Kissing Caleb Tanner was good. Very, very good. Letter to Reader Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN FAMILY REUNION Copyright
Kissing Caleb Tanner was good. Very, very good.
But mere kissing wasnt enough. Not nearly enough. Crystal felt a feverish need for more. Crazy thoughts cartwheeled through her brain. She wanted to explore all that heat and muscle held in check by the cloth she twisted beneath her hands.
Caleb hauled in a ragged breath. Oh, baby, he muttered. Where have you been all my life? Dipping his head, he brought his Ups to hers again, and Crystal experienced the sensation of a weightless free fall.
Nothing like this had ever happened to her. She never lost control around men. Never. Panic reared suddenly, shutting off her intake of air. It made no sense. The faces of people shed loved, people whod left her, beat at the back of her eyelids. Her mother and now Margaret Lyon. Her dad. Her fiancé.
She couldnt breathe. Words of warning shrieked in her ears. Back off Back off! Youre nothing to Caleb Tanner. Youre a fool to fall for him!
But maybe some men were different.... Crystal willed the panic to subside. They each eased back a little. Crystal released his shirtfront, wishing hed say something. But why should he? He might have laid the fire, but shed struck the match.
Dear Reader,
Ive loved reading family sagas since I picked up my first Edna Ferber novel quite some time ago. And I think many people enjoy reading about complex families playing out destinies of power and conflict andof courselove.
Its been a wonderful challenge to be one of three authors privileged to take Superromance readers on a fifty-year journey with the Lyon family. From the sultry swamps of Bayou Sans Fin to the lush Garden District of New Orleans, Ive helped the family forge one of Louisianas most powerful broadcasting businesses.
But life is never simple in any dynasty Fortunately love is ultimately the legacy that holds the Lyon family together. And up till now, Crystal Jardln, a Lyon first cousin, has had precious little love in her life. But Skipper West, an Injured child she befriends, and Caleb Tanner, a hero in every sense, are going to change that!
I hope you enjoy Family Fortune and the other
IYON LEGACY books.
Sincerely,
Roz Denny Fox
Yes. I love to hear from readers. You can reach me at:
P.O. Box 17480-101, Tucson, Arizona 85748
Family Fortune
Roz Denny Fox
www.millsandboon.co.uk
CHAPTER ONE
September 1999
ANOTHER THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS withdrawn from Margaret Lyons private bank account! Crystal Jardin scowled at her computer screen. In the past two weeks, there had been identical withdrawals from Margarets bank account via an ATM. Always on a Monday. And from an unknown automatic teller. Crystal found that the most worrisome. She wouldnt be as concerned if she hadnt just seen a WDIX-TV segment on a computer hackers convention. Shed learned that bank officials haunted the convention, hiring the brainy kids who could get into bank systems and putting them to work writing codes to plug this very type of break-in.
The segment stuck in her brain because, in addition to her duties as the business manager for the family-owned, New Orleans-based Lyon Broadcasting Company, she served as personal financial adviser to Margaret, the principal stockholder, and to a few other family members, as well.
Granted, the amount of the withdrawals wasnt particularly alarming. Margaret was an extremely wealthy woman, and prone to shopping sprees. And Crystal hadnt been too concerned when Margaret disappeared without informing the family of her whereabouts. Until today. She recalled that the last time they sat down to go over finances, which they did regularly, Margaret hadnt been herself. Whod expect her to be? It was just after her beloved husband Pauls death.
Crystal understood that Margie needed time alone. The woman had loved Paul Lyon for nearly sixty years. Losing him suddenly to a heart attackafter doctors had twice snatched him from the brink of deathhad shaken the entire family, and no one more than Margaret. Not only that, the funeral had been overwhelming, with half of New Orleans turning out. The many heartfelt eulogies given by colleagues in the broadcasting business for the man known as the Voice of Dixie must have added to the weight of Margarets sorrow.
At the time Margie went missing, everyone in the family assumed shed gone off alone to grieve. But when she didnt call or show up at one of the ocean resorts she and Paul had always favored, her son, André, and his wife, Gaby, began to panic. And now, this complete elimination of a paper trail in Margies bank transactions was beginning to panic Crystal, too.
At seventy-seven, the family matriarch excelled in anything relating to the TV station shed brought to life fifty years ago. But the woman Crystal loved like a grandmother didnt have the skill to hack into a bank computer system.
So shed enlisted someones help. Whose? And why go to such extremes? Crystal racked her brain for other possibilities. She avoided terms like kidnapped. André, Paul and Margarets only child and general manager of the business, had tiptoed around the term at breakfast, toothough Crystal knew it was on his mind today when hed debated whether or not to file a missing-person report with the police.
André. was torn between allowing his mother the independence shed always demanded and being horribly remiss if anything was wrong. Crystal felt the same pressure now. She wanted to show him the accountexcept that Margaret insisted on keeping her financial dealings private. Besides, if shed fallen victim to theft, wouldnt the criminal clean out her account and be done with it? Crystal thought it more likely that Margaret, always a headstrong woman, had bullied a banker friend into freeing her from a cloying family for a few weeks. The days after Pauls death and before the funeral, family members had closed ranks, hoping to ease her pain. Smothered was how Margaret had described it to Crystal the morning of the service. So after a lengthy internal debate, Crystal decided to respect her clients wishesfor now.