Californian Kings: Conquering King's Heart

“Is everything a joke to you?” she asked, staring up at him.

“Who said I was joking?” Jesse teased. “Getting you to admit that I have a point about anything is well worth celebrating.”

She rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched and Jesse felt as if he’d scored another victory.

“Now,” he said, taking her hand in his, “how about finishing the tour?”

Her hand lay limply in his for a brief moment, then her fingers curled around his and this time, he kept his smile to himself. She walked beside him, spoke to a few of the people answering phones and Jesse watched as she charmed everyone. Apparently, his mystery woman had plenty of personality—she just wasn’t using it on him.

Clearly, she didn’t trust herself to relax around him. But that was fine with him. He didn’t want her relaxed—he wanted her hot and bothered and poised on the edge of sexual heat. Then he wanted to take her over that edge.

Oh, yeah, he thought. He was going to have Bella again. He was going to wine her, dine her and seduce her until she begged him to take over her business and make her a millionaire. And once the business end of things was taken care of, he told himself, they’d go from there. Once she was a part of King Beach, it would be better for her. Better for him. Better for everyone.

He stood to one side as Bella chatted with a couple of the secretaries. They were both talking about her swimwear and how they wished they could find good suits like that everywhere. Say, for example, at King Beach. Jesse frowned a little to hear even his own employees saying that his company wasn’t meeting the demands of all the consumers. But that only helped to convince him that the decision to absorb Bella’s company into his own was the right one.

As if he’d heard Jesse’s thoughts, Dave Michaels walked up, a stack of folders caught under one arm and an eager expression of welcome on his face. “Bella,” he said, giving Jesse a nod of greeting, “we’re delighted to have you here. Jesse told me he was going to give you a tour. Hope you don’t mind if I call you Bella.”

“Not at all,” she said, stepping away from the two women she’d been talking to as they went back to work. “This is all very…impressive.”

She said impressive, but Jesse told himself she didn’t sound impressed. She sounded just a little bit disgusted.

“Well, we’re big and we’re growing,” Dave said, glee lacing his voice. “Which is just one of the reasons I’m glad you’re here. As you know, King Beach doesn’t really cater to women—”

Jesse’s ears perked up and he shook his head wildly from behind Bella, hoping to head the man off. It wasn’t time yet to hit her with the information that they were interested in buying out Bella’s Beachwear. And when it was the right moment, Jesse intended to be the one to do the telling. Bella was a special case. She wasn’t some ordinary CEO of a big company who would welcome a takeover if the money were right. He had to approach her cautiously or the whole thing would blow up in his face.

Dave caught the frantic motion and stopped himself midsentence. “But I have to tell you,” he said, changing the subject smoothly, “my wife bought a bathing suit from you that she can’t stop raving about.”

“Isn’t that nice?” Bella beamed at him as if the man had just presented her with a bouquet of roses. “I hope she comes back.”

“Oh, she will. She’s bringing her sisters to your shop next week,” Dave assured her. “Connie’s been bragging about your store so much, all three of them have insisted on visiting Bella’s.”

“Thank you, I’m always glad to hear about a satisfied customer.”

“Yes, aren’t we all,” Jesse muttered, and jerked his head, silently telling Dave to take a hike.

Dave got the message. “Right. Well, I’ve got a few calls to make, so I’d better let you get on with your tour. Nice to see you here, Bella. Hope we see you again soon.”

Bella watched him go, then turned to look at Jesse. “I like your friend.”

“But not me,” he added for her.

“Does it matter?” she asked and her voice was almost lost in the bustle of the office.

Yeah, it mattered. He wasn’t sure why and he didn’t like acknowledging the fact, even to himself. So he for damn sure wasn’t going to let her know how he felt. That woman had enough power over him already.

“Let me show you my office,” he said instead.

“Oh, Mr. King,” a woman called out as she hurried up to meet them. “We’ve just heard back on the surfing exhibition plans. The city’s approved everything and your guests have all agreed to take part.”

“Good news, Sue,” Jesse said, catching the gleam of curiosity in Bella’s eyes. “Put a call in to Wiki, will you? Tell him I’ll be getting in touch with him by tomorrow.”

“Will do.” The woman hurried off, the tap of her heels swallowed by the bustling noise of the busy office.

“Wiki?” Bella asked as Jesse took her arm and steered her toward his office at the back of the long, wide room.

“Danny Wikiloa,” he said, opening the door for her. Once inside, he closed the door before adding, “He’s a professional surfer. We competed against each other for years. He’s coming into town in two weeks for the exhibition. Doing it as a favor to me, actually, since he’s retired, too.”

“The exhibition,” she murmured. “Everyone in town has been talking about it for days.”

He stuffed both hands into his jeans pockets as he watched her wander the perimeter of his office. She noticed everything, pausing to look at the framed photos of different beaches. She hardly glanced at his surfing trophies, which stung a bit, but she seemed fascinated by the one wall where photos of his family were hanging.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said, walking over to join her. “Ten of the world’s best surfers giving a one-day exhibition.”

“You miss it, don’t you? The competition, I mean.”

He hadn’t really admitted it to anyone else, but, “Yeah, I do. I like winning.”

She nodded. “Not surprising. The whole King family is like that, aren’t they?”

“Pretty much,” he said and turned his back on the family photos so he could look instead at Bella. “We enjoy competing and we don’t lose gracefully.”

She tipped her head to one side, looked at him and said, “You can’t always win.”

“Don’t see why not.”

“You really don’t, do you?”

“Nope,” he told her and took the single step separating them. Standing alongside her, he looked up at the family photos and waved one hand at them. “Not a single one of those people is the type to settle for second place.”

“Sometimes you don’t have a choice,” Bella said softly.

“There’s always a choice, Bella.” Jesse glanced at one familiar face and then another as he said, “The King family decided a long time ago that the only people who lose are the ones who expect to. We expect to win, so we do.”

“Easy as that?”

He looked down at her and found her staring up at him. Those chocolate-brown eyes of hers looked deep and dark and filled with secrets. Secrets he wanted to know. To share. Lifting one hand, he cupped her cheek and said, “I never said it was easy. But winning shouldn’t be. Takes all the fun out of it if everyone could do it.”

“And fun’s important to you, too,” she said, stepping back, away from his touch, away from him.

“Should be important to everyone,” he said, his palm still tingling from the touch of her skin against his. “What’s life if you don’t enjoy it? Hell, why do anything if you don’t enjoy it?”

“And you enjoy what you do now?”

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t think I would, you know. Never planned to be the suit-wearing guy, Mr. Businessman. But I’m good at it.”

She looked toward the closed office door and the busy office beyond. “Yes, I guess you are.”

“See, I’m enjoying this. We’re agreeing on things.”