Rock Me:
A Billionaire Romance
Billionaires, Brides and Babies Series Book One
Maria dos Anjos
2015
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Epilogue
Chapter One
I rolled over in my big bed and smiled. When I opened my eyes, I discovered that I was smiling directly at an empty pillow. My smile faded instantly. Where was Jeff? He wasn’t in my bed. That was clear. I rubbed my eyes and opened them again. Nope. Still gone.
A lump formed in my throat. I thought he would stay at least long enough to say goodbye. Last night was special. The last thing I expected was to wake up alone. A frown formed on my face where my smile had been. Everything was ruined.
“Looking for something?” Jeff’s deep voice filled my bedroom, bringing the smile back to my face. A feeling of relief coursed through my body at the sound of his voice. For a moment, I thought he had snuck out in the middle of the night. Like he usually did. Thank goodness he was still there.
I turned my head to find that Jeff was already half dressed. “Come back to bed,” I said, trying to keep the whine out of my voice. “It’s Sunday. I know you don’t have to be in court this morning.” I hated myself for pleading with him, but I couldn’t help it. I really wanted him to stay.
Ever since Jeff and I met, my life had been a whirlwind of competing emotions. One day, things were good, and I was on the top of the world. The next day, things were bad, and I was almost ready to throw in the towel.
One thing never changed. I was wildly attracted to Jeff with his movie star good looks and his rock hard body. I couldn’t imagine anyone who made me feel the way that he did. Physically, that is. Emotionally, he made me feel like shit.
Jeff had the perfect routine for making me feel like the crazy one. If I expressed my love for him, I was too needy. If I pulled away, I was too cold.
My fear that he would leave me meant I was too insecure. Hoping he would go through with his divorce like he promised indicated that I was too clingy.
For every one of my fears, dreams, hopes, thoughts or emotions, Jeff assigned something negative, some trait that he could use against me.
“Please,” I begged. “Don’t leave. I could bring you breakfast in bed.”
“Sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry. “I have to go. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” When he smiled, dimples formed in his cheeks. He was breathtakingly handsome when he smiled. Fortunately, he smiled often. It was part of his charm.
“What is it?” My pulse quickened. I had been hoping for a proposal, and even though he wasn’t on one knee holding a ring box, my hopes soared. “I’m listening.” I tried to stay calm and imagined my sister’s reaction when I told her the big news. Beth had never trusted Jeff; maybe an engagement ring on my finger would change her mind.
He approached the bed. His button-down shirt hung open, exposing the washboard perfection of his abs. Jeff looked more like a fitness model than a defense attorney. As far as I was concerned, the prosecutors didn’t stand a chance. If sexiness was a defense strategy, then Jeff’s clients would all walk away without as much as a slap on the wrist. Even without using sex appeal as a secret weapon, his track record was impressive. So was his body.
Jeff’s body would have looked right at home in an art museum. The way that his lines and curves moved and swelled in all the right places would surely earn him as spot in even the most exclusive collection of objets d’art.
I sighed as I imagined the two of us last night and the way that I had kissed my way down his stomach to the even greater perfection that lay beneath the belt, so to speak. “I’m listening,” I said again, forcing my eyes back to his face. This was too good to be true. Is this really happening?
“This isn’t easy to say,” he began. “Jenny, I love you.” He reached down and pushed my hair away from my face tenderly. “You’re a great girl.”
His words of praise were always few and far between. I drank in the compliment like a thirsty camel hoarding water for a trek across a sandy desert.
“I love you, too,” I blurted, wondering whether yesterday’s eye makeup was smeared all over my face and making me look like a raccoon. A moment like this should be special. I wished he had given me a chance to prepare. “Jeff,” I began.
“Wait.” He held up a hand to silence me. “I was in the middle of speaking.” His voice was hard and stern.
I immediately fell silent, marveling at how commanding he was. It was no wonder why he was one of the most highly regarded defense attorneys in the state. I bit my lip and waited. This is going to be good.
“I’ve given this a lot of thought,” he said. “You’re the girl of my dreams, and I want to be with you forever.” He took my hand, and I melted. It was ridiculous the way he had my emotions in the palm of his hand. The tone of his voice, the expression on his face or the way that he moved could all change my mood from somber to light in an instant. Jeff could also have the opposite effect on me in even less time.
Here it comes, I thought. Yes. Yes. Yes. I wished he would hurry; I wanted to hear his proposal. Hopefully he got the ring sized. I couldn’t wait to wear it. What would my sister say when she found out?
“I’m going back to my wife,” Jeff said. He dropped my hand back onto the bed and began fastening his shirt buttons as if he hadn’t just broken my heart.
Those were not the words I expected to hear. I felt a dagger make a slow turn deep in my heart before coming to an aching stop. How could I have been so wrong?
I was flabbergasted. “What?” I asked when I finally caught my breath. “What did you just say?” I couldn’t possibly have heard him correctly. “You told me your marriage was over, and I believed you.”
He tucked his shirt into his pants. “It’s been great,” he said. “You’re great. Everything’s great, but Felicity and I have decided to work it out. I’m sorry.” He didn’t even bother to look at me. Instead he studied his reflection in the mirror and smiled as if for the camera.
I lay in the bed we had just shared, feeling my body break into a cold sweat. “Couldn’t you have told me this before we made love last night?” I asked, hating the way that the swell of panic made my voice rise. My fingers clutched nervously at the rumpled sheets.
He shrugged. “It wasn’t exactly an easy thing to say,” he said nonchalantly. “I was working on the best way to present my case.” The expression on his face indicated that he wasn’t particularly upset by the fact that he had just ruined my life.
“Well, you did a lousy job,” I said. “I hope you’re better in the courtroom than you are in the bedroom.” My mind was reeling from the blow.
He looked up at me and grinned. “That depends upon whom I’m representing,” he said. “I haven’t heard any complaints from you until now.�
� Usually, he was sexy when he was confident. Now, I was beginning to see his true colors. He was ugly on the inside. On the outside, he was still sheer perfection.
I clenched my fists and repressed the urge to leap naked from my bed and attack him. My panic rose higher as I watched him putting on his shoes. If I didn’t think of the right thing to say soon, I could lose him forever. My heart refused to allow my brain to acknowledge that losing him might be a good thing.
He was a jerk, but I thought I was in love. Jeff wasn’t really divorcing his wife after all. It was a struggle to comprehend after listening to his lies for so long. Even so, I didn’t want him to leave.
“Don’t go,” I said, hating myself for saying it. “Please.”
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s been fun, but it’s over.” He stood up and picked up his suit jacket.
“It wasn’t that much fun,” I countered. It was a lie designed to elicit a response. The truth was that I’d had the time of my life. I didn’t want it to be over. The sex was amazing, even if the emotional turmoil left me more exhausted than running a full marathon.
Jeff smiled. “Good. Then I guess you won’t have a reason to miss me.” He dug in his wallet and pulled out a business card. “If you ever need a lawyer, feel free to call my office. I’d be happy to have one of my associates represent you.” He dropped the card on my nightstand.
“If I’m ever arrested for murdering my former lover, I’ll give your office a call,” I muttered. I was only half joking. At the moment, I wanted to fuck him and kill him in equal measure. I didn’t think one of his associates would be inclined to represent me if he or she knew.
He chuckled. “That’s what I’ll miss about you, Jenny Sweet. You’ve got such a great sense of humor.” In two steps, he was standing over me. He leaned down and kissed me on the head. “I hope you have a great life.”
It wasn’t until I heard him shut the front door that I allowed the first tears to fall. I sat up to grab a tissue from the box on my nightstand. My eyes were drawn to Jeff’s business card. I picked it up and was horrified at what lay beneath the rectangle of cardstock.
Jeff hadn’t used a condom last night. The proof was right there, lying on my nightstand in a shiny square packet. It lay there, taunting me and showing me what Jeff really thought about me as a person.
I’d always insisted upon his using condoms. Despite his loud and copious complaints, he’d always complied. Until now. Maybe it’s empty, I hoped.
I picked up the traitorous condom between two fingers, willing it to be nothing more than a neatly opened, empty wrapper. It wasn’t. I felt my heart turn a sick cartwheel in my chest.
Jeff hadn’t used a condom, and I hadn’t even noticed. I knew it was the condom because it was the only one left. It was the last one in the box that I kept in the bathroom under the sink, and Jeff never bothered to supply them himself.
With trembling fingers, I set the wrapped condom back on the nightstand. What’s the worst that could happen? I asked myself, refusing to give conscious thought to the potential answer.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. I got out of bed and picked up my tattered bathrobe from the back of my chair. All I could think was that Jeff had changed his mind in time for me to forgive him.
He was just in time. Jeff was the most egotistical, self-centered, narcissistic and misogynist man I’d ever met, but I didn’t know what I would do without him.
I padded quickly to the front door with bare feet and opened it without looking through the window. This must be what it’s like to be addicted to crack. I know he’s bad for me, but I can’t give him up until he destroys my life completely.
It was Jeff. Oh my God. He’s back. My heart soared triumphantly. I hadn’t really believed that it would be him. My hands trembled.
I flung the door open. “Yes?” I asked breathlessly.
“I forgot something,” he said. “It’s in the bedroom.” He pushed his way past me without being invited. “I’ll only be a minute.”
“Sure.” Deciding to play along, I led him back into the bedroom, opting to confront him about the condom incident at some later time. Maybe we could make could use of it now.
He opened the drawer of the small desk in the corner of my bedroom as if he owned it. “Here it is,” he said. “Sorry about that.” He lifted a white envelope from the drawer and slid the drawer firmly shut.
“Hey,” I said when I realized what he was holding. “Those are my concert tickets.” I frowned. “You can’t take them.” I had paid a small fortune for front row seats.
His smug smile faltered just a bit. “Well, they’re my concert tickets, technically,” he said. “You bought them for me for my birthday.”
“You can’t have them,” I said, reaching for the envelope containing two front row tickets to Jeff’s favorite band. “Shouldn’t you stay home with your wife instead of attending some rock concert?” I asked.
He cleared his throat. “I figured I could take Felicity with me. She’s never seen Angelchance play live.”
“Felicity?” I snatched the envelope from his hand, momentarily stunned that I had managed to pull them from his grasp so easily. “You and your wife are not sitting in the front row at a concert with tickets that I bought with my own money,” I said. It took tremendous effort to keep my voice measured and even.
“Let me explain something to you, Jenny,” Jeff said slowly as if he was speaking to a small child. “When you give someone a gift, that object becomes the property of the recipient. It doesn’t matter if you paid for the tickets, they still belong to me because you presented them to me. As a gift. Do you understand?”
“I’ll give you one ticket,” I replied as I fished a single ticket out of the small envelope. “That’s it. If you still have the nerve to sit next to me at the concert a month from now, then you’re more than welcome to use the ticket. Otherwise, you can give the ticket to Felicity, and she can sit next to me in the front row because I’ll be there. With or without you.”
“Jenny, you’re not being reasonable about this,” Jeff said. “The show is sold out. I can’t get tickets this late in the game.”
“By the way,” I said, picking up the unused condom from the nightstand and waving it in his face. “I think you forgot something last night.”
He scowled. “I didn’t want to interrupt the heat of the moment,” he said. “You didn’t complain last night.”
“I didn’t notice last night.” I handed the unopened condom and the single concert ticket to him. “This is all you’re getting,” I said. “Now, I’m going to count to ten. If you’re not out of my house in ten seconds, I’m calling the police.”
“Really? On what grounds?” The smug smile was back on his face; I wanted to slap it off with my hand.
“I’ve asked you to leave. If you don’t leave, then I believe that constitutes trespassing. How many clients do you think you might lose if I press charges against you?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Now, leave before I get really angry.”
He turned to walk away, dragging his feet like he wasn’t in any hurry.
“Wait,” I said. “Take this, too.” When he turned around, I handed him the business card he had left behind. “I’m pretty sure I won’t be needing this.”
“For a second, I thought it was the other concert ticket,” he said. His face fell. The smirk was gone, replaced by a look of disappointment. Good.
“Well, you were wrong. Get out. Go home to your wife. If you’ve left anything else behind, you can look for it at the city dump because I won’t let you in again.” I followed him to the front door and opened it for him. “You’re not welcome here anymore.”
He stepped out into the early morning sunlight. “I guess I’ll see you at the concert,” he said without turning around. “Thanks for the ticket.”
“Tell your wife I said I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes,” I countered. “Then again, don’t tell her I said that. It’s not her fault you’re a
n asshole.” I slammed the door shut, satisfied that I’d gotten in the last word.
Chapter Two
Beth was my older sister by two minutes, and she never let me forget it. For twins, we were as different as chalk and cheese. Of course, we weren’t identical twins. Not even close.
While my body was lean and tight, with small perky breasts and thin thighs, Beth was more the voluptuous type. I had always wanted her breasts; she had always envied my waistline.
“Not everyone has to be a size two,” Beth said as she shoveled a forkful of moist wedding cake into her mouth.
I poked at my salad with my fork. “Nobody ever said you had to be a size two,” I replied. “That doesn’t mean I can’t be.” We’d had this conversation often. “Besides, I’m not a size two. I’m a size six on a good day.” Today wasn’t a good day. I felt bloated.
Beth gestured at her plate. “There’s plenty more where this came from,” she said. Some rock star bridezilla canceled her wedding at the last minute, and I had already made the cake.”
We were sitting in the back room of Beth’s bakery, Sweets for the Sweet. Ever since we were little girls, Beth wanted to open up her own bakery. It started the year we got matching Easy Bake Ovens for Christmas.
Before I knew what was happening, Beth had taken over my Easy Bake Oven and set up an assembly line of tiny cakes baked with light bulbs on the kitchen table. She had never looked back.
I ate another bite of my salad, spearing a baby spinach leaf on my fork and dipping just the edge into the puddle of salad dressing on the rim of my plate. “Lately, I haven’t been very hungry,” I admitted. “Except for the times that I’m really, really hungry.” I laughed.
“Sure,” Beth said. “I know exactly what you mean, except for the part about not being hungry.” She licked the last of the white frosting from her plastic fork. “A piece of cake now and then wouldn’t kill you.”
I smiled and threw away the rest of my salad. “We’ll never know,” I said. “Having a sister who owns her own bakery to the stars is an easy way to gain weight. If I didn’t watch it, you’d be stuffing me with rejected wedding cakes until I split my seams.”
Rock Me: A Billionaire Romance (Billionaires, Brides and Babies Book 1) Page 1