Adrianne Byrd - Heart's Secret

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Dear Reader,

We hope you enjoy Heart’s Secret, the first book in Arabesque’s MATCH MADE series. Over the next three months we will introduce you to The Platinum Society, an exclusive matchmaking service run by Melanie Harte—a third-generation matchmaker—for wealthy, high-profile clients.

Discretion is the better part of romance, or so Melanie Harte believes when she sets up the rich and handsome banker Jaxon Landon with Zora Campbell, a former model who runs a successful company. Melanie has promised Jaxon’s grandmother that she will never reveal that she had a hand in getting Jaxon and Zora together. But can love last when it’s based on a little white lie? Let’s hope so.

In the months to come, look for Heart’s Choice by Celeste O. Norfleet and Heart’s Reward by Donna Hill to find out if The Platinum Society can help lovers find their soul mates and create matches made in heaven.

Evette Porter

Editor

Arabesque

To my dear and patient editor, Evette Porter. Your encouragement and support are never ending.

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Sag Harbor, New York

“We’re a love matchmaking service, not a sex matchmaking service, Mr. McElroy,” Melanie Harte said testily into the phone. “I don’t care if you have the fifty-thousand-dollar fee. I run a respectable and lawful business here. I’m not interested in becoming your pimp.”

Click.

Melanie jerked the phone from her ear. “How do you like that? Bastard hung up on me.” She placed the handset back into the cradle only to have it to immediately start ringing again. Exasperated, she glanced around the office. “Where in the hell is everybody?”

Riiingg.

“Good morning. Thank you for calling the Platinum Society. How can I help you?” Melanie Harte reached across her desk and picked up a gold pen, ready to jot down a message when she recognized the voice on the other end of the phone. “Ah, Mrs. Landon. How are you today?”

Outside Melanie’s home office, a low buzz of chattering voices pulled her attention away from the caller. She looked up, just in time to see her two beautiful nieces, Jessica and Veronica, laughing as they strolled into the office. Five minutes late.

“Morning,” they singsonged with bright smiles.

Melanie tapped her watch, but then her gaze shifted to the tall Starbucks coffees nestled in a cup holder. She started salivating as the coffee’s distinct heady aroma kicked her caffeine addiction into gear. Melanie smiled.

“Here. Before you start drooling.” Veronica chuckled, handing over one of the cups.

Melanie mouthed the words thank you and then accepted the warm cup of coffee. Not until after she’d taken the first sip did she remember that she still had Sylvia Landon chatting away in her right ear. “Uh, yes. Yes. I did receive your letter,” she informed the spirited eighty-two-year-old. “I had planned on calling you later today since I was just about to go into a morning meeting with the staff. Can I call you in—say, one hour?” She took another sip of coffee and sighed at how quickly her foggy brain was clearing up. “Let me just get your number.” She set the coffee down and quickly jotted Sylvia’s number on a pink pad. “Great. I’ll talk to you in an hour, Mrs. Landon.”

“Now, you know better than that,” the older woman reprimanded gently. “Call me Sylvia.”

“Sylvia it is,” Melanie agreed. “Call you back in an hour.” She ended the call, and then hit a button to forward all incoming calls to voice mail.

“Sylvia Landon?” Jessica asked, surprised. “Not the one that’s married to Carlton Landon?” she asked, ruffling through her tote bag.

“The one and only,” Melanie affirmed and took another long satisfying gulp of her coffee. “God, I wish I could pipe this stuff through an IV.”

“Who’s Carlton Landon?” Veronica asked, her gaze bouncing between her cousin and aunt.

Jessica retrieved the latest copy of Forbes magazine and thrust it toward her cousin. On the cover, a picture of a stern-faced Carlton Landon stood with his arms crossed and the cover line The New King of the Mountain.

Veronica whistled. “Now that’s an attractive older man.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Jessica said. “He’s also loaded.”

“Oh?”

“He’s so rich he could buy five Oprahs, three Will Smiths and still have money left over for a couple of Shaquille O’Neals.”

“Well, I ain’t mad at him.” Veronica laughed, still taking in the man’s perfectly groomed silver hair, intense dark eyes and stone-chiseled features. “I ain’t playin’. I’m really feeling this dude.”

“Wait ’til you see his grandson,” Melanie quipped and fanned herself with one hand. “Tall, caramel and handsome should be his first, second and last name.”

Veronica’s brows quirked up. “Caramel?”

“What can I say? Once they go black they don’t go back.”

“Hey!” Jessica held up her hand and gave her aunt a quick high five on that one.

Melanie added, “Sylvia Landon was also one of Grandma Harte’s first love matches.”

Jessica and Veronica’s eyes widened with that information. “Really?” As usual the cousins gobbled up any and all news about their legendary matchmaking grandma.

“That couldn’t have been an easy hook up back in those days,” Veronica concluded.

“Yeah. It’s been what—almost sixty years?” Melanie calculated in her head. “She was the best. Of course, I’m sure Grandma Harte never thought that she would be launching a business.”

“Business? You mean a family industry, don’t you?” Jessica said. “Considering that we’re the third-and fourth-generation millionaire matchmakers.”

Melanie conceded the point. The first Melanie Harte, a beautiful and unconventional woman of her time, played Cupid for the rich and lonely long before it was considered cool…and certainly before anyone realized it was a lucrative endeavor. Plus, she did it all without today’s modern technology and pricey Manhattan PR firms, Internet ads or an over-the-top reality show. Melanie Harte’s success came simply by word of mouth. Not to mention she held an astonishing marriage rate of 97 percent.

The current Melanie Harte was hot on her trail with 95 percent.

“Let’s have the meeting outside,” Melanie said, gathering up her folders and notepad. “It’s a beautiful morning.”

“Sounds good,” her nieces agreed.

The women moved through the immaculate and extravagant office to access the mansion’s wrap-around porch through the French doors. The salty air put an instant smile on Melanie’s face. She loved being out here, drinking in the picture-perfect post card view of pristine waters and sailboats moored in the harbor.