No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Michelle Love

“It’s not hopeless.” I tried to cheer him up, but he just shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up. It was usually so neat. I’d never seen him this agitated.

  “It is. I can’t do it. She knows. I don’t think she knows everything, but she knows I’m trying to get her into bed.”

  There was more to it, though. Brent wouldn’t be so upset about this otherwise. “She can’t possibly know,” I argued.

  “She knows, and she’ll never go for it,” Brent continued, raising his eyes to meet mine. “Damn it, David, she’s too damn smart for her own good. I swear I didn’t push her too fast. I just tried to comfort her, hug her, tell her she was too good for you, and she flipped out at me.”

  Too good for me?

  The words made me faintly sick to my stomach. Weren’t they true? Kaye was a genuine person—maybe the first one, male or female—I had met in my entire life. I could hardly claim to be the same way, not with what I was pulling.

  She was too good for me. It would be better for both of us when all of this was over, so she could move on and maybe find someone who actually did deserve her.

  Even thinking about it made me angry, but I tried to push it away. I had no claim on her. I didn’t want a claim on her. The whole point of this was to get her to give herself to someone else.

  What was wrong with me?

  “We have to push harder,” I realized. We would both lose out on all of this if she didn’t cave. We’d been treating her too gently, but clearly a bolder approach was called for.

  It was risky. It could end up costing us everything, but when I thought back to the night at the BDSM club, I thought I might have a way to minimize the risk. I thought about how Kaye had moaned and writhed for us, how she’d been so wet, hot, and tight as she clenched around me.

  “What are you thinking about?” Brent asked, and there was hope in his voice again. I was glad to see it, in a way. He had never been the type to give up and seeing him so close to surrender was odd and unsettling.

  I took a deep breath. This was yet another chance for me to back off, I knew that for sure. For me to just accept the wonderful wife fate had tossed into my lap. It was tempting—more tempting every time the thought came up.

  Kaye was loyal. I had thought a woman could never be, but she was. She had shut Brent down before he’d even gotten very serious about going after her. Getting her to cheat on me was going to be harder than expected.

  It made my heart lighten in my chest to think about it. She would never betray me. I tried not to be so happy about the whole thing, but I was. If I let myself, I could be downright ecstatic.

  However.

  It was an awful lot of money for me to let go and we had come so far.

  Brent was still waiting for me, and I pulled myself together. Who was I kidding? As tempting as it was to just forget about the whole thing, I wanted what was mine, even if part of me did still wonder if it wasn’t too late to take her up on her offer of giving me half of what she’d inherited.

  Probably. How would I bring up the conversation? Besides, it would make her suspicious because we were married.

  What a mess.

  “Okay. So do you remember the night at the club? Where we tied her up together?”

  Brent smirked suddenly and gave me a nod of acknowledgment, his eyes suddenly shining with what I could swear was arousal. That was a good thing, I told myself firmly. If he wanted her, he’d work harder to get her.

  Who wouldn’t want her?

  “I remember,” he murmured. I clenched my hands into fists in my lap and did my best not to launch myself over the table at the man who was so obviously fantasizing about Kaye. About my wife.

  “She was really into it.” I clenched my jaw to keep my voice from sounding too angry. I hoped. “So we can use it against her. I haven’t gotten too much more into BDSM with her …”

  Except for the one night where she’d gotten me out of my bad mood by giving herself to me—the night I’d cuffed her to the bed. My cock twitched and I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.

  I had all sorts of highly contradictory emotions running through me and it was more than I could take. Anger, arousal, joy—it was all there, and it could make me unstable if I let it.

  “Oh, okay, I get it. So you think I should get her alone and just try to dominate her?”

  From the sound of Brent’s voice and the way his face lit up, I could tell he liked the idea. I gave him a pitying look. Even after all of his interactions with her, did he not know Kaye at all?

  “No. She’d run screaming,” I spoke very surely, knowing it was true. There was bold and then there was outright reckless. His proposed plan was the latter.

  “Then what?” Brent was getting frustrated, and I sighed softly. If only there had been someone else to pick for this job. Brent was too reckless and impatient.

  Too handsome. Too charming.

  Too likely to succeed.

  Conflicted, I tried to pull myself together, but it was honestly hard for me to come to a firm decision about what I even wanted.

  Once more, I made the effort and pulled my thoughts together. I really was going insane, I could barely focus on our conversation. Kaye’s face kept drifting through my mind, utterly distracting me.

  “You and me, together.” I looked at him. “Just like the last time, only here. In our bedroom, so she feels comfortable. I’ll tease her—play with her until she can’t think of anything but having someone inside her.”

  Once more, my cock swelled, and I shifted uneasily, glad for the desk that hid my arousal from Brent.

  “I think I get where you’re going,” Brent smirked, and I nodded at him slowly.

  “When she’s comfortable with my touch, you step in too. We both play with her, get her really going, and make her wet for us. Never quite kiss her or touch her where she really wants to be touched though.”

  “Holy Christ, you’re devious,” Brent acknowledged, and he seemed almost admiring of my terrible brain.

  “Once she’s really desperate and barely knows what’s going on, I’ll leave.” I swallowed down the bile creeping up my throat, hating myself for this plan—hating myself because I knew there was a good chance it would work.

  It was such a betrayal, and she trusted me so much. It wasn’t the sort of thing a Dom should do to his sub—it was against all of the rules. Really, it was just a shitty, terrible thing to do to another human being.

  Especially to one who genuinely seemed to love me with everything in her warm, loving, generous heart.

  “Leaving her with me,” Brent said, grinning wider. “She’ll be so wet, maybe I can even get her to beg to take my cock.”

  I didn’t wince. Very deliberately, I held my face completely expressionless and even forced a nod. It was, after all, the basic idea. He didn’t have to be so damn crude about it, though.

  Kaye was my wife. I had been the only man she’d ever been with. Was he so completely clueless?

  “She is only human after all,” I added as I thought about my wife shaking with desperation for my fat cock to fill her and take her all the way to the place only I could.

  “I think it’s our only chance. She’s too …good.” There was something about the way Brent said those words. I didn’t like it. It was almost reverent, like he too was being drawn almost unwillingly into admiration for my lovely, sweet wife.

  Of course, it was a ridiculous thought. Brent had never had much in the way of admiration, beyond the purely physical, for any woman. But I looked at him, trying to read his eyes.

  I didn’t like it.

  Brent looked back at me and there was still this look. Something about Kaye. I couldn’t quite read it, but I was fairly certain it could mean trouble for me.

  No. I didn’t care about Kaye. I didn’t love her, and I never would. I shouldn’t even be thinking about her as my wife—our marriage wasn’t real. What did I care how Brent was coming to feel about her? It was probably just my imagination an
yway.

  What could the chances even be? Brent would never fall for any woman, but if he did, it wouldn’t be someone who still held on to so much of her innocence. Brent would be bored to tears by a woman like her.

  Of course, I would have thought the exact same thing about myself.

  One thing was utterly crucial. I couldn’t fall in love with her. It was the one thing I would never, ever allow myself to do. It loomed in my mind even larger than the money did. I had to keep my head about me. I couldn’t let her into my heart.

  I would do anything to keep myself from doing that. I would pull out all the stops. I would force my wife into my best friend’s arms, just to keep myself from really, truly falling for her.

  It wasn’t too late.

  So we made our plans, and I fought down the sickening feeling trying to claim me.

  Chapter 17

  Kaye

  I put my book aside when David came into our room. There was a strange, restless sort of energy in every movement he made and every step he took, and it would have been impossible for me to read him even if I had tried.

  Was it possible he had given more thought to what I’d asked him about us starting a family? Had he maybe rethought his position?

  I sat up in bed, my eyes fixed on him, barely daring to breathe. I didn’t speak. My entire focus was on David, because whatever he said next, I knew I wasn’t going to want to miss even a second of it.

  A baby. I wanted it so badly. I had always wanted to have children eventually, like most women. And here I was, married to the love of my life, and eventually felt like it should be now.

  So I waited, and eventually, David spoke. He stood over me, hands on his hips, looming, refusing to sit on the bed.

  “I’m inviting Brent into our bedroom.” His gaze was forceful, almost defiant. “Just like when we were together at the club.” There was a brief pause and then he added, “Now.”

  My head spun and the whole world seemed to reel crazily around me. The first time we’d ventured into uncharted territory in the BDSM world, it had felt like I’d had a choice. Like I could walk away from it all and nothing would happen.

  Not this time. This time, I was being informed it was going to happen. Informed by His Majesty, King David. Told about it, as though he just assumed I would be compliant.

  Did he seriously think that I was that weak-willed? Did he believe in his heart of hearts that he had married a woman who would be submissive at all times?

  I would be submissive only when I decided to. And that would not ever be a permanent thing.

  Anger had never been an emotion with which I was particularly familiar. I could do annoyance, and maybe, if pressed, irritation. Full on rage, however, was something I honestly couldn’t remember ever feeling before.

  I felt it then as I looked at my husband, his chin jutting out defiantly. His chest puffed out as if he was lord and master of me. Well, he was about to find out just who he had married. For better or worse.

  “No,” I stated, no hint of compromise in my voice. “No, Brent will not be coming into this bedroom, not now—not ever.”

  Enough was enough. Hadn’t I just decided, after what had happened with Brent, that I would never allow him to touch me again? He would certainly never see me naked.

  “Kaye …” David’s voice took on a tone of warning, but I wasn’t interested in hearing it. “Listen to me.”

  I shook my head. “No! You listen to me,” my voice had turned into little more than a hiss. It was strange to hear, but I wasn’t about to let it stop me. “I’m telling you.” I glared at him, letting him know I was not to be played with. “Brent will never be welcome in our bed. Not ever.”

  He looked at me as though stunned. His lips parted, then closed. King David was finding out his crown was but a ploy. He was ruler of no one. “Not ever?”

  I frowned, studying his face. What was going on here? Why was he so caught up in this obsession with sharing me with Brent again?

  “Sometimes,” I spoke very slowly. “It’s like you’re trying to push me away. Like you want me in his arms instead of your own. I don’t get it.”

  I gazed at him, taking in every bit of him. His handsome face, his strong, muscular body, and the tormented look deep in his dark eyes. He didn’t deny what I said, and I sighed softly and shook my head. “What is this, David? I love you. Are you trying to push me away for some reason? Please don’t.” He still didn’t say anything, so I whispered, “I love you. Flaws and all, I love you.”

  I stopped talking to give him a chance to say something. Anything. He still didn’t react. I felt a little like I was talking to a stone wall, except for those eyes, which watched me and seemed almost pained. I couldn’t even start to guess why, but I had to make him understand.

  “You’re the only man I want. If you want to tie me up and dominate me, I would love it. But no one else. Not Brent, not anyone. Not ever. I will never have another man in my bed.”

  He continued to say nothing, to do nothing, as though frozen in place. I shook my head. Words weren’t getting through to him, so actions were going to have to.

  Without hesitation, I rose up onto my knees on the bed, so I was at the right level to fling my arms around him. I kissed him, opening my mouth to him and moaning when he plunged his tongue inside my hot mouth.

  He was shaking a little, I realized. I hadn’t noticed before, but this close, I couldn’t miss it. His breath was hard and fast, like an animal panting. His arms, as they closed around me, held me so tightly I could barely breathe.

  He wanted me. I could tell, not only from his rapid breathing. When I pressed against him, he was hard, throbbing, and obvious even through his pants. And there was desperation in the way he held me.

  “You’re mine, Kaye,” he growled, and the desire was very clear in his voice. I knew how he sounded when he was turned on, and my own body flowed with arousal in response to his. “You’ll do what I tell you to do.”

  Has this man lost his damn mind?

  I stared at him. Yes, I was very wet, and if he’d wanted me for himself, I would have given myself to him in a second. The things he was saying, though, were a different matter entirely.

  “What do you mean?” I whispered, looking into his eyes, my hips still pressed tightly against his arousal. The sexual tension was thick between us, and I wanted him to just give this whole crazy idea up, to throw me on the bed, and to take me. Maybe tie me up, too.

  “I mean I’m bringing Brent in.” His chest heaved with his intense, rapid breaths. He stared into my eyes, challenging me. “You’ll do what you’re told, Kaye. You’re mine, and if I say Brent is joining us, then you’ll take it and you’ll like it.”

  I couldn’t believe the words spewing from my husband’s mouth. I couldn’t actually be hearing what I thought I was hearing. This man was supposed to love me. How dare he speak to me like that?

  “We’re going to tease you,” he continued, almost taunting me. “We’re going to do whatever we like to your body, and you’re going to thank us for it by the end.”

  With those last words, he officially crossed a line with me. It was bad enough that he didn’t seem to care about whether I wanted any of this or not, but to suggest Brent could fuck me if he wanted to? To pretty much outright say I would be expected to allow him to if David wanted it?

  Never.

  I pulled away from him and slapped him across the face. Hard. I had never, not in my entire life, slapped anyone across the face, but I was willing to start. In this one situation, I had no problem putting my normal pacifistic self aside, at least for a few seconds.

  “How dare you?” I asked, and the question was genuine. I honestly didn’t understand where was coming from, saying the things he was saying.

  He stared at me in shock, one cheek bright red, so I slapped him across the other for good measure. I felt sick to my stomach, but also deeply gratified. Hopefully the slaps would teach him a little bit about who I was, since he apparently didn’t
already know.

  “Kaye, I own you,” he insisted, and my eyes narrowed as I glared at him.

  God, I loved this man, but he drove me insane sometimes. What game was he playing here? I could swear I had been right before and he was trying to push me into Brent’s arms. It would all make sense—how cold he was to me and how he kept wanting me to share myself with Brent.

  Maybe it was my imagination, but whatever the case was, I had had enough. He was acting insane, and until he could be more reasonable, there was really only one thing for me to do.

  “Get out,” I whispered, and my eyes prickled with sudden tears. I blinked them back. I was crying far, far too much these days and enough was enough. I was no victim.

  “Kaye, what …?” His voice was stunned, and I was glad. Let him know what it felt like, for once, to feel uncertain and off balance. He’d been doing it to me since our wedding day. Time for him to taste some of his own medicine.

  “You heard me. Get out! You don’t own me. I love you, but that doesn’t give you any excuse to speak to me the way you are right now. I choose what happens to my body, David, not you. So you can leave until you can behave like a reasonable human being.”

  David blinked, and I knew my fury had surprised him. Good. Maybe he’d think twice before trying to pull this crap again.

  “Where am I supposed to sleep?” he asked, and I just shook my head. I wasn’t going to let his unspoken plea move me.

  “I don’t care,” I told him. “Somewhere else. You need to think about what you want, David, and until you do, I want you out of my sight.”

  He left, then, and I watched him go—watched him slam the door shut behind him. Only then did I collapse onto the bed, sobbing softly.

  The anger left me and only sadness remained—a deep sadness that still couldn’t quite numb me to the horror of the conversation I’d just had with my boneheaded husband.

  If only I could stop loving him.

  If only I could stop caring about the bleak sadness I’d seen in his eyes when I’d ordered him out.

  There was so much in his past. Maybe I had been expecting too much, to think he would have no issues. His mother had left him. He probably thought I was going to do the same.