“Bella, I know you think I want to change what you do, but you couldn’t be more wrong.” He threw both hands up, then let them fall to his thighs. “I’ve been resisting selling women’s stuff for years because how the hell do I know what women want to wear? Everything I stock I personally believe in. That’s the reason I want you to be a part of King Beach. Because you believe in your stuff the way I believe in mine.”
“It’s not ‘stuff.’”
He laughed and Bella simmered.
“I get it, I get it. Your line is not interchangeable with department store swimsuits.”
“I’m not looking to be bought out or rolled over or absorbed by King Beach. You can’t buy me up like you did this city, Jesse. I won’t let you ruin the thing I love just for the sake of business.”
“So you have something against becoming a millionaire?” he countered. “Because I promise you, join me and that’s what you’ll be.”
For just one, brief, electrifying moment, she actually considered his offer and thought about what it would mean to her to be financially independent. She could buy her little house from Kevin. She could donate all the money she wanted to the different charities that had always tugged at her heart. She could…Bella stopped, gasped and accused, “You’re the devil.”
He grinned. “Good. That means you’re thinking about it.”
“I did, for about thirty seconds.”
“That’s a start.”
“No,” Bella insisted. “It’s not. I’m not set up for large-scale production. I’m a cottage industry and I like it that way. I know my weavers, my seamstresses. I personally choose fabrics, design styles. The women who work for me care as much about the product as I do. We’re making a statement.”
“Yes, but do you have to make it poor?” He grinned and said, “Think about this. You align with King Beach and you’ll be creating more jobs. Better money for your weavers and seamstresses. We’ll be able to use them, I know. Hell, they can probably teach the pros a thing or two.”
“They are pros,” she told him.
“I’m sure. But on a much smaller scale,” he said. “Don’t you see, Bella? Signing with me will get you and your company even more.”
“I know you want my shop, but I’m not turning my business over to you.”
“I don’t just want your business, Bella,” he said. “I want you.”
Oh God. A quick blast of something hot, delicious and practically mind-numbing shot through her. He wanted her. Jesse King wanted Bella Cruz. Did he mean that? And what exactly did he mean? Want? Want how? For how long? In what way? Oh God. Her stomach was a mess and in a split second, her mind took off on dozens of wild, crazy tangents that splintered again and again, teasing her with possibilities. Until he spoke again and shattered them all.
“I want you to run the business for us. You’ll still be designing, you’ll still have the final say in everything related to Bella’s Beachwear—”
Just like that, the heat she’d been feeling drained away to be replaced by a chill snaking along her spine. Okay, fine. He didn’t want her. He wanted her to work with him. For him. So much for dazzling daydreams, born to die within a few seconds of birth.
She had to stop setting herself up for disappointment. Jesse wasn’t even on the same wavelength, and wishing it were different wasn’t going to change a thing.
“This was your plan from the beginning, wasn’t it?” she asked, and hoped she didn’t sound as depressed as she felt at the moment. “All of your teasing and flirting was designed to get me off guard.”
“That depends. Are you?”
She ignored that little quip. “All your talk about how King Beach doesn’t cater to women was just that. Talk. You’ve been planning on trying to take me over from the very start.”
“Considered it, yes. The day of the photo shoot opened my eyes. But you’ve only got yourself to blame for that,” he added, standing up straight and looking at her through eyes as blue as the sea. “You’re the one who showed me what a difference your swimwear could make on a woman’s body. You’re the one who laid it all out for me. Is it my fault you started me thinking?”
She never should have done it, she thought now. Never should have put on one of her own suits. Never should have risen to his challenge just because she’d wanted to prove him wrong. She’d wanted to show off. And all that maneuver had done was dig her a deeper hole.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, shaking her head as she watched him. “Nothing’s changed. I haven’t changed. I’m still not interested. Do you think you’re the first company to try to buy me out? You’re not. And you probably won’t be the last. But I’m not selling, Jesse. This time, you lose.”
“God, you’re stubborn.”
“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” she countered and let the simmering fury inside bubble and boil. He was standing there smiling. As if he could change her opinion if he just smiled long enough. Did that technique work with most women? Of course it did. He probably never heard the word no.
Had to be a King thing.
“It’s in your blood, isn’t it?” she asked, voicing her thoughts. “You and every other member of the King family. You’ve always gotten what you wanted, so you expect nothing less. You’ve lived a charmed life,” she told him. “Not many people do.”
Instantly, he shifted position a bit, obviously uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation. “Okay, I grant you that. But if you think the King cousins were raised to be lazy or indulged or pampered, you’ve got us all wrong.”
“Really.” She glanced at the wall of family photos again and said, “None of these people look like they’ve had a rough life.”
Jesse looked up, and pointed at one of them. “That’s my brother, Justice.”
Bella studied the photo. A gorgeous man with light brown hair, blue eyes narrowed, squinting at the sun. Justice King stood in an open field, arms folded across his chest, cowboy hat pulled low over his forehead. “Interesting name.”
“My dad had just won a huge lawsuit the day he was born. Somehow he convinced mom that Justice was a perfectly reasonable name.”
“Winning again.”
“That’s right,” he said, smiling. “But let me tell you about Justice and the life of the pampered rich.” Jesse eased down to sit on the arm of a brown leather chair. Looking up at her, he said, “Justice has a ranch about an hour from here. He’s up at dawn every morning, checking his herds and his fences and the weather report. I swear he lives by the Weather Channel. As if the weather changes that much in southern California.” Shaking his head, he laughed ruefully. “Our cousin Adam has a ranch too, farther north. He raises horses. Justice raises organically fed beef cattle. And grows acres of hay. He works twice as hard as any of his cowboys and wouldn’t know how to be pampered if somebody paid him to try.”
Bella frowned thoughtfully. “And that one?”
Jesse looked. “Ah, cousin Travis. He with the beautiful wife who loves emeralds.” He pointed to a few other framed photos. “Those are his brothers, Jackson and Adam, with their wives, Casey and Gina. They’ve got kids, too. Two girls each. And I hear Gina’s pregnant again.” Getting into it now, he touched another photo of two smiling men. “This one is cousin Rico and his brother Nick at Rico’s hotel in Mexico. For some reason their other brothers weren’t around on that trip. And that’s Nathan and Garret at some aunt’s wedding. Their brothers Chance and Nash and Kieran are the three in that picture and—”
“How many of you are there?” she asked, amazement coloring her tone.
“Dozens and dozens. And probably more out there we haven’t met!” Jesse laughed, obviously enjoying himself. “You can’t kick a rock in California without turning up a King.”
“It’s…”
“Too much?” he offered, still smiling. “Way too many Kings running around?”
“It’s wonderful,” she finally said, and her voice was a little poignant. A minute or so ago, she’d been f
urious with him, trying to steamroll her into giving up the most important thing in the world to her, her business.
Now that anger was pretty much gone, swamped by a tide of envy so thick she could barely breathe. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have so much family. As a kid, she’d hungered for parents. Or for a single brother or sister. Someone to whom she was linked. Jesse really was rich and she wondered if he even realized that the King family’s real wealth wasn’t in banks, but in each other.
Jesse’s smile faded. “Are you okay?”
She nodded and pointed to another photo. She didn’t want to talk about herself. “Who’s that?”
“My eldest brother, Jefferson. He runs the King Studios. Makes movies and runs himself ragged because he doesn’t trust anyone but himself to handle the details.”
Jefferson King’s photo made him look like a dangerous man. He was wearing a white shirt, black slacks and giving the camera a hard glare, as if he resented being captured on film.
“How many brothers do you have?” Her voice was a whisper now and even she heard the yearning in it.
Softly now, he answered, “Three.”
“Three brothers. And so many cousins…who is he?” she asked. “The marine?”
Jesse grinned even more broadly. “My brother Jericho. Now there’s a pampered, lazy rich guy. A gunnery sergeant. Didn’t want to be an officer. Said he’d rather serve with real marines. He’s done two tours overseas,” Jesse said and frowned when he added, “and he’s about to be shipped out again.”
Bella sighed, folded her arms beneath her breasts and looked at the man who still filled far too much of her thoughts. He wasn’t what she’d expected. His whole family wasn’t what she’d expected. Hardworking ranchers. Marines. And apparently they were all so close that it felt natural for Jesse to hang family photos in his office.
She envied him that connection. That solid base with so much family. Lives intertwined, bonds strengthened by years of love. What must it be like, she wondered, to have so much? To know that it was simply there whenever you needed it?
“Bella? You okay?”
“Yes,” she said and looked at him. His blue eyes were narrowed on her and he was watching her as a soldier might keep a wary eye on a live grenade. “You just…surprised me, that’s all.”
“Why? Because I have a family?”
“No, because you love them so much.”
“It surprises you to know that I love my family?” His features were as taut as his voice.
“You just never seemed…” She broke off, shook her head and said, “Never mind. It was nothing.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, moving in closer to her. “Well, if these pictures impressed you, you should know I have more.”
She laughed shortly. “More?”
“Lots more pictures of everyone at home,” he said, smiling again. “I ran out of wall space in here.”
“This isn’t fair,” she said, looking from him to all the photos.
“What?”
“I thought I had you pegged,” she admitted. “A modern-day robber baron stomping his way through life, taking what he wanted and making no apologies.”
“You weren’t completely wrong,” he said, “I do go after what I want and I don’t let anybody stop me.” He moved in even closer until all that separated them was an inch or two of space and Bella’s own firm resolve.
Which was weakening, darn it.
She felt the heat of him sliding off his body, reaching for her, and it was so tempting to stand her ground, let him close that last inch or two of space so she could feel his tall, lean body pressed against her. Her memories of their one night together were still so vivid, it was all she could do to keep from flinging herself at him. But if she did that, then she’d be lost and she knew it. So she did the only thing she could. She stepped back—mentally and physically.
He sighed. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, Bella.”
“I’m not. Afraid I mean. Just…cautious.”
“Cautious is okay,” he allowed, giving her a small, wicked smile. “It just means that you take your time. But once you’re sure of your footing, you’ll move ahead.”
She knew what he was talking about. There wasn’t much subtext there. He wanted her. And oh God, she wanted him, too. But she’d wanted him three years ago, too. And what had that gotten her? One night of glory and three years of misery. Was she really ready to set herself up for that kind of pain again?
Jesse King wasn’t the “forever” kind of guy. Bella wasn’t the “temporary” kind of girl. So never the twain should meet.
“Why don’t you go to dinner with me?”
“What?” Okay, that offer had come out of nowhere.
“Dinner,” he repeated. “Usually considered the last meal of the day?”
His smile really was a weapon all its own. At least, for her, it was. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“It’s a great idea,” he said, and closed the distance separating them again. “Look, you’ve been on a tour of the business. You’ve seen for yourself that the place isn’t a sweatshop. Happy, well-paid employees, I must be a halfway decent boss, yes?”
“Yes…”
“And I’m not that hard to spend time with, am I?”
“No…”
“So we have a meal. We talk. We…”
“Jesse, I’m still not going to sell my business to you.”
He cut her off, laid both hands on her shoulders and she felt the heat of his skin seeping through the fabric of her shirt and down, deep into her bones.
“I’m not talking about the business right now. I want you, Bella. I’ve wanted you for three years.” His gaze moved over her like a warm caress. “Hell, I’ve dreamed of you for three years. You want me, too. I can feel it every time we’re together.”
“I don’t always do what I want,” she told him, and kept thinking, Strong, Bella. Be tough. Be strong. Don’t give in. Unfortunately, her body wasn’t listening.
“You should,” he said with a quick grin. “But that’s a talk for another time. Right now, I’ve got a deal for you.”
Uh-oh. Making deals with a man who refused to lose could never be considered a good idea. Warily, she asked, “What kind of deal?”
“A simple one. Perfect for both of us.” He stroked his palms up and down her arms and the friction he caused was enough to kindle a sort of sweeping wildfire that began licking at her insides. “You think you know me, right?”
“All too well,” she said.
He nodded. “Well, I think you’re wrong and I’m willing to bet on it. If I manage to show you something about me that truly shocks you, we have sex. Again.”
That one, three-letter word—sex—conjured up so many different emotions and needs, she could hardly draw a breath for the strangling effect on her lungs. “Now just a minute—”
“Come on, Bella. You’ve said yourself that you know exactly what kind of guy I am.”
“Yes, but—” She waved a hand at the wall of family photos. “You’ve already surprised me there.”
“Because I love my family,” he said, as if he still couldn’t believe that. “But I’m not talking about a surprise. I’m talking about shock. If I can really shock you, you have sex with me. Again.”
“Stop saying again.”
He grinned. “No reason to pretend you’re insulted or anything,” he pointed out a second later. “We’ve already had each other once. I’m just saying, it’d be nice to have each other again.”
“You’re doing that on purpose. Reminding me.”
“Damn straight. Is it working?”
Yes, she almost shrieked. She was so out of her element here, Bella thought. Jesse King was a Major League Flirter. He could play this game in his sleep—probably did—where Bella was just lost. She didn’t do the flirting thing. She was much more the honesty-is-the-best-policy type. Which probably explained the dearth of dates in her life.
Taking
a deep breath, she met his gaze squarely, determined not to let him see just how rattled she actually was. But he’d know how crazy he was making her if she were too afraid to accept his deal, wouldn’t he? She gave an inward sigh. “This deal. I know what happens if I lose. What do I get if I win?”
One eyebrow lifted and his mouth curved into a smile. “If I fail to shock you completely—and you’ve got to be honest—then I’ll quit bugging you about buying your business.”
Well. She hadn’t expected that. This was too easy, Bella thought, watching him as he stood there staring at her with a smug smirk on his face. Clearly, he believed he would win this bet easily. But then, that was a part of who he was, wasn’t it?
Hadn’t he just told her that Kings never expect to lose?
And how satisfying would it be for her to knock him off his feet, so to speak? To beat him at the very deal he’d proposed? Oh, that would be sweet. The chance at doing just that was too tantalizing to turn down. Besides, he couldn’t possibly shock her.
She knew exactly who Jesse King was.
“Okay,” she said suddenly, before she could change her mind, or listen to the outraged, rational screams rattling through her brain. “You’re on. It’s a deal.”
“Friday night. Dinner and the bet.”
She nodded. “Friday.” Then she lifted her chin, held out her hand and waited.
“You want me to shake your hand?” he asked, glancing down briefly at her outstretched palm.
“Well, yes.”
“Well,” he countered, “no.”
Then he caught her hand in his, pulled her in close and wrapped his arms around her. She was pressed so tightly to him, she felt every lean, muscular contour of his body—not to mention one specific part that left her no doubt as to just how he was feeling about her at the moment.
Bella looked up, met his gaze and held her breath as he lowered his head. The moment his lips met hers, everything stopped. Time screeched to a halt. The world probably stopped spinning on its axis. She knew for sure that she’d stopped breathing.
Conquering King's Heart Page 7
