by 
A Sultry Performance
The Rabourn Theater Series Book 3
by Jessica Lauryn
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Chris Gordon, stage manager at Rabourn Theater, suspects his late wife’s hit and run was never an accident. He believes the man she was having an affair with, Oakley Sutherland, was responsible and he vows to get Evelyn justice, igniting a plot to ensnare Oakley, working through Oakley’s fiancée, Victoria.
A well-known exotic dancer by night, Victoria Morrow has been fighting to make a better life for herself, and she won’t be taken advantage of. But when the most handsome man at Rabourn Theater takes an interest in her, she finds herself spiraling down a path she never expected to. Can Victoria resist Chris’s charms? Or will both of them fall prey to the danger that lurks in the wings?
A Word from the Author
A Sultry Performance is the third story in the Rabourn Theater Series, a series about love, passion and decades-old secrets. But A Sultry Performance, and all series titles, are also a stand-alone titles, which can be enjoyed separately from the others. My inspiration for creating the series spurred from my love of Phantom of the Opera. I love the idea that someone (the Phantom) could become so obsessed with something so beautiful and that obsession, as well as past hurts and uncontrollable circumstances, could make that person very dangerous indeed. Thus, the major villain of the Rabourn Theater Series, Augustus Nathanson, was born. Augustus’s past, and present obsession with Rabourn Theater and the woman he once envisioned as its star affects the plot of each story in the series, and in A Sultry Performance we learn a big secret that Augustus has been keeping, which affects one of the major characters in the story. Chris Gordon, hero in A Sultry Performance is the funny yet mysterious man we meet in the first two stories. He acts as a sleuth on behalf of Evan Masters, stage director and Augustus’s one time right-arm. After writing A Passionate Play and An Amorous Dance, I wanted to know more about Chris and after noting at the end of An Amorous Dance that his wife was having an affair just prior to her murder, I was as eager as he was to uncover the truth about how she died and to give Evelyn the justice she’d never received. Enter heroine Victoria Morrow, the key to Chris’s plan. Having just started taking dance lessons myself for the first time in over a decade, I was very inspired to write about this woman, who though at a severe monetary disadvantage in a world of privileged elites, possesses a dancing talent that is otherwise unparalleled in her universe. Victoria is the definition of a strong heroine and I wanted to see her bring a rumored ladies’ man to his knees, which she does and then some!
(Jessica Lauryn, December 2018)