Fortune's Promise: A Fortune Story

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  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

  Macon GA 31201

  Fortune’s Promise

  Copyright © 2009 by Karen Erickson

  ISBN: 978-1-60504-363-0

  Edited by Bethany Morgan

  Cover by Natalie Winters

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2009

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  Fortune’s Promise

  Karen Erickson

  Dedication

  To C, A and J for putting up with their mom always sitting with her laptop.

  I love you guys!

  Chapter One

  “He’s so fabulous, wait until you hear him perform.” Brittney fanned herself with a wave of her fingers. “He’ll make you swoon. He might even make you cream your panties if you don’t watch out. Not to mention he’s gorgeous.”

  “Brittney!” Madeline Carpenter slapped a hand over her friend’s mouth. “You just got married. You’re in your wedding dress talking about another man making you cream your panties.”

  Her face flamed and she dropped her hand, feeling like a fool. Good Lord she couldn’t even believe she had said the words out loud. Leave it to Brittney to say something completely inappropriate on her wedding day.

  Brittney shrugged, her tanned shoulders bared by her custom-made Vera Wang strapless wedding gown. The bodice was hand-sewn with thousands of Swarovski crystals and the skirt a giant pouf of tulle, and she looked like a princess. Gorgeous as usual while Maddie felt almost plain standing next to her. Even though she had on the most beautiful, most expensive dress she’d ever worn in her life.

  Typical.

  “It’s true, he is gorgeous. And I was talking about you creaming your panties, not me.” Brittney smirked. “He was on the cover of People as one of the sexiest bachelors, you know.”

  “Right, and Mr. Sexy New Bachelor About Hollywood is going to notice me, the lame bridesmaid at some random wedding he performed at. Please.” Maddie watched the band members trickle onto the stage, picking up their instruments. “How did you get him to come to your reception anyway? I don’t believe you’ve ever told me the story.”

  “Well I made Charlie contact him to see if he did private performances and he did so I booked him. It cost a little bit of money, but that’s okay.” Brittney grinned. “He’s worth it.”

  “I don’t even want to know how much you paid to get him here.”

  “You sound like Charlie. He almost didn’t let me do it, but I finally convinced him. It’s not like we can’t afford it. Besides, half of the money goes to charity.”

  “Really?” Maddie was surprised. She’d written Tanner Robinson off as a vain superstar, not a man who supported charities. “Well, thank goodness you married a financial advisor. You would probably be broke by now with the way you spend your money.”

  “Are you two talking about me?”

  Charlie approached Brittney from behind, slipping his arms around her waist and holding her close. She smiled, turned to nuzzle her face against his. “Only good things, sweetie. Don’t worry.”

  “I was just informed that Tanner’s about ready to start. We’re supposed to do the first dance, and we need to get on the dance floor.”

  Maddie watched them stare into each other’s eyes. If this wasn’t one of her best friends, jealousy would be clawing at her gut. She was thrilled for them. Glad Brittney had found Charlie. Lauren hadn’t found anyone serious yet, but that didn’t stop her from going out on a constant string of dates. Her latest hunk, some handsome guy whose name Maddie couldn’t remember for the life of her had Lauren cuddled on his lap. Not that Maddie wanted to put on a public display but damn it, she wanted to find someone too. Her friends seemed to have it all, so happy, so complete.

  She on the other hand, had nothing. She definitely didn’t feel complete. She may have won forty million dollars over a year ago, but it didn’t necessarily equal happiness. No, she still worked at her dead-end job only because her mother owned the business. She’d even invested a bit in the business against her better judgment. Against Charlie’s, too, though he hadn’t said much. After all, it was family and she had done it only because her mother had begged and pleaded. She had used every guilt trip in the book to get Maddie to contribute some money to the employment placement agency.

  She’d never met any men worthy of going out with since winning the lottery, all of them were only after her money it seemed. Of course. Poor Lauren was in the same situation, though lucky Brittney had found true love with the man who gave them all financial advice.

  Maddie, on the other hand, could only find down on their luck losers who were looking for a lucky save. And she wasn’t about to save anyone like that, no matter how desperate she felt.

  She’d been feeling pretty damn desperate lately too.

  “Duty calls.” Brittney reached out, squeezed Maddie’s hand. “I love you, sweetie.”

  Maddie smiled, squeezed her friend’s hand in return. “I love you too. Now go out there and dance with your husband.”

  Brittney clutched Charlie around his neck, giving him a loud kiss on the cheek. “I can’t believe he’s going to sing for us.”

  “I guess we should’ve paid extra to have Tanner Robinson come along on our honeymoon too.” He winked at Maddie, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

  Brittney swatted his chest. “Oh stop it, you’re just jealous because you can’t sing like that.”

  “I don’t need to sing like that. I already have you, Mrs. Manning.”

  Maddie turned away when they started kissing. Yuck. She felt like a little kid. She didn’t begrudge her own best friends. She thought it was great that they were blissfully happy.

  She just wanted a little bit of that happiness to head her way.

  The lights dimmed in the ballroom, and Brittney and Charlie walked out into the center of the dance floor. A deep voice sounded out of nowhere, the DJ, Maddie presumed.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, straight from Los Angeles with a specially requested performance for Charles and Brittney’s wedding reception, internationally acclaimed recording artist Tanner Robinson!”

  A spotlight hit the stage and out he strode, clad in black, big and broad. He sat behind the piano, his hands poised above the keys, waiting for a beat. He didn’t say a word, just started playing softly and the DJ spoke again, introducing Charlie and Brittney as the brand new married couple.

  Another spotlight lit Charlie and Brittney, their arms wrapped around each other, swaying to the music, gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.

  Maddie smiled, tears stinging her eyes. They were very much in love, such a special couple, and Brittney deserved happiness after suffering so much in her childhood. She glanced behind her, saw Lauren and her date sitting close together at a small table, their heads bent, whispering sweet intimacies to each other no doubt.

  She turned back around, moving away from the table, walking along the edge of the dance floor until she was in the far corner of the room, closest to the
emergency exit door. No one was going to bother her there while she brooded over her suddenly miserable loneliness.

  And then Tanner Robinson began to sing.

  She’d heard his songs countless times on the radio, had even seen a few of his videos on MTV and VH1. Yes, she’d read the article in People Brittney mentioned, had heard the gossip about his broken marriage, his divorce from a beautiful actress who had left him for another woman. The barrage of photos showcased an endless string of voluptuous model types hanging off his arm in all of the celebrity magazines. All of the women were gorgeous, some of them famous, none of them like Maddie. She’d dismissed him and his crazy-sounding life immediately of course. Who cared? She had better things to worry about.

  But as she listened to him play, his smooth voice singing the romantic lyrics, something washed over her body. Some sort of unknown emotion started deep in her belly, a foreign sensation making her skin tingle, her face grow hot.

  With his long fingers tickling the piano keys and his eyes closed, Tanner sang words of true love and dreams. Brittney and Charlie continued to dance, their eyes only for each other, but Maddie lost interest in them, her gaze locked on Tanner.

  He could’ve been singing about her, she realized as she listened carefully to the words. A woman who’d been running from her life, giving up on her dreams, looking for love and unable to find it.

  Lately that felt like her life story.

  His eyes opened as he sang the chorus, his vivid gaze resting directly on her. She glanced around, wondering if he was looking at someone else who stood close to her, but no. She stood alone.

  He sang to her.

  Her heart tripped as he continued to sing, words of promises and dreams found, lovers united, together forever. His gaze never left hers as the words tumbled from his lips and she was paralyzed. Enraptured with his voice, his words, his intense gaze.

  String instruments played, and the music came to a crescendo, seeming to rise all around the room, filling it, filling her. His eyes closed as he finished the song, feeling it, living it and she knew she was doing the same.

  The music suddenly ended and he opened his eyes, smiled out at the guests, at Charlie and Brittney especially. Everyone applauded, but Maddie stood rooted to the spot, unable to move, not even able to bring her hands together to clap.

  She finally pressed a hand to her stomach. What had just happened to her? Moved by a piece of music, the tears that had threatened earlier had actually formed in her eyes while listening to him. She swiped at them covertly, hoping no one noticed. She took a deep breath, shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms and when she looked towards the stage she found him watching her, his gaze meeting hers.

  He smiled at her and it smacked her straight between the legs, her sex throbbing and wet, achy with need. Just like Brittney had said, he’d actually made her cream her panties.

  Her face surely crimson, she fled the ballroom, unable to stand there for another minute and watch him. She was being ridiculous. All hot and bothered for a famous musician who wasn’t singing to her. A star who would never pay attention to her in the first place, who smiled at her only because they had made eye contact for a fleeting moment.

  Maddie went outside and let the mild coastal air hit her heated body, cooling her instantly. The scent of the ocean hung in the night and she shook her head, desperate to clear it. An overreaction to all of the romance in the air, it had to be. She needed to gain some control, gather her thoughts and go home.

  Go home to her lonely little existence, her pitiful little life. She swallowed past the sudden lump in her throat and stood straight, telling herself to stop the pity party. It did her no good. Besides, she’d had too many of them already.

  “Hey, there you are!”

  Maddie whirled around to find Lauren walking towards her, leading her latest conquest by the hand. “Oh, I just needed some fresh air.”

  “It’s a beautiful night.” Lauren stopped in front of her, slipping her arm around her date’s waist. Maddie swore Lauren was trying to take Brittney’s old position as a date ’em and leave ’em kind of woman. “We’re going to the hotel bar in a few minutes. Want to join us? We thought we’d have a few drinks before we headed up to our hotel room.”

  “You’re staying here for the night? When your house is ten minutes from here?”

  Lauren nodded. “We thought we’d take advantage, since we’re already here. A little mini-vacation only a couple of miles from home, we figured. Besides, we’re a little drunk. We wouldn’t drive even if we wanted to.”

  “Good idea.” Maddie was stone cold sober. Maybe that was her problem.

  “So join us at the bar, have a few drinks. I know a few others who are going to hang out with us, it’ll be fun.”

  She didn’t usually do social things very well. Brittney made fun of her all the time, but Maddie couldn’t help it. She didn’t feel comfortable in a crowd, she never had.

  What was her other option though? Go home and cry into her pillow? Become so miserable and upset that she woke up the next morning with swollen eyes and a red nose?

  No, she should definitely take Lauren up on her offer. Anything was better than going home. Alone.

  Maddie nodded with determination, a faint smile on her face. “Sure, I’ll meet you guys there. Are you headed to the bar right now?”

  “Not yet, we’re going in to wish my parents goodbye, but we’ll be there soon.” Lauren leaned in close, whispered in her ear, “Marty’s cousin will be there. Brittney invited him to the wedding, she knows him somehow. He’s really nice and cute, around our age. I think you’ll like him.”

  Marty, Lauren’s date, that’s right. How terrible that Maddie hadn’t been able to even remember his name. And oh, Lord, she was being set up. She didn’t know if she wanted to deal with that tonight.

  Stop it. What can it hurt? When was the last time I flirted with a man?

  “Great. Can’t wait to meet him.”

  She didn’t mean a word of it.

  Chapter Two

  Tanner needed to get laid.

  Oh yeah, he was dying for a little piece of ass, something to take his mind off his troubles for at least one night. Or a few hours, whatever the case. Like an alcoholic desperate for a drink, he was a man in desperate need of a good fucking.

  After almost a year of acting like this, he thought he would be over it. He had been over it, finished with mindless screwing, done picking up one nameless woman after another just to get off.

  Then he got his final divorce papers yesterday, and the need consumed him once more.

  To make matters worse, he had just performed at a wedding reception and had to sing one of the songs he had written for Paula. He hated that he’d loved her so much, would’ve done anything for her, had married her thinking she was the one. He really thought they were going to be together forever. He had helped her with her acting career, had used the connections he’d already had in the business to help her land a few roles in decent movies. They were a star couple, always in the middle of the party scene, always photographed in magazines. Paula had been his everything. Or so he had thought.

  Then she’d left him for another woman.

  He’d been devastated. After he got over the devastation, he’d gotten angry. Felt betrayed. Even went through an “I’m not man enough” stage.

  Hence the endless nights of screwing one anonymous babe after another. After the last three months of being obsessed with recording his new album though, he’d finally put those consuming sexual thoughts aside and focused on his work instead. He even had written some of the best songs of his entire career.

  All it took was to sing that damn song though, about love and dreams and a whole lot of bullshit. He knew he needed to find someone, anyone tonight to ease the ache inside.

  Trolling a wedding reception wasn’t the best way to find someone looking to get laid so he decided to check out the hotel bar, see if there was anyone worth talking to hanging around
. It was after ten on a Saturday night. Surely there ought to be someone decent looking and ready for action, especially with a famous musician. He hated using that shit, hated bragging about his fame, his talent, his riches.

  It got him a lot of pussy though.

  Tanner snuck out of the ballroom after talking yet again with the gushing bride who couldn’t stop thanking him. Yeah, yeah it was great and all she just got married, that she and her husband listened to his music whenever they made love. He actually heard it a lot. It just sucked that all of the songs they listened to had been inspired by Paula. He’d been so full of love, such a fool over her he’d written song after song. All about her.

  Ha. Wait until his fans heard his new album. Talk about bitter.

  Seriously, he was over the woman, had been over her for a long time, so why did it still bother him so much? He needed to stop, he needed to focus on something else, at least for the evening. He couldn’t wait to go home tomorrow, couldn’t wait to get back to work on his album, which was almost finished. Hell, he should go up to his hotel suite and work on it right now, write some more lyrics.

  His body wouldn’t let him. The restlessness gripping him wouldn’t let him relax.

  He needed to fuck. Now.

  Disappointment filled Tanner as he strode into the dimly lit bar, his gaze scanning the room in five seconds. The place was practically empty, with some asshole doing a piss-poor job playing piano in the corner of the room. It tempted him for a minute to shove the guy out of the way and show him how it was done.

  But the moment passed. He had only one thing on his mind and it had nothing to do with piano playing.

  “What can I get you this evening?” The female bartender approached him as he sat at the bar, her lipstick red mouth dropping open in shock when her gaze met his. “Hey, you’re…”

  He gave her a curt nod, cutting her off with a glare. “I sure am. Just a shot of whiskey. Make it the best you’ve got, and you’d better line another one up right behind it.”