reason.”

Chase nearly choked on his own smoke when the strange and creaky voice came unexpectedly out of the shadows. He turned to face one of the oddest women he’d ever seen. She was dressed up in wild colors like a fortune-telling gypsy. The hair that hung loose beneath a deep-purple head scarf was a mottled salt-and-pepper color. And her watery eyes gleamed strangely bright under the streetlight.

“Do we know each other?” he asked when he found his voice.

“I am Passionata Chagari, and I have a debt to repay.”

“Not to me, you don’t. I keep careful records of my accounts.” Chase took a long, thoughtful drag and flipped the cigar in the gutter.

She smiled a partially toothless grin. “This debt is to be repaid in the form of a legacy left to you by your grandmother Steele and by my father, the king of the gypsies.”

Most of what she’d said was too weird for Chase to fathom. He’d only been aware of his grandmother Steele’s existence for a few days, and the only reason he knew now was because she’d died and left him part of her fortune.

So he took the old woman’s arm and held her close. “Don’t play with a player, Passionata,” he whispered hoarsely. “You’ll only lose. What exactly do you want?”

“Your grandmother Steele was a great lady. She would not care for you to treat your elders with such disdain.” The old woman pulled her arm from his grip. “Lucille Steele saved my life, the life of my family. She was kind to strangers when no other would take the time.”

“I didn’t know her,” Chase muttered. “But I’m glad to hear you thought she was a good person. Lucille’s dead now. Do you expect me to take up your care where she left off?”

The gypsy smiled. “Ever the gambler, Severin? You take the risk now that I may have something of value you need.”

She tilted her head to study him and continued. “You have the chance to change your ways—go back—make right the wrongs. Do you consider the possibilities? Or do you shirk your fate?”

How could she know what he’d been thinking? The moment he’d found out that he’d come from prominent and respectable people, he’d wondered what it would be like to go back.

Passionata reached into a pocket and pulled out something shiny. “This is your part of the gypsy’s legacy. It is one of the gifts from my father to the blood descendants of Lucille Steele, in repayment for a kindness.”

Chase took the object from her hand and turned it over to study. A golden replica of an egg, the beautiful artifact had a jewel-encrusted design reminiscent of the great Russian artisans. Old and obviously expensive, it looked like something that should’ve belonged to a king.

“It is old,” the gypsy began as if to answer his thoughts. “But it belongs to you, and was made for you alone.”

“I’m not that old.” He tried to get her to take it back but she stepped away.

“This orb of jewels is crafted to bring everything you’ve ever wanted, at long last,” she told him. “Take it back to the beginning. Keep the magic close and let it give to you the riches that have become your heart’s 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 was still the best-looking guy she’d ever seen. Only even better as a grown man. With a monumental effort, she turned and scurried back to her desk. Chase was coming her way, there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to stop him. The door swung wide just as she reached her chair and turned around.

“You won’t believe this,” Rose said as she came into the office with Chase right on her heels. “You remember Chase Severin, don’t you, Kate? Well, he’s the man we’ve been expecting. Isn’t that a surprise?”

“What…?” Surprise was hardly the word for all the emotions that were shooting through her mind and body at the moment. Confusion mixed with remembered desire and caused chaos in her mind.

“Hello, Katherine,” he said in that deep, dangerous voice she had heard so often in the wind and in the rain.

The Louisiana humidity, the nasty low-down kind that usually never bothered her, closed in despite the air-conditioning and cut off the words in Kate’s throat. Sweat beaded at her temple and on the back of her neck and she couldn’t think of what to say.

He narrowed his eyes. “I guess if a person doesn’t say goodbye, that must make it okay for them to ignore hello. Is that right, Ms. Beltrane?” His bitterness was plain…understandable but still hurtful at the same time.

“I, uh,” she stuttered. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her chin. “Hello, Chase. You took me by surprise. I’m sorry. It’s been a long time. How’ve you been?”

“Considerably better than I was the last time we saw each other, chère.”

Okay, Kate admitted to herself. Chase had a right to be angry with her—even after ten years. What she’d done deserved his anger and much more. But she was no longer the scared little poulette of her childhood years. Afraid of scandal and rumors, afraid of her father.

“Rose, will you excuse us, please?” she asked her secretary. If this was going to be a rehash of yesteryear, she didn’t want the worst of it ending up as gossip around town. There were plenty of other subjects for the citizens to stew about these days.

The secretary excused herself and shut the door behind her. Kate had a momentary flash of fear at being closed up with a man who must hate her guts. But her own curiosity and pride overcame it.

Whatever Chase Severin might be, he would never hurt her physically. She knew that right down to the toes of her too-tight shoes.

“All right, Chase. What do you really want here?”

It took a few long seconds for him to answer. Kate couldn’t breathe and wished she’d turned up the air-conditioning earlier. But biting her tongue, she waited.

“Everything, Kate,” he finally told her. “I want it all. And this time I’m not leaving before I take what I’ve got coming…starting with the mill.”

She felt the confusion and shock spread across her face and reached a hand out to steady herself against the desk. “The mill is in bankruptcy. A corporation has secured the liens that my father…”

“Your dead father, you mean?” Chase interrupted with a sneer. “The one who not only ran me out of town ten years ago, but who also ran the mill right over the edge into oblivion with his careless management.”

“You work for the corporation that has come to take over the operation of the mill?” Kate’s knees were knocking together so loudly that she was petrified he would hear and mock her for it.

“I am the corporation, Kate. Surprised? I’m the sole owner of the corporation that now owns the mill. And I haven’t decided yet whether to continue operations or burn the thing to the ground.”

The soft gasp escaped her throat before she had a chance to swallow it down. “You have a right to be angry at my father…and at me. But this mill has always been the lifeblood of the town that raised you. You have no cause to take some kind of fanatic revenge against the whole town.”

Chase reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a slender cigar. Without asking permission, he lit it up and then sat down in her chair while he blew out a fragrant cloud of smoke.

“Don’t I?” he asked with a wry grin.

Chase found he could barely breathe as the room began closing in around him. But he would never let her know how he’d been affected. After ten long years, he was close enough to the woman he had loved and lost to actually reach out and touch her face.

The conflicting emotions swelled in his chest. For so long he had wanted revenge. He’d dreamed of it. Tasted it.

Breathed it in along with his air.

It was revenge against Kate’s father, Henry Beltrane, that had occupied his mind for all this time, though. And the bastard had gone and died six months ago. Now, Chase suddenly discovered his intentions toward Kate were much more complicated than he had imagined.

He’d set her up today, just to see what kind of reaction she would have to learning he was the one who now had charge of her future. But he hadn’t counted on the fact that with one look, she would still be able to stir his soul and weaken his knees with the very same desperate need he’d had for her as a teenager.

Chase let the nicotine soothe his jangled nerves, while he kept his best poker face on for Kate’s benefit. This whole scene was like something out of his dreams.

At twenty-seven, she hadn’t changed much from the sweet seventeen-year-old wisp of a girl whom he’d poured his heart out to. Her hair was still a wild riot of ebony curls, even though she’d tried to pin them up off her slender neck. That soft white neck he alternately wanted to kiss—and to wring.

Just now, her rich chocolate eyes were every bit as wild as her hair. There was obvious fear in them. Fear of him and the power he now held over her life.

He wasn’t too sure he liked seeing those particular emotions from her. Yes, it was what he’d thought he wanted. He’d wanted her—wanted everyone—to pay.

At this moment, however, seeing her again and being this close to the reality of his dreams…it was not fear that he would’ve chosen to see in her eyes when she looked at him. Sensual awareness and need were what he longed to see—what he’d secretly desired for so many years.

“Sit down, Kate,” he said in as steady a voice as he could manage.

Could he find the words to say that he wanted her to realize what she’d thrown away the night she let him leave town? And that he wanted her and the whole town to regret what they had let happen to him that night.

She looked pained, as if he’d struck her, and she put the back of her hand against her lips.

But she just as suddenly turned, opened a file drawer and pulled out an ashtray. “Here. If you must have that nasty thing, you’ll need this.” Her eyes flashed, dark and furious.

Ah. There was his Kate. The one he remembered from youthful stolen moments and shared secrets. So strong willed. So proud.

He stubbed out the cigar as Kate primly took the secretary’s chair opposite him. “Still the proper princess, chère? I would’ve thought ten years and the loss of your father and his fortune might have brought you down to earth with the rest of us mere mortals.”

“What I am…what I’ve become…is not the point. What have you become, Chase?” She straightened her spine and sat stiffly at the edge of her chair. “Apparently you have money now. What else is different about you? Will you destroy a whole town just for the hell of it?”

God, how he wanted her. The sudden slashing need to run his hands along her body’s curves—her narrow waist, the high-tipped breasts—was so strong it actually made him wince.

He wasn’t a womanizer. Never had been. And what with his tight business schedules and his bruised memories of youthful romance, he rarely got involved with women. Certainly a few of them had passed through his nights throughout the years, but they were women who knew he only wanted the pleasure of their company for a short time. That he had nothing else to offer.

His affairs were brief, consensual and devoid of passion.

But this was his Kate. The woman he had hated for ten long years. So the desperate erotic need he’d felt when he looked at her had come as a complete shock.

He’d been anxious to see her face, to see the whole town’s collective and astonished face, when they figured out their former whipping boy was the person behind the corporate facade who’d bought out the mill. He’d wanted that revenge. They owed it to him.

But it hadn’t occurred to him that he would feel other things beyond satisfaction. Kate had never married, and according to town gossip had never had a lasting serious relationship over the past ten years. Chase figured that must be because she thought she was too good for the men around her, the way she’d apparently felt about him all those years ago.

Cold. Frozen. Man-eater. Those were the words used on the streets of Bayou City to describe his former girlfriend.

But that wasn’t what he felt when he looked at her now. No, Chase felt the flames licking at his libido as strongly now as he ever had as a randy teenager.

His conflicted emotions raised the stakes for this game.

“What I decide to do about the mill in the end will be all about business,” he finally told her. “It’s my deal now, Kate. I hold all the cards.”

“I see,” she said as she tilted her head to question him. “Then what do you want from me? Am I just to go home and never return to my family’s mill again?”

“Not at all, bébé.” He watched her carefully. “In the first place, I’ll need your assistance in going over the mill records and reports and will pay you for that time. I suspect you’ll be needing the money.

“And in the second place, you no longer have a house to go home to. I will expect you to pack and be out by the first of the week.”

“Live Oak Hall?” Her voice rose three octaves, but her panic didn’t thrill him as it should have. “You can’t mean…”

“I mean that I own it, or rather I hold the mortgage on it, too. Your father left nothing that wasn’t in debt, and I’m calling in your mortgage at the end of the week.”

She blinked her eyes and he saw her chin tremble. “I knew the mortgage was behind, but I thought the bank would give me more time. Where will I go? Where will I stay if you kick me out of the plantation that’s been my family’s home for over a hundred years?”

He felt a niggle of pity stirring in his soul, but he tried to ignore it. “Blame your father for your troubles, not me. Perhaps I’ll consider renting you one of the guest cottages. If you can afford it, that is.”

Tears welled in her eyes, but instead of crying she set her chin defiantly. This was his time at long last. But now that it had finally arrived, he found that her pain gave him absolutely no satisfaction and her pride turned him on.

And he almost hated her for it.

Almost.

Two

A wicked wind blew black storm clouds up from the Gulf and threatened to tear new leaves off the ancient oaks lining the allée drive in front of Live Oak Hall. Standing in the kitchen and looking out the window, Kate knew cold late-spring rains would come in a few more minutes. Right before sunset.

But even with Kate’s vivid imagination, she was positive those rains didn’t have the power to wash away the sting of memories, the heartbreak of wanting things to be different. Lord, how she had dreamed of having the opportunity to make other choices in her life, to go back in time and change what had happened.

Now that Chase had come home, it was clear that she would have to face some of those old poor choices. He wouldn’t let her escape them any longer.

She knew her secrets and her mistakes would eventually come out. But there was one cruel secret that she would never give up. No matter what.

Nothing could ever pry that one from her heart. Not even to save her from Chase’s hatred. It had to stay buried. Where it belonged.

“I can’t believe Chase Severin owns the mill now.” Shelby Rousseau, Kate’s oldest and best friend, frowned once then smiled as she captured her toddler daughter and lifted the little girl into her high chair.

“Well, I’m afraid he does, Shell.” Kate wasn’t sure how to explain the rest of it to the one person who had stuck with her through the worst of times. And far in the back of her mind, Kate still had hope of a reprieve.

Sitting down at her huge kitchen table to watch Shelby finish preparing their supper, Kate agonized over what she knew she had to say. How could she tell her friend that her home was lost? That the young single mother would soon be evicted from the guest cottage where she had been raising her daughter.

That Kate herself would soon be homeless was irritating enough. But to think of throwing out Shelby and her baby…

Her dearest friend made the very best mother Kate had ever known. Shell loved her child enough to do anything, go through anything, to keep her daughter safe and to keep the two of them together.

“Would you please hand Madeleine a cracker to get her by for a few minutes until supper is ready?” Shelby asked as she dipped up the shrimp étouffée from the ancient pot on an even older stove.

Kate reached over and put a cracker into the baby’s hand. The little girl stared up with a big, mostly toothless grin on her face.

The toddler’s cheeks glowed a rosy, healthy pink. Her curious blue eyes were wide and spoke volumes about how smart she was. Sweet Maddie looked just like her mother. But she made Kate think of another baby from long ago. A baby whose smile Kate would never know.

As much as Kate loved Maddie, it hurt a little bit to be near her. But for today, just like most days, Kate buried the pain.

“How’s your catering business coming along?”

Shelby served the étouffée and sat down. “It’s been good recently. After I booked that party over in New Iberia, I’ve had several calls about future engagements.” Shelby poured ice tea from the frosty pitcher. “I don’t know how great things will be if the mill goes out of business, though.”

Instead of picking up her spoon to eat, Shelby laid a hand over Kate’s. “I’m most worried about you, chère. What will you do if Chase shuts down the mill?”

Good question. But not one Kate was prepared to consider just yet.

She shrugged in answer and tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. “I’m a survivor, Shell. I can do lots of things. I’m only worried about the town. There isn’t much else for people to do around here. But maybe Chase will find a way to keep it open.”

Hesitating for a second, Kate decided to let her friend in on just a small slice of her fears and questions. “I can’t understand why Chase bought out the mill at all. The debt load is tremendous. If he decides to put any money into it, it’ll be like throwing the cash down a gator hole.”

Shelby smiled at her. “Maybe he bought the mill and came back here because of you. I bet he’s still in love with you.”

Kate shook her head so hard the curls jumped out of their clip and flew wildly about her face. “Not a chance in hell of that. You didn’t see his eyes when he first came into my office this afternoon. There was such…hatred. Such bitterness in them when he looked at me.”

“Well, there has to be some reason that he would come back to this poor town,” Shelby said as she spooned mashed stew into the baby’s mouth. “The rumor mill has it that he’s really rich now. Drives a Jaguar. Owns houses in St. Thomas and Vail. Made it all by gambling, they say.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear.”

“Do you know something different? Like how he really made his money?”

“No,” Kate mumbled. “But I know the rumors of why he left town in the first place have been a bunch of lies. So why should all the rumors about his return be the truth?”

Shelby wiped her baby’s chin and blew on a steaming spoonful of étouffée for herself. “You never did tell me the truth of what happened that night. I’ve always wondered about it.”

“It was a dreadful night. I would’ve given anything if you’d been here that summer to help me through it instead of off visiting with your grandmère in New England.” Kate had lost her appetite and gave up the pretense of eating.

Shelby chuckled and then frowned. “I guess I must’ve missed my chance forever. After ten years you still don’t want to talk about it, do you?”

“Not really. But I will tell you that all those stories about Chase being drunk and going nuts are all lies. Every one of them. He was stone sober, and he was forced into that fight with Justin-Roy and those boys.”

“I didn’t know Chase as well as you did back then,” Shelby began quietly. “But I never believed he would drink too much. Not when you’d told me how much he hated the fact that his father was always so drunk.”

Tears stinging the back of Kate’s eyes threatened to put an early end to the conversation and to supper. “Shelby, you are my best friend. You know I love you and Madeleine, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, honey. I know you love us, this old run-down plantation, the town…and Chase Severin.” Shelby dropped her spoon and hugged her when Kate began to protest that last part. “We love you, too. And Maddie and I appreciate you taking us in and letting me trade house cleaning and cooking for a chance to stay in one of the guest houses. You’ve been a lifesaver.”

Oh, Lord. Kate could not make her mouth say the words. She just could not tell her best friend that their days at Live Oak Hall were numbered.

Maybe if she went to Chase. If she begged him to let Shelby and the baby stay on, he would consider it. It wouldn’t be the first time that Kate had gotten down on her knees to plead for something important.

She could only hope that this time would turn out a whole lot better than the last one.

Chase picked up his coffee mug and walked alone out onto the B&B’s terrace to watch as the lightning dashed silver streaks across the night sky. He loved the smell of the fresh earth right after a rain.

It had been a long time since he’d been able to breathe in the clean night air and listen to the sounds that the swamp critters made after sundown.

He’d had one hell of a day, coming back to Bayou City and seeing the surprised expressions on the faces of its citizens as he deliberately drove his new XK8 in that flashy topaz color right down Lafayette Street.

He knew the word had spread all over town within minutes. The boy who would never amount to anything was back—and rich. His hand automatically went to the pocket of his navy blazer for a triumphant cigar.

But instead of cigars, Chase’s hand landed on the antique jeweled egg that he’d begun to carry with him everywhere. He smiled at the very idea that he owned something so valuable and old. It was unlikely the whole damn town collectively would be able to afford just the insurance on anything this expensive.

Feeling the shimmer of electricity beneath his fingers that reminded him that the gypsy had claimed this egg held magic, he withdrew his hand and shook his head. He didn’t need any kind of crutch in order to face his old ghosts, not nicotine nor magic. This time he had control of the deck. His cards had turned up in a royal flush.

And he couldn’t be happier to have Kate’s fate thrown into the pot. It upped the stakes.

When he’d first had that private investigator research the town to find out what had happened here since he’d been gone, he was disheartened to learn that her father had died of cancer six months earlier. Too late. Chase had made the decision to come back and get even with the old crotte Beltrane and the rest of the town too late.

But then he’d learned about the mill’s bankruptcy and figured his timing was impeccable. He had been given the perfect opportunity to destroy them all.

“Chase?”

He turned around at the sound of her voice, nearly positive it would just be the ghost that had haunted his nights for what seemed like forever. But it was the real Kate this time, standing there with the lights streaming from the French doors at her back.

“Uh, Madame Seville said it would be all right for me to come out here to talk to you. I’m not catching you at a bad time, am I?”

Her midnight-black curls were pulled back in a loose ponytail and glistened with rain. Drips of water trickled down her porcelain cheeks and clung to her dark, thick lashes. She had a khaki-colored trench coat thrown over her arm, and rainwater was puddling under her as she stood there waiting for him to give her an answer.

The sight of her simply stunned him, took his words away. He reached a hand toward his shirt pocket without thinking, then cursed himself silently for being such a fool. He didn’t need help facing this echo of days gone by, despite the fact she was the most gorgeous creature he had ever laid eyes on.

“What are you doing here?” he asked with a forced grin. “I thought we’d agreed to start on the books first thing in the morning?”

“I need to talk to you, Chase.” She raised her chin in that smug little way she’d had as a girl and took a tentative step closer.

“Talk? I’ll just bet you have a lot to say now.” He turned his back on her and spread his feet for the balance he badly needed at the moment. “You’re ten years too late. You have nothing to say that I care to hear anymore.”

“Please,” she whispered from behind him. “This isn’t about the mill. I’m hoping that will be strictly business with you. But what I wanted to talk about tonight was…”

“Not about the past, I’d wager.” He spun around and glared down at her in the slanted light. “I’d give better than even odds that you’d rather die than have to face your past sins tonight. Am I right?”

She was a good half foot shorter and the shadows cast by the back light kept him from seeing her face clearly. But he did manage to catch the anger in her glinting stare, and he watched her work her slender white throat as she swallowed back a nasty remark.

Tempting, this ghost from his past. Too tempting.

Kate shook her head and straightened her shoulders. “I don’t think it would serve any purpose to go over our mistakes at this late date.”

Just to please himself, to give in to the urgent need to arouse her, Chase moved closer. She backed up a step and he took another in her direction, deliberately pushing her and limiting her personal space.

“My only mistake was in trusting you once, telling you that I loved you.” He heard the evil chuckle coming from his own lips and wondered at just how far he had come away from the naive young kid he had been back then. “It’s a mistake I never intend to repeat.”

Her eyes closed and he heard her soft sigh. Regrets? From the ice princess, Kate Beltrane?

The silent whiff of her perfume reached icy fingers into his soul. The smell of camellias and gardenia that he’d once imagined he would never be able to get out of his mind took a swift sledgehammer to his heart.

He felt that soft underbelly of pity and desire creeping up on him again as he reached a hand toward her shoulder. Before he could give her comfort, her eyes popped open and determination narrowed those full tantalizing lips.

“I didn’t come here tonight to rehash old wounds,” she told him with sudden fervor. “I came to ask…explain really…about Live Oak Hall.”

“You came here…in the rain…to explain about that broken-down old plantation?” He allowed himself a sneer, but didn’t back away from her.

“It’s about the guest cottage. My friend, I don’t know if you remember her, Shelby Rousseau?”

When he just squinted at her, Kate rushed ahead. “Well, she’s a single mother now and trying to get a business started. And…I’ve been letting her trade out cleaning and cooking to stay in the guest cottage. She can’t afford to pay rent, you see, and I thought…”

“You have to start remembering that Live Oak Hall is mine now.” He shook his head and grimaced. “No rent? You must’ve inherited your father’s great business sense.”

The humiliation ran through Kate’s veins. She couldn’t stop it from smarting. But she could hold her place and not let Chase see how badly he was getting to her.

He would have no way of knowing how she had begged and pleaded with her father to let her help make the business decisions for the mill. Two years of business college didn’t make her an expert, but she’d seen what a mess he had been making of the fiances. How he’d run off the best customers and overpaid the farmers for their rice in years when crops were plentiful.

But her father had quite typically berated her back then. Reminded her that a girl could not know what was best in business. He’d relegated her to the accounting pool, telling her account books were for females. And if she would ever have the sense to marry, her husband could give the advice while she gave him the grandchildren.

“This isn’t about business or revenge,” she told Chase with a surprisingly steady voice. “It’s about friendship and love. Please…”

Chase took her chin with a firm grip, frightening her at first. Then he leaned close enough that she could hear his ragged breathing and could smell his desire. The man still wanted her. After everything she’d done.

The shock of realization and the breathlessness of staring into his deep-gray eyes kept her silent too long. Chase must’ve sensed the weakness and moved in.

“Friendship and love, huh? And those are things the poor kid from the bad side of town would know nothing about, is that it?” He inched even closer.

She wanted him to kiss her. They were so close that another centimeter would bring their lips together. Dreams of one more kiss from Chase had kept her going in the darkest hours.

But tonight it wouldn’t be the same as in her dreams. Tonight the rage in them both would make it all wrong.

The panic drove her back in time to become once again the ten-year-old girl who’d run away from home and found a scary but perfectly safe shelter with an old drunk and his twelve-year-old son. She’d wanted Chase to kiss her then, too, because he’d been her white knight and savior.

But he hadn’t kissed her that night. It wouldn’t have been right when they were children—and it wouldn’t be right now when they were both so tense.

She reared back out of his grasp and shoved at his arms. The coffee mug he’d been carrying all this time slipped to the granite tile floor and shattered into a million pieces.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she cried as she kneeled to clean up the mess. She quickly gathered up a few broken shards and then looked around for some kind of cloth to wipe up the cold coffee and the tiny silvers.

“Just let it go, Kate.” He was kneeling beside her and took her arm. “Are you all right?”

“Huh?” She must be in some kind of desire-filled daze, because she couldn’t quite understand his meaning.

He gently pried the broken ceramic from her hand and put it aside. “You’re bleeding.” His big hand encompassed her smaller one, but with a touch so light it nearly brought tears to her eyes.

“It’s nothing.” She tried to tug her hand away, but he tenderly turned it over to reveal the jagged cut on her middle finger.

Chase’s gaze locked with hers as his hard, glinting concern turned in seconds to pure lustful longing. “You need to stop the bleeding first, then clean the wound.”

Turning his attention back to her bloody cut, Chase lifted her hand to his lips and slipped the oozing finger into his mouth before she could stop him.

She heard herself gasp and then moan as the sensation of his tongue and lips on her finger became sensual and demanding. Everything else but the two of them and this minute faded into the background.

But a boom of thunder cracked through the air just then and the skies opened up for one more splash of rain. The sound and the chill dragged her back to the present in a hurry.

She tugged on her hand again, and Chase released her. “I’ll have it bandaged when I get home.”

He stood and pulled her to her feet. “Come under the terrace cover, Kate. You’re getting soaked.”

“I won’t keep you much longer. It’s getting late,” she told him as they ran for a drier spot. “But I…I still have to plead with you to let Shelby and her daughter continue to stay in the guest cottage. I don’t care about myself. I can find somewhere else to go, but for them…”

Dragging her up close to his body, he leaned down to whisper in her ear so that she could hear him over the noise of the rain. “What’s it worth to you, chère?”

She stiffened and looked up at him. Their bodies were touching. Sweat, heated rainwater and passion came off them in waves, steaming up the air between them. Coming here tonight had obviously been a big mistake.

But she had to keep trying, for Maddie’s sake. “I beg you, Chase. Please just consider it.” She looked down between them, away from his demanding gaze. But one look made it clear that her aching breasts were peaked and pushing against her cotton blouse, begging for his touch.

Chase saw it as well and leered down at her. “Ah, yes, bébé, I can feel the heat between us, too. Odd isn’t it, that an ice princess could flare so easily for a ghost?”

He didn’t know? He couldn’t just look at her and see that her heart still longed for him and that her body still responded to his with no provocation at all?

Her heart pounded in her chest, but she pushed away from him. “Dammit. Tell me what I can do to make you change your mind and let Shelby and the baby stay.”

“Do?” he asked thoughtfully after a minute. “Ante up, Kate. It’s time to put in or fold. I want you.”

“Me?” Her knees were wobbling now and she was becoming light-headed. “You mean to be your maîtresse?”

He chuckled at her use of the old-fashioned word. “A mistress? Now wouldn’t that be an amusing form of revenge.”

She scowled and clutched his arm. “You can’t mean that. You don’t even know who I am anymore.”

Kate clearly understood that Chase was her biggest weakness. She wanted him to want her. But she would never give up independence—not even for him. If he asked for her body, fine. She would be all for it.

He would never take her soul.

“No?” Chase said with a chuckle. “Well, let’s start with dinner, then. Tomorrow night. And wear something sexy. I think I’ll be needing a lot of persuasion.”

Three

Chase knelt beside Kate under the low-hanging branches of a willow tree that was all decked out in its June finest. Silvery light from the full moon shone through the leaves in platinum streaks and illuminated Kate’s sweet, smiling face. Taking his time, he unbuttoned her blouse and ran a finger over the rise of her creamy breasts, peeking out from under the soft, white bra.

Kate, his wonderful darling. Tonight wouldn’t be the first time that they’d made love, but this time he would go slow. He would manage to ignore the hard, burning heat in his groin long enough to make it good for her, too. Tonight he would show her…tell her with both his touch and his words how much a part of him she had become.

“I love you, Kate,” he whispered as he bent to place a kiss against her tender neck. “You are my everything.”

“Chase,” she groaned. “That feels so good. But I have something important to tell you.”

“Tell me, chère,” he mumbled against her lips. “Tell me how you feel.”

She opened her mouth to speak, and he held his breath, expecting to hear words of love for the very first time in his whole nineteen years of life.

“Whoohoo. Just looky what we’ve got here.”

The sudden deep catcall from behind his back shot a spear of fear straight to his gut. But before he could cover Kate and turn around, rough hands grabbed them both and pulled them out from under their shelter.

Chase shot up out of bed with a start. His hands were fisted, the sweat poured off his forehead and the sheets lay on the floor in a tangled knot.

Dammit. He hadn’t had that dream in years.

Looking around the bedroom of his suite at the B&B, he tried to get his bearings—tried to remember how to breathe. He grabbed his slacks off the back of a chair, pulled them on and opened the French doors out to his private balcony.

In three long strides he was outside, holding on to the railing with a deadly grip. He stared unseeing out at the pearly gray predawn that was casting quiet shadows over the southern Louisiana swamp.

He took a deep breath and blew it out. It hadn’t occurred to him that coming back here and facing his past would bring back that dream. He should’ve known.

In fact, he should welcome the old dream, though it always left his body aching for Kate and his soul starved for words that never came. The familiar dream scene was not the worst thing that had happened that fateful June night so long ago. The pain of betrayal was much harder to live with. But the dream of Kate lying under him and looking up with what should’ve been love in her eyes was the memory that hurt the most.

That look had been all a lie. And he needed to keep the pain fresh in his mind when he dealt with Kate now.

A lone Snowy Egret caught his attention as it swooped low in the skies between the B&B and the swamp. It was a beautiful and graceful sight with its white plumes and its slow, gliding movements. But all the bird’s solo flight succeeded in doing was driving home the point that Chase had lived with for most of his life.

He was a loner and had been happily content with his own company for as long as he could remember. A solitary man who needed no one and should expect nothing that he didn’t make for himself.

Kate stopped walking and looked up, watching the Snowy Egret as it glided past and headed out toward the Gulf. It was exactly this kind of beautiful sight she would miss the most if she had to leave town and her home to find work in the city.

She lowered her head and trudged on down the ancient path, leading between Live Oak Hall and the mill. How many more times would she be allowed to make this trip in the quiet early hours? How many more times would she make the return trip, watching as the sunset streaked its fantastic rose and gold hues over her plantation home?

Everything depended on Chase now. Her father had never let her contribute ideas concerning her own destiny. Now it looked as if Chase was going to do the same thing.

When the outline of the mill came into view, she forced her slumping shoulders back into some semblance of a straight line. It had been a very long night, tossing and turning with the erotic flashes of Chase taking her into his arms and running his hands over her body.

She hadn’t allowed herself to dream or even to think of those things in so many years it seemed like forever. But that whole scene with Chase on the B&B’s terrace last night had stirred up more than just the dreams.

Taking her hands out of her jacket pockets, Kate looked down on her bandaged finger and thought about the sensual sensations that had rolled over her in waves as he sucked her finger into his mouth. It gave her chills even now as the sun was beginning to warm the landscape and the morning mists disappeared back into their hiding places in the dismal swamp.

If Chase was serious about making her his mistress in payment for letting Shelby stay in the guest house, she would happily jump right in. There wasn’t much she could ever hope to do to repay him for the wrongs that had been done to him so long ago. The wrongs that she had helped create with her own stupid mistakes.

Seeing him make a success of the mill and living happily in Live Oak Hall wasn’t anything she could have a real part in. Those were the kinds of things he would have to get for himself. Though he probably deserved to be given those things and much more from the town that had deserted him when he needed them the most.

But if he really still did want her…body, she would give it gladly. She knew herself well enough to know she would never let on to him that he could also have her heart—did have her heart—and always would. No, that would be giving him too much power. The two of them weren’t meant for a future together, a fact she had accepted long ago with regret.

Kate stepped into the mill’s office and removed her jacket. Listening for sounds that would tell her that Chase was already at work, the sound she heard instead was a soft crying sob. She followed it around a corner and found her secretary, sitting at her desk and bent over in tears.

“Rose? What’s wrong?” Kate went to her and began patting her back.

“He’s going to deliberately ruin us,” Rose sobbed. “None of us will have a job. We’ll all have to leave our homes.”

“Shush, shush, chère. What makes you say these things? Is Chase here?”

Rose shook her head and looked up into Kate’s eyes. “No, not yet. But the word is all over town. He’s come for revenge and means to get even with everyone in Bayou City for how they treated him as a kid.”

Kate leaned over to put an arm around her secretary’s shoulders. “Nonsense, Rose. You’ve lived in this place all your life. I can’t imagine you’d start believing the town gossip at this late date when I’m positive you know better than that.”

Besides, Kate thought grimly, the only people left here that Chase had a real reason to hate were her father and herself. And her father was beyond his reach now.

“Chase is obviously a successful businessman, Rose. I don’t believe he would deliberately throw money away just to even an old score. He’s much smarter than that.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, chère.” The deep sound of Chase’s voice came from the doorway.

Kate twisted around to see him leaning against the threshold with his arms folded across his chest, studying her. “Chase. I didn’t hear you…”

“But I don’t need your support,” he interrupted.

She stood up and sighed silently to herself. No, he would never allow her to give him anything. She knew that, but it stung all the same.

He narrowed his eyes to scrutinize her, and the close survey began to make her feel all itchy, like she’d forgotten to wash.

Chase took a couple of steps into the room toward her. “In fact, judging from how you look, I won’t need anything from you today.” He turned to address Rose. “Do you think you can show me where the files are without dissolving into a weepy mess, young woman?”

Rose sniffed once and nodded without opening her mouth.

“Fine.” He turned back and lowered his voice to a growl. “Go home, Kate. You look terrible. I’ll expect you to appear rested and at your best for our appointment this evening.”

“But, Chase…”

“Go home. There’s nothing you can do for me—until tonight.”

Kate fisted her hands at her side and bit her tongue to keep from saying something she would forever regret. Chase was acting like a real jerk, but she knew he was a different person deep inside. He just couldn’t have changed that much in ten years. But he did have reason enough to hate her, and there was nothing she could ever do or say to fix things.

So she clamped her mouth shut and turned away, running from the memories. Running from her heart. And running from the pain of accepting the consequences of her past.

Chase drove a hand through his hair and leaned back in the desk chair. He couldn’t seem to concentrate on the damn accounts when all he could think of were the deep-purple smudges that had been under Kate’s eyes and the bone-weary slouch of her shoulders this morning.

He’d come to Bayou City with the intention of hearing her beg…for the mill…for her home. And if the truth were known, to beg for his forgiveness.

But he hadn’t liked hearing her beg for a friend and that friend’s baby, or to see her looking so emotionally bruised. It didn’t sit well with his memories.

He was trying to reconcile what he felt now with all the built-up hatred from ten years of believing her to be someone he despised. To see her looking melancholy and fragile this morning had ripped big holes in his plans…and in his soul.

It was midafternoon and it was time to accept the fact that he really did need Kate to interpret some of the mill’s figures for him. He would have to give it up for today and begin again tomorrow when she could help.

He dismissed the secretary for the rest of the afternoon, put the convertible top down and climbed into his Jag. Intending to go straight back to the B&B to dress for dinner, he was surprised to find himself on the canal road and heading toward the shack where he had spent his youth.

Chase knew the house had stood empty for five years now, ever since he’d spirited his father away in the middle of the night and delivered the old man to a rehab clinic in Houston to dry out.

But something inside him must’ve wanted to see the old place. He needed to refresh his harsh memories, and what better place than the run-down house he had always hated.

That shack had forever been the bane of his existence. The kids at school teased him unmercifully about his dirt-poor circumstances and about his father the drunk. The other kids’ parents didn’t want them to hang out with such trash. Everything that had ever gone wrong in town had been somehow connected to Chase or his father, “that drunk Severin.”

Not that Chase had ever been in any real trouble. Just a few fights and a day or two suspension from school for those times when he’d not shown so he could sober up his father. But the word about him being bad to the bone got around anyway.

He had no family to fight for him. No brothers, cousins or uncles to cover his back like every other boy hereabouts in St. Mary Parish. So he learned early how to take care of himself—and how not to trust anyone.

Too bad his lessons hadn’t extended to Kate. Despite the fact that her father was the most powerful man in town and always had it in for him and his father, Chase had let her get under his defenses. The pain of her betrayal still stung after all these years.

Driving along in the sun, he noticed that nothing much seemed to have improved in the town of his childhood. If anything, the whole place seemed a little shabbier than in his memories. The businesses in town gave way to two-story clapboard houses and finally to what could easily be called shanties as he drove down the gravel and mud road that ran alongside the no-name canal.

He slowed as he passed by the last decent house on the road and saw his former neighbor Irene Fortier sitting on her front porch. She waved at him and stood, so he brought the car to a stop beside the yard in order to speak to her.

If it hadn’t been for Irene five years ago, Chase wouldn’t have known that his father had been lying comatose in his bed for twenty-four hours. She’d found his dad and had called to ask for help.

Chase had come at once. Nothing, neither bad memories nor business commitments, would’ve stopped him from helping his father. But he didn’t let anyone else in town know he was there, and he certainly hadn’t stayed long.

“Hello, cher,” Irene said as he stepped out of the car. “I heard the rumors that you were back in town.”

He nodded but eased away when she went to kiss his cheek. Her flower print dress and the homey smells of cooking lingered in his brain and reminded him of how much he’d always liked being around Irene as a kid.

“You’ve come home to move back in?”

“No, Irene. I’m not sure why I’m down on Canal Road this afternoon. Guess I just wanted to see how much damage the elements have done to Dad’s shack.”

“It’s about the same as always. I’ve been seeing to keeping the critters and the bums out.”

“Thanks.” He wasn’t sure he really thanked her for her efforts. Maybe he would’ve been happier to know the place had burned down and taken all the old hurts along with it.

“You plan on staying in Bayou City?” Irene asked.

“Only long enough to exorcise old ghosts.”

Irene studied him from behind the plastic-rimmed eyeglasses she wore. “You own the mill now, I’ve heard. You here to get even with people, son?”

He’d thought that’s why he had come home. But now… The memories of Irene’s goodness, finding the town in such sad straits and the odd tenderness he’d felt when Kate had asked his help for a friend and not herself made him want to reconsider his intentions.

Hell. Not sure of his own motivations anymore, Chase ignored Irene’s question and asked one of his own. “Did you ever meet my grandmother Steele? Did she ever come to Bayou City? I don’t remember meeting her or even hearing her name when I was a kid.”

Irene shook her head sadly. “No, child. Your mother, Francine, died believing her own mother hated her for marrying your father. I tried to encourage Francine to call Lucille when the time was getting close for your birth.” Irene hesitated and sighed. “I think she might’ve done it eventually…if she’d lived.”

Chase had no memory of his mother, only pictures and the stories that Irene had told him when he’d been little. He didn’t have any reason to grieve for a woman that he’d never known. But inheriting money and a family from her had made him rather sorry that they’d missed talking to each other.

“Why did my mother marry my father, Irene?” Knowing what he’d learned recently about Lucille Steele and her family, he couldn’t imagine now why a young woman from such a good home would run off and marry the town drunk.

Irene laughed. “Love would be my guess. But that’s a question that you should ask of your father.”

Chase remembered asking his father lots of family questions as a boy. Only he’d never gotten any answers. He’d learned early that simply asking the questions only made his father sink further into the drunken stupor that had been his old man’s constant companion back then.

Today, his father wanted to talk, but Chase couldn’t manage to listen. There was too much heartache in the past for him to forgive.

He shrugged off Irene’s suggestion. “Someday maybe.”

After he’d said goodbye to Irene, he spun the Jag around in her front yard and headed back to the B&B. There wasn’t time now to go look at the old shack.

And that was really for the best. Too much thinking and talk about his childhood unsettled him, and he wanted to be sharp for his confrontation with Kate tonight.

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