Love and Smoke

Poised and elegant, Riva Staulet's cool beauty still turns heads -- whether she's attending a charity ball, hosting lavish parties at her antebellum plantation house, or presiding over the vast business left to her by her late husband, the head of one of Louisiana's most distinguished families.

Yet it had not always been that way. Many years before, Riva had been Rebecca, the youngest of the three poor but pretty Benson girls. Spirited and bright, she had caught the attention of a brash young man from North Louisiana, a man from a family of means. His charm and good looks had blinded Rebecca to his supreme selfishness -- until it was too late.

Now that man has his eye on the governor's mansion. And Riva has no intention of letting him forget his cruel treatment of her so many years before -- even if it means losing the empire he helped build, and the man she loves the most, forever.