Read His Black Sheep Bride for Free Online

probed. “And you know this how?”
    Sawyer gave a Cheshire-cat grin. “From the man himself,Mr. Tom Vance, lately of the rock band Zero Sum, and perhaps soon to be the recipient of some very good career news.”
    Colin quirked an eyebrow, for once betraying a hint of surprise.
    Hawk started to shake his head. “Don’t go there…”
    Since he already had, Sawyer gave both of them a bland look. “Know of any good West Coast record producers?”
    Â 
    She was sunk.
    Or more accurately, practically destitute.
    Tamara stared at the letter in her hand. Her bid for investors had fallen flat. Financing was tight these days, and people apparently weren’t lining up to give money to a lone jewelry designer with a big idea and not much else to her name.
    She’d maxed out her credit cards and had already gobbled up her allotment of small business loans.
    She looked around her loft from her seat at a workbench cluttered with pliers, clasps and assorted gemstones. Her business had a name, Pink Teddy Designs, and not much else these days. Yesterday, she’d received notice her rent would be increasing, so soon even the four walls around her would cease to exist—as far as she and her business went, anyway.
    She’d have to find another place to live and work. There was no way she could afford a ten percent rent increase—not with things the way they were.
    She’d never have admitted this to Sawyer when she’d encountered him last week at the fashion party in TriBeCa, but these days she was hanging by a thread—one that was becoming very frayed very fast, ever since she’d left her salaried position two years ago at a top jewelry design firm to strike out on her own.
    Rats.
    She was desperate—and Sawyer’s words reverberated through her mind. I’m in a position to help you move your jewelry business to the next level.
    No, she wouldn’t let herself go there.
    And with any luck, Sawyer didn’t have a clue as to just how dire her current financial situation was. He hadn’t seemed as if he did. In fact, his words to her that night indicated he thought she was looking to expand her business, not merely survive.
    She hoped her appearance had also served to throw him off the scent. She’d dressed to project an image of success. She’d worn expensive earrings of her own design to the fashion party—as much for advertising as for anything else, though the earrings were worth much more than the typical Pink Teddy piece of semiprecious jewelry.
    Yes, she dreamed of expanding her business and having her name added to the roster of top celebrity jewelry designers. But she’d also had to start small, given her financing, or rather lack thereof. And now she was nearly broke.
    People assumed she had money—or at least connections—as the daughter of a millionaire Scottish viscount. In fact, she was entitled to be addressed as the Honourable Tamara Kincaid and not much else. After her parents’ divorce when she was seven, she’d gone to reside in the United States with her mother, who had been able to maintain a respectable, but not settled, lifestyle. Instead, thanks to child-support payments, Tamara had been entrusted to the care of a series of babysitters, schools and summer camps while her peripatetic mother had continued to travel and move them within the United States.
    Her mother resided in Houston now with husband number three, the owner of a trio of car dealerships, having finally achieved a measure of stability.
    Tamara sighed. Partly because of the physical distance, she and her mother weren’t very close, but a fringe benefit was that her mother didn’t interfere much in her life.
    Of course, she could hardly claim the same benefit withrespect to her father, who owned an apartment in New York City.
    But unlike her mother, she’d thumbed her nose at her father’s money. Because the strings attached