One More Song

by Seabrook, C. M.

  One More Song

  C.M. Seabrook

  Copyright © 2019 by C.M. Seabrook

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Edited by: My Brother’s Editor

  Cover Model: Johnny Kane

  Cover Designer: More Than Words Graphic Design

  Photographer: Eric Battershell

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Epilogue II

  Preview of Torment

  C.M. Seabrook

  Also by C.M. Seabrook

  One More Song

  My band, Absinthe, is sent to the middle of nowhere to get our shit together.

  It’s time to keep my cock in my pants, my head on straight, and to stay out of trouble.

  Hard to do when the landlord is Ember Skye.

  Long brown hair, eyes flecked with gold.

  One look and she has me, heart and soul.

  Fire burns.

  But when I’m with this girl?

  There’s a heat I’ve never known before.

  She’s a single mom carrying it all on her own with an ex on her heels.

  I want to help, be the man she needs.

  I’m all wrong for her.

  She knows it and I know it.

  But people change.

  Or do they?

  I’ve run out of second chances.

  But we’re Ember & Ash.

  It’s time to fan this flame.

  Chapter One

  Ember

  “I’m going to hell,” I mumble, standing in the middle of the grand foyer of what was once considered one of the most elegant houses in Stanton. As a kid, I’d been scolded more times than I can remember for running up and down the double marble staircases and through the maze of halls that used to contain priceless paintings, imported Persian rugs, and porcelain vases that had been in my family for generations.

  It’s all gone now. Auctioned off to the highest bidder. My grandmother’s beloved chaise lounge has been replaced by a used sofa I found at a garage sale. Where the massive, antique dining table used to loom is a faux-wood table from IKEA that took me six hours to assemble.

  The only thing I couldn’t bring myself to part with is the vintage Steinway piano that sits in the front room like a giant reminder of everything that used to be.

  “You’re doing what you need to do to survive.” Millie, my best friend and the only reason I’ve been able to keep my sanity these last few years, gives me a sympathetic smile. She’s also my only mom-friend. Meaning we’re both raising six-year-olds. The only difference is, she’s doing it with a partner.

  “I know. But if my grandmother ever thought I’d turn this place into a bed-and-breakfast, I’m pretty sure she would have donated it to the church before leaving it to me.”

  “You could always sell.”

  I chew on my bottom lip and frown. She’s right. I’ve had offers. Not for the house of course, but for the land. I won’t lie and say it hadn’t crossed my mind more than a dozen times, but I hadn’t spent the last two years struggling to keep the house from being condemned only to have the five acres it’s sitting on be turned into a subdivision or retirement center.

  “I promised I wouldn’t.” I run my fingers over the yellowed keys of the old piano, wincing at the out of tune B-flat that vibrates through the room.

  I may have broken other promises - like the one to love and obey. A promise I had no choice but to break four years ago when I found my lying, cheating ex screwing some random woman in our bed. But I won’t break this one.

  This house, with its creaky floorboards, yellowed wallpaper and hundreds of unfinished tasks, is the last thing I have of the girl I once was. A girl I lost a long time ago.

  A cold shiver races down my spine as I think of those years nearly wasted. Not just with the memory of the betrayal, but everything that came after. The slander, the backlash, the lies, the threats. The loss.

  Not that I’d been fully innocent in it all. I’d made my own mistakes. A lot of them.

  Through it all, only one thing kept me fighting - my little girl. She’s more than worth the heartache her father put me through. The reason I keep fighting, even when some days it seems easier to just give up.

  I glance at the clock on the wall. Forty minutes and the bus will drop her off at the end of the long, gravel driveway, and the emptiness in my chest will be filled with her giggles and smiles.

  And soon, our house will be filled with a stranger’s voice as well.

  I take in a deep steadying breath. “She should be here by now.”

  “I still can’t believe you’re booked for three months. I mean who rents a bed-and-breakfast, in Stanton, for that long? It’s odd, don’t you think?”

  I twist my fingers together, glancing out the large bay windows. “She said she needed someplace secluded. Plus, she paid for all three months upfront. And a generous bonus for meal prep.” I shrug, trying to play off my anxiety.

  Millie is right, the whole thing is odd. But I’m not in a place to question the woman’s motives. I need the money.

  I readjust the flowers on the side table, hoping they distract a little from the meager furnishings. But Maryll, the woman who I’m expecting any moment, had seemed more concerned about the lighting in the great room than the quality of the new drapes I’d just bought from Walmart.

  “This place is too big for just Cadence and me, anyway.” We don’t even use the second floor, which contains four bedrooms and two baths. Cadence’s bedroom is on the main floor next to mine. Other than mealtime, I doubt we’ll even see much of the woman. “It’ll be nice to have someone else to cook for now that Grams is gone.”

  Millie gives me a look that tells me she doesn’t believe me. “You mean it’s another excuse for you to stay holed up in this place.” She sighs and puts her hands on my shoulder, like this a serious issue. “You, my dear, need a life outside of this house.”

  “I like my life. And I don’t need you trying to set me up with any of Keith’s friends,” I say, knowing it’s exactly what she’s getting at. She’s been trying for years to get me out on a double date with her and her husband. But the last thing I need in my life is another complication.

  “Fine. But we haven’t had a real girls’ night out in years.”

  “You’re coming over Sunday.”

  She snorts. “A bottle of Chardonnay and binge-watching reruns of The Bachelor does not count as a party.”

  “I have Cadence—”

  “Who is with her dad every other weekend. There’s no reason you can’t go out and have a little fun. Maybe meet someone. Don’t you think it’s time?”

  My stomach twists, because there is a part of me that’s lonely, that aches for a real connection with someone. I shake my head. “I’ve been down that road, and I’m not going back.”

  Millie sighs. “Not all guys
are assholes, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know. Yours certainly isn’t.” I rub my hands over my bare arms. I know that not all men are cheaters and liars. My dad was one of the good ones. Even when my mom got sick, he never left her side. And after she passed away, he literally died of a broken heart. A month to the day that my mom died, he went into full cardiac arrest and passed away before the paramedics were able to get him to the hospital.

  It was the day of my dad’s funeral that I walked in on Mitch and the other woman. In a way, I think I’d known he’d been cheating all along. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it.

  But what was I supposed to expect from a guy whose life goal was to be the next Freddie Mercury, but couldn’t hold a tune to save his life. And yet I’d supported him. I worked two jobs, even nine months pregnant, while he sat in bars and drank away every penny I made.

  I wanted him to be something he wasn’t. To love me the way he never would. And I’d given so much of myself - all of myself. Until I barely recognized the girl who stared back at me in the mirror.

  That day, finding him in our bed, screwing another woman, I made a decision. I won’t ever let a man hurt me again.

  After Millie leaves, I putter around the house, trying to keep my body and mind busy. I’m not sure why I’m so anxious, but there’s a prickling at the back of my neck, a flutter in my stomach, like a premonition of sorts. I shake it off. Grams always believed in all that stuff, but I’m a rational person. The only thing I’m feeling is apprehension about a stranger moving in.

  I’m in the kitchen preparing a casserole for tonight’s dinner when I hear the slamming of a car door outside.

  Inhaling a deep breath, I wipe my hands on my apron and start toward the foyer, but the front door opens before I reach it and three, large, tattooed men pile in.

  For a heartbeat, I stand there gaping, hidden slightly from their view.

  I’m too shocked at first for fear to register, which probably should be the right emotion in this situation. And I curse myself for not locking the door. But this is Stanton, where no one locks their doors.

  The tallest of the three men gives a low whistle as he flips his sunglasses up and takes in the foyer. His voice is a deep Irish brogue when he says, “And ye thought Maryll doesn’t have a sense of humor.”

  A man with two full sleeves of tattoos and jet-black eyes scowls at him and places a guitar case against the entrance wall. “She wasn’t kidding when she said it was in the middle of nowhere. Fuck me.”

  The third man is the first to see me, and his brown eyes twinkle with amusement when they lock on mine. “At least she was thoughtful enough to provide a cook.” He chuckles, taking a step toward me, oozing charm and arrogance.

  “What’s yer name, lass?” the Irish guy asks, smiling at me like he didn’t just break and enter.

  “My name?” I blink at them.

  “I think she’s starstruck.”

  “What?” I snap out of my initial shock of having three giant men barge uninvited into my house. Panic should probably be my first response, but as intimidating as they look, there’s nothing threatening in any of their expressions. Except maybe the guy with the full sleeve tattoos who is still scowling, and looking like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than here.

  “Can I help you?” I ask, not budging from my spot near the kitchen door, ready to bolt if I need to.

  The one with the Irish accent steps toward me, a cocky grin stretching across his handsome face, and he rubs a large hand across the scruff on his jaw, studying me. “That depends on what ye’re offering, darlin’.”

  My eyes widen at that. Is he serious? “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t mind Dusky, sweetheart.” The brown-eyed hottie with the deep dimple in his cheek places an arm over the man’s shoulder. “We’ve had a rough few days, and are just looking for a bed to crash. So if you can point us toward the bedrooms—”

  “First of all,” I say, standing as tall as my five-foot-four frame will allow. “I’m not your darling or your sweetheart, and you all need to leave...now. Before I call the police.”

  Dimples raises his brows and Dusky chuckles, but the man with the full sleeves of tattoos narrows his eyes at me, and mutters, “Jesus, Ash, you can’t even follow a fucking GPS. You brought us to the wrong place.”

  “Then blame Maryll, because this is the fucking address she gave me,” a fourth man, who I hadn’t seen before pushes between Dimples and Dusky.

  Oh my God.

  Gray eyes, the color of a winter storm, seer into me. Cold. Intense. His entire presence seems to take up the whole room. Like he’s sucked the oxygen from it.

  Or maybe I’ve forgotten how to breathe.

  My gaze flickers down his body. Sharp, defined muscles strain against a simple black t-shirt. I lift my gaze, taking in the face that’s so beautiful and yet haunted. He’s hard edges and tattoos and trouble.

  He drags a thumb across his bottom lip, and I follow the movement, unable to stop my tongue from flicking across my own lips.

  I blink. One. Two. Three. Still not breathing, my head reminds me. And I feel the world around me start to spin.

  The man says something, but his words are muffled in my ear, all I hear is my own heartbeat. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  “Pardon?” I manage to say, finally taking in a lungful of air, but it doesn’t stop the tingling that started in my fingers and has spread through my entire body. Or the ache in my core that makes me need to squeeze my thighs together.

  God, Em, get a grip. For all I know, these men could be here to rob me. Not that there’s anything of value left.

  Only my dignity. But this man seems to want to steal that too.

  Gray eyes takes a step toward me, his mouth twitching up slightly, but the amusement stops there. “I asked if you’re Ember Skye? You own this bed-and-breakfast?”

  “I-I am,” I stutter out, needing to regain some sense of composure, and failing miserably. “And you are?”

  I see the hint of surprise in his eyes like he thinks I should know him. “I’m Ash.” Then he nods over his shoulder. “That’s Dusky, Saint, and Synn.”

  An awkward laugh spills from my lips, and I say before thinking, “And Happy, Grumpy, and Bashful will be arriving when?”

  Dusky snorts, but Ash frowns at me like he doesn’t get the reference. “What?”

  “I think the lass is making fun of our names,” Dusky says, grinning at me. “I like her.”

  Ash grunts, those gray eyes never leaving mine. I’ve felt attraction before. Little sparks of energy that make a person think unreasonable things. I felt it with my high school boyfriend when he first kissed me, and the first time Mitch asked me out on a date.

  But this...it’s so much more.

  It’s not just sparks. It’s electricity and heat. An inferno that’s so hot I feel a bead of sweat forming on the back of my neck. Like I can already feel the man’s fingers caressing my body, his mouth soft and warm, possessing my own.

  It’s exciting.

  And terrifying.

  But for a brief moment, I’m lost again in those eyes.

  And then I hear a deep laugh behind him, and Dusky mutters, “If the two of you are done eye-fucking, I’d really like to know where I’m supposed to be sleeping.”

  “Sleeping?” I glance at Dusky, then back at Ash, whose expression is guarded now. “Look,” I say, my brain slowly starting to work again. “This isn’t a hostel. It’s a bed-and-breakfast, and I’m already booked for the next few months. I have a guest who’ll be arriving anytime, and it’s going to look really bad if you’re all here, so I’d appreciate if you’d take your things and leave.”

  Ash shares a look with the other guys, but none of them make any show of leaving.

  “Fucking Maryll,” the guy Ash called Synn grumbles, leaning against the wall, his muscles flexing under the colorful display of ink.

  “Maryll?” I ask, my voice catching. They’d mentioned the woman’s name before, but now t
iny pieces of the puzzle start to fit. And I’m not liking the picture it’s making.

  Shit. Please, please, please don’t let this be what I think it is.

  When Maryll came with her offer, I’d jumped at it because honestly how much trouble could a middle-aged woman be?

  But these guys? They had trouble written all over them.

  Especially Ash.

  “You spoke with our agent, Maryll Kinglsey,” Ash says, those gray eyes searching mine, and I see a hint of sympathy in them like he knows I got duped.

  “Your agent?” I repeat. “I think there’s been some miscommunication.”

  “Obviously,” Ash deadpans, arms crossing over his muscular chest. “If you’re worried about damages, it’ll all be covered—”

  “Damages?” I squeak.

  “Smooth, Ash,” Dimples, or rather the guy Ash called Saint says.

  Who the hell are these guys? And what kind of names are Ash, Saint, Synn, and Dusky?

  “We’re not going to cause ye any trouble, lass,” Dusty says, glancing into the sitting room. “And Maryll was right, this place has incredible acoustics. We can set up our gear in here—”

  “You’re musicians?” This is getting worse by the second.

  That arrogant smirk plays on Ash’s gorgeous lips again, but it’s Saint who places an arm over Ash’s shoulder and gives me a dimpled grin. “You really have no idea who we are?”

  “No. But I do know this isn’t going to work. I have a—”

  Ash shrugs off Saint’s arm and steps toward me. He’s close enough now that his scent wraps around me, and the energy and heat I’d felt earlier comes back with a blast.