It’s one of the rules of the rock and roll the musicians snub the roadies because they’re uncultured grunts, and the roadies hate the musicians because they’re spoiled brats. Meet Tryp, the rock star drummer for Killer Valentine, the hottest band on the planet. He's young, he's rich, and his whirlwind life of liquor, women, and screaming crowds is perfect, just as long as he never sobers up. Elfie Tilsi has been a pyrotechnics technician (don’t call her a “roadie.”) with the breaking-out rock band Killer Valentine for two years, ever since she ran away from home. The musicians of Killer Valentine are starting to crack from the unrelenting stress and limitless excess of touring. When the band manager tasks Elfie with babysitting Tryp, she tries being a little kind to him and quickly discovers that his problems are far deeper than the rock and roll lifestyle. Can the love of a rock drummer and the pyromaniac roadie survive? a new Note From Blair Babylon!

Small diamonds encrust the platinum prongs, designed to look like vines crawling up the sides, that hold the crystal-like ten-karat emerald. Larger diamonds radiate like flower petals around the center stone, three karats worth. Xan Valentine had worked with the jeweler for months to create the perfect engagement ring. But something’s wrong. He knows that something is wrong. It’s almost like he can’t touch Natasha, can’t feel her, like she’s always half-turned away from him, like her heart belongs to someone else. Or something else. Xan is going to propose anyway. This book is a short story and is about 40 pages long. The short story is a separate, time-honored literary form and should not be confused with a novel. A novel is an expansive work that seeks to encompass the whole of what it means to be human. A short story elucidates a moment in time or a pivotal moment in the life of a character. I hope you enjoy this short story.

What happens when a Rock Star in Disguise meets a Billionaire in hiding? Georgie doesn’t know who she is dating. At a high society wedding, Georgie Johnson is introduced to Alexandre de Valentinois, a hereditary duke of nothing who flies around the world on his private planes and describes himself as “one of those despicable, idle rich men.” Yet, when pressed, he sings at the wedding in a gorgeous, clear tenor that tugs at Georgie’s soul, and miraculously, he calms her paralyzing stage fright so she can accompany him on the piano, even though she thought she had left her classical music career behind when she went into hiding. But Alexandre has a dark side. His name is Xan Valentine, and he’s the rock star front man for Killer Valentine. He’s famous, but his paparazzi-dogged lifestyle might get Georgie killed.

Music is a bitch mistress. When Rhiannon is hired as a back-up singer for Killer Valentine, the hottest breakout rock band on the planet, her contract includes an iron-clad no-fraternization clause. However, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that Killer Valentine is falling apart from the stresses of touring and promotion. The band’s manager Jonas Rees, a green-eyed starmaker, is frantically trying to prevent them from self-destructing during their grueling tour and right before their first major-label record deal, but neither Jonas nor Rhiannon can deny the attraction that flares between them. When the band’s problems threaten to derail the tour and Jonas slips and reveals their relationship, the lead singer demands that Rhiannon choose between music and love.

The music calls Georgie. Every night, she stands offstage, watching Xan Valentine set fire to the crowd with music until they would burn down the city for him. His music wraps her until her fingers dance, desperately wanting the piano, but her terrified legs could never walk onto a stage. Most nights, when Xan Valentine strides off the stage, his dark eyes shift, blurring, and he becomes Alexandre de Valentinois again. Sometimes, Xan won’t let go. Some of the other band members, Rade and Grayson, are caught in a death spiral of booze, drugs, and groupies. The drummer, Tryp, is too infatuated with his new wife to do more than show up to play. Xan is the only one who can compel them onto the stage. He’s holding Killer Valentine together with the force of his will. This can’t go on. Something has to break.

Xan Valentine, the rock star that Rolling Stone called “sex incarnate,” stands in the spotlight every night and sings love songs to the women in the audience. They swoon. They scream. They believe him. Georgie doesn't. They didn't see him nearly beat two men to death until someone pulled him off. They’ve never seen the coldness in his dark eyes while he sat across a table, negotiating a contract that broke their hearts. He’s never stolen into their bedroom at night, slid into their bed, and made love to them until dawn, and he’s never treated them like it never happened while the bitemarks on their backs and thighs were still sore. They’ve never seen him play the violin like an angel. Or a demon. Georgie is officially in his band now, playing the keyboards, and every concert drives the music deeper into her soul. If Georgie leaves the protection of the band and Xan Valentine, the Russian mafia will kidnap and kill her. If she stays and plays in his band for just a few more weeks, Xan will pay for her college and law school. If her heart can survive even one more night with him.

Georgie broke up with Xan Valentine, the lead singer for the rock band Killer Valentine, the guy that Rolling Stone calls “sex incarnate.” The magazine isn’t wrong, but they don’t know the half of it. He’s the alpha-est male who ever walked onto a stage or into a bedroom and might be crazy, and Georgie is definitely in love with him. Plus, he hired her ex-boyfriend, her first “real” boyfriend, to play in the band, and now she’s stuck between them. So she tried to leave. That’s what any sane girl would do. And just as she feared, the Russian mafia kidnapped her. She prays that Xan won’t try to rescue her because they said they’ll kill him. But she knows he will, even if it costs him everything. The nail-biting conclusion to the Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Xan series, Nothing Else Matters explores the depths of the heart and the healing power of love.

The first time that Dr. Andy Kumar had seen Cadell Glynn—all six feet, four inches of him, tribal tattoos winding around his arms, fingertips deeply callused from years of pressing steel guitar strings, dressed in leather pants and a tee shirt ripped at the neck that let the tattoos on his muscular shoulders peek through, blue-tipped black hair spiraling in curls and swaying near his shoulders, and fear and helplessness filling his dark eyes at the sight of his sick child hooked up to two different IVs and crying—Andy had known that he was going to be trouble. Mr. Glynn had interrogated Andy and the other surgeons, asking why, and when, and how, and would it hurt Emily too much. He had calmed down some after that first week. Some. After a few weeks, when Emily had stabilized, Mr. Glynn had backed off from the third degree, but he had begun to mention that there were other things in life outside the hospital. Restaurants. Dancing. Concerts. Even though he was the hottest thing Andy had ever seen, she should not date Cadell for so many reasons. So many. The temptation was just too much. Andy wished that the hot rock star daddy would quit asking her out.