The Offer Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  An Excerpt from The Vow, Book 1

  Booklist

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  An Excerpt from The Vow, Book 1

  Booklist

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright

  The Offer, Book 3

  The Billionaire’s Love Story

  Lily Zante

  Text copyright © 2016

  Lily Zante

  All Rights Reserved

  Author’s Note

  The Offer, Book 3 is #6 of The Billionaire’s Love Story, a contemporary romance serial with 9 installments. The books must be read in order. This is Book 6 in the series and follows on from The Offer, Book 2. Other books in the series:

  The Billionaire’s Love Story:

  The Gift, Book 1

  The Gift, Book 2

  The Gift, Book 3

  The Gift, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  The Offer, Book 1

  The Offer, Book 2

  The Offer, Book 3

  The Offer, Boxed Set (Books, 1, 2 & 3)

  The Vow, Book 1

  The Vow, Book 2

  The Vow, Book 3

  The Vow, Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  Look out for my other contemporary romance books, too:

  Contemporary Romance Collection (4 Romances)

  Honeymoon Series:

  Honeymoon For One

  Honeymoon For Three

  Honeymoon Blues

  Honeymoon Bliss

  Honeymoon Series Boxed Set (Books 2, 3 & 4)

  Baby Steps

  Perfect Match Series:

  The Proposal

  Lost In Solo

  Heart Sync

  Perfect Match Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  A Leap of Faith

  Tainted Love Series: (A spin-off from the Perfect Match Series)

  Misplaced Love

  Reclaiming Love

  Embracing Love

  Tainted Love Boxed Set (Books 1, 2 & 3)

  Italian Summer Series: (A spin-off from the Honeymoon Series)

  It Takes Two

  All That Glitters

  Fool’s Gold

  Standalone books:

  Love, Inc

  An Unexpected Gift

  Sign up for my newsletter HERE

  Chapter 1

  Colt Brookes sauntered out of the rowdy bar and walked into the cool night air. He saw the parked car as he crossed the deathly quiet street and wondered why it was there. The street was a dead end.

  As he neared the alleyway, he heard the voice. Thick and accented, and familiar. He almost shit in his pants as he turned around.

  Santino?

  What the hell did he want? In the dimly lit street he could make out three figures. Santino stood with his hands in his pockets, looking as if he were admiring the view, while two men, as large as oak trees, stood on either side of him.

  Colt’s legs shook but somehow he managed to walk towards them—because he had no choice but to.

  “Santino.” The money wasn’t due for at least another week and he was still trying to get it together.

  “Brookes.”

  “Is something wrong?” He tried to keep his voice steady as the barnyard smell of Cuban cigar wafted over to him and stuck in his throat.

  “You tell me.” Santino replied.

  “Nothing’s wrong.” He felt his bladder weaken. Something was off. Santino was early. Colt didn’t like being here, in a dead end street, in the dark. And there were three of them. “I’ll make the payment.” He needed them to know that, and he still had a few more days.

  Santino made a noise that was between a snort and a laugh. “You’ll have $500 by next week?”

  “Five hundred?” He almost shouted, more in surprise than anger but he knew better than to get angry or to show disrespect to these people. He still cursed the day his friend had introduced them to him. Some friend.

  “Five hundred,” Santino replied, smoothly. “Why, you got a problem with that?”

  “But I gave you three hundred last month.” He should have known better, but at that time he hadn’t been thinking straight. Now he was up to his eyeballs in debt and a whole heap of other crazy shit.

  “You did, yes.” Santino looked away, sniffed then looked back at him. “But that was three hundred, and that was last month’s payment.” He took a step towards him, forcing Colt to inhale the pungent cigar smell. His stomach muscles quivered, and he thought he was going to retch. From the fear, and the smell, and what was to come. He had heard about the things these people did.

  “I’m talking about this month’s payment.” They owned him, with their insanely high interest rates, plucked out of thin air. Colt bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something rash.

  “There is another way, to help you with the debt,” the man suggested, his eyes glittering dangerously under the splintered light from the windows of the bar.

  Colt’s insides turned to mush. He didn’t want the other way.

  “It must worry you,” Santino said, “to carry the weight of such a debt on your head?” But Colt already been forced to take ‘the alternative’ a few times before when he hadn’t been able to make payment. Even so, the debt wasn’t reducing. It was increasing. He had racked up $11,000 in online gambling debt and had sold everything except his TV as he’d struggled to make the rent, but the debt had more than doubled ever since he’d ‘borrowed’ money from these vipers. Now it stood at something like $25,000. It wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t left him. If he hadn’t lost his job. If he’d kept it together. But things were what they were, and he was trying to stay alive. That’s all he was trying to do.

  He took a step backwards. “I’ll get you the money.” All he wanted to do was to run into the alleyway and make it home in one piece.

  “You know what Pedroza expects of me?” Santino asked, pinning Colt in place with his words. Colt shook his head.

  “To look at the risk. You, Brookes, are a big risk. Because I don’t think you can bring me the money by next week.” He was about to reply when one of Santino’s henchman reached forward and a heavy, rough hand grabbed his wallet from his jacket. He was powerless to stop it, much less complain. They all laughed coarsely as he tipped the beat up wallet upside down and a few dollars fell out.

  “You’ll have five hundred by next week?” Santino asked, as he stepped right up close up to his face. “I don’t think so.�
�

  “I will,” Colt rasped. He had a few hundred at home, working odd jobs, stealing a few here and there. He’d been trying to scrape enough together each month, but increasingly it became more difficult especially as they raised the payments higher every month.

  “Think about it, Brookes. Make another trip and we can wipe one thousand off your debt.”

  A thousand dollars? He was tempted, but they would have him by the balls. The way things were going they already did. He would never be able to pay it off because they would always increase it and keep him dangling. He didn’t know which was worse, prison or them.

  One thousand dollars to run drugs to another state. Could he risk having the Feds come after him? Crossing state lines meant it wouldn’t be a simple police matter then.

  He shook his head, determined not to sink even deeper into the mess. “I’ll get you the money.”

  Santino laughed. “You’re going to pull this money out of your ass?” The two men flanking him laughed. Santino sniffed. “You could make your life so easy, Brookes, if you did the run.”

  Colt shook his head. “I don’t want to. I’m trying to straighten up.”

  “Straighten up? You?” He didn’t like the sound of Santino’s laugh. One of the men quickly pinned his arms behind his back. “What are you—” but before he could finish, he heard the sound.

  Whack!

  A fist landed hard, like a brick across his cheek. The pain shot through his head and reached up into his eyeball, as if a fishing line was caught in it.

  “Straighten up?” Santino asked him, as he adjusted his cuffs and flexed his fingers. He couldn’t defend himself, not with his arms still pinned behind him. And even if he could, Colt knew he could not fight back. To do so would be fatal. For him. He couldn’t bring himself to answer, and really, he had no choice. He watched as Santino flexed his fingers again and smiled. This time when his fist smashed into his face again, Colt tasted blood. Reeling back, seeing stars, he saw Santino wipe his hands with a handkerchief that one of his men had given him.

  “You are a stupid man,” said Santino. “One drug run a month and you wipe a thousand off your debt. But you are too stupid to see that.” He sniffed again. “I tell you what. This time I will let you bring me the money but if you don’t have it, I will slice off your finger.”

  Colt swallowed. He should have known better. Santino hadn’t come to ask him for the money. Santino had come to tell him to do a drug run. He didn’t have a choice but to do as they asked.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll do the run.”

  “Good.” Santino replied. “I knew you would make the right decision in the end.”

  Chapter 2

  Savannah lay back against him, sitting between his legs in the huge bathtub. Shiny bubbles bobbed gently on the surface of warm water as Tobias’s arms encased her.

  She felt loose all over, her body completely relaxed and her mind without a worry in the world. Being with Tobias had done this. He made her feel protected, wanted and loved—more than she had ever felt in her life. He wiped the soaked sponge over her body, letting it slide down her chest and stomach and into the water, before pulling it out and repeating the motion. This time he gently rubbed it over her breasts, and she squirmed, pressing her back further into his chest, as his hand lingered over her breasts.

  “I could stay like this forever.”

  He teased his fingers around her breast. “I could stay like this for a while,” he murmured, “and then I’d need to take you to bed…”

  “Ummmmm,” she mewled, arching her back.

  “…and make you lose control again.”

  “Yes, please.” The feel of him bare inside her had been another first for them. She now had birth control, which meant no more condoms.

  “Patience,” he replied, and lowered the sponge back into the water. She gazed around the ivory colored bathroom again. “Your bathroom is bigger than my bedroom.”

  “It’s even bigger than my living room. In fact…” she murmured gently, sighing as his hands cupped her breasts, “I think your bathtub is bigger than my bed.” She dipped her head back and kissed the underside of his chin.

  He squeezed her breast gently. “But your bed would be more comfortable.”

  She giggled. “That depends on which position you want me in.” His lips curved into a sexy smile and she felt his hardness against her as she wriggled in the water closing her eyes and sighing, long and loud. Hours of slow and sensual sex would follow.

  Heaven.

  This, being in Tobias’s apartment with Jacob over at Rosalee’s and them not having to sneak around anymore, was pure heaven. Rosalee knowing about their relationship made it easier for them to spend one evening a week together. She would never sleep over, would never stay later than nine but at least they were able to spend some private time together.

  This new arrangement of theirs had come about ever since he’d told her about Zachary. That day something had deepened between them and Tobias had asked when he could see her again. Clandestine visits to the penthouse and weekends spent with Jacob weren’t going to help their relationship, but this, a few precious hours after work once a week, helped cement their deepening bond. Earlier, they’d made love on the floor the moment they’d gotten back from work. Time was precious, scarce, and their desire, suppressed and hidden during the working day exploded, needing quick release, in the privacy of his apartment. Spent, sweaty but sated, they had decided to shower and she’d seen the candles as she had rifled through the closets in the large bathroom. Tobias had insisted on lighting them all. Candlelight danced around the room, infusing the air with the scent of fig and patchouli.

  “I wish you could stay the night.”

  “I wish I could stay the night.” The reality of that seemed so out of reach. She would never leave Jacob with Rosalee overnight, not only because it wouldn’t be fair to her babysitter, but because she had never spent a night away from her son. Even so, the dream of spending a whole night with Tobias seemed more appealing each time she saw him, and more out of reach. As it was, she hadn’t spelled it out to Jacob that she and Tobias were together and they were always careful around him.

  They sat with their arms and legs entwined, in the warmth of the bathroom, unwinding and content in one another’s company. At last Tobias spoke. “When was the last time you saw him?”

  “Who?”

  “Your ex-husband.”

  She tried to think. “Maybe a couple of years ago.”

  “Is he still there? In North Carolina?” She didn’t remember telling him that, or had she?

  “He’s still there.”

  “Does Jacob miss him?”

  She shifted in the bathtub, disturbing the calm water and making waves as dying bubbles parted. “No.”

  “Has he called again?”

  “No.”

  An awkward silence opened up, eating into the tranquil mood they had created. Candles flickered and the bathroom lights had been dimmed, as if yellow silk had been draped over them. She didn’t want to talk about Colt, or her past. Such talk contaminated the sensual ambiance around them.

  “How was Candace today?” she asked, examining his fingers as his hand entwined with hers.

  “No stranger than usual. Why?” Tobias sat up, forcing her to move forward as he reached over to open the hot water tap.

  “Do you want to stay in here longer?” She asked, always mindful of the time, not that she was in any way looking forward to getting out and leaving.

  “Stay a little longer?” Tobias asked, turning the tap off. The raised temperature of the water only served to make her more relaxed, as if she could almost fall asleep in his arms, if he’d let her.

  “We could,” she answered, turning around and kneeling to face him.

  “Good,” he replied, and settled back once more against the bathtub, his arms outstretched over the rim. “We still have time. We haven’t even had dinner yet.” His gaze fell to her breasts; she loved the power she ha
d over him sometimes, usually only in the bedroom—or like now, in the bathtub. She loved that it took no more than a sneak of her naked to give him that hungry look again.

  She stared back at him, at the alluring curve of his lips, the arch of his brows and the softness in his eyes. Ever since he’d opened up to her, it had been as if the weight that had been dragging him down had been lifted. She’d been given access to the inner chambers of his heart, and the workings of his mind and along with it came the realization that he had revealed far more of himself to her than to anyone else. He slid his hands around her waist and pulled her on top of him. The soapy bubbles sloshed gently as she moved to straddle him, her knees hugging his hips.

  “Why do you let Candace bother you so much?”

  “She watches everything I do, and I don’t like it.”

  “You’re being paranoid,” he said, kissing the sides of her breast and making her shudder. She bit her lip as he sucked the flesh gently, taking first one breast then the other.

  “Again?” she murmured, smiling and held on to his wet arms as she welcomed the throbbing sensation in the base of her stomach. He pulled away for a moment, his wet face staring up at her. “I only have slices of time with you.”

  And he knew how to make the most of it. The subdued lighting, the warm water and the scented candles made this their private oasis. It was always such a wrench to leave him at the end.

  He sucked her breast harder, making her moan as their bodies, so close they were almost one, rubbed together slowly, taking foreplay to another level. Excitement crept along her back and stomach and tingled between her legs.

  “I hate keeping us a secret, Savannah,” he whispered.

  “I know.”

  “How much longer?”

  She didn’t know how much longer. “You said you’d give me time.”

  “I will,” he replied, sliding his hands around her waist. “Sometimes I get the feeling that you’re scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

  “Tell you what?”