Mr. Black's Proposal (Part One: A Billionaire Erotic Romance) (3 page)

“You know why I wouldn’t date a guy like that?”

“Because you have ridiculous standards.”

“Yes. And also because I could never trust him.” I looked behind my back again to make sure he hadn’t reappeared. “You can’t trust a flirt like that. He had a girlfriend with him, for God’s sake.”

“True,” Andy said, taping up another cupcake wrapper.

“Did you hear what he said? He wanted to
tame me
!”

Andy burped out a laugh.

“That’s hilarious,” he said.

“I know, right?”

“For sure. You’re way too wild and crazy to be tamed.”

The perfect little brother, at it again. He ducked out of the way before I could give him a smack on the back of the head.

Chapter Two

Lucas

I left the cupcake shop, wondering where my head was. That girl…

I’d practically tripped over my feet to introduce myself to her. And then she hadn’t even recognized my name.

And
then
I’d stuck my foot in my mouth.

I tried to figure out where I’d gone wrong as I stood outside the shop, finishing the cupcake. God, it was delicious. Moist and perfect. After meeting that girl, all luscious curves and cleavage, I wanted to bite down on more than just a cupcake right now. My cock was throbbing.

Where had I gone wrong? I hadn’t been scared over a girl since my first crush in the second grade. And even she had let me pull her pigtails. This girl, though,
Steph…
she hadn’t been the least bit tempted by my suggestion.

I was disappointed, but only for a moment. There were other girls. Lots of them. And one of them was waiting in my car right now.

At the thought of Bianca, though, I had only the vaguest sense of arousal. I’d picked her out at one of the clubs, and she’d been willing.

More than willing.

Too willing.

That’s what I was missing, I thought. I popped the last bite of chocolate cake into my mouth and tossed the napkin into the trash can outside. I was missing the fun of the chase. The challenge of taming a girl who didn’t want to be tamed.

For a brief second, I thought about going back into the shop one more time. Third time’s the charm and all. I thought about the blonde shopkeeper, the soft skin of her palm…

“Lucas!”

Bianca opened the car door and poked her head out.

“Lucas, are you coming?”

“Yeah,” I said, my enthusiasm suddenly tempered. I slid into the back seat.

My assistant turned around in the driver’s seat, waiting for my directions.

“Let’s go home, Alex.”

“Yes, sir.”

We rode down the street in the whisper-quiet Lexus. Bianca had turned on her phone and was playing one of those annoying games. The beeps grew louder and louder. Normally that sort of thing didn’t bother me, but today I was feeling supremely irritated. I scratched the side of my leg, adjusting the fabric where my cock had pushed hard against my underwear.

Beep. Beep. BEEP!

“Could you turn that off?” I asked, pressing my fingers to the bridge of my nose in a show of annoyance.

“Oh. Sure,” Bianca said. She muted her phone and kept playing. Her face squinted in a scowl.

“Are you taking me to that party tonight?” Bianca asked, her fingers still flashing across the phone’s screen.

“No.”

“No?” Her eyelashes batted wide open.

“No. I’m taking someone else.”

I could see a glint of anger in her eyes, and then it was gone. She smiled at me, eager to please.

“Alright!” she said. “No problem.”

The only indication that she was displeased was the way she mashed the buttons on her phone harder as she played her game. I waited for an outburst, a temper tantrum like the one she’d thrown in the cupcake shop. But it never came. She wasn’t going to risk making me upset with her.

I was surrounded by people eager to please. It had been this way my whole life. From nannies to servants to girls at the club, nobody wanted to upset me. I guess if Bill Gates steps on your toes, you grin and smile.

I don’t know what was so different about today. Maybe it was that cupcake girl jerking her hand away from me. God, that had felt so good. I’d wanted to reach out to grab her again. I’d wanted to pin her down right then and there over the counter. I thought about her lips, about how they would purse in an oval when I spanked her like the naughty girl she was— “Sir?”

I blinked and looked up. We were at my apartment building. Right.

I got out of the car. Bianca slid over to the open door but I blocked the way.

“Would you take Bianca home, Alex?”

She looked up at me, the fake cheerfulness draining away from her face.

“I thought—”

“I have work to do. Maybe some other time.”

Her face fell.

“But—but Lucas! You asked me to come over today—”

I closed the door on her. And Alex, God bless him, drove off so quickly that she didn’t have time to argue. He really was the perfect personal assistant. I made a mental note to give him a raise.

Feeling irritated at the way the morning had gone so far, I stepped into my apartment and closed the door. There was only one surefire cure for a bad mood, and his name was Otis.

“Otis! Otis!”

Otis came bounding around the corner, his paws slipping on the tile floor. He crashed into my knees, bowling me over in a flurry of sloppy licks. I laughed as I rolled back onto the tile and played around with him, scratching his tummy. He yipped and twisted in glee on the floor. I’d gotten him out of a litter of yellow lab pups a couple of years back, but he was still a puppy at heart. And he was the only person in the world that seemed genuinely happy to see me when I came home.

I looked down the hallway and cringed when I saw a leather shoelace in the middle of the hall. Oh, man. I bet I forgot to put my shoes away in the closet.

“I ate a cupcake today, Otis. What did you eat?”

Otis cocked his head at me. His yellow ear flopped over and I scratched the top of his nose.

Otis barked as I got up and walked over to the shoelace. There was one chewed-up loafer in the other room. But its matching pair was nowhere to be seen.

“I bet you ate at least one shoe, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”

Otis let out a low whine and looked at me with the biggest puppy dog eyes.

“Well, I guess we both had a cheat day,” I said, patting him on his head. “But never again, okay?”

He yipped again and licked my hand.

“I forgive you, buddy,” I said. “Let’s go have a swim, how about it?”

Some people couldn’t say the word
walk
in front of their dogs. For Otis, it was the word
swim.
He’d been a water puppy ever since I first got him. Actually, he’d jumped into the hot tub while I was in there with two naked girls. And the damn dog hadn’t even blinked when I called him a cockblocker.

Now, he jumped with delight as I led the way upstairs to the pool.

When I’d moved in, I’d taken over the top three floors of the building. The top two floors I’d demolished and turned into a single room that I used as my own personal fitness palace. Half of the room was a heated infinity pool, and the other half was a workout center. State of the art lifting weights, stretching machines, and a dance floor that I never used myself. Sometimes, though, I invited girls up for free yoga classes. I didn’t know much about yoga, but I knew which poses made female asses look
great
. Who doesn’t love a good downward dog?

Otis splashed into the pool and paddled around happily. I tossed in a tennis ball for him to play with while I did my morning weights. The chocolate cupcake hadn’t been that many calories, but it was still a good idea to work out while I was fresh.

I lifted the weight bar onto my shoulders and dipped into a squat. In the mirror, I could see my muscles flexing, taking on weight.

That was something most people screwed up—working out. They did hundreds of reps at low-intensity. They never really pushed themselves. They went for the easy workout, the easy lift, the easy squat. They did it over and over again, and never actually accomplished anything.

The real way to work out was harder, but it got better results. You had to push yourself to the maximum at first, to see where your limits were. Then you had to keep up at seventy, maybe eighty percent of your max.

Muscles tearing. That’s how you grew muscle. You worked it until the muscle tissue cells tore and burst. Then you rested, and the muscles rebuilt themselves. Building more cells, more muscle. Then, when you were almost rested completely, you did it again.

Lift, rest, repeat.

There was no way to build muscle without breaking it down first.

That was the only way to win.

I pushed myself through the high intensity sets, breathing hard as the bar slammed back on the lifting cage between sets. A whistle from the doorway broke my concentration.

I looked up to see Jake standing in the doorway. Otis barked and jumped out of the pool. Jake managed to dodge him as he shook the water from his fur.

“Good guard dog, Otis,” Jake said. “Good—ah!” He jumped back as Otis gave one more shake for good measure.

“Who let you in?” I asked.

“Your doorman.”

“I told him to keep out the riffraff,” I said, grinning.

“Are you gonna make it tonight?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, of course.” Technically it was a going away party for both of us, but it was Jake’s idea and Jake’s house.

“Who are you bringing?”

I grunted as I lifted the bar up onto the cage.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I was going to bring this girl Bianca, but she’s kind of annoying.”

“Belle wanted to come,” Jake said. “She mentioned it to me last time I saw her.”

“Is she still trying to get with you?”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t know if I want to bring a date who’s going to be slobbering all over the host.”

Jake shrugged.

“She won’t get very far. I found someone new.”

“Oh yeah?”

“You know the birthday present you got me?”

I frowned.

“I heard about that. She told me you sent her away as soon as she came into the room. I don’t know what you were thinking—”

“Don’t think I don’t appreciate the offer—”

“You’re very fucking welcome, Jake. Do you know how much I paid for that blonde?” I asked.

“I’m sorry. Look, I had just met this other girl at the party…”

“You couldn’t have fucked both of them?” I asked. “Happy birthday to you, right? Threesome birthday present? Come on.”

I looked over at Jake. He was scratching the back of his head like the devil was chewing on his scalp. I squinted. There was something here that wasn’t adding up.

“Who is she?”

“You’ve already met her.”

I shook my head. Jake had a different girl every time I saw him.

“The one at the restaurant, remember? The one you talked to.”

“Oh, right. She seemed nice enough, I guess. What was her name?” I searched my mind, trying to remember her. She hadn’t even known about Jake’s family dying in the apartment fire. I wondered if she was actually that naive, or if it was a game she was playing. Women were always playing games. Trying to act innocent.

“You don’t remember her?” He frowned like I was crazy for forgetting her name.

“Hey, I was blitzed out of my mind that night. It was after the wine tasting, you know.”

“Her name’s Lacey. You’ll see her again tonight. She’s… I don’t know. She’s different, Lucas.”

“Different how? She has three tits?”

“She’s… I don’t know how to explain it to you.”

I paused. Jake was acting all kinds of funny.

“What’s there to explain? You got sucked in by some sexpot. Fuck her a couple of times and get it out of your system.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“What, you found true love or something?”

Jake was silent. When I looked over at him, he had a scrunched up expression, like he couldn’t find any words in his memory bank.

“Oh, you are kidding me,” I said. “No way.”

“Way.”

“The elusive Jake Carville fell in love with a random chick at a party?”

“She’s not some random chick—”

“New York City’s wildest billionaire playboy, taken down by a rogue vagina.”

“She’s not—what the hell are you talking about, Lucas?”

“I’m talking about a magic cooch knocking you out of the arena.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want to be in the arena anymore.”