BOUND BY THE BILLONAIRE’S VOW

CHAPTER 2

JACE’S POV

Mum please let me get some rest from you and your obsession with me having a child,” I said, dragging a hand over my face.

I was tired.

Not just from work but from her constant nudging. She had been on my neck for months and just the other day she actually sent a girl to my office.

“Jace unlike your father I care about you deeply. I am your mother. Please find a woman you love and get married. I am getting old and I want to see my grandbabies before I pass on. And besides, you need to be married to receive the CEO position in your grandfather’s company,” she said with that same pitiful tone that used to work when I was a kid.

“Mum you are forty-nine. You are not dying anytime soon. And by the way Davis isn’t my father. He is your husband and a sperm donor to me,” I snapped and stood up from the velvet armchair.

I didn’t want to argue. I didn’t want to remember Davis. I had been trying to scrub him out of my system for years.

“Either way Jacie baby please promise me you will bring a woman home. Not one of your plastic girlfriends. A legit honorable woman,” she begged like this was the last favor she would ever ask from me.

Mum was pretty outdated and had a more traditional sense of reasoning but I couldn’t judge her.

I sighed. My chest ached because despite everything I still loved this woman. She was my mother after all.

She and Davis were still technically married but they lived in separate mansions. She had walked away from that toxic pit of a man because she got tired. Tired of the cheating. Tired of the lies. Tired of being made to feel like she was less than dirt.

When I was sixteen I told Davis that Mum wasn’t happy. That he should treat her better. He didn’t say a word. He just beat me until I could not get out of bed. I think that was the moment something in me cracked open.

I never let anyone close after that. Except Mum. And Bev. And Kyle.

I grew up to be a businessman with a strict sense of control. I liked women but only for pleasure and only if they agreed to the terms. I never lied to them. I never pretended to want something I didn’t.

“Fine Mum. I’ll bring any girl I like home if that will get you off my neck,” I said and stood up to leave.

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

“I am so glad to hear that. I’ll stop sending girls to your office then. Wait till Beverly hears this,” she squealed and grabbed her phone to call Bev.

I rolled my eyes and kissed the top of her head.

“I’m leaving now Mum,” I said and walked out to my car. I slid into the driver’s seat and sped off.

❧

By the time I pulled into Davis’s compound I was already irritated. I hated stepping foot here but I needed to ask him something.

As I walked up the front steps I saw a girl rush out of the kitchen door. She looked like she was in a hurry and she collided straight into my chest. She stumbled and would have hit the ground if I hadn’t grabbed her.

“Look where you are going girl,” I growled and kept her upright.

“I’m sorry,” she stammered and then she looked up.

And I froze.

Blue eyes and brown hair. Wild and panicked and haunting. Her face looked like it had been carved by someone who knew how to make pain beautiful. She was probably five foot five and delicate and soft like something that would bruise if you touched it too hard.

“You’re new,” I said.

“Yes sir. I’ll get out of your way now,” she mumbled and bowed her head before hurrying off.

I watched her go. I shouldn’t have cared. But something about her stayed in my mind.

Beautiful.

I knew what my father was. I knew how he got his staff. I wondered how much she owed him. I wondered what she gave up to be here. Then I forced myself to move.

I made my way to his office and the moment I got close I heard moans and groans. I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

I saw the most disgusting sight ever.

“Jace! If you weren’t my son I’d have my men cut your balls off,” he barked, spinning around to button his trousers. The girl in the room looked like she had barely left high school. She scrambled to get dressed and ran past me like a scared rabbit.

“Jeez. You are sleeping with teenagers now? How much more disgusting can you be?” I asked him and shut the door behind me.

What kind of man was he?

“And how is that your business boy? I’ve warned you. Always knock before entering my office. You are still alive because killing you would hurt your mother terribly,” he said like I was just an inconvenient stain on his life.

“As if you care whether she gets hurt or not. If you really did you’d change your disgusting ways,” I said and sat in the chair across from his desk.

I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. I was not sixteen anymore. I was a billionaire with my own empire. I practically ran New York now. And he was just an old man clinging to his scraps of relevance.

“It’s better we’re separated. One of us might have killed the other,” he muttered and flipped open a file. “And it’s most likely going to be my death.”

“Why are you such a monster?” I asked.

“Mind your tone with me boy. I am your father,” he snapped.

“I know. I just wish it weren’t so,” I replied without blinking.

He slammed the file shut.

“Why are you in my mansion? Why didn’t you book an appointment with my secretary at my company’s office?”

“Because I’m not here for business. Your business can’t help mine in any way and you know it,” I said.

“Then why are you here?”

“Because your wife has been on my neck for a while. I need to get her off. You know any good family I can find a girl? I can’t marry any of my mistresses. Mum wants someone humble and real and who hasn’t touched cosmetic surgery,” I said with a low laugh.

He looked unimpressed.

“I don’t. Now you can leave.”

I stood up. I had gotten what I came for. Nothing useful but just to irk him. But I had managed to ruin his little escapade and that alone made the trip worth it.

I walked out of his office with a smirk on my lips and a girl’s blue eyes still in my mind.