The Promise of Love Read online

  The Promise of Love: A Billionaire Romance

  Scarlett King

  Published by Best seller Author, 2020.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  THE PROMISE OF LOVE: A BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE

  First edition. January 25, 2020.

  Copyright © 2020 Scarlett King.

  ISBN: 978-1393780281

  Written by Scarlett King.

  The Promise of Love

  A Billionaire Romance

  Scarlett King

  Hot and Steamy Romance

  Contents

  About the Author

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  Blurb

  1. Chapter One

  2. Chapter Two

  3. Chapter Three

  4. Chapter Four

  5. Chapter Five

  6. Chapter Six

  7. Chapter Seven

  8. Chapter Eight

  9. Chapter Nine

  10. Chapter Ten

  11. Chapter Eleven

  12. Chapter Twelve

  13. Chapter Thirteen

  14. Chapter Fourteen

  15. Chapter Fifteen

  16. Chapter Sixteen

  17. Chapter Seventeen

  18. Chapter Eighteen

  19. Chapter Nineteen

  20. Chapter Twenty

  21. Chapter Twenty-One

  Epilogue

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  Preview of The Dirty Doctor’s Touch

  22. Chapter 1

  23. Chapter 2

  24. Chapter 3

  25. Chapter 4

  Other Books By This Author

  About the Author

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Mrs. Love writes about smart, sexy women and the hot alpha billionaires who love them. She has found her own happily ever after with her dream husband and adorable 4 year old.

  Currently, Michelle is hard at work on the next book in the series, and trying to stay off the Internet.

  "Thank you for supporting an indie author. Anything you can do, whether it be writing a review, or even simply telling a fellow reader that you enjoyed this. Thanks

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  Blurb

  Ben Donovan owns a large corporation, and he is also known as a philanthropist for all his good deeds around the world. A scandal breaks out when his company is associated with an oil leak in the ocean. His team is on damage control, and they have to fix his reputation. His right-hand man suggests that he go to Africa to help build a school—it’s a good PR move.

  When he arrives in Africa, Ben comes across do-gooder Katie Bennett. The two have an instant connection, but when Katie finds out how Ben’s been trying to cover up the oil leak back home, she questions everything she’s learned about him. He tries to explain himself, but she shuts him down and ends up leaving Africa. Ben knows they have something special, but when he tries to win her back, he just might be too late.

  * * *

  I knew he was in the room before I entered it.

  His gaze was that intense.

  I tried to ignore it, but there he was.

  He consumed my every thought.

  I knew what I wanted though and I would not be played.

  Come to me Ben, claim me as your own.

  I needed him…

  Ben Henricks knew how to touch me; I was powerless under his touch.

  Can I risk everything, my heart for him?

  * * *

  His hands did pleasing things to my body.

  I needed his touch.

  My first orgasm came from his rough touch.

  I couldn’t help but moan when he touched me.

  I ached for him, his touch, his mouth.

  It broke me when I left him.

  He was all I ever thought about.

  Could I live without him? I wasn’t sure…

  When he touched me, I couldn’t say no.

  1

  Chapter One

  Ben

  * * *

  I sat at the head of the boardroom table, disgusted as I glanced around the room. I couldn’t believe what had happened to my own company in such a short amount of time. What was the matter with the people I employed? How could such a disaster go unnoticed until it practically blew up in our faces—and in the news of all places? It was enough to make me blow my top, and I did just that.

  “Shut up, all of you! I’m sick of listening to this blathering mess. Why don’t you tell me who’s responsible for this disaster!”

  All heads turned to me in alarm. They were terrified of me, and they had every reason to be. I may be a young billionaire, but I ran a tight ship and I wasn’t about to have anyone employed by me running around creating scandals at my company. I got to the top for a reason; I was damn smart.

  There was silence all around the room. I looked at each and every one of my advisors and saw their fear reflected back to me. A bunch of cowards, that’s all they were. My company’s reputation was being dragged through the mud, and they had nothing to say about the matter.

  “I’m waiting.”

  They all stared at me in awe. They knew darn well that I wasn’t the kind of boss that anyone messed with, and I knew they were all wondering if they would be fired that day. I might have to just let them all go and start with a fresh team the next day; I was that fed up with them. I needed the best people on my team, and they had fallen short lately. I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the situation, but I had to figure out a way to get my company out of the mess it was in before it was destroyed forever.

  The company had recently been charged with criminal and—my god—federal charges for dumping industrial waste into the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic Ocean! Just thinking about that mess brought a rage in me that was barely contained. What was worse was that I had no idea these practices were going on behind my back. That was some moron’s solution to getting rid of company waste: to pollute an ocean instead. It sickened me just thinking about it. I had to admit I was angrier at myself than at anyone else. I wasn’t sure how something so massive could possibly get past me. How had I not known what was going on behind the scenes? Maybe I had been playing a little too much in life and not spending enough time getting dirty at my own company. That had to be it, right? I just wasn’t paying attention, and now the company—my company—was paying the price.

  I looked around the room again, trying to summon up some clarity on the whole situation. Could that be found?

  “Imagine my surprise, ladies and gentlemen, when I return from a lovely vacation only to find out from my lawyers that I have a meeting with the prosecutor’s office. When I get there, I find out that the company I have built from the ground up, my life’s work, is being charged with a crime that is unfathomable to me. The company is supposed to be humanitarian, you buffoons, and yet we are filling the ocean with garbage? That’s what I heard.”

  I was yelling now, and I could tell that my message would be heard in my employees’ nig
htmares for weeks. My face was beet red, and yet I didn’t care. I couldn’t believe what had happened all while I was on vacation enjoying champagne and women. It was too terrible to even consider. I needed a moment to compose myself before I lost my mind completely. I needed a moment to assess their worth and see if they were even worthy of continuing their employment with me.

  “I need to know who did this. I pray to god it’s not one of my right-hand men or women here. I would hate to think it was my very own front-runners who thought this was appropriate behavior for the company. I have one hell of a mess to clean up here. I expect you to submit reports on the hour about how you all think we should make this situation right. I want further suggestions on where the waste should go from this day forward since we now know that the ocean isn’t quite the place to dump it.“ My voice dripped with sarcasm as I glared at my team. “Now get out of my sight.”

  They hurried off and out of the office as quickly as they could. I watched my team filter out of the room, hoping that my point had been made. The only other man left in the room with me was my right-hand man, Kyle, the CEO.

  I stared at him a moment and he stared back, meeting my gaze unwaveringly. He had to have known something like this was going on—how could he not? But then again, I owned the whole thing, and yet I didn’t know. But wasn’t it his job to know the ins and outs of the company while I was away playing? That was what he was hired for after all, though I didn’t think he would ever betray me in that way.

  “Kyle, please tell me you had nothing to do with this. Tell me you didn’t know it was happening.”

  Kyle was one tough son of a bitch. I had only known him to be loyal in the many years he’d worked for me. It was hard to fathom he would do something so unbelievably stupid and immoral.

  “Ben, I’m shocked that you even have to ask me such a thing. We’ve been a team for quite some time. I assure you that I had nothing to do with this. I’m as shocked as you are about the whole thing. It’s surely a minion that pulled something like that, and I promise you we’ll find out who did it. That person will be punished.”

  “I’ve always appreciated your loyalty, Kyle. You’ve been a great asset to me as well as the company for some time. But how is it that the CEO, the guy who is supposed to have my back when I’m away, how is it that you don’t know something so substantial was being done? It’s madness to me that industrial waste could be dumped into the ocean and no one in the higher division has an explanation for it.”

  “Ben, it wasn’t me. There are other people in charge of saving the company money, and this was obviously a decision that someone else made in order to do so.”

  I looked at him, baffled. Was he serious? “Oh yeah, of course, Kyle. What a smart idea. Of course no one would know that the company was breaking the law. Have I hired all morons? How would we not have been caught doing something like that? We would have been better to bury it in the ground. At least then it would have been harder to discover. No, instead we have to throw the shit in the ocean and kill every living thing. They have the damn vessel numbers, Kyle. It’s obvious it was us, so how did we not know?” I put my head in my hands, unable to understand what was going on with the people around me.

  “Look, Ben, I don’t know any more about it than you do right now. But the prosecutor’s office will be conducting an investigation into the matter, so we will know soon enough who was behind the whole thing.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” I shouted. “I’m being charged, Kyle—do you not understand this? Do you know why? Because they think that I knew the whole time, that it was my own orders.”

  Kyle sighed. “Yes, I am aware. But I know you had nothing to do with the whole thing, and neither did I. They are going to discover that. You weren’t even in the country for god’s sake. You will prove yourself in court, and this will all go away. They can’t pin something on you when you’re an innocent man.”

  “Right, but how convenient is it that I was out of town when all this was going on? It’s as if my alibi was planned.”

  I got up from the table and went to the window, staring out at the grand view that the boardroom held. Not quite as great as my office view but stunning nonetheless. I needed a drink. I walked to the side table where a decanter stood and poured a brandy for both me and Kyle. I returned to the table and handed Kyle the drink. I sat down beside him and sipped at the brandy, letting the heat burn down my throat, almost cleansing it.

  “Kyle, I built this damn company because I believed in something. I had a dream, and this company represented that dream above anything else. Now that dream has been dragged through the mud. Our reputation is smeared and ruined completely. I don’t know how we are going to turn it around. Here I am off doing charity work and fundraisers, and someone is throwing poison into the very oceans I am trying to save. It’s a bloody joke.”

  “Ben, it’s your obligation to do these works. By doing all the good that you do, you raise the money needed to make a difference. You are not expected to be around here—that’s my job, and I’m sorry that something like this happened on my watch. It will be handled—I promise—and I assure you that something like this will never happen again.”

  “I sure hope not, because I don’t think we would survive another public outcry like this one. People want my head on a chopping block.”

  “It will be over soon, I promise.”

  “What if it isn’t?”

  “They can’t hang an innocent man, Ben. We just need to do damage control.”

  I held up my glass and clinked it against Kyle’s. We both took another sip. I was lost in my own dark thoughts.

  “How would you suggest we clean up this mess? What damage control do you have in mind?”

  I could tell that Kyle was deep in thought, and I wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I would do anything I could to save the reputation of this company, but I wondered what he was willing to go through in order to do the same. Kyle was now glancing out the window, and I knew I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. Kyle took another sip of the brandy, and I followed suit. When Kyle turned to me, he only said one word: “Africa.”

  Confused, I chuckled. “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

  “Well, I’ve already done some research on what kind of damage control we would need at this point to salvage the reputation of not only the company, but yourself as well. We need major PR points to get through this mess. Right now, Africa is in desperate need of people to come in and build schools and hospitals. I’ve found a great organization that’s about to start building in Malawi that could use some help. They need as many workers and supplies as possible. This is where you need to be right now, Ben—helping others and showing the world that you are the same man you were before this mess.”

  “Going to Africa is going to do that? It’s going to fix the problem?”

  “Most definitely. No one can argue the importance of all the work you have done over the years, and they won’t be able to say it’s an act if they see you with hammer and nails out doing it yourself. You’re a billionaire—the last place they expect you to be is in Africa. We’re going to send a ton of money to the job site, give them all the supplies they need, and then you will fly there and work your ass off. This will really send a message to the world as to what kind of company we are. Not to mention it will show off your strength of character in the midst of a disaster.”

  I mulled over what Kyle said in my head. It made sense. The last thing I had expected upon my return from vacation was to head off to Africa to work, but it was important that people not forget that I was a humanitarian at heart. I had no idea how that waste got dumped in my name, but I would never be part of such a thing. The amount of money that would have to be spent to salvage the ocean would far outweigh any profit made by the dump. Not to mention the coral and all the sea life destroyed. The thought of it all almost brought me to my knees. Going to Africa was the least that I could do to make amends for what my com
pany did, even if I had been unaware of it all. Besides allowing me to get my hands dirty, it would also do my own soul some good. It had been a while since I had done anything quite like that, and it would help relieve the stress of what was going on. It was probably best I stay away from the company for a short while, otherwise, I might strangle someone.

  I looked to Kyle and nodded. “Okay, I’m in. How do we go about doing this?”

  “You leave Monday. Leave the rest up to me.”

  2

  Chapter Two

  Ben

  Packing for the trip took longer than I expected. I wasn’t sure what I needed to bring or how much time I would be away. I did humanitarian efforts all the time, but I had never gone to a site and built a school. I had no idea how long something like that would take. I wasn’t sure how much I should pack, and I suddenly wished that I had left the job up to my assistant.