Thirteen years ago, Miranda Steele's abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption, then kicked Miranda out of his house. Now, the smart-talking, hot pepper-eating loner has a letter from a thirteen-year-old girl in a mansion in Georgia, who claims she's adopted. Could this be her long lost child? Along the way, she meets a sexy, southern gentleman detective who turns her life around. Here's a peek at the irresistible Wade Russell Parker the Third.
Chapter Three
The music was classical, tasteful, sedate. The wine was white Bordeaux. Dry, rare. The caviar was Black Russian. Crisp, tasting of the ocean. And the women…ah, the women. Glamorously dressed in their latest designer gowns, the ladies were as alluring as they were lovely.
Wade Parker leaned against a tall Ionic column near the grand staircase of the Georgia Governor’s mansion and sipped from his champagne flute. Beneath the Italian chandelier, an elegantly coiffed redhead smiled at him. Near the portrait of George Washington, a blond winked. Under the archway to the hall, a brunette cast him a flirtatious glance.
Parker chuckled to himself. Were they all after the man that audacious reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had dubbed the town’s most eligible forty-four-year-old bachelor?
His gaggle of admirers amused and wearied him at the same time. As beautiful and enticing as they were, not one of them could replace Sylvia, the love of his life. It had been three years now since cancer had stolen her from him. His heart ached at the thought as if it were yesterday.
But then, he wasn’t here tonight to flirt. Or the mid-April fundraiser.
His gaze drifted across the room to a thin and pale man standing alone near the great fireplace, nervously fingering a drink. His name was Thomas Jameson. The Governor’s steering committee would have thrown him out, if Parker had not persuaded them to honor the invitation he’d wheeled out of a member.
Not a hair out of place, Jameson was impeccably dressed in a fine Gucci suit, but it was all a veneer. The scoundrel was lower and more revolting than the bird droppings the servants had to scoop out of the fountain in the front yard.
Tonight, Parker would prove that by catching him in the act.
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