The Pleasure's All Mine by Naleighna Kai Read Free Book Online Page A

operating officer and vice president of Artists & Repertoire at MEG, a far cry from spinning records on the toy record player his father had given him when he was five. Patrick Randall had introduced his only son to the wonders of Motown, the beauty that had been the music of the early ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. Late night tales of the challenges artists experienced in those days explained how those musicians had laid the groundwork for soul music, rock, R&B and the blues, which later evolved into today’s popular music.
    Patrick had been disheartened when sixteen-year-old Pierce moved to a studio apartment in Queens with Simeon Cahill so they could be closer to the hub of rap and hip-hop bursting onto the scene. The genre was rife with up-and-coming artists. LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Kurtis Blow, and Run DMC came to find great success after the movie “Krush Groove,” which brought the underground to more mainstream acceptance. Although Harlem had called him back on several occasions since it was also rich in musical and literary underground history, Pierce wanted to be in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens where new music and new sounds flourished. Music was in his blood, and so was the call to become a major force within the music industry, even though many didn’t see a future in it. That doubt had been short-lived as hip-hop and rap steadily made an impact on clothing, television, and movies in pop culture.
    Pierce didn’t return to Harlem until his parents’ sudden deaths brought him back to the brownstone where he’d been raised. The fond memories and quieter vibe of the area soothed him. By all definitions of success, he had made it, but he’d become restless lately, needing something he couldn’t name. Since that night with Raven, he’d been unsettled to the point of distraction. He couldn’t afford to be distracted—not in the music business. Not when he had a partner who started fires all over the country, dripping stupidity like gas from a leaky fuel line.
    Never before had he given a thought to what might have been or might be. For days after that last heated conversation between them, he had tried to forget about the woman who had disappeared as mysteriously as a cousin when loan payments came due. Why did she leave the first night? Why didn’t she come to the resort to meet him? Hadn’t she felt that electricity between them? It had been so strong, she had to have felt something! And those…conversations had only intensified it. Now she wasn’t taking his calls or returning them. Her assistant had begun answering with a curt, “She’s not available” or “She can’t come to the phone right now. I’ll give her the message.” It was a final, “Yes, she has your messages—all of them. She’s just crazy, crazy busy right now” that had him crying foul. Raven had taken the punk’s way out and he wasn’t feeling it. If she could tell him to his face that she wanted nothing more to do with him, then he could handle that. He would keep searching for her until that face-to-face meeting happened, by hook or by crook!
    Steve cleared his throat and loosened his tie, something he only did when nervous. “Raven Armand is a pen name.”
    Pierce’s head snapped to attention. “Don’t tell me what I already know! Find out her real name.”
    “They guard that info like she’s a CIA operative. Her personal information is lacking on any site that I could find.”
    Pierce thought about that for a moment as it confirmed why he, too, had hit a brick wall. “See if you can get me a copy of one of her books right away. It shouldn’t be so difficult to find out her true identity. And someone put her on our guest list. I’d like to know who it was.”
    Steve moved almost soundlessly and perched comfortably on the edge of the desk, something only the brilliant twenty-five-year-old could get away with. Minutes later, when Pierce didn’t say anything more, Steve finally made his way to the door.
    The trail