Rock Me: A Billionaire Romance (Billionaires, Brides and Babies Book 1)

by dos Anjos, Maria

  “I might not know much about love,” Dom said. “But I know that no other girl has ever made me feel the way that you do.” He carefully set the guitar back in its case before sliding off the sofa onto the floor next to me. Dom kissed my face and stroked my hair until my tears turned to sniffles.

  “You can’t love me,” I said. “You don’t even know me.” I hoped that my words were untrue. There was nothing I wanted more than to have this beautiful man love me, even though I knew it was too soon.

  “The heart wants what it wants,” he said. “Or else it does not care.”

  “And now you’re quoting Emily Dickinson at me.” I tried to laugh but erupted into a fresh storm of tears instead. Although I tried to stop, I couldn’t. Before I knew it, I was rubbing my wet face against the front of Dom’s chest. My tears soaked his shirt. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m so emotional lately,” I said.

  “There. There.” He patted my shoulder. “You’re going through a lot. Let the tears out. It’s no good to keep it inside.” He let his hands linger on my upper arms.

  “How do you know what I’m going through?” I asked through my tears. “We just met.”

  “I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Dom said. “I’m more observant than I look.”

  My heart sank in my chest. I immediately imagined the worst: that Dom had spotted the used pregnancy test still hidden beneath the various flotsam and jetsam in my purse.

  “Jeff seems like a horrible choice,” Dom said. “I’m sorry if you think he represents men in general. He doesn’t. Not all men are like that.”

  “Oh, that’s what you meant,” I replied, feeling my heartbeat slowly return to normal, or as close to normal as it could when Dom was around. My secret was safe. Dom didn’t know I was pregnant.

  “What did you think I meant?” he asked.

  “I have no idea.” My sniffles were growing farther apart, and I could feel the salt from my tears drying on my cheeks. “Maybe I should go take a shower.” The words were hardly out of my mouth before Dom rose to his feet and scooped me into his arms.

  “Point me in the right direction,” he said. “I’ll carry you there like the princess that you are.”

  I pointed, and he carried me toward the bathroom. In my mind, I went over the possible condition of my tiny bathroom. As far as I could remember, the toilet was clean, the towels were hanging neatly on their assigned rods and the shower was freshly scrubbed. The trash basket had been emptied. The sink was cleared of toothpaste residue. I counted off the different areas of the room and decided it was fit for company. It probably wasn’t fit for a rock star, but it would be close enough.

  Dom lowered me slightly, bending his knees so I could easily reach the door handle.

  I giggled as I turned the knob and pushed the door open. It squeaked slightly on its hinges as it swung inward.

  Dom turned sideways, cautious when he entered the doorway to prevent bonking my head or banging my feet against the wall. It was sweet. I could feel the strength in his body in the way that he held me, moving effortlessly as if I weighed no more than a thread of gossamer floating in the breeze.

  He set me down on the bathroom counter, placed his hands on my waist and kissed me before letting go. “Do you want me to run you a bath?” he asked. “You must have bubbles around here somewhere.”

  “A shower will be fine,” I said. My heart had resumed racing, going from tortoise to hare in sixty seconds flat.

  Dom pulled off his shirt and tossed it at the hamper. He turned back to me. His body was all smooth skin, sharp angles and dark tattoos.

  “I don’t remember inviting you to join me,” I said, hoping he would insist.

  “You must not have a very good memory,” he replied. “I have my invitation here somewhere.” He unbuckled his black leather belt and pulled it free from his belt loops before dropping it to the floor. The he made a show of unbuttoning his faded jeans and lowering the zipper a fraction of an inch at a time. “You can’t be too careful,” he said, lowering his jeans. He wasn’t wearing any underwear, and the sight that greeted me was standing at full attention.

  I sucked in a sharp inhalation of breath and tried to count to ten, but I kept forgetting the numbers. It’s too soon, I shouted in my head. My voice stayed silent.

  Dom rested one hand on the countertop beside my hip while he leaned down to pull off his boots so he could remove his jeans. His hand brushed against something on the countertop. The object slid a few inches and fell into the sink with a hollow sound. “What’s this?” he asked, standing with one boot off and his jeans puddled around his ankles.

  He picked up the small blue box and looked into my eyes. “Is this a pregnancy test?”

  I looked away. “No,” I said. “It’s an empty box.” A wave of embarrassment washed over me.

  “Did you take a pregnancy test recently?” he asked.

  I wanted to lie or tell him that it was none of his business, but I didn’t. I nodded my head.

  “Was it negative?” His eyes met mine.

  This time, I shook my head. Tears formed in the corners of my eyes. They weren’t happy tears.

  “Are you pregnant?”

  I nodded my head again and watched as Dom reversed the course of his faded jeans, pulling them up to cover his hips and tucking his impressive rock star manhood back into place before gingerly tugging up the zipper.

  He buttoned his jeans and reached for his belt on the floor before threading it through his belt loops like he was in a hurry. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I had no idea.”

  “How would you?” I asked. “How would you have any idea? You don’t even know me.”

  “You’re right,” he agreed. “I don’t even know you. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go ahead and get going. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I don’t want a lack of sleep to cloud my judgment.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” I said. It wasn’t true. I didn’t think it was a good idea at all. If I had the courage, I would ask him to stay. I didn’t want him to stay because he was a rock star. I wanted him to stay because I thought I was falling in love with him, too, and I wanted to see where it would go. “This isn’t fair.” I hadn’t meant to say the words out loud. They hung between us in the tiny room.

  “Life is never fair,” Dom replied. “I think I’m starting to figure that out the hard way.”

  He retrieved his shirt from the top of my clothes hamper and put it on. It was inside out, but I decided against mentioning it.

  “I don’t want you to think I’m a bad person,” I said desperately. I was still seated on the bathroom counter.

  “No, I would never think that.” Dom put on the single boot he had taken off before learning about my pregnancy. “It wouldn’t be fair of me to ask you to complicate your life under the circumstances.”

  What I thought he meant was that he didn’t think it would be fair for me to complicate his life under the circumstances, but I had the good manners not to say so.

  He slid open the shower door and plugged the bathtub. “I’ll draw you a bath before you go,” he said. “It’s the least I can do.”

  The very least, I thought to myself. Silent tears streamed down my face as I watched him move.

  He was graceful like a tiger. How could I expect a tiger to be happy in captivity? I couldn’t. You didn’t just capture a wild tiger, move it into a tiny cage and expect it to be happy. That’s what made zoos so sad: all those animals dreaming of freedom when there were bars in every direction but toward the sky.

  Dom bent down and opened the cabinet under the sink. “I knew you’d have bubble bath,” he said triumphantly. “Girls always have this stuff.” As he pulled it out of the cabinet, he knocked over another small cardboard box. He picked it up and looked at it. Then he looked at me. “I think you’re out of condoms,” he said. He picked up the empty box from the pregnancy test and shoved both boxes into the trash basket. “On the bright side, you probably won’t need them for a whil
e.”

  I didn’t answer because I didn’t know what to say.

  He poured liquid soap into the tub and then left without saying another word.

  Chapter Nine

  I stayed seated on the bathroom counter for as long as I could, watching the bathtub fill with water and suds. When the tub was filled nearly to capacity, I moved from my perch in time to keep it from overflowing.

  Not being one to waste a perfectly fine tub of hot water, I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the tub. As I slowly lowered myself into the steaming water, I hoped that Dom had locked the door on his way out.

  I tried to relax and willed myself to transfer all the stress and frustration from my body to the water. Putting my feet up against the opposite side, I slipped lower into the wet heat and focused on taking deep breaths. Do I deserve this? I ignored the answer. You probably do.

  Water threatened to slosh over the edges of the tub, but the overflow valve released just enough water to keep that from happening. It was a good thing because I was not in the mood to soak up spilled bathwater with towels. I sank down lower into the water, listening to the rush of the water flowing into the escape valve before rising over the sides.

  Closing my eyes, I tried to think about anything other than my surprise pregnancy, my jerk married ex-boyfriend or the devastatingly handsome rock star who was no doubt riding away from me in his limo as fast as he could. I don’t know what I expected from a man whom I’d just met. It must have been the hormones making me act crazier than usual.

  What I’d told him was true. One-night stands weren’t really my style. That didn’t mean I didn’t have a history of making bad decisions. On the contrary, I was the queen of bad decisions. Allowing my emotions to get the best of me over some rock star was just another perfect example. Although I didn’t really think that falling hard and fast was really my decision. No one would choose to be this stupid.

  With my eyes still closed, I reached along the side of the tub closest to the wall until my hands touched the bar of soap that I kept there. I washed my face, using my hands to splash water onto my skin. Then I moved on to my arms, my chest, my breasts and my stomach. Every time I touched myself, I fought the urge to pretend that it was Dom’s hands on my body.

  It was harder not to pretend as I washed the place between my legs. It had been only one month since I’d last had sex, but it felt like a century. I decided to blame it on the pregnancy hormones, but I had a feeling it was the thought of a certain handsome rock star’s dark eyes, clear skin and flawless body that were making me feel that way.

  Between my own thoughts and the sound of the water dripping from the leaky faucet into the tub, I didn’t hear the telltale sound of footsteps outside the bathroom door until the door banged against the wall.

  My eyes flew open. The first thing I saw was Jeff standing there. My emotional response was a garbled mess, and then I got a better look at him. It wasn’t good.

  His face was as red as an apple, and he was waving a kitchen knife that I recognized as my own. “I loved you,” he said. “Now, you want to ruin my life with this baby just when my wife and I are finally getting our marriage back on track.”

  I was speechless. It felt like my vocal cords were frozen. My heart and mind raced wildly as I gripped the sides of the tub and tried to stand. The slippery surface made my hands slip, and I didn’t make it out of the tub on the first try.

  He leaned over the bathtub and held the knife inches from my face. “I could kill you, but then I’d be a murderer. So, I have a deal for you instead. If you value your life, you’ll take the deal. If you don’t value your life, we’ll move to plan B.”

  “What’s plan A?” I asked in a whisper. I didn’t really want to know, but I thought I could get him to calm down if I could engage him in conversation. Maybe I could make him see that his actions were rash before it was too late. My eyes never left the glinting steel of the kitchen knife blade.

  Why did I have such a big kitchen knife? I didn’t even like to cook.

  He laughed. It was the laughter of a crazy person, and I wondered what I had ever seen in him to begin with. Surely he had never been far removed from the raving lunatic who was shouting incomprehensibly within the tiny confines of my bathroom.

  “Wh- what?” I asked.

  “I’ll give you fifteen minutes to get out of that tub, throw on some clothes and get into my car. You have an appointment at the abortion clinic. I made it for you. Get rid of that thing growing inside you, and I’ll leave you alone for the rest of your life.” Jeff snarled as he spoke. Saliva flew from his mouth in drops.

  “Plan B?” I was surprised when my mouth formed the words. “What’s plan B?”

  “If you don’t come with me willingly, I’ll cut it out myself.” He knelt beside the tub and plunged the hand holding the knife into the water above my stomach, which was still nearly as flat as the last time Jeff and I were naked together. “What’s your pleasure? Come with me to the clinic, or get it done and over with right at home?”

  The tip of the knife scraped my belly, just above my pubic bone. He traced a line to the center of my breasts and back down again without breaking the skin.

  I shook my head from side to side mutely, terrified to move.

  “Since I’m a lawyer, not a doctor, I had to do a little research online. You’d be surprised what you can find on the Internet. It’s too bad I couldn’t find any diagrams. I guess I’ll just have to wing it. From what I understand, the problem lies somewhere between here.” He jabbed the flesh above my pubic bone with the knife, leaving a pinprick of blood that welled up and then dissipated in the water. “And here.” He poked the tip of the knife between my breasts, which told me two things. Jeff had little to no knowledge about female anatomy, and he was going to gut me like a fish.

  In a sudden moment of clarity, I figured I should pretend to go along with his plan, accompany him to the abortion clinic and take it from there. I hadn’t actually made a hard decision about whether to keep the baby, but the more he insisted on killing it, the more I realized that it was the wrong choice for me. Once I got to the clinic, I could ask the doctors and nurses for help calling the police.

  “Fine,” I finally said. “Let me get out of the tub, and I’ll go with you.” I tried to keep the uncertainty and fear out of my voice. “I don’t want a baby any more than you do.”

  “That’s the right answer,” Jeff said. He lowered the lid of the toilet seat and sat down. “I’ll wait here while you get dressed.” He sat there, staring at me. It was unsettling.

  Despite the number of times he had seen me naked, I hated the idea of exposing myself to him now. I held up my bath towel, wrapping myself quickly before he had a chance to drink in the sight of my naked body. He didn’t deserve that honor. Not anymore. He never did. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” I said. “I don’t need anything from you. Leave now, and I promise that I’ll never bother you or contact you. I won’t even ask for child support or anything.”

  “That’s what they all say,” Jeff said. “The next thing you know, half your paycheck is going to support kids that you never even met.” He mumbled bitterly under his breath, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

  “I promise, Jeff. That won’t happen. I would never ask you for anything.” I was still standing ankle deep in the cooling bathwater.

  Jeff looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time. “You lying bitch,” he screamed, leaping from the toilet seat. “You don’t even have a real job. There’s only one way you won’t ask for child support, and that’s if you don’t have a child.”

  Waving the knife wildly with one hand, he grabbed my wrist with the other and pulled me from the tub, nearly knocking me off balance. “I’ll cut you open like a pig,” he said. He dragged me out of the bathroom into the kitchen.

  Without letting go of my hand, Jeff knocked everything off my kitchen table onto the floor. Apples rolled in all directions, and a glass bowl shattered. He pick
ed me up and set me down hard on the wooden table top. “It will only hurt for a little while,” he said. “Then everything will fade to black.”

  The knife dug into my skin as Jeff gathered the courage to push it into my abdominal cavity, and I screamed like I was on fire.

  Suddenly, Jeff was lifted into the air and tossed across the room. It was like he was flying, until he struck the opposite wall and fell into a heap on the floor. He whimpered like an abused puppy.

  “You son of a bitch.” Dom was there, and he was furious. He picked Jeff up with one hand and held him against the wall while punching him in the face with the other hand. “You sick son of a bitch,” he shouted as he pummeled him. “I ought to slit your throat.”

  I heard the sickening crack of Jeff’s nose when it broke and saw him spit out a mouthful of teeth. Within minutes, the room was filled with cops. Someone draped a blanket over my naked body. Someone else loaded Jeff onto a stretcher. I stared in disbelief as I watched a cop lead Dom out of the house with his hands cuffed behind his back, but I couldn’t speak.

  “Ma’am, you’re bleeding. Do you mind if I take a look?” A paramedic wearing latex gloves was pointing to a spot of blood that had soaked through the thin white blanket that covered me.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “It’s just a scratch.” I pulled away from his gloved hands.

  A police officer standing beside the paramedic spoke. “I think you should let him take a look,” he said. “We need to make sure you don’t need medical attention.”

  Embarrassed, I showed the paramedic the place where the knife had breached the surface of my skin. The bleeding had already stopped, and the small wound was clotting with drying blood.

  I held my breath as the paramedic cleaned the cut and put a bandage on it, shrinking from his touch. “Can I go get dressed?” I asked when he was done.

  “Sure. We’ll go ahead and have a female officer accompany you to your bedroom,” an officer said. He gestured to a woman who was wearing the same uniform that he was. “Officer Jones will stay with you while you get dressed. If you don’t mind, maybe she could ask you a few questions once you’re through.”