No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Michelle Love

  Let her keep her innocence.

  It was probably the thing I had valued about her the most, at least from the time I had been convinced that her innocence was actually genuine. She really thought the best about everyone and everything, and I didn’t have it in me to take any of it away from her.

  Smiling, I finally rolled her off me, though I wrapped an arm around her shoulders to hold her close. This was perfect. The perfect solution. I would promise myself to give this relationship a good, solid year, and if it was still as amazing as it was now, I would let myself give in completely.

  Either way, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to let Brent put his hands on her. No matter what happened, Kaye was mine.

  Chapter 21

  Kaye

  Karaoke had nothing on my husband. I was glad I had ended up staying, given how things had worked out.

  Nestled in close against David, I closed my eyes and let myself bask in the moment, floating on a wave of satisfied arousal and love. I had been right. Staying home had been the right choice and I didn’t regret it at all.

  I felt so close to my husband right then and I could swear he felt the same. There was a look in his eyes, one that was loving and affectionate. Maybe it was the time to bring up something that had been bothering me for quite awhile now.

  “David …” I steeled myself for his reaction. He hadn’t been particularly open to this idea before, but things had changed, right? Surely the experience we had both just had would have drawn us closer together than ever.

  “What is it?” he murmured, his voice sleepy. He seemed satisfied, and I smiled to myself. There were definitely worse times to bring things up than right after some incredible sex.

  If he would ever be receptive to this idea, it would be while the sweat from our joining was still on us, slicking our skin.

  “I want to talk about the baby.” There. It was out there. It came out a lot easier than I had expected it to. After our huge fight over it before, I was a little hesitant about saying anything about wanting a baby again. God knew I did not want to mar the perfection of the moment.

  The silence that fell between us then made my heart clench and my stomach churn. I didn’t even dare look at him, despite the firm tone of my voice. I took in a big breath, gulping it down, then shook my head.

  No. If I was going to champion this, I needed to be willing to stand firm for what I wanted. I had to be able to look him right in the eyes and tell him. Otherwise, how could I expect him to take me seriously?

  So I raised my gaze and looked right at him. What I was expecting to see, I didn’t quite know, but not the torment I saw there.

  “Kaye,” he whispered, and I thought maybe I had won him over. Perhaps he was finally willing to consider this seriously. Maybe he had finally realized there was no point in waiting. Waiting for what? We were already married, we had the money, and we were deeply in love.

  We would make an amazing home for a child. It seemed like he might finally see what I did.

  “Kaye, stop it.” His voice was so dismissive suddenly, despite the conflicted look in his eyes. “I told you. It’s too soon.”

  “David, it isn’t. Why is it too soon? When won’t it be?” I asked, hating the desperation in my voice. I sounded like I was begging him, and in a way, I was. Not for the baby—not really—but just for some sort of reasonable explanation for why it couldn’t happen now.

  “Not one more word about the baby for a year. For at least a year.” David froze me with his words, which stabbed into my heart like icicles—bitterly sharp and cold—freezing me to my very core, then he rolled over.

  Rolled away from me.

  Shut me out.

  I was dismissed. The intimacy between us was utterly destroyed, and I still didn’t have my answer. He wouldn’t tell me why we had to wait, and worse, he wanted the baby. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. I could see it in his eyes, maybe—his eyes, which contradicted the words that spilled from his lips.

  Tears came to my eyes and I didn’t try to shut them down. I needed the release of crying if I were to somehow remain sane through all of this. So I let myself cry, but in utter silence.

  David was facing away from me. I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing how thoroughly he was breaking me.

  What was with him, anyway? He was so loving, affectionate, and cuddly sometimes, and the sex, of course, was amazing. Then there was this whole other side to him, cruel and irrational, holding things I wanted back from me, seemingly as nothing more than an act of spite.

  What was wrong with him? Or with me? Maybe it was me.

  Soon enough, David’s breathing changed, and it made me sob harder to realize he could sleep at a time like this. But why shouldn’t he? It obviously wasn’t his dream to have a baby.

  I had to stop this. I had to pull myself together.

  Dashing the tears from my cheeks, I slipped out of bed and found a robe to slip on. I needed to calm down and lying beside David’s unresponsive back wasn’t going to be the best way to do it.

  It was late, I realized. I might have gone out to the karaoke bar, but it was probably closed by now, which was actually too bad. I could use some distraction, but it seemed it was just me, alone in the kitchen, wondering what kind of marriage I really had.

  David was kind most of the time, but he did have awful bouts of moodiness and even a bit of meanness to him. But, still, I loved him. I was wondering if we’d ever be able to have fun with our friends or if that was something we’d never do, since he was always so busy. But, still, I loved him. And then there was the big thing between us about me wanting a baby now and him wanting to wait a year before we even considered it. Would I feel this lonely and alone forever?

  Just as I was thinking about how alone I was, a knock came at the door. I was pouring myself some milk, getting ready to heat it up with some vanilla—there was really nothing better when sleep was elusive—when I heard the sound. Frowning, completely confused about who could be coming by at three in the morning, I went to answer it.

  I left the chain on. I liked to think the best of people, but I wasn’t an idiot. It was awfully late, and I wasn’t expecting anyone. It could be a robber, or worse. Not that many robbers or murderers knocked on a door before they come in.

  I chuckled to myself as I pulled the door open a crack. “Brent?” I asked as I saw his face on the other side of the door and quickly fumbled the chain off. Brent didn’t look so good. His cheeks were very flushed, his eyes were dull, and he couldn’t quite seem to hold himself upright. He had to hold on to the frame of the door to even keep himself from falling over.

  “I can’t drive home,” he slurred the words out, and I realized what was going on pretty easily. I’d done a brief stint as a nurse in the ER, so this wasn’t the first time I had seen someone completely drunk out of their mind. “I almost crashed just getting here. Can I stay the night?”

  Well, there was really no question about what my answer would be. Of course he could stay. I wasn’t going to send him off to risk his life in a car accident. It wouldn’t be fair or right, not only for him, but for anyone he might run into. Literally. “Of course.” I opened the door and let him in, and when he staggered, I even propped him up with an arm around his waist. He was big and strong, yes, but again, this wasn’t my first rodeo. I knew how to help a drunk man walk.

  “Why are you still up?” he asked as I deposited him carefully onto the bigger of the living room couches. I made sure he was settled, then went to sit on the other couch.

  I didn’t think he would get any ideas, but I’d been groped by drunk men before, and besides, I couldn’t help but remember what Angela had said to me. The words she spoke echoed in my head, a clear warning.

  If Brent was in love with me, or even if he just thought he was, I didn’t want to encourage it at all.

  As I got myself settled, Brent looked at me. His eyes were dim with the alcohol, but it didn’t seem to cut down on his powers of perception very much
. Either that, or I just looked much more terrible than I would have thought.

  With him being as drunk as he was, it was probably the latter. I touched my face discreetly, finding it hot and my eyes swollen. I must be a complete mess.

  “Why are your eyes all red? Are you okay?” Brent sounded genuinely concerned, and the tears I’d so valiantly fought back were right back again. I tried to blink them away, annoyed with myself, but they wouldn’t stay back.

  Just a tiny bit of kindness from Brent and I was sobbing again. It was pathetic, but I couldn’t help it. I was so confused, so utterly filled with misery, that it came out, regardless of my desires on the subject.

  “It’s David,” I whispered. Maybe I was being disloyal by talking about this at all, and of course, this man was my husband’s best friend. David might not want Brent knowing all his personal business.

  I could no more hold back the words than I could my tears. “I want a baby,” I kept going, and even just saying the words out loud felt healing to me. I had been trying to hide the desire, even from myself, but I just couldn’t do it. “I want a baby so badly, but David …”

  “David doesn’t want a baby?” Brent asked, and I sighed softly and shook my head in denial.

  “No. If he just didn’t want a baby, it would be much easier,” I murmured. “He looks at me and I see he wants it. But then he tells me we have to wait for a year. Why? We’re married, right? Forever and ever? I don’t know why we have to wait. I wish I knew …”

  “Okay, fuck this shit,” Brent swore, and I jumped, stunned by the crudity. He was drunk, I reminded myself, and focused on the content of what he was saying instead. “I’ve had just about enough of this.”

  Enough of what?

  “Look, I’ve had too much to drink and I know it, but …maybe I’ll hate myself for this in the morning when I sober up.” He wasn’t making any sense. I looked at him, trying to figure out what all his rambling was about. Something told me not to speak, though. Brent knew something, and I wanted to know what it was.

  If it pissed David off, I’d just have to deal with it. “Hate yourself for telling me what, exactly, Brent?”

  “He only married you to get your money,” Brent slurred, looking right into my eyes. I saw the sincerity in his. Drunk or not, he wasn’t lying, and it was then that my world started to fall apart around me.

  He told me everything—the plan he and David had made and how he was supposed to seduce me. How I was supposed to fall into his arms, sleep with him, and get caught by David.

  David had made a plan to destroy me.

  The hell of it was, the plan had worked. Oh, maybe the money was safe, if I cared about that at all, but my heart had shattered into little pieces in my chest, with a pain as sharp as if I’d actually been shot there.

  Brent may as well have reached into my chest and ripped my heart right out, and from the look of remorse and pain on his face, he knew it.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you. You look like you’re about to lose your mind, Kaye. Don’t. Don’t go crazy over this. Don’t let it break you.” His words came fast as he stared into my eyes. “You’re too good to let this destroy you.”

  “You’re right. I am too good to let this destroy me. But you were right to tell me. Things make so much more sense now, don’t they?” I tapped my foot anxiously as I looked at Brent. “So it was all an act on your part as well, wasn’t it?”

  “At first. But I have grown to care about you. You’re a great person. The best woman I’ve ever met. I respect the shit out of you, Kaye. But all the flirting and the moves I made, those were made up. I actually admire you and your ability to put a man like me in my place. But I don’t want you. Not sexually. Not that you’re not a knockout, but I know where your heart is.”

  I was stupefied. I had been duped so completely by two men at the same time. I was beyond naïve. I felt so stupid. So completely fucking stupid it made me think I had brain damage I’d never been aware of.

  How could he do this to me?

  And what was I going to do about it now?

  David

  My hand touched nothing but smooth, cool sheets when I rolled over the next morning. I expected to find Kaye, warm and fragrant and sleepy, but she wasn’t within the grasp of my groping hand.

  I opened my eyes, expecting to see her lying just inches away from me in bed, out of reach of my hand, or to see her brushing her long, dark waves of hair.

  But I saw nothing.

  Frowning, I woke up completely. It was strange to not find her there. It was early yet and I knew she didn’t have to work. She would normally wait for me in the bedroom, because more often than not, we breakfasted together.

  A sense of foreboding stole through my entire body, trailing icy fingers up my spine. Only, I was being ridiculous and I knew it. Kaye had probably gone to go start breakfast herself.

  She probably didn’t want to be around me much, and I couldn’t even blame her. I was being ridiculous about this baby thing. I did want a child with her. More than one, if she was okay with it.

  Any child she had any part in would be nothing but an utter delight. I had never had much interest in having a child before, but with her, I wanted kids.

  So why was I waiting, anyway? I shook my head as I grabbed a pair of sweats and pulled them on. I had no idea. Probably for the same stubborn reason I’d kept insisting to myself, and to Brent, that I was only after Kaye’s money.

  Long after I had known it wasn’t true, I had kept on with the charade. Maybe it was time to break this cycle before it got even more ridiculous than it already was. What was I trying to prove here, anyway?

  Kaye and I were together. For life.

  So maybe it was time for me to go prove it to her. To both of us.

  With a huge smile on my face, I left the room. I probably looked like an idiot, but I didn’t even care. I would find Kaye and we could talk—maybe get started on the baby right away. Though she would probably have to stop taking her pills first.

  I had no problem with practicing, though.

  “Kaye?” I called out, walking down the stairs toward the living room. There was no smell of coffee and I shook my head. Kaye was, if anything, more addicted to caffeine than I was. It was the whole nurse thing, she’d told me.

  Whenever she woke up, she put on a pot of coffee. Always.

  “David?” Her voice was sleepy and it came from the living room. Remorse gripped me. She must have come downstairs to sleep on the couch, unable to handle being in the same bed with me after how cruel I had been to her.

  And then I saw Brent.

  My so-called best friend was lying on our couch, dead to the world and snoring softly. On the other couch, my wife was just sitting up, rubbing sleep from her lovely green eyes. She looked startled to see me.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered, looking between the two of them. Brent was only slowly waking up, and as he opened his eyes, I felt my anger growing, bursting a dam deep in the pit of my stomach, and flooding me with white-hot fury and something close to hatred.

  “What the fuck is going on right now?” My voice thundered through the room and it was enough to wake my best friend up. My former best friend, that is. Kaye looked at me, obviously startled, but she didn’t recoil back the same way Brent did. “Someone answer me immediately,” I hissed, approaching Kaye. To my stunned surprise, Brent got up off the couch and stood right in front of her.

  Protecting her.

  Protecting my wife. From me.

  “I won’t let you hurt her anymore.” Brent stood firmly in front of Kaye, who poked her head around him so she could see me. There was a distance in her expression—one I wasn’t used to seeing. Not from her.

  It was like she was already pulling away from me.

  The anger I’d felt before was nothing. It paled in comparison to what raged through me when I realized what was going on. Brent was protecting Kaye, who was pulling away from me. “You fucked her, didn’t you? You son of a bitch, you fuc
ked my wife,” I screamed, and my hands clenched into fists at my side, hard enough to leave little bloody marks. I had to keep myself under control. I knew that, at least on some level. Otherwise, I might just kill Brent.

  And how badly I wanted to at that moment. I would gladly rot in hell before I saw him with the woman I loved. He was in for the fight of his life if he thought for one second I was going to let him have her.

  “No, we didn’t,” Kaye whispered, and her face was very pale, other than two patches of color high on her cheekbones. For the very first time, I was seeing my wife furious.

  “You did!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. I knew what I was witnessing here in our living room. I knew she’d left our bed and come down here to meet him. Why else would they be down here? When had they concocted this little rendezvous?

  Unlike me, she didn’t get loud. She didn’t scream. She got very quiet instead. Terrifyingly quiet. I had to listen very closely to be able to hear her at all when she spoke. “We didn’t. I would never have touched another man,” Kaye continued, her voice still so soft and quiet that I had to lean forward to listen. “I love you. I loved you.”

  Loved?

  Past tense.

  She had loved me, which seemed to imply, with the way she said it, that she didn’t love me any longer.

  I think I knew then. Deep down, in a place I didn’t acknowledge at the time, I knew that she knew. I didn’t know how, but what else could it be? What else could have taken my devoted wife from me?

  “I’m going to file for divorce.” Kaye’s voice was still so terrifyingly cold and calm, and her words stabbed into my brain. “I know, David. I know what you were trying to do to me, and since money is all you care about, it should really hurt you to know I’m going to get all of it. Every last penny.”

  “How?” The rage was gone and I stammered out the one word. How had this all happened, was what I meant to ask, but Brent didn’t take it the way I intended.