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  © Copyright 2018 by Naughty Aphrodite- All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Bad Boys Rule

  Dominant Alpha Male Billionaire Romance Short Stories

  By: Naughty Aphrodite

  Table of Contents

  Never Forgotten

  Dangerous Proposal

  In Hiding

  The Memory Of You

  Billionaire’s Confession

  Hello Trouble

  Taming The Billionaire

  Baking For A Billionaire

  Ambivalent Heart

  Billionaire Misbehaving

  Unexpected Threesome

  Secret Confession

  Billionaire In Disguise (Part 1)

  Billionaire In Disguise (Part 2)

  Indomitable

  Never Forgotten

  Chapter 1

  “I have to go!” I shouted, pushing the mail back and forth on the counter, looking for the keys. “Why can’t you just put them where they belong?”

  My mom stood in the doorway, her arms folded. Loose strands of hair hung into her face. She was starting to gray but Mama had started to look run down a long time ago.

  “Don’t take that tone with me, Joanna,” she said. “It’s still my car.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her.

  “And this is my job. I have to be on time for us to get out of this dump at all.”

  She didn’t answer me. I finally found the keys.

  “I can only be back by seven, maybe later,” I said. “You’re going to have to take the bus to get Lydia to work.”

  My younger sister was just out of school with a job at the diner. We needed the money. She’d missed a scholarship with two percent but this was life and life sucked. If you let it get you down you would lie on your face forever.

  So far, I was the only one that had made it to college in my family. I had taken it upon myself to care for them. Mama was a nurse, Lydia was a waitress now and as soon as Cindy finished school she would get a job, too. Every bit of money helped but it never seemed enough.

  I was going to make it. I was going to have for us enough.

  “I’m leaving,” I said and walked away.

  I slammed the door on the chaos that dragged me down and walked to the car.

  I’d gotten the job. I was a Legal Assistant. It wasn’t exactly the amazing job as a lawyer that I’d wanted but there was room for growth. If I proved myself to them they would bump me up – it was a promise. And it was a job. It was so much harder to come by a job than I’d ever thought it would be. I’d gotten through college knowing that I wanted to make a difference in the world, only to realize that there weren’t all that many open doors.

  A Legal Assistant was the closest I could find.

  It was good enough for now. I would prove myself. As soon as I had my foot in there I could prove to them I was the lawyer they were looking for and everything would be the way I’d imagined it to be as a child. I would have money. We could get out of the house that had sunken on itself. We could find a new life.

  I got into the car I shared with my mom and turned the key in the ignition. The car coughed and whined.

  “Come on, come on,” I urged. I needed it to start. I couldn’t afford to miss my first day at work.

  The car spluttered to life and I let out the breath I’d been holding. I floored it, pulling the car out of the driveway and out of the neighborhood where I’d grown up. The streets were still empty this early in the morning. It would be a while, still, before the others in our neighborhood crawled out of their holes.

  This was my big break. This was my ticket to a new life. If I worked hard enough I could become one of the best lawyers, I could make partner if I was lucky, I could make sure Mama and my two sisters had a life for themselves. Maybe one day, I wouldn’t have to look after them, anymore. I loved my family and I would do anything for them, but sometimes I felt trapped. If being a Legal Assistant was the first step to winning my freedom, so be it.

  Most women look toward a man for support, for a life they can relax in. Not me. Men were assholes. When I’d been young and stupid, just finishing high school, I had given myself to a boy. He’d been my everything. He’d been wild and free when I’d been trapped in a life that hadn’t suited me. He’d been rebellious when I’d been suffocated by rules. He’d looked at me when no one else would notice me. I’d given my heart to him first, and later, my body.

  And then he’d left. He’d disappeared on me and I’d been left behind with a broken heart and a mouth full of I-told-you-so’s from my mom who had told me he was only after one thing.

  Apparently, I hadn’t been worth much more than sex. He’d taken my virginity and ripped my heart out along with it.

  My dreams of a better life with him at my side had fallen apart. It hadn’t taken me long to put them back together again without him. I could still have a good life. I could still be someone, and I would make sure I didn’t need a man to get there.

  I had one priority in life now: my independence.

  My phone rang just as I got onto the main road that led to town. The screen was cracked, I could only tell the last four letters of the number flashing on the screen but I knew who it was.

  “I’m on my way, Sonya,” I said the moment I answered.

  “Good,” she said, not saying hello either. “I have an errand for you as soon as you get in.”

  Was this how my life was going to be? Was she going to sit on my case even before I reached the office? It was only seven in the morning, for God’s sake.

  I took a deep breath and focused on the road. This was just the first step, I reminded myself. It would get better - we all had to start at the bottom.

  Despite the time, traffic picked up heading into the city. It felt good to be part of the start of rush hour traffic. I felt important. I felt accomplished. I had places to be, too.

  A red light flickered below the gauges and I frowned. That wasn’t good. I wasn’t sure what it meant but it wasn’t good.

  “Not now,” I said to the car. I just had to make it work. I was ten minutes out if traffic played along.

  The traffic slowed to a crawl. Time was against me. I should have left earlier.

  Slowly, smoke started curling from the hood of my car. At first, it was a thin tendril like nothing was wrong. I braked. The car behind me honked its horn so I crept forward again. What was I going to do? I couldn’t be late for this job. I couldn’t lose the only thing I had to hold onto.

  The smoke got worse. I stopped again and switched on my hazard lights. The car behind me honked furiously and tried to get around me, pushing into the traffic in the next lane. There was nothing I could do.

  I pulled the latch to open the hood and got out the car. I found the clip that held the hood in a place even when it was open and lifted it up. Smoke bubbled out from the engine. It smelled like burned oil and despair. I coughed, trying to hold my breath as I put the metal stick in place that held the hood up and stepped back. I turned around, gasping for breath.

  What was I going to do? I knew how to open the hood of a car and that was
the extent of my knowledge. Smoke wasn’t good but I didn’t know what it meant. Would it start burning? I didn’t even have anything like an extinguisher at hand.

  I turned around and looked at the traffic. The cars now just merged with the other lane whenever they came close. I fished in my handbag for my phone. I needed to phone someone. But who? I couldn’t just dial nine-one-one – this wasn’t exactly an emergency – and I had no idea who else to call. Mama would do nothing, we had no insurance and I couldn’t see enough in my screen to use the web browser to find a number.

  That, and the fact that I was going to be later than late for the job where the good first impression was so important. I hadn’t even made it to the office yet and I was already giving them a reason to fire me. I leaned against my still-smoking car and dropped my head into my hand, the other crossed over my stomach like I could physically keep myself together. My throat was swelling shut with threatening tears and my tongue was thick when I swallowed. What the hell was I going to do? How much bad luck did one woman deserve in life?

  I took a deep breath and looked up again. I waved at passing cars. If someone would stop and help me I could make a plan. I could try and work my first month and pay for a mechanic with my first paycheck. None of the drivers made eye contact with me. I tried to get one of them to stop but it was like I didn’t exist. I couldn’t jump into traffic to stop them – I was almost sure they would run me down.

  Time ticked on and the cars passed one by one, ignoring me, making the best of one less lane.

  A roaring sound started up in the distance. It came closer and closer. I looked toward the sound. A man on a motorbike weaved in and out of traffic, driving in between lanes whenever he could. The bike was one of those old-fashioned ones with handle bars almost higher than the driver’s head. He wore sunglasses and a black bandana around his mouth with skull teeth but no helmet. Everything about him screamed trouble.

  He stopped the bike behind my car and got off. I swallowed hard. I didn’t want this guy to help me. He looked scary. Scary and…hot. As he came closer I could see muscles bulged under his clothes, his shirt straining around his biceps. His jeans hung off his hips like he was doing them a favor and he walked like he was king of the world.

  “Are you alright?” he asked. His voice was deep. He lifted his hands and pulled down the bandana, lifting the sunglasses onto his head at the same time. His icy eyes fell on mine and I froze.

  Drake. The son of a bitch.

  He blinked at me.

  “Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked without missing a beat.

  Did he not recognize me? Did he not know who I was?

  He looked at my car, at the smoke.

  “It looks like you’ve got a problem with overheating,” he said, walking toward the hood. I watched his strut, familiar now. His broad back and spectacular muscles were new. He’d filled out since high school. Still, I could remember the feel of his skin under my fingertips, his lips on my skin.

  Echoes of my broken heart washed over me and I was suddenly angry. Who the hell did he think he was, walking up to me like nothing was wrong; like he hadn’t shattered my world?

  I marched to him where he had his head under the hood of the car. I wanted him to get away from my car, from me, from everything in my life. I couldn’t do this again. It was all still there – the blue eyes, the swagger, the reason I had fallen for him in the first place.

  I couldn’t afford to not hate him. He couldn’t be nice to me.

  When I reached him, he looked up at me and his eyes, an impossible blue, froze me in place.

  “Mind if I try something?” he asked.

  I nodded, dumbfounded. He grinned.

  “Just had to check that you don’t mind me getting down and dirty.”

  I was angry right away. Angry, and blushing for some reason.

  Damn Drake and his tricks.

  Chapter 2

  I wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but after twenty minutes of tinkering around in my engine he dusted his hands on his jeans and shook his head. His skin was stained with black oil marks. I had to be in the office in less than fifteen minutes. Or I was going to lose my job.

  My stomach turned. I struggled to breathe. I was stressed out and upset and flustered.

  “I can’t do anything about this,” he said. “Your engine is overheating and I cooled it down but it’s not your water that’s the problem. I know a lot about bikes but cars aren’t exactly my thing.”He looked at the engine again.

  I rolled my eyes. He knew a lot about bikes? Sure. Welcome to another part of Drake’s life that I didn’t know. Once upon a time, I thought I’d known everything about him. It had all been a lie, of course.

  Even the way I thought he’d felt about me.

  “I’m going to call someone for you,” he said.

  “Please don’t.”

  He stopped, his phone halfway to his ear, and blinked at me.

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t want him to know that I wouldn’t be able to afford repairs. I didn’t want him to know that my life hadn’t gotten better since he’d left me – in fact, it had gotten worse. I wanted him to get onto his bike and drive off with the rest of the traffic so that I could forget him the way he had evidently forgotten me.

  “It’s no trouble, really. No one should be stranded by the side of the road.”

  The traffic was still thick around us. We weren’t going anywhere in this jam.

  “I’ll be fine, really,” I said.

  Drake shook his head and made his call. He talked in to the phone for a while, laughing and joking like he was catching up with an old friend instead of calling for help. When he finally hung up he nodded at me and pocketed his phone.

  “He’s on his way.”

  I frowned. “Who?”

  “A buddy of mine. He’s a mechanic. He’ll come out and tow you in.”

  I groaned. My career was over. Being fired the first day on the job would never look good on a resume. I got into my car and slammed the door shut, locking it. Drake raised his brows at me, slipped his sunglasses back on and leaned against the side of my car. He pulled out a cigarette and lit up. At least one thing was still the same. He’d smoked when I’d met him, too. He’d started early. A rebel.

  Smoke curled from the cigarette when he held it against his side. I watched him drag and blow, drag and blow. My phone rang.

  Shit.

  “I’m so sorry, Sonya,” I said into the phone. “My engine overheated. I’m stuck in traffic waiting for a tow truck.”

  There was silence on the line for long enough that I was scared it was too late, already.

  “I can’t work with someone who is unreliable,” she said.

  I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the steering wheel. “I know,” I mumbled.

  She took a deep breath. This was where she was going to fire me. This was where it ended.

  “You have a tow truck on the way?” she asked.

  I sat back up. “I do.”

  “What time do you think you’ll be able to come in?”

  I had no idea how long it would take. I could be stuck here the whole day. I could be kidnapped by Drake and his unknown buddy. Everything could go wrong. Knowing Drake, it would.

  “Nine, latest,” I said. I had to make this work.

  Sonya was quiet for long enough again that I started squirming.

  “Don’t disappoint me,” she said and hung up.

  She had thrown me a lifeline. Against all odds, I had managed to get a little saving grace. And a few minutes later a rusted pickup pulled up next to the car. The driver jumped out, not caring about the other cars honking their horns at him and slapped Drake on the back.

  This had to be his mechanic buddy. The guy looked scruffy enough. He wore tattered jeans stained with oil, a sleeveless shirt that used to be white and a goatee that was very out of fashion. I unlocked the car and got out.

  Goat
ee turned around and looked me up and down.

  “Well, hello,” he said.

  “Cut the crap, Mouse,” Drake said.

  Really? Mouse?

  The guy – Mouse – walked to me and held out a dirty hand. I eyed it before taking it and shaking.

  “Name’s Michael. You can call me Mouse. What’s the problem?”

  “Joanna. And apparently, it’s overheating, but I don’t know.”

  He nodded and walked around to the back of his truck. He pulled out a length of rope and walked to the front of my car. He crawled underneath it.