Rock Star Billionaire: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story)

by Claire Adams

  "Thanks, Mom, but I really think he's had enough time." I glanced at my clock and gasped. "Speaking of time, I have to go. I'm having dinner tonight with Vick Bruckheimer."

  "You're dating someone new so soon?" My mother sounded aghast, and it made me giggle.

  "Not quite. He's an old friend of Ethan's, and he's got a girlfriend. She'll be there, too. I told them both I was worried about how Ethan was doing since I'd heard that he hadn't been going to work half the week and they asked me to meet them tonight to talk about it. They sounded concerned, too; but no matter what they say, I'm not going to go back to Ethan just to get him out of some kind of blue funk. He has to want me back, and he has to be willing to commit to me to do it."

  "Good for you, sweetheart. Stay true to your heart," my mother encouraged me and we said our goodbyes.

  I didn't know where Vick and Gwyneth were taking me for dinner that night, but judging from the last place they wanted to meet, I had a feeling it would be someplace fancy.

  Ethan had given me a blue cocktail dress before we broke up as a gift. I'd never worn it, and it seemed like an appropriate choice. It wasn't the kind of thing he'd be able to return to the store since it had been tailored specifically for me, and I knew I wouldn't want to wear it to a date since it had come from an ex-boyfriend, but dinner with friends felt okay.

  The shimmering bodice with a low V-cut neckline hugged my curves perfectly, showing just enough cleavage to be alluring without crossing the line into vulgar. When a black luxury sedan pulled up in front of my apartment, I was ready to go.

  "Where are we going, Vick?" I asked as I climbed into the back seat and the door shut and locked behind me.

  "You'll see," a female voice said, and I was startled to find Ethan's former assistant Angela Stratham sitting beside me, looking very classy in a little black dress with her red hair swept up in an elegant bun.

  "What are you doing here? Where's Vick and Gwyneth?" I cried out in surprise. I remembered thinking that she didn't like me very much, and when Ethan had told me she had transferred to a different department, I had been relieved. I couldn't imagine what she was doing there now.

  "Don't worry. They're picking up your family from the hotel and taking them to the hospital," Angela stated simply, as if this was common knowledge, but I was shocked and horrified.

  "My family is here? You mean when I was speaking to my mother on the phone just an hour ago, she was at a hotel? And what hospital? Is someone sick or hurt? Is Tommy okay?"

  I was firing off questions without giving her time to answer. With a gentle laugh, she placed her hand over mine to calm me. "Everyone is fine. No one is sick or hurt. Just meet them at the hospital and everything will be explained."

  I tried to get her tell me more, but Angela wouldn't say another word as the driver took us through the city streets to the new hospital across town. A huge crowd was assembled outside of the building with a press conference stage set up, complete with a podium of microphones.

  Angela guided me onto the backstage area behind the platform curtain where I found my entire family standing there. Everyone looked terrific in new clothes and with new haircuts.

  "Mom! What are you doing here?" I embraced her happily, careful not to wrinkle the new dress she was wearing.

  "Ethan flew us out here as a surprise. I wanted to tell you on the phone earlier, but he had sworn me to secrecy, and you know I never break a promise."

  "But why would he bring you all out here like this when he and I aren't even speaking to each other?" I was baffled.

  Just then, Ethan appeared on the opposite side of the stage. He looked incredible in a black Armani suit with a gray and blue striped tie that brought out the colors of his complex eyes.

  I didn't realize how much I had missed him until I suddenly caught sight of him and was reminded of just how handsome and sexy he was. It took all my willpower not to run across the stage and embrace him. I longed to tell him I was sorry I had ever broken up with him and that I didn't need a commitment as long as we were together.

  But that wouldn't have been being true to myself, and in the long run, I would have regretted it, so I forced my feet to remain planted in their place, no matter how much my heart ached.

  Ethan locked gazes with me from across the distance and my breath caught in my chest over the meaningful exchange. Then, he drew in a breath and strode to the podium in the center of the stage.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice. I've asked you here today because I have several important announcements to make. First, I would like to introduce you to a brave and intelligent young man, Mr. Thomas Brandt. Tommy, please come out here."

  Ethan held out his arm in welcome as Tommy rolled his wheelchair onto the stage. My little brother looked both nervous and excited as we all held our breath in anticipation of what could possibly be about to happen.

  Ethan was speaking into the microphone at the crowd. "I recently had the pleasure of meeting with this young engineer and hearing his ideas on how motorcycles can be used to enhance the therapy of people with muscular dystrophy. I took some of his ideas to my engineering team at Speed Motorcycles and they are going to look into developing some of them.

  “To thank Tommy for his ingenuity, I am creating a grant through this hospital to provide top-level medical care, treatments, and therapies to patients with muscular dystrophy, and I want Tommy to be the first recipient. Any care you need will be provided for free through this grant, either at this hospital or through sister hospitals across the country, including the one in your hometown. Your family will never have to pay another dime for your care, and I promise the same for thousands of other youths in your same situation."

  "Are you serious?" Tommy gasped and I had to hold back tears as Ethan hugged my youngest brother.

  "I am. The world needs more people like you, who are thinkers and problem solvers, and I don't want my money to just sit idly in some bank account when it could be making a real difference in someone's life. You reminded me of the importance of helping others, and I wouldn't feel right if I didn't pay you back in some small way."

  "Thank you so much!" Tommy was crying now, and so was I. Everyone in my family was.

  The paparazzi reporters out in the crown blasted Ethan with questions about his new grant program and how patients could qualify for it, and what great designs his company would now be working on thanks to Tommy.

  Ethan answered them all with intelligence and charm, but then one reporter from the front shouted out, "You said you had more than one important announcement to make. What is the other one?"

  "The second announcement is even more important to me than the first." Ethan cleared his throat and looked rather nervous as Tommy cleared the stage and my family circled around him, hugging and kissing him happily. I was proud of my brother and very happy for him, but I couldn't take my eyes off Ethan and continued to watch his speech, spellbound.

  "As everyone knows, I have long been a committed bachelor with a well-deserved reputation as a playboy and womanizer. Some of you have even said that I will never find love. Well, I'm here to tell you tonight, and announce to the whole world, that I am ready to commit to something else. I have found love, and her name is Kayla Brandt."

  I wasn't sure I had heard him right over the gasp of the crowd. My ears must have been playing some kind of trick on me, but then I saw Ethan lock eyes with me as he held his hand out to me and beckoned me onto the stage.

  "Kayla, I've been a fool and I've treated you like a real jerk. I don't blame you for walking out on me. I don't deserve you, but I'm trying to change that. I want to be a better man—one who deserves to have a woman like you in my life.

  “So, this gift I'm making to Tommy and to other patients with muscular dystrophy is only the first of many. I pledge to spend the rest of my days finding positive ways to make a difference in the world and to give away my money for good. Everything you do is about being true and kind in this world, and I want to
be the same.

  “I'm not entirely unselfish, though. I hope that in doing this that one day I can win your heart again, and when I do, this time I'll cherish it the way I should have from the start, and never let you go again."

  I couldn't believe what Ethan was saying, and in front of all these reporters for all the world to hear. Blinking back fresh tears of joy, I choked back a sob and said, "So, does this mean you're willing to commit to me?"

  "Yes. A billion times, yes." He didn't hesitate for moment. He got down on one knee and pulled out a jewelry box from his inside jacket pocket. Stretching it out to me, he said, "This isn't an engagement ring, because we've only been dating a month and I know that's too soon to get married, but it's not too soon for me to know that you're the girl I can see myself having a future with. In fact, you're the first and only girl I've ever felt that way about. So, if you'll accept this token of my love, I vow to be committed to you and only you from this moment on."

  With trembling hands, I opened the black velvet box and gasped at the contents inside. It was a gold locket on a chain, and as I nodded my head yes vigorously, Ethan slipped the necklace around my neck as the crowd behind the press applauded noisily and the paparazzi went crazy, shouting out at him from below.

  Ethan pulled me into his arms and I saw that tears were brimming in his stormy, gray eyes. Then we kissed, long and slow and deep—the kind of kiss that takes your breath away and makes everything around you disappear.

  When we finally came apart, gasping for breath, Ethan held his hand up to the crowd and said, "No more questions. If you'll please excuse me, Kayla and I would like to be alone."

  We hugged my family goodbye and Ethan assured them that Angela would get them back to the hotel and provide for all their needs. Then he whisked me out of the back door where his Ferrari was waiting.

  "Where are we going?" I asked him breathlessly.

  Grinning at me lovingly, Ethan said the words I'd been waiting to hear. "Anywhere you want, my love."

  "Why don't we go back to your place?" I suggested, but he shook his head.

  "I think you mean our place," he corrected.

  Smiling happily, I kissed him and said "Okay, let's go home to our place."

  Chapter Thirty-Four: Ethan

  You see them everywhere: these lovesick guys who are completely wrapped around the finger of some woman. I used to pity them and thank God that I wasn't one of them as I went home every weekend with a different hot model.

  My own father had been the most pitiful of them all, mooning over my mother when she left him and taking her back the moment she returned without a moment's hesitation. He spent all his time bending over backwards to make her happy, doing every little thing she ever wanted. I used to think guys like that were just sad; now I saw the truth, and it was just the opposite of what I'd always believed.

  Men who were fortunate enough to find a woman they loved with all their heart, who loved them back, were the lucky ones. Jerks like me who turned their backs on love and spent their lonely lives wandering around, looking for companionship in empty, one-night stands were the tragic ones.

  I had never known what true happiness was until I found Kayla Brandt and fell in love with her. Just seeing her smile was worth more than a thousand one-night stands, and hearing her laugh was the most wonderful sound in the world.

  When she and I made love, the orgasms I had were more powerful and more pleasurable than the paltry ones I used to crave from women I'd pick up in bars, and the feeling I was left with after they were gone was one of profound emptiness. With Kayla, I would awake the next morning still holding her in my arms, feeling our heartbeats pulse as one, and I knew what it was like to truly be happy.

  She had brought meaning to a life I hadn't even known was empty and given me a purpose I didn't even know I'd been searching for. Loving Kayla was my true reason for being and words couldn't express I grateful and happy I was to have her in my life.

  Admitting this to the whole world live on stage in front of all the news cameras and microphones was something I thought I would have been terrified to do. Never, in my wildest nightmares would I ever have committed such an act; but now, I had done that exact thing and nothing had ever felt more right.

  We rushed straight home and didn't even make it through the front door before we started kissing. The moment the door leading from my garage to the interior of my mansion closed behind us, I slammed Kayla against it in a passionate embrace as we kissed with starving mouths, eager to devour each other.

  "Make love to me right here, right now," Kayla panted. There was a narrow table against the wall by the door leading out to the garage with a flower vase on it. She shoved it off the table and it hit the floor with a noisy crash. Then she hopped up on the table, eager for me to fuck her.

  She reached out for me, anxious to take my clothes off, but I caught her hands in mine and held them fast.

  "I committed to you today, but now I want you to commit to me," I said in a voice that was husky with desire.

  "You have that," she said simply as if it were obvious. "I don't want to be with anyone but you."

  "That's not the kind of commitment I meant, although that's good, too," I said, and she looked at me quizzically. "Now that we are in an official, monogamous relationship, I want an even deeper kind of intimacy. I want you to commit to being my sex slave."

  Her eyes flew open wide and then narrowed into intelligent slits. "Isn't that what I've been doing every time I let you spank me during sex?"

  "Yes, but no. Sadism and masochism can often times be a part of BDSM game play and corporal punishment is a great way to implement it, but agreeing to be my sex slave is much more than just allowing me to spank you."

  "How much more?" Her eyes were glistening and her nipples puckered visibly beneath her dress.

  I could see she was intrigued, but still smart enough to find out exactly what she was getting into before she agreed, and it made me grin.

  "It would mean that were willing to submit to me as your Master whenever we were playing sex games, and that I would have complete control over you. If I were to tell you to do something, you would obey without any hesitation, and you would ask my permission for all other things. If I forbade you to do something, you wouldn't do it, without argument. Failure to obey me in all things could result in punishment."

  "Like the spankings I like so much?" she asked, licking her lips subconsciously.

  "Yes, but since punishment is supposed to be a deterrent to bad behavior, punishments for you would probably involve something else that you didn't like and I would save the spankings for reward time."

  "Reward time?" She arched her left brow at me.

  "Yes. Punishment for bad behavior is only one half of the Master/Slave agreement. The other half is rewards for good behavior. When a sex slave pleases her Master, it is common for her to receive a reward for her good behavior, such as sexual pleasure, orgasms, and in your case, perhaps the masochism you crave."

  "What if I don't want to do the things you've commanded me to do, or I don't like the game?"

  "We've established safe words during the BDSM games we already played with the spankings and the rules will be the same. All you have to do is say the words ‘red light’ and the game will stop; but I promise you will find it just as enjoyable to be my sex slave as you've found the games we've played so far.

  “I won't ever command you to do something dangerous or anything that won't ultimately result in your sexual pleasure. Sometimes it might be something embarrassing, uncomfortable, or even slightly painful, but the rewards will be well worth it. Do this with me, and I will take you to pleasures unlike anything you've felt so far."

  "All right," she said in a voice so soft it was barely a whisper. "I'll be your sex slave, Master."

  "Good girl." I grinned at her and caressed her beautiful face as I kissed her lips. "Now, take off your clothes for me. I like my sex slaves to be naked."

  She stripped for me, ri
ght there in the hallway by the garage, slowly and sensuously. She made a show out of caressing her body as her naked flesh was revealed, leaving the garments strewn across the hall.

  When she was completely naked, I smiled at her. "Good girl, but you made a mess earlier when you broke that flower vase. Pick up those reeds and carry them upstairs to our bedroom. Stop at the kitchen along the way and grab a glass full of ice-cubes. I'll be waiting for you upstairs."

  "The kitchen? What if the cook sees me or the maid is still in there?" She blushed, and I shook my finger at her admonishingly.

  In a stern voice, I said, "You promised complete obedience. Now do it. I'll be upstairs, so don't keep me waiting too long."

  "Yes, Sir," she said with a naughty grin and bent to pick up the willowy reeds that were lying on the ground amongst the flowers. Seeing her bent over like that, with her naked ass up in the air, instantly made me hard, but I forced myself to turn and walk away. I had things to prepare upstairs.

  We were committed to each other now, in every way possible, and I wanted to make things perfect for her. I no longer had to be afraid of rejection: she was mine and I was hers. This was the beginning of a whole new world for me and I couldn't wait to get started.

  Chapter Thirty-Five: Kayla

  At first, I had been thrilled and excited to be Ethan's sex slave, but now, as I crept through the mansion, completely naked, I was having second thoughts.

  The chef and the maid were always in the kitchen this time of the afternoon. What would they think when I strolled in completely naked carrying a pile of willow reeds? I would be mortified, but I had sworn to obey and Ethan had promised the rewards would be worth it.

  Taking a deep breath for courage, I pushed open the kitchen door and waltzed in only to find it was completely empty. A note on the counter had Ethan's distinctive handwriting. It read, Tell the staff to take the rest of the weekend off.