The Promise: The Billionaire's Love Story, #0

By Lily Zante

This is the prequel to The Billionaire's Love Story.

Recently divorced, Savannah Page arrives in New York with her young son determined to make a new life.

Tormented billionaire, Tobias Stone, is haunted by his past. Not looking for romance, he pays for sex, rejecting all form of emotional connection. 

Something is missing from both of their lives; they just don't know it yet. 

The billionaire needs the single mom as much as she needs him. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lily Zante
• Release date: Feb 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393744658

Book preview

The Promise

(Prequel to The Billionaire’s Love Story)

Lily Zante

Author’s Note

'The Promise’ is the prequel to ‘The Billionaire’s Love Story’, a contemporary billionaire romance serial set in New York and consisting of 9 25K-45K installments:

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)

Chapter 1

"You need to get laid, bro, we all know how miserable you get when you haven’t—"

Tobias’s hand stilled as his whiskey glass touched his lips. His brother stopped mid-sentence. Xavier could be tactless, that was a given, but this was going too far.

Their friend, Luke, stepped in. You’ve had too much to drink, buddy.

Xavier blanched as he lowered his face and gazed at the table. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.

Maybe get a handle on the beers, Tobias threw back.

His brother nodded, as if agreeing. I wasn’t thinking.

Most times you don’t. Tobias lifted his glass to his lips. His words were harsh but they were true. Most of the time Xavier didn’t think before he opened his mouth.

Luke looked uncomfortable, as if he was caught in a dilemma and wasn’t sure whether to stay or leave.

Tobias set down his glass as the awkward silence lengthened, but it was soon broken by the sound of Tobias’s cell phone ringing.

Fishing it out of his jacket pocket, he saw that it was Naomi.

This was awkward. He had no desire to take that call here, so he declined it. In a moment of weakness, he had called and left her a message earlier today. Throughout the day he had been surprised that the high-class escort he had split up with a few months ago hadn’t called him back immediately. ‘Split up’ didn’t seem the right phrase, even though his friends and family believed that she was his girlfriend. Why would they think otherwise?

Maybe she had been busy with a client.

He didn’t like to think about that.

What did mom say to you? he asked Xavier.

She said she’d call us.

Tobias huffed out a breath. He and Xavier were waiting to hear from their parents who were supposed to call them when they had finished having cocktails with their friends. It was the only reason he was here, at The Oasis, with Xavier and Luke, otherwise he had plenty of work to get on with back at the office.

His mother could socialize like a Hollywood A-lister, but he didn’t have the time to sit around waiting for her to let him know, last minute, where they were going for dinner. Nobody had made a dinner reservation, but a man like Tobias Stone never had a problem with getting a reservation anywhere.

I need to make a call, he said gruffly, getting up from the table. Xavier was right. He was moody when he didn’t have sex.

He walked past the tables of people laughing and flirting and went out onto the rooftop terrace, away from inquisitive ears. He called Naomi.

Are you alright? Her first question to him was laced with concern.

Yes, why wouldn’t I be?

I didn’t expect to hear from you again, she replied.

He swallowed. This was beyond awkward, and it shouldn't have been. He'd used her services for a couple of years now, but it had been the Christmas vacation that had done it.

He always needed to get away from the city at that time of the year. Last year he'd taken Naomi to North Island. With their agreement set in stone, and a contract having been drawn up between them, he assumed it would have been straightforward enough for her to understand what he needed from her.

Sex.

Nothing more.

No emotional attachment.

No future.

But going on vacation had made it feel like more than the seedy sex it was back in the city, when he could summon her on demand. On vacation he’d felt the shift and it had disturbed him; seeing her all the time, night and day.

As if they were a couple.

Maybe it was his paranoia about the future, or guilt about the past, but he wondered if she had started to imagine a future with him. She had become needy, wanting more from him than just the sex for which he had hired her.

Wrestling with his emotions, with the guilt, with the anger and the regret, he had ended things with her, telling her that he no longer needed her services. He hadn’t bothered to give her a reason.

No wonder she was surprised when he had called her earlier, almost seven months later.

But he still had needs, and Naomi took care of them.

I want you back.

Back? He heard her faint gasp.

In the same capacity. Exclusive, the same rate, everything.

If you want me back, I want more.

He grimaced. She'd learned a thing or two from him. How much more?

Six hundred and sixty six dollars per day.

Fuck.

She wanted twenty thousand dollars a month, to be at his beck and call? You drive a hard bargain.

"I’ve