The Melody of Love (Sisters Collins Trilogy II), page 1
The Melody of Love
Stefania Gil
Translated by Virginia Castro
“The Melody of Love”
Written By Stefania Gil
Copyright © 2018 Stefania Gil
All rights reserved
Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.
www.babelcube.com
Translated by Virginia Castro
Edited by Annie J. Garza
Cover Design © 2018 La Taguara Design
“Babelcube Books” and “Babelcube” are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
The Melody of Love (Sisters Collins Trilogy II)
Preface
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Epilogue
Dear reader:
Stefania Gil
Other titles of the author:
Your Review and Word-of-Mouth Recommendations Will Make a Difference
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
“The happiness of our life depends on the serenity of our consciousness.”
— Oliver Goldsmith —
Preface
Eve walked into the police station. She wanted to choke Liam Woods.
She hadn’t had the time to look up on the internet the “latest stunt” that the singer of the most famous band in the country had done. The singer she now seemed to be babysitting.
The manager of the band thought that being a permanent part of the associate’s team was a perfect idea especially when he found out that they would have a public relations assistant on the team and at the band’s disposal. It was more than obvious that they needed one badly.
Eve thought it was sheer madness when her mother suggested it, but as soon as an idea crossed Agnes Collin’s mind, there was no talking with her. Her mother knew very well how to take advantage of her daughter’s weaknesses.
The proof was in the pudding: Everything that had happened with Cameron and Keith. She had just talked to Brooke and found out that the coach had declared his love to her little sister in front of millions of spectators.
And she had missed it.
Another reason to choke Liam.
Eve sighed.
As if she could!
Eve had a crush on Liam. Since the first time she had seen him, many years ago at a concert. However, Eve thought of it as a platonic crush. Her mother took advantage of that when she told her, “Come on, Eve. It can’t be that bad. Besides, it’s your favorite band and as far as I can remember you used to dream about knowing Mr. Liam Woods.”
Eve agreed with her mother but she also listed some of the times that members of the band continuously got themselves into trouble and she was very precise when she specified the reasons why they shouldn’t take on the responsibility of saving them every time they did something stupid, like the problem they were going to solve at that moment.
“I’m so sorry for making you come over here, Eve. But the press wouldn’t stop talking about this, and I don’t know what to do.”
Eve sighed while she saw exhaustion reflected in Sean McAdams’ eyes. He was the manager of X69. The man was just not up to dealing with all of the fuss caused by the guys in the band, but he was loyal to them and to his work. A trustworthy man.
“What has he done now?”
“Haven’t you seen it?” the manager asked doubtfully.
“No, Sean. I was at an important event for the campaign that involved my little sister. When my mother demanded I come and clean up the mess that Liam made. I got into the car, and here I am.
Sean looked at Eve and felt sympathy for her.
“Is it that bad?” Eve had been keeping an eye on all the band’s movements since they had signed the contract with them a few weeks ago. As a fan she’d rather live without knowing what they were up to and she avoided social scandals that fueled the tabloids because she was disappointed by the fact that the band was stupid enough to spoil their fame with women and alcohol.
They seemed to be trapped in their teens and unwilling to grow up at the same pace as their bodies.
“He was with two girls in the car. Nobody had their clothes on and...”
Eve raised a hand as if saying “I don’t want to hear any more. What’s the situation?”
The manager shrugged.
“He will get away with it because both girls are of legal age. He will be fined, and then we will be able to go home. I’m waiting for all the necessary documents to be arranged. But I think you should see the pictures.”
Eve sighed again and took her tablet out of her purse. She sat on a chair and opened Google to write Liam Wo...
Before she finished typing, Google was already showing a pretty revealing title of an online article, “Liam Woods and the girl who was sucking him off.”
Eve frowned at that sentence while the page finished loading. She didn’t understand why the press always had to be so vulgar in their news articles, “was sucking him off.”
The page loaded and then Eve understood that there was no other way of describing the scene. Well, yes, maybe, “The girl who was eating him up.”
There were pictures of the three of them. They were half naked when the police made them get out of the car. Eve could see Liam’s undeniable erection refusing to get back into his pants and the idiot, with a victorious expression, was waving to the press.
How stupid do you have to be to not realize that what you are doing is not funny?
Eve took a deep breath and started to think about the announcements she would have to give the journalists that were going to be waiting outside the police station.
The thing is, what could she tell them?
In the first place, Eve would have to tell the truth because you can’t sweep everything under the carpet. Then she would apologize in Liam’s name by saying he was under a great deal of pressure that stressed him out and that he hadn’t made the best decisions that day.
That’s right. She would try to be brief. Of course, she wouldn’t let anyone ask Liam questions.
Eve grabbed her purse and looked for Sean, who was out of sight.
“Officer,” she asked at the reception desk. “Where can I find Mr. Sean McAdams? Liam Woods’ manager.”
The officer pointed behind her and when she turned around Eve felt that she was sliding into a new dimension. Everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion.
She could clearly see each of Liam’s gestures, who walked behind Sean.
Eve blinked a couple of times and tried to understand what the hell was going on with her but those ebony black eyes were locked on her, and she felt like she was about to faint.
Her teenage crush was there, in front of her, within arm’s reach.
“Eve! Eve!” Eve felt Sean shake her by the arms while she just looked mesmerized at Liam. He smiled at her.
“You’re the new public relations assistant for the band?” he asked sarcastically.
Eve could only nod her head.
“Oh, Sean! We’d better look for another one. This is just another girl who is fascinated with me. She won’t do her job right.”
Eve blinked again, and she felt as if someone had thrown a stone against the glass wall that kept her in that unknown dimension.
“What did you say?” she asked Liam.
“What you just heard. Or are you going to tell me that meeting a star like me has left you deaf?”
Eve took a deep breath, and she could feel how her blood rushed in her ears due to the anger that was taking over.
She started to walk towards the exit.
“Liam, you’re really unbelievable,” McAdams said, and then he speeded up to reach her. She was about to open the door of the police station. “Eve, forgive him. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
“We’ll see if he says that again, excuse me, please.” McAdams opened the door for her to leave. “And please, Sean, I’m not useless. I can open the door by myself.”
Eve could hear Liam’s sarcastic laugh behind her. He walked behind them. They were approaching the swarm of journalists that stood on the sidewalk.
“Liam! Liam!” they shouted when they saw that Sean slowed down and took Liam by his arm, leaving Eve exposed.
Eve frowned.
“Good evening,” she greeted everyone present around her. “What happened tonight is pretty shameful” Eve saw that Woods was visibly confused. “It was a situation that questions the fame of the band. The fact that they are excellent musicians cannot be denied but,” her expression changed to pity, “Mr. Woods is showing clearly the type of man he is by taking advantage of his fame and money to seduce fans who could be his little sister.” Liam gave her a hateful gaze and Sean didn’t understand what the hell she was doing. “Luckily, it seems that the law does punish those that deserve it and Mr. Woods was not only punished with a fine, but he will also have to serve community service in several centers for six months.”
Was that what she was going to say to the journalists?
No. But she had already done it, and the results weren’t that bad. It turned out to be a surprise for the press and the perfect revenge against her teenage crush.
“I’m sorry, we have to leave,” Eve said to the press and then she looked at Liam and Sean.
The reporters scattered in the blink of an eye, puzzled by the news that Liam would behave like a normal human being for six months.
“You seem to be good at lying.” he winked at Eve, and she felt that her heart was going to burst out her chest. The heart always felt what it shouldn’t, she thought.
Eve smiled at Liam.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Woods. I never tell lies. Not even to save the neck of an arrogant man like you. I’m just doing my job. If you are willing to clean up your image and that of the other group members you should comply with what I say.”
“She isn’t serious, right, Sean?” the manager looked at him satisfied.
“Apparently she is, boy. You’ll have to do as the lady says.”
1
The members of X69 went up on the half-lit stage among the applause and shouting of the audience.
The guys smiled as every time they took their places they were prepared to give their best with their instruments on stage.
They were born for this. Fifteen years of playing together and gaining more and more fame weren’t in vain.
Although, in the last years their fame was also a product of their recklessness when they would party. Well, the ones who were not married or engaged. Like Liam who was the vocalist and guitarist of the band and Cole who was the drummer for the band. Alex and Harry, the bassist and keyboard player, were happily married. Jamie, the second guitarist, had just gotten engaged.
Those guys just fed the press with their top songs. Which reached the highest positions on the Billboard Charts and most of the times stayed there for many seasons.
But reporters didn’t care much about that. They had other members like Liam or Cole who were ready to feed them with compromising pictures and behavior. Like the scandal of the police finding Liam with his pants down and a beautiful blonde performing an oral favor on him.
He was a man. What else could he do? Besides, he found easy women everywhere, and it was a bit stupid go and pay for sex when other girls would serve themselves up on a silver platter, and he didn’t even need to buy them drinks.
And well, yes, the other members of the group were right, even Cole. Liam could have looked for a hotel to have fun with a little more privacy but the thing was that Liam didn’t care about keeping up appearances and didn’t plan his personal parties with a bit more care.
Liam Woods followed his urges, no strings attached. To him, there was no such thing as a “future” on the personal level because he never believed in love, either romantic love, family love or any kind of it.
All the bad experiences he had been through since he was very little had led him to think that love wasn’t for him. An alcoholic mother, an unknown father, foster homes when the state decided to take custody away from his mother after she put Liam’s life at risk by falling into an alcoholic coma.
The time he spent at foster homes was the worst of his life. He never felt like he belonged in of any of those families. Even though some of them had been caring and kind to him. However, he wasn’t organized, methodical, a good student, and didn’t have good habits.
In general, the rules didn’t suit Liam.
So one thing led to another. When he became a legal adult and was finally on his own Liam felt happy.
However, his happiness would last only a couple of days because he decided to leave the last house to go wherever life would take him. As usual, his decision wasn’t the best because he found out that in mid-winter it wasn’t a good idea to let himself get carried away by an idea. Life left him abandoned in a homeless center begging for shelter and food because he couldn’t return to the house that he had left for very powerful reasons. The first, pride. The second, he didn’t want to hurt again that nice and kind woman who made him feel loved for the first time.
He still remembered sweet Helen. Who could have been his mother and had it been true his life would have been different. But he didn’t complain about all the things that he had been through because thanks to all that suffering and “bad luck” he’d had the opportunity to work in a bar. There he learned to serve drinks, and he found his real passion, music.
It didn’t take long for Liam to save money and buy his first guitar. He played every free time he had and soon luck found him.
First, he met his best friends, the members of X69 and after the first show at the bar; Sean McAdams took them straight to fame.
Now they were there, on a huge stage in front of an audience. The audience was overwhelmed by their best songs. They were part of a team that seemed good. Although, it wasn’t Liam’s favorite due to the woman who was now the public relations assistant for the band.
He had always been against of those people for the simple reason that he wasn’t interested in anyone coming in to clean up the mess that, according to everyone, he caused. Whatever they thought made no difference to him. This time Liam allowed himself to be convinced because three of the band members were in favor of Sean’s suggestion to participate in the campaign offered by the fashion magazine. However, he’d mentioned that they would have to follow some “rules.”
Of course, that had already freaked him out. Sean knew it, but the only thing Liam could do was accept all the nonsense after Alex, Jamie and Harry agreed with the idea of someone cleaning up the group’s image and showing publicly that some of its members were willing to settle down and do things right
Women... they were everything, and Liam knew it.
Women changed men. Before meeting Emma, Alex was about to be considered a porn star and had the internet existed at the time that Harry did so many stupid things; the good and marvelous Lucy wouldn’t have married him, because funnily enough life was full of contradictions. Lucy resembled a nun in her lifestyle and Liam couldn’t even think about the bad time she would have if she saw for herself the evidence of Harry’s folly with women, drugs, and alcohol, or what was worse if those things came to light.
But now he was a decent man who hid his tattoos under the immaculate suit he wore on Sundays when they went to church.
And Jamie, the good Jamie was free from many vices. His main problem was casinos so as long as he stayed away from them, everything would be fine. He wasn’t a saint, but his actions weren’t noticed as much.
When the band finished playing the audience gave an ovation, and the lights turned off.
“All right, boys. We sounded great today.”
The audience clamored for more.
The guys looked at each other and smiled.
“One more?” asked Alex.
“Let’s go.” Cole sat again behind the drums and hit the drumsticks together.
The audience shouted crazily.
They played their first song to reach the top of the Billboard Chart.
People shouted madly.
Liam moved on stage, from one side to the other, squeezing out the sound from his guitar. He liked to feel free up there. That’s why he always asked for wireless microphones.
In one of his movements, he could see the woman who was now in charge of cleaning up the name of the band standing backstage. The woman was singing along, uninhibited.
He knew it. She was a fan of the band. He had realized that at the police station when he almost had to wipe the drool off her chin after she saw him in front of her.
Liam bet she was one of those women who considered him her impossible love.
Liam gave her a cheeky smile causing her to stop singing while the color drained from her face.
Yes, of course, he liked her. He smiled again. She wasn’t bad looking, and maybe they could end up in bed. Or better yet, in the back of a car, in front of a playground at inappropriate hours.
Yes, it would be interesting to see how she got the band out of that mess. And herself.
Maybe, Liam had a good opportunity to get rid of the stupid idea of doing community service, and causing the press to get bored of him.
***
Eve stopped singing as soon as Liam smiled. The same smile that had captivated her from the first time that she saw him on a magazine cover so many years ago. When the band was just starting out.
