Читать книгу Conquering King's Heart / Montana Mistress - Maureen Child - Страница 13

For the next couple of days, Jesse watched a steady stream of customers go in and out of Bella’s shop. From the vantage point of his office window or from a seat in the sidewalk café on the beach, he had a perfect view of Bella’s Beachwear and its all-too-intriguing owner. What had astounded Jesse was the amount of business she did. Bella had told him that her business was slowing down because the season was over. Well, if this was slow, he was impressed.

He still didn’t like the idea of expanding. But he couldn’t get the facts out of his head, either. Dave’s research proved just how successful Bella had become in her niche market, and damn if he’d let Nick Acona grab up her business right from under his nose.

She was the perfect advertisement for her wares. A normal-size woman walked into her store frustrated by the offerings at chain stores, and left with a smile on her face. He’d been watching it for days.

“And there go two more,” he said to no one as he set his hands on either side of his office’s wide window and stared down at Main Street. A couple of women were just leaving Bella’s, carrying huge, purple-and-whitestriped shopping bags that looked stuffed to bursting. She had a good business, he admitted silently, but he could make it great.

If he bought her out, or better yet, simply absorbed her company into his, keeping her on as head designer, they could both make millions. Even though she’d probably fight him every inch of the way. He smiled to himself at the thought. Damn if he didn’t like that about her. The way her brown eyes snapped with fury or irritation. The way she lifted her chin and gave him a glare that she fully expected would turn him to stone.

Most women he knew were so busy flirting with him, they’d never consider arguing with him. Bella was different. And now that he knew she was his mystery girl, she was even more appealing.

He wanted her. Badly. The woman he’d been thinking about for three years was here. Right in front of him. Ready to be taken again. He was more than ready to do the taking.

But taking wasn’t right, either. He wanted to explore that fabulous body, feel the buzz of her skin beneath his and build new memories. Jesse smiled to himself. He wanted more than just one more night with her. He wasn’t thinking about how much more, but that wasn’t the point.

She was.

Hell, Jesse actually liked her. And dammit, he understood her. Watching Bella with her customers, he knew that her business was more than just work to her. He’d felt the same way back when he started. When he bought his first company, he’d actually gone in and learned how to shape and make the surfboards himself. He’d enjoyed being in on the ground floor, feeling a connection to the business that he never would have had simply as a suit. It had made it more than a company to him. It had made it a part of him.

And there was no doubt in his mind that was how Bella felt about her shop. He admired that about her, even as he knew that would be the sticking point to winning her over. She wouldn’t want to let go of the reins of her shop.

She was going to be a hard sell. The difference was, he knew her secret. He knew that she was a woman of passion. A woman who’d rocked his world three years ago.

So what he had to do here was seduce her. Charm her. Flatter her. Get her into his bed and once he had her there, he’d be in a position to smooth her into his company.

When it was all over, she’d be rich and thanking him.

If there was one thing Jesse King knew, it was women.

“Jesse King’s been with so many women, he can’t tell us apart anymore. The entire female gender is like nothing more than a well-stocked candy store. He likes candy, so he just grazes his way through the aisles.” Bella scowled and tapped her fingernails against one of the glass jewelry cases in Kevin’s shop.

It had been three days since she’d seen Jesse. Three days and he hadn’t made an effort to talk to her. Not a phone call. Not one of his annoying drop-ins at her store. Not even a brief sighting on the street. Not that she had been hoping for any of that, but she couldn’t help feeling frustrated.

He’d seemed…excited to find out that she was the woman he’d been with three years ago on the beach. So much so that he’d been avoiding her ever since. Bella groaned internally. For heaven’s sake, she was angry when he was around and even angrier when he wasn’t. “Clearly, he’s making me insane.”

“Nothing wrong with a little insanity,” Kevin told her.

“Easy enough to say when you’re not the babbling idiot,” Bella muttered and leaned over a glass display case to examine a new pair of earrings Kevin had stocked. “Is this turquoise?”

“God, you’re plebian,” he said with a laugh. “No, my little peasant, that’s lapis lazuli. Antique. That stone—well, not that one in particular—was really popular back in the day with emperors and pharaohs.”

“You know,” Bella told him, tipping her head to one side and smiling up at him, “if I hadn’t met your girlfriend, I’d swear you were gay.”

“Straight men know good jewelry, too. Your surfer guy bought that great emerald piece from me, remember?”

Bella felt a twinge. Who had he bought it for? One of his celebrity dates? She had to be important to him. You didn’t just buy emeralds for a casual fling. Of course, maybe Jesse did.

“Ah, yes, Mr. Thoughtful. Wonder which one of the slavering crowd gets the emeralds,” Bella mused, stopping in front of a display case of sterling silver.

“Honey, you sound like a jealous wife.”

Her head snapped up and she pinned him with a hard look. “I do not.”

Kevin shrugged. “Yeah, you do.”

Oh God, did she really? That was lowering. She wasn’t jealous of Jesse’s women. She was…heck, she didn’t even know what she was anymore. Still…“I’m not jealous. I’m irritated.”

“And hiding it nicely.” Kevin bent over the glass case and looked into her eyes. “So he knows about three years ago.”

“Yes, and had the nerve to tell me I should have told him who I was sooner.”

“What an idiot,” Kevin said chuckling. “Using logic.”

“Oh, that’s very funny,” Bella said. “This has nothing to do with logic, anyway. He was completely insulting.”

“Insulting?” Kevin shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. “Jeez, Bella. Cut the guy a break.”

Bella scowled. “He doesn’t need a break from me. He makes his own breaks.”

“He told you he remembered that night. Remembered you. How is that insulting?” Kevin demanded before adding, “And speak slowly, because I’m working with a Y chromosome here.”

“It’s insulting because he remembered the sex. He didn’t remember me.” Then there was the fact that he hadn’t bothered to even talk to her once since his memory had been jogged. Oh, yes, being “remembered” by Jesse King was so-o-o flattering.

“Sure he did.” Kevin gave a long-suffering sigh. “Women make this so much harder than it has to be. The guy remembered the sex because of you. So therefore he remembered you.”

“Is it a genetic imperative that guys have to stick together?”

“Against women, hell, yes,” Kevin admitted. “I love women, don’t get me wrong, but you guys are enough to make a man old before his time.”

“I don’t know why,” Bella said with a sniff. “We make perfect sense to each other.”

“Exactly.”

“Kevin, could you just be my best friend for a minute and not Jesse’s brother-in-arms? Don’t you get it? I could have been anyone as far as he knew,” Bella argued.

“I am your best friend, and that’s why I’m telling you the truth even though you don’t want to hear it. You weren’t just anyone to him. You’re you. And he remembered. So cut him some slack.”

“I can’t believe you’re still on his side,” Bella said, eyes wide.

“The question is, why are you so against him?” Kevin leaned on the display case and grinned at her. “Seems to me you’re awfully obsessed with Jesse.”

“I’m not obsessed, I’m…focused,” she finished lamely.

“Uh-huh.”

Bella scowled at him. “We used to be together on this. Aren’t you the one who helped me organize the protest march against corporate takeovers in Morgan Beach?”

He grinned. “You’re the only one who’s got a problem with him anymore.”

“Fine. Lone wolf,” she muttered. “That’s me.”

The bell over the door jangled and he gave her a quick grin. “Be back in a sec, Ms. Wolf, I’ve got a customer. Take a look at the new sterling earrings. Mrs. Latimer,” he called out, hustling over to the tall, richly dressed woman entering the shop. “I’ve got some new jade you’re going to love.”

“Things are pretty darn sad when even your best friend isn’t on your side,” Bella muttered, strolling down the length of the counter again. Her gaze flicked past the gemstones, the twisted gold and the heavier sterling silver.

Kevin’s shop sold jewelry made by local artisans. Here you could find everything from exquisite, highpriced jewels to skull rings and pentagrams. Eclectic, she thought. Like the town used to be. She ran her finger over the cool glass. “Jade. Emeralds. Diamonds.”

“Which do you prefer?”

Bella felt her jaw drop. “What are you doing here?”

Jesse grinned at her, and carefully closed her mouth with the tip of one finger under her chin. “Came back to see if Kevin got in the matching earrings to a necklace I picked up here a couple of weeks ago.”

“Ah, yes, the emeralds.” Did she sound wistful? She didn’t want to sound wistful.

“You have something against them?”

“Not a thing,” Bella said, forcing a smile. “I just hope the woman you’re buying them for appreciates the gesture. Hmm,” she added, tipping her head to one side as she looked up at him, “I wonder. Do you remember her name?”

His eyes flashed and a muscle in his jaw ticked, but that was the only sign her barb had hit home.

“I do,” he said. “But now I’m wondering why you care. Jealous?”

“Please.” She glanced across the room at Kevin, who wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to them, focused as he was on his customer. Great. No reprieves headed her way.

She wasn’t jealous. She was pissy. Bella stared up into Jesse’s beautiful eyes and told herself to remember that she was nothing to him. A blurry memory of one night that he hadn’t even been able to recall the morning after.

Okay, that thought helped her weakened knees to strengthen a bit. He was charm personified. He knew just how to break down a woman’s defenses. And Bella, despite knowing all that, was just as susceptible as the next woman. Dammit. But how was she supposed to react when she slept with him and was forgotten and some other nameless woman did the same thing and received emeralds?

“Who you buy jewelry for is none of my business,” she said. “I just hope the poor woman knows what she’s letting herself in for.”

“Oh, I think she knows,” he said, smiling now.

“Amazing to me how many women are sucked into your orbit,” she said.

“As I recall, you liked my orbit just fine.”

She scowled at him. “I thought you said you didn’t recall much at all.”

“Oh, the memories are hazy, but they’re there.” He leaned in toward her and lowered his voice even further until it was no more than a sexy rumble that rolled along her spine. “Lightly tanned skin in the moonlight. The buzz of something electrical when we touched. The sigh of your breath.”

He paused and Bella shivered.

“Care to refresh my memory further?”

Indignation rose up hot and hideous inside her. He was the most appalling male on the face of the planet. Yes, sexy. Yes, gorgeous. But absolutely zero moral center.

“Oh, yeah,” she hissed at him with a fierce shake of her head, “that’s gonna happen. You’re actually standing here, buying emeralds for one conquest, while trying to line up another. I feel so sorry for whoever this woman is, if I knew her name, I’d find her and warn her about you.”

He leaned back against the glass case, looking completely at ease while Bella’s insides were twisting themselves into hard, tight knots.

“Trust me when I say she doesn’t need warning,” Jesse told her.

“Why, I’ll bet she’s sitting at home thinking you’re something special and has zero idea that you’re trying to snuggle up to me and—”

“Snuggle?” he interrupted with a wink. “Nothing wrong with a good snuggle.”

She stopped and gaped at him. “God, you really are a pig, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think pigs snuggle. Of course, to a pig, it might seem like snuggling…”

“You’re making a joke out of this.” Bella cut him off. “And it isn’t funny.”

He sighed. “Come on, Bella. It was a little funny. Now, why don’t you and I go have lunch so we can talk about this?”

“Not a chance,” Bella said, taking a step back just for good measure. Despite the fact that she knew Jesse King was bad news, her body continued to respond to him. And what did that say about her, she wondered. He was the only man who had affected her like this.

“There is absolutely nothing that would convince me to repeat a mistake I’ve spent three years trying to block out of my memory.” All right, a little lie. But she couldn’t very well admit to him what that night had meant to her. Besides, now that she was getting to know him a little better, she was beginning to rethink those blurry memories of pleasure.

His smile slipped a little and a quick flash of irritation sparked in his eyes. “If you’d really been trying to block that night out of your mind, you wouldn’t be so mad right now about me buying jewelry for another woman.”

She hissed in a breath and when she spoke again, her voice was low and sizzled with fury. “Are you serious? Is your ego really that big?”

“Bella, if you’d just shut up for a second…”

“Shut up?” Her eyes went wide and her head jerked back as if he’d slapped her. She shot another quick look at Kevin and his customer as if to reassure herself that they were absorbed in their own discussion. “Shut up? I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

“Bella, if you’ll let me talk,” he said, irritation beginning to color his voice.

“Oh, you’ve said plenty,” she told him, riding the wave of anger that was cresting inside, threatening to choke her. “You’re standing here trying to charm me, all the while you’re buying expensive jewelry for some poor, misguided woman who probably thinks you love her.”

“I do.”

She actually gasped. Stung. Hurt. Furious. Amazing that all those emotions could crowd inside her at once, each clamoring for recognition. Pain jangled through her with sharp, jagged edges and she wondered why. Bella hadn’t thought she’d really cared one way or another about Jesse King, but hearing him admit to her that he loved another woman was just…awful.

She shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t matter. Bella hadn’t seen him in three years. She didn’t want him in her life. But oh God, knowing that it would never happen hit her on a level she hadn’t really expected. And that made her even more furious with him.

“You bastard.”

“Hey,” he said, smiling now, “of course I love her. She’s a great woman. Funny, smart…”

“Mazel tov,” she snapped and tried to walk past him. “Don’t bother sending me an invitation to the wedding.”

“Wedding’s over.”

“What?” That stopped her dead in her tracks. Had she really been fantasizing about a married man all this time? “You’re married?”

Jesse laughed and finally Kevin and his customer turned to look at them curiously. After a moment or two, they went back to business, though Kevin still managed to keep one eye on them while he worked and Bella tried to get herself under control.

This was even worse than she’d thought.

“You’re married?” she repeated it, because she just couldn’t believe this.

“No, I’m not. She is.”

Better? She wondered, or worse? She voted worse. “Well, that makes you a real hero, doesn’t it? Buying jewelry for a married woman.”

“Her husband will understand.”

“Oh, sure he will.”

“You don’t believe me,” he said, smiling, “but my cousin Travis knows that I’m nuts about his wife, Julie.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet he does—” Bella broke off when his words finally registered. All her air left her in a rush as she noticed his wide smile and the pure enjoyment shining in his eyes. Still a little stunned, she whispered, “What?”

He reached out, took her hand in his and moved his thumb over her skin in a caress meant to be soothing, but was instead firing up her nerve endings. Why did it have to be Jesse King who could electrify her entire body with a single touch?

As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, his blue eyes danced with amusement and something more…intimate. “The necklace and earrings are for my cousin Travis’s wife, Julie.”

Bella blinked, shook her head as if she hadn’t heard him correctly and repeated, just for clarification, “Your cousin’s wife?”

“Yep,” Jesse said, one corner of his mouth lifting into a half grin and Bella knew he was enjoying himself. “She just had a baby. Their second. A boy this time. Their little girl, Katie, is almost two and Colin was born a month ago.”

“So you bought her emeralds,” Bella said, feeling the last of her anger fade away to be replaced by a swell of something that felt a lot like tenderness. Which was a far more dangerous emotion to be entertaining about Jesse King.

“I did,” he said. “She has green eyes, and Travis is always buying her emeralds, so when I saw that necklace here, I couldn’t resist.”

He bought an expensive necklace for his cousin’s wife. Why did knowing that make Bella’s heart soften toward him? Because he was close to his family. Clearly appreciated them. And she’d lived most of her life alone, so family was something of an elusive dream for her.

A small curl of envy wound through her for Julie King. Not only did she have a husband who loved her and two children, but she had cousins who cared enough to buy her something special to celebrate the birth of her child.

“So,” he asked quietly, “am I still a pig?”

“Probably,” Bella said on a sigh, “but not about this, obviously.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“No,” Bella admitted, meeting his gaze squarely, “just confused.”

“Well, now,” Jesse said, still giving her that amazing smile of his, “I’ve gotta say, I consider that a step in the right direction.”

“How’s that?”

“Confusion means you’re no longer so sure that I’m the devil incarnate and that means just maybe you’re willing to take a chance.”

Her heartbeat quickened and her stomach did a slow roll and spin. Darn it, her body was working against her. Bella knew, logically, that she should stay very far away from Jesse King. She’d already been burned once, so wouldn’t it be the height of stupidity to stand in line to be burned again?

Yet…he was buying his cousin’s wife emeralds. He was close enough to his family that he not only wanted to do something special for the new mom, but it felt right to him to do it. That said something about him, too, didn’t it?

Life had been a lot easier when she had just hated him.

“What kind of chance?” she finally asked.

That smile of his brightened even further. “How about you give me the opportunity to take you around my offices. Show you I’m not the CEO of the evil empire that you think I am.”

“Why do you care what I think?” she asked, instead of answering his question.

He studied her for a long minute before admitting, “I’m not sure, but I do.”

“That’s honest anyway.”

“I’m just that kind of guy.”

“Hmm. That’s yet to be seen,” Bella said softly, “but I’ll take the tour of King Beach.”

“That’s good enough for now,” he said. “How about in an hour?”

“Fine,” she said, the fight gone out of her as her mind and heart and body all struggled to make sense of this latest insight into Jesse King.

“Okay. See you then.” He walked out of Kevin’s shop without a backward glance, leaving Bella feeling more confused than ever.