This Above All

the long version

Fiddle-de-dee. Laurel Merritt's assignment that sultry Georgia night should have been simple for a Southern belle: sweet-talk elusive Christian Dumond into selling a tiny piece of his dusky tropical isle. Unfortunately, Christian's dark, hypnotic sensuality prompted not a contract but a kiss...and then, come morning, he was gone! Intent on the property, determined to unveil the maddening mystery of the man, Laurel hastened to St. Dominique. But her dedication led her into danger...and into Christian's enthralling embrace. And there her heart began to thunder like the island drums that pulsed with deep ancestral secrets, that pounded with passionate, primeval rhythms...and that shook the very core of Laurel's sun-kissed Southern soul.