Barbara McCauley: Where There's Smoke...

May’s menu

BARONESSA GELATERIA

in Boston’s North End

In addition to our regular flavors of Italian gelato, this month we are featuring:

Espresso laced with Irish Cream

Shane was proud of his heritage as a firefighter in his Irish immigrant family. He approached his work the same way he did his life—fearlessly. That is, until he found himself unsettled by the feelings he had for Emily Barone….

Angel food cake

Whether Shane’s kiss was her first, Emily didn’t remember. She did know it was the only one that mattered. When he took her in his arms, her virgin heart had never beat so fast, never yearned so much….

Cherries flambé, made and lit at your table

Despite their differences, Shane could not douse his desires, nor could Emily deny her burning need to be with him. Their passion threatened to blaze out of control—hot and dangerous….

Buon appetito!

Dear Reader,

Let Silhouette Desire rejuvenate your romantic spirit in May with six new passionate, powerful and provocative love stories.

Our compelling yearlong twelve-book series DYNASTIES: THE BARONES continues with Where There’s Smoke… (#1507) by Barbara McCauley, in which a fireman as courageous as he is gorgeous saves the life and wins the heart of a Barone heiress. Next, a domineering cowboy clashes with a mysterious woman hiding on his ranch, in The Gentrys: Cinco (#1508), the launch title of THE GENTRYS, a new three-book miniseries by Linda Conrad.

A night of passion brings new love to a rancher who lost his family and his leg in a tragic accident in Cherokee Baby (#1509) by reader favorite Sheri WhiteFeather. Sleeping with Beauty (#1510) by Laura Wright features a sheltered princess who slips past the defenses of a love-shy U.S. Marshal. A dynamic Texan inspires a sperm-bank-bound thirtysomething stranger to try conceiving the old-fashioned way in The Cowboy’s Baby Bargain (#1511) by Emilie Rose, the latest title in Desire’s BABY BANK theme promotion. And in Her Convenient Millionaire (#1512) by Gail Dayton, a pretend marriage between a Palm Beach socialite and her millionaire beau turns into real passion.

Why miss even one of these brand-new, red-hot love stories? Get all six and share in the excitement from Silhouette Desire this month.

Enjoy!

Melissa Jeglinski

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

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who has written more than twenty novels for Silhouette Books, lives in Southern California with her own handsome hero husband, Frank, who makes it easy to believe in and write about the magic of romance. Barbara’s stories have won and been nominated for numerous awards, including the prestigious RITA ®Award from the Romance Writers of America, Best Desire of the Year from Romantic Times and Best Short Contemporary from the National Reader’s Choice Awards.

Meet the Barones of Boston—

an elite clan caught in a web of danger, deceit…and desire!

Shane Cummings—He has no attachments, no commitments. Even his sailboat home isn’t grounded. This firefighter’s a loner who lives life for today—and he wants to keep it that way….

Emily Barone—She personifies stability. Warm and secure in her big, loving family, she’s got the powerful Barones behind her. Emily wants permanence—at least she would if she could remember who she was….

Derrick Barone—He looks out for Emily, as older brothers do. But does he have only her best interests at heart?

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Emily Barone stood in the small back office of Baronessa Gelati and watched the single white piece of paper slowly roll into the copy machine tray, then lie flatly on top of the three other copies she’d already made. Light flickered on the dimly lit walls; the machine shuddered, then clicked to a stop.

It’s not true, she told herself for the hundredth time. It can’t be.

But Emily knew in her heart that the evidence she’d found against Derrick was true. There was no other explanation, nothing that could absolve, or forgive, what her brother had already done.

Or what he still planned to do.

Her hand shook as she reached for the incriminating piece of paper that proved Derrick’s crime: he intended to sell secret recipes from the family gelato business to a rival company.

He’d been careful not to raise suspicion, Emily knew. Even as Derrick’s secretary, Emily might not have ever noticed anything amiss if earlier today she hadn’t accidentally overheard a few whispered words of a phone call on his private line, words that had made her uneasy. When he’d left his office a few minutes later, she’d gone in and pushed redial, only to hear a receptionist for Snowcream, Inc., Baronessa Gelati’s biggest competitor, answer the phone.

She’d had to wait until the plant had closed this evening and everyone left before she could search for evidence to confirm Derrick’s betrayal. It had taken her nearly an hour to jimmy the lock on his desk, another fifteen minutes to find the file containing detailed notes from his conversation with Grant Summers, CEO of Snowcream. The file also contained dates and times Derrick had met with Summers, listed the amount of money to be exchanged for the information and the Swiss bank account the money would be transferred into.

Emily swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back her tears. She knew she was naive. At twenty-four, she still tried to see the good in people, still hoped that in the end a person would do the right thing. She’d prayed she’d been wrong about Derrick, hadn’t wanted to believe that her own brother would steal from anyone, let alone Baronessa Gelati.

She was glad her father, Paul Barone, had chosen to become a lawyer rather than go into the business Grandfather Marco had started over a half century ago. Just the thought of taking this damning information to her parents made Emily sick to her stomach. It would kill her mother to learn that her son was capable of such a betrayal.

But it was possible her parents might never have to know, Emily thought as she turned off the copy machine. Her father’s brother, Carlo, ran Baronessa. She knew she couldn’t look the other way, that she had to take this evidence to her uncle. She knew he would have a solution that would quietly remove Derrick from his position as VP of Quality Assurance Department and possibly even cover up any potential scandal to the company or the family.