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existentially and in every other way.”
    She picked up on his meaning.
    â€œWhat?” she said with mock offense. “You’ll no longer be available to be my standby date?”
    It was easy for her to adopt a lighthearted tone, she realized. Tom had never been more than a casual, occasional date for her—a reliable escort when she had to attend one social function or another. He was nothing more, despite their Tom-and-Tam epithet, and that was the reason she could be happy for him without rancor.
    â€œAfraid not,” Tom responded now. “Will you ever forgive me?”
    â€œIf I don’t, you could always write a song about it,” she teased.
    Tom laughed. “You’re a pal, Tam.”
    Tom’s words summed up their relationship, Tamara acknowledged. It had always been easy and casual. Such a contrast, she thought darkly, from her fraught interactions with—
    No, she wouldn’t go there.
    â€œIt was a lucky break running into your friend the Earl of Melton.”
    Tamara started guiltily. “He’s not my friend.”
    â€œWell, friend or acquaintance—”
    â€œAnd what do you mean it was a lucky break?” she asked, even as she was touched by a feeling of foreboding.
    â€œWell, this music producer has a friend who socializes with the earl. Seems the earl had heard my music—”
    She’d just bet Sawyer was a fan of Zero Sum.
    â€œâ€”and had talked it up to a friend of his, who passed along the recommendation to his music industry connection.”
    Tamara felt a wave of heat wash up her face. He didn’t…He wouldn’t…
    And yet, it was all too convenient.
    When she found Sawyer, she was going to let him have it, and then some.
    For Tom’s sake, however, she forced herself to sound cheerful. There was no reason to rain on Tom’s parade by imparting her suspicions about how his lucky break was more than mere luck.
    Besides, from Tom’s perspective, it didn’t matter how his intro to a top music producer had come about. The bottom line was that he was getting his chance to hit it big.
    â€œI owe this all to you, Tam,” Tom said gratefully. “I don’t need to tell you how tough things have been in the music industry lately, so getting someone to take a chance on Zero Sum is a big deal.”
    If only Tom knew exactly what he owed to her, Tamara thought.
    â€œI’ll keep my fingers crossed for you,” Tamara said. “Blow them away.”
    â€œThanks, babe. You’re the best.”
    When she ended her call with Tom, she set down the phone and stared at it unseeingly, her brows knitting as she contemplated Sawyer’s skullduggery.
    She’d barely begun to get herself worked up over Sawyer’s fiendishness, however, when the intercom sounded.
    After she pressed the intercom button by the front door, she jumped as she heard Sawyer’s voice.
    She took a deep breath. Apparently her confrontation with Sawyer would occur sooner than she’d expected.
    â€œCome on up,” she said with a semblance of serenity, and buzzed him in.

Four
    T rust Tamara to name her company something ridiculous and suggestive like Pink Teddy Designs, Sawyer thought as he rode the elevator up to the third floor.
    The name had been emblazoned next to the buzzer for Tamara’s apartment in a cast-iron warehouse building that had long ago been converted into lofts. Located along one of SoHo’s narrow side streets, the sidewalk in front of Tamara’s building had nevertheless been almost as crowded with pedestrians and street vendors peddling everything from paintings to T-shirts as SoHo’s main commercial strips, Broadway and Prince and Spring Streets.
    It looked as if Tamara had rented one of the cheaper apartments she could find in one of Manhattan’s priciest boho neighborhoods. Factories and warehouses had long since given way to high-end retailers such as Prada, Marc