Her Dark Melody
A Billionaire Romance
Accepting a booking to perform at a fundraiser for billionaire Atlas Tigri’s charitable foundation in Seattle, singer Ebony Verlaine makes an immediate impression on the handsomeentrepreneur.
When Atlas seeks her out after the gig, their intense attraction quickly becomes sexual, and a red-hot, sizzling affairbegins.
Unbeknownst to Atlas though, Ebony has a secret. She’s pregnant and terrified of what will happen to her and her child. Ebony is in denial as she focuses on her new love and as time goes by, she finds it harder and harder to tell Atlas the truth about the pregnancy and the father of herchild.
Atlas invites Ebony to spend Christmas with his family and she is quickly accepted by Atlas’s identical twin brother, Mateo, and his six-year-old son, Fino. As the holiday progresses, family friction begins to creep in – the Tigri’s step-father, Stanley Duggan, is a kindly man, but his son and his new wife and step-daughter are a mixed bunch. Cormac Duggan despises his flighty and fun stepbrothers, and ex-model Vida wants her daughter Bella to be a huge star – despite the fact Bella has no discernible talent. Ebony stays out of their way, but when Mateo is found dead, it becomes clear a killer is in theirmidst.
Suddenly thrust into a ready-made family, Ebony comforts a devastated Atlas and Fino, . To keep her new family safe, Ebony will have to prove she is everything Atlas hopes she is…andmore…
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PartOne
ChapterOne
New Orleans
Ebony Verlaine staredat the plastic stick in her hand in dismay. God, no.She leaned her head against the cool tile of the bathroom and let a few tears escape, feeling utterly hopeless. Her whole world shifted at that moment as she saw everything she’d worked so hard fordisappear.
Pregnant. Pregnant and alone at twenty-six. Goddammit.
Outside the bathroom, she heard a voice and pulled herself together. She was at the Gabriella Renaud Foundation, the charitable organization which had been mentoring and supporting her over the last two years. Her best friend Juno Sasse, now her sister-in-law, had at first been her tutor, guiding her through singing lessons and songwriting, preparing her for a career in the musicindustry.
Since she was young, Ebony had loved singing and performing. It was a no-brainer that she would follow that love into a career, but while the executive she had met had praised her smoky, rich voice, and been even more enthusiastic to exploit her dark beauty, all of them had balked at releasing jazz and blues. She’d lost count of how many of them tried to steer her into a pop career – something she had no interest at allin.
As word spread and she was painted unfairly as a diva, the offers dried up. Despondent, she continued to sing in New Orleans’s jazz clubs until Livia Chatelaine approachedher.
Herself a musician, Livia was the head of a charitable foundation which focused on giving opportunities to musicians outside the mainstream, along with those who couldn’t afford a place at a traditional college. To Ebony’s amazement and delight, Livia was crazy about jazz and a real kinship developed between the twowomen.
“We’re moving toward releasing our own recordings in partnership with Quartet,” Livia told her at that first meeting. “We’re keeping it small, keeping our roster tight and exclusive, and we won’t release anything until we’re sure you’reready.”
Ebony laughed. “You realize you’re handing me my dream…for free? It’sincredible.”
“Don’t get too complacent,” Livia teased. We ask for full commitment. We’ll work your ass off if we think you’re worth it – and I do. Your voice is once-in-a-lifetime, Ebony. It would be a crime not to championyou.”
Ebony sipped her iced tea, her mind whirling. “Livia…you must have heard the rumors about me. That I’m a diva? That I’m neversatisfied?”
Livia’s smile faded. “Let me put those rumors into perspective. They were put around by old white men who run recording companies that only deal in profit. They also like to tell women what to do, how to dress, what to eat…I don’t believe the rumors. You’re clearly a strong woman who follows your passion, and who is unwilling to compromise to make a quick buck. That, Ebony Verlaine, is why I reached out toyou.”
Ebony rememberedher mentor and friend’s words now as she dumped the pregnancy stick in the trash – carefully hidden. This wasn’t going to derail her life, she decided firmly. She could only be two weeks pregnant – she’d only been with one man inmonths– so she had plenty of time to think about her next steps. She washed her hands and splashed water on her face before making her way back to her small recordingstudio.
Juno was waiting for her, and to Ebony’s delight, Livia was there too. She hadn’t seen her friend for a few weeks – Livia had just given birth to her fourth child, a girl called Amita. It was an odd feeling, holding the gorgeous little girl, knowing she could one day have one of her own. “She’s so beautiful…and sotiny!”
Livia and Juno laughed. “They come like that,” Livia said, “although they don’t feel so tiny when they’re comingout.”
Both Ebony and Juno winced, and Livia grinned. “You wait andsee.”
Ebony turned away, pretending to grab some work from her bag. “Hey, I finally finished that song we were working on.” She handed over the score to Juno, who rolled itout.
“This looks good…maybe a couple of tweaks, but we’ll run it through. Anyway, before we start work, there’s a reason Liv is here. We have a proposal foryou.”
“What’s that?” Ebony asked, putting aside her worries about the future in favor ofcuriosity.
Juno grinned. “Romy called me last night. The organization she works for is having a huge fundraising event and they need someone to perform atit.”
