The Miami Millionaire

by Dawn Tamayo

  “What are you talking about Andrea? I didn’t sleep with Natasha, I took her home because she was plastered. We both had way too much to drink but she was in no fit state to go home by herself.”

  “Yeah Jake, whatever! I’m your assistant not your mother.”

  “No really!” Jake said thinking he needed to get onto the internet and see what photographs Andrea was talking about, and then he remembered Victoria saying something about photographs telling the truth and how she had got him wrong. Jake sighed as he realised that whatever Victoria had seen, she had assumed exactly what Andrea was thinking too.

  “Then if you really loved Victoria what were you even doing getting drunk with Natasha in the first place?”

  “I hadn’t planned it. I was out with some buddies having a few drinks, a lot happened yesterday and I was annoyed with Victoria. I guess it just got a bit out of hand, but nothing really happened, honest.”

  “Whatever Jake, we can talk about this tomorrow if you want to because I am out at dinner at the moment and people are waiting for me. But in answer to your question, Victoria flew back to London yesterday, she has gone home, and I don’t think she is coming back.”

  Jake put down the phone and opened up his laptop to the latest celebrity gossip pages. He rubbed his forehead as he looked at the photographs of himself with his arms around Natasha, and then the two of them leaving the nightclub together. He read through the text below the photograph and groaned aloud wishing he hadn’t been such an idiot!

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Victoria sat in the chair opposite Ben Churchill’s desk. She pulled her knee length black skirt down a little further as she saw his eyes briefly flicker to her legs and back up to her face again.

  “So after all your kicking and screaming you now want me to move you to a different account?” Ben Churchill said confused, wondering what prompted this unexpected request. Victoria had been back in the London office for just under a week, he had been thoroughly surprised and pleased with the campaigns she put together, and now everything was set to go ahead within the next week.

  “Well I hardly kicked and screamed, but yes I did put my foot down a bit but only so I could show you what I am capable of rather than just be brushed aside for one of the existing Account Managers. You would have done the same in my position.”

  “Probably. But I wouldn’t be throwing away the opportunity to work on one of the largest campaigns going, for whatever reason I don’t know! I wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that.”

  Victoria sat and thought ‘no I don’t suppose you would, I don’t suppose you would be stupid enough to fall in love with your client and then have your heart trampled on and be made and absolute fool of. But hey, it is complicated!” She had no intention of telling her boss it was breaking her heart every day working so close to Jake, dealing with his company and products without actually being able to see him and touch him. She ached for Jake’s touch, to feel his hands on her skin and to hear him whisper in her ear, and then let his tongue leave a red hot burning trail down her neck until he kissed her passionately there. She shook her mind away from that and returned it to Ben Churchill who was sitting opposite her.

  “No Mr Churchill I don’t think I made myself clear. When I said I am resigning, I meant I am resigning from Churchill, Turnbull & French altogether, not just from the CT Holdings’ campaign.”

  “What? Why?” Ben Churchill spluttered, “I never thought I would say this Victoria but you are very good at what you do, and I don’t say that to many people. Why would you want to leave now?”

  Victoria knew it was extreme but it was the only way she was going to get away from the pain and memory of Jake. Every day when she walked into her office building no matter where she tried to hide she would see Jake’s products or hear about his company or his name. For the first few days she tried to ignore it but it was just getting worse and worse, and she couldn’t’ ignore it anymore. It was bad enough that there was a pre-campaign ripple in the media about Jake’s great new products coming over, no one knew exactly what they were yet but there was a rumour that they were connected in some way to his GPS tracking system and people were getting very excited about it. At least at home she could ignore the papers and not look at the internet, but she couldn’t get away from it at work even if she didn’t work on Jake’s campaign, and she needed to get away from Jake to get over him.

  It had all but destroyed Victoria these last few days seeing Jake in the American gossip columns with one woman or another, looking as divinely gorgeous as ever as he dined out one night or enjoyed a few drinks in a club on another. She knew she shouldn’t be looking but she couldn’t help it, and what little part of her heart which hadn’t been broken now crumbled too. Victoria couldn’t take the constant feeling of pain anymore and she needed to get as far away from Jake as possible, and the only way she could do that was to leave her job and start somewhere new.

  “I can’t explain it, but it is for personal reasons. And maybe you are right Mr Churchill, maybe I don’t have what it takes.” She said thinking how quickly and easily Jake had replaced her with more women, and how she hadn’t seen that coming and maybe she should have! She winced at the memory of how Jake told her he loved her and yet that very same night he had slept with another woman! What kind of man did that? And what kind of woman was she not to see through his seductive lies and fall for it?

  Ben Churchill sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his large belly.

  “Oh I see.”

  Victoria hoped he didn’t see and she hoped her cheeks weren’t giving away the feeling of humiliation she felt inside.

  “Mr Churchill, in the last two months I have gone through a lot of personal things and I am afraid it has put me in a position where I cannot continue working in your company.”

  “Okay Victoria if that is what you want. When will you be leaving?”

  “As soon as I have handed over Jake’s, Creative Technology Holdings’ account to Gina. Then I think there will be no reason for me to continue, so I will go then.”

  Ben Churchill nodded his head. It was a shame, he was sure Victoria didn’t know how good she actually was, and now he wished he had given her more of an opportunity a long time ago.

  Victoria stood up and walked out of Ben Churchill’s office. She walked back to her desk and saw an e-mail waiting for her from Andrea - she was flying into London on Sunday to liaise with Victoria on the London launch and campaign. Victoria looked blankly at her computer screen, it was time to start looking for another job!

  Andrea walked into Jake’s office, “Okay everything is ready, I am flying to London on Sunday.”

  “Will that give you enough time, we launch on Wednesday?”

  “That’s plenty of time, I will meet with Victoria on Monday, we will go over any last minute details and then it’s all systems go.”

  Jake nodded and looked back at the screen on his desk.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to go to London yourself?”

  “No, I want you to go.” Jake said without looking away from the screen.

  “But aren’t you going to come over at all, and put that ‘Jake’ appearance in?” Andrea said putting up jazz-hands to emphasise the attention Jake brought to each of his appearances.

  “Nope. You can manage, I know you will.”

  “Yes I know that, but aren’t you at least a bit tempted to go?”

  Jake pushed back in his chair, he knew exactly what Andrea meant, and yes he was tempted beyond belief to go to London just so he could see Victoria again. He really wanted to see Victoria, but he wasn’t going to. Andrea knew most things about Jake after so many years of working as his personal assistant, but this he didn’t want her to know – he didn’t want anyone to know just how much he wanted to see Victoria and hold her in his arms again.

  When Jake realised Victoria was gone and had left without even saying goodbye he thought someone might as well have ripped out his heart and stamped on it. He
had really fallen for Victoria - he loved her like he had never loved anyone else, ever! He didn’t have any false ideas about Victoria returning into Mark’s arms. No, the photographs from the night at the Four Seasons hotel showed how much she detested Mark, let alone love him anymore! But Jake couldn’t believe the way Victoria could so easily and coldly walk away from him - she had made him her ‘rebound-guy’! Jake cringed, he was nobody’s rebound guy to be used, well not unless Jake wanted it that way and they both knew what they were doing. But with Victoria that wasn’t what he wanted at all. Jake wanted to be the love of Victoria’s life, and if he couldn’t be that then he didn’t want to be near her, because he didn’t think he could bear seeing her and not being able to be with her the way he wanted to. And he wanted to be with her, around her, and in her – Jake wanted Victoria so much he ached for her.

  “Don’t push it Andrea.” Jake said whilst giving her a look telling her the conversation was over - he had a lot to think about with the upcoming product launches and keeping Victoria out of his mind was proving hard enough without his assistant planting her firmly back in there.

  Andrea walked out the room thinking Jake was his own worst enemy.

  Jake spent his days working hard, filling the quiet moments with meetings he didn’t really need to attend. Unnecessary meetings were definitely better than time on his hands letting his mind wander to Victoria, wondering what she was doing now. And his evenings were filled with dinners accompanied by pretty women or drinks in the bars with a selection of friends until the early hours of the morning. At the end of the evening Jake returned home alone, declining offers of hours of passionate fun with beautiful women who were more than happy to spend time in bed with him, no strings attached. He knew he could have taken up any of these offers but he didn’t want to. Even though it had been over a week since Jake last felt Victoria’s skin on his and tasted her lips, he could still close his eyes and feel her. He didn’t want anyone else, and as much as he hated to admit it, he just wanted Victoria.

  So many times over the last few days Jake had picked up his phone and gone to dial Victoria’s number only to put it back down again before it had a chance to ring. What good would it do to talk to her, to hear her voice? It would simply make his craving for her worse - hearing her voice and not being able to touch her would be excruciating! On Sunday when Andrea left for London he had tried to pretend he didn’t wish it was him flying across the Atlantic. It could have been him if he wanted to, but he didn’t want the inevitable pain that would bring. He sighed as he put his phone down one more time but jumped as it rang as soon as it touched his desk. Jake saw Andrea’s number and answered it.

  “Hi Andrea, how is everything going?”

  “Really well, you are going to love it. Everything is set for the day after tomorrow, when you release the press statements at lunchtime we will be releasing the ones over here just before business opens. Then we have a whole programme of promotions going on from there. So all is good here.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Jake there is something I want to tell you.”

  “Yes, go ahead.” He heard the wariness in Andrea’s voice and sat upright waiting to hear.

  “It’s about Victoria….”

  Jake interrupted Andrea before she could go any further, “No Andrea, I told you before you went to London, I don’t want to hear anything about Victoria.”

  “Not even if it is connected with your campaign?”

  “No. You are there and you can deal with anything. I don’t want to hear Victoria’s name mentioned again. Is that clear?”

  “Perfectly.” She was far from pleased, there was something Jake needed to know but if he was going to be pig-headed about it then he could just wait and find out himself, because he surely would.

  Wednesday morning came around far too quickly for Victoria. She met with Andrea on Monday and left Churchill, Turnbull & French that very same afternoon - she had everything in place waiting, and Gina was already to take over - it had only been a matter of Gina waiting to be introduced to Andrea when she arrived which had prevented Victoria from leaving before then. As soon as Victoria left Churchill, Turnbull & French she went back to the little apartment in Putney which she had rented upon returning from Miami and packed a bag. She didn’t feel like being around to watch the media frenzy which would ensue over the next few days and weeks. Victoria decided now was as good a time as any for a short break. If things had been different with Mark then she would have been looking forward to a honeymoon soon, but since that was not the case and hopefully she would be starting a new job, as soon as she found one, then she was definitely entitled to a few days away in the beautiful English countryside. It may not have been the beautiful Miami beach, but England in autumn was incredibly beautiful and Victoria decided that a few days at Alice’s house in the countryside surrounded by the rusty coloured leaves changing colour and the green hillsides was just what she needed right now. So she put her bag in the back of her car and set off to Gloucestershire.

  “Hey Vicky I am off to work now. Will you be okay?” Alice called as she wrapped her warm scarf around her neck and picked up her bag from the front door.

  “Yes I will be fine.” Victoria said as she stood at the bottom of the stairs dressed in a pair of warm pyjamas with a cup of steaming hot chocolate in her hands.

  Alice looked at Victoria one more time before she left, she knew her friend was putting on a brave face - she saw the look on Victoria’s face when she flipped through the internet and saw photographs of Jake with one woman or another. Alice told her not to torture herself by looking at the photographs, but Victoria insisted she was just keeping up to date on Creative Technology Holdings’ news. Alice knew better and she wished she could help Victoria, but not even a best friend could heal a broken heart.

  “Besides I am calling the head-hunter back later this morning, he said he had a few possible job options for me so it is not all doom and gloom.” Victoria said waving her friend goodbye and walking back into the living room.

  Victoria sat down on the soft sofa and switched on the television. As much as she knew she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help turning the channel to the morning news and sat listening to the news reader telling everyone about the fantastic new innovative products based on GPS tracking which Creative Technology Holdings had just released in the UK. Victoria wasn’t surprised, not by a word of it, she had been expecting to hear about Jake’s amazing new products, especially since she had written the press release incorporated into the morning news feature. She smiled despite her heavy heart, she was proud of what she had created – it was going to be a fantastic campaign, even if she wasn’t there to actually see it through herself.

  Jake sat back on his oversized sofa and put his feet up on the coffee table. His face ached from all the photographs he’d had taken throughout the day but he didn’t care - everything had gone exactly according to plan, and the number of pre-orders were already through the roof, ready and waiting for when his products went on sale next week. And just as importantly the share price for Creative Technology Holdings had shot way up. Everything was good. Well almost! Jake looked at his watch, it was the middle of the night in London and a feeling of loneliness engulfed him. He reached across to the drawer in the coffee table and took out the photographs of Victoria at the Four Seasons Hotel, and then flicked through the photographs he had of Victoria on his telephone from various promotional events. He zoomed in on Victoria thinking how different she looked in his photographs to the ones taken of her at the Four Seasons hotel. Then Jake stopped flipping through his phone and looked at the photograph of Victoria he had taken as she lay in his bed, bare naked beneath his sheets with ruffled hair and flushed cheeks, laughing at him and trying to grab his phone to stop him from taking a photograph of her. His heart thumped in his chest, what was he doing? Jake put his phone in his pocket and stood up, he needed to get down to the gym and work out the feelings running through his body right now. A massive g
ym workout and a good night’s sleep were what Jake wanted, then tomorrow was another day, and if he had his way it would be a whole new beginning too!

  Jake picked up the phone, he knew he should have done this a long time ago but as much as he didn’t want to admit it, even to himself, he had been scared. Scared of getting hurt because he had never loved anyone the way he loved Victoria. With Victoria it was more than skin deep. Yes he thought she was the sexiest woman he had ever met, but it was more than that. Jake loved Victoria’s sense of humour, her voice, her sweet nature and her mind. He loved absolutely everything about Victoria.

  As Jake swilled the ice cubes around in the glass of his freshly squeezed orange juice his thumb pushed the button to phone Churchill, Turnbull & French Media Solutions, and he tried to steady his thumping heart as he waited for Victoria to answer her direct phone line.

  “Good afternoon, Gina Anderson speaking.”

  Jake paused for a moment surprised, he had expected Victoria to answer. “Sorry, I seem to have the wrong phone number, I wanted Victoria Pembrose.”

  “I am sorry but Victoria is no longer with us. Can I help you?” The woman said politely.

  Jake sat and thought for a moment, then he remembered meeting a woman called Gina in his initial meeting with Churchill, Turnbull & French Media Solutions, she had been part of their pitching team.

  “Sorry did you say Victoria is no longer working there? If that is the case then exactly who is working on my campaign? This is Jake Cumberland.”

  “Oh good afternoon Mr Cumberland. I am sorry but I thought you knew Victoria had left us. Andrea has been dealing with me and I am now the team leader, but of course Mr Churchill is heavily involved on your campaigns.”