Lost In Paradise: A Billionaire Romance

by Erika Rose

  “Mia shrugged, “I’ve lived in beautiful houses the past six years, and I guess I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.”

  “How did you end up becoming a caretaker?”

  “When I was eighteen, I needed to move out of the system, I didn’t have anywhere to go or any money, and when I saw the ad for a care taker I thought that was a temporary answer.”

  “Temporary?”

  “Well at first I just wanted a place to stay but the longer I took care of houses, the more I liked it. I have most of my time free. I only work really long hours when the owners are in town, and I get to write with my free time.”

  “Write?”

  “Whoa,” Mia held her hand up, “When did this become sixty questions? I thought we were discussing your house.”

  Jason held up both his hands in retreat, “Sorry you’re just ….” His voice trailed off as their gazes met, “different than anyone I’ve met before.” Jason didn’t know how else to put it and it wasn’t wrong. His feelings and reactions when it came to her were different than with any woman he had ever met before.

  Mia could feel the air grow heavy with desire between them. Jason looked at her with the same hunger he did that night in the kitchen. She knew it would be a good idea to excuse her at this moment, but with those ice blue eyes on her she could feel her whole body sizzle. Her nerve endings were already paying attention to what might lead to a touch. For the first time in years, she wanted man to touch her intimately. Her gaze travelled down to his hands, they were medium-sized, clean and his nails were cut short, not bitten. As her eyes travelled over his waist to his other hand, she noticed the slight bulge against his zipper. Her inner goddess did a happy dance. He felt it too.

  “About the house?” Jason asked clearing his throat.

  “Oh right, the house,” Mia could feel herself blush seven shades of red, he doubtlessly saw exactly where her eyes were focused. She looked down at the papers before her. “You have one of two choices: refinish the stove and the other appliances so they’ll look new again, and keep the oak cupboards. If you want to change the layout and design of the kitchen to flow better with the living area and may even open a window / counter up onto the patio, you’ll have to gut it. I’ll share my ideas for the kitchen with you on one condition?”

  Jason thought about her idea about the counter / window that opened up onto the patio was good. “Let’s hear it?”

  “No cheap wood, if you redo the kitchen it’s got to be oak again, it goes with the rest of the house. You can always bring white in along with it to lighten it up and modernize it. But no white kitchen for this house.”

  Jason thought of his plans, with an all-white-and-chrome kitchen, he could see where she was coming from. It would look great in the kitchen, but if he kept the hard wood floors and the vintage flair of the place, the kitchen would seem out of place. “Done.”

  “That’s it, no quibbling, and no arguing? You’re just going to take my word for it?”

  “It’s a good idea, Mia, there’s no need for me to argue.” His voice was soft, his eyes intent. “I take it you saved your free change for the fireplaces?” His upper lip lifted in one corner, the start of one of his dynamite grins.

  Mia just nodded, she took a sip of wine trying to diffuse the moment, but the cool wine slipping down her throat only made her more aware of how hot she felt. She could feel her heartbeat pulsing between her thighs, a rhythmic beat in anticipation of release. Why did he have to be engaged, she pleaded to the heavens. She hadn’t had this much fun with a guy in years, and he actually seemed like a humble and kind person, not just another trust fund yuppie.

  Jason’s throat had become dry from watching Mia; it felt like neither of them had said a word in ages, although a whole conversation was happening with their eyes locked on each other. I’m engaged. I wish you weren’t. I want you. I want you too. This is a bad idea. A horrible one doesn’t stop me from wanting you. Stop looking at me like that; it makes me want you more. Back at you babe.

  They both tried to ignore the sparks sizzling in the air that had nothing to do with the steaks. It took Jason a full five minutes of thinking about tax laws before his erection had calmed enough for him to walk. He stood up and broke eye contact with Mia for the first time since they last spoke, “Dinner is ready.”

  Mia nodded relieved and disappointed at the same time, “Great.” She was curious about Jason but guilt kept niggling in the back of her mind about Angelique.

  Mia walked into the kitchen and took one of the plates he had set on the counter; she had just placed a serving spoon in the salad when she could sense Jason standing behind her. She could feel his warm breath on her shoulder; she could feel him move slightly closer. Her whole body wanted to melt to give herself over to him and the sensations she caused. Instead she turned slowly around, their faces mere inches apart.

  Jason only wanted to retrieve a plate, instead he found him absorbing the scent of honeysuckle that drifted from Mia. Unable to move, not wanting to move away, he found himself leaning closer, breathing her in. It must be her shampoo, he thought as he moved his face closer to her hair. Definitely shampoo. His hands were itching at his sides, wanting to pull her against him, slide up her waist and cup her breasts over the thin material. He’d kiss her neck until she was all but trembling, then he would slide a hand down, under her dress and found her moist and ready. He was midway through his fantasy, when Mia turned around and looked at him with soft, innocent brown eyes. Their eyes met, desire and hunger laced the air between them. She opened her mouth as if to catch her breath, and Jason couldn’t help himself. Before he had thought it through he felt his lips resting against hers. It was soft, barely a touch, and yet he found it more erotic than most open mouthed kisses he had experienced in his life. He found himself needing to hold on, without thinking he grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him and slid his tongue into her mouth.

  Bad idea, Mia thought when Jason’s lips settled against her, that was also her last coherent thought. She could feel his shaven cheek moving against hers as he angled his head to deepen the kiss. Her breasts became heavy with want, her core swollen and wet. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, Jason dragged her against him. His erection pressing against her belly, a thrill ran down from her belly into her groin knowing that his arousal was for her. Her breasts were pressed firmly against his hard abdomen; somehow the touch alone caused her nipples to pucker. He swept into her mouth with slow languid strokes, acquainting himself with the taste and texture. She twirled her tongue and slowly ran it along his lips; no dessert had ever tasted sweeter. She felt his hands lower to her behind, squeezing softly her pressed her even closer to his erection, feeling wanton and bold Mia reached for his behind. She found it hard and muscled and wanted to feel if the skin would be soft to touch.

  Jason knew he was in trouble, if he was so excited from a single kiss this girl would destroy him when it came to sex. In the recesses of his mind, he thought he heard a cell phone ring, but pushed the thought aside. He was kissing his girl, nothing else in the world was more important than that. He slowly slid his hands up her sides and brushed the side of her breasts with his thumbs. His lips trailed lower and he nibbled her collarbone when Mia pulled away, her eyes heavy with want. “Your phone?”

  He pushed her against the counter, his erection digging into her belly as he reached over for the phone, thinking he’d like to make love to her right here on the counter. As he picked up his phone, it was as if he had just participated in the ice bucket challenge without knowing. Angelique. His real girl.

  He stepped away from Mia, clearing his throat, “I’m sorry. It’s Angelique.”

  Mia looked at Jason confused; she glanced at the phone and back at Jason, “Right, your fiancée.” Knowing the tears burning behind her eyes were going to fall any moment, she slipped by him and ran to the cottage.

  Chapter 6

  “Yes, reschedule all appointments for the next three weeks,” Jas
on said to his personal assistant as he watched Mia walking on the beach in the distance. He heard his assistant still muttering on the other line, “Sorry I missed that, I think we broke up. Must be a bad line.”

  “Jason you have two meetings with the managing director of the publishing company you want to buy, I can’t just reschedule those.”

  “Fine, explain to them I’m out of town on business and schedule a conferencing call, just let me know ahead of time so I can make sure the work crew isn’t around.”

  She blabbered on about how irresponsible it was of him to stay away for so long, and how business was going to fall behind, but all that Jason thought was that he’d been away for more than two weeks and business was doing fine. He had always believed in taking care of his employees and in return he had a loyal, competent staff that just contacted him for final approvals and updates. If he wanted, he realized, he could actually run his whole empire from the study in North Shore. He smiled at the thought and knew Angelique would never move to North Shore permanently. “Yes, yes that’s fine as well.” He said as his assistant asked him about taking a long leave when he got back to make up for all the extra work.

  “Jason, you do know the wedding is in less than three months?” The voice on the other side was cautious, knowing Jason didn’t like it when she interfered with his personal life.

  “I’m well aware of that, thank you, however I can’t bring my wife to a house that’s falling apart. I need to fix this before the wedding.” He didn’t know if he meant the house or the situation with Mia. When he finally rang off he rolled over to the window in his large office chair and watched Mia. She was walking away from the house, bending every now and then to pick up a pebble and lance it onto the water. It wasn’t yet noon and the work crew was busy in the kitchen and in the living room. He had thought it best to hide out in his study. Not that he was getting any work done. It had been more than a week ago that he had kissed Mia, and that kiss still haunted him. He couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if his phone didn’t ring. Ever since then there had been a strained atmosphere between them. He knew from experience it was sexual tension building and sometime it was going to explode, sweeping them along in a tide of passion. He knew however that was the last thing he needed and yet the thing he wanted most. Mia had all but avoided him on a daily basis. She set out his meals while he was working or out of the house and organized all her chores from her phone in the cottage. No more friendly chats while she was cooking or interfering with the work crew. Any other home owner / employer would be happy for the change, although for Jason the house felt empty. It was like Mia had brought the kitchen to life, and made him look forward to talking to her every day. He knew he wasn’t in a position to pursue or seduce her, but what he found strange, was that he missed Mia more hiding out in the cottage than he did Angelique thousands of miles across the oceans. The guilt had been eating at him; every glance at Mia, every memory of that night had slowly been burning a hole of guilt inside him that burned brighter every time he spoke to Angelique. And yet every conversation he had with his fiancée was; can we buy this for the house, can we go there for holiday? There were no honest conversations, arguments or even discussing what was going on in the world. How had he never noticed how materialistic she was? He thought about her refusing to meet his parents, and had a feeling if he had asked Mia she would’ve jumped at the opportunity. He ran his hand through his hair as he watched Mia turn back and start walking towards him again. Stop comparing Mia and Angelique, he reprimanded himself. He had to find a way to diffuse the tension before it exploded into something out of his control, leaving him with a mess and a list of regrets. Yet he already regretted not having met Mia first. He watched Mia close the distance between her and the house and let his mind wander on how he was going to make an impossible situation manageable.

  Mia kicked the sand, stalling her return to the house. Ever step she took closer to Jason Pike she felt another weight being added to her shoulders. She had worked for men that had all but begged her to sleep with them, men that had completely ignored her and treated her like the help and yet working for Jason Pike was the hardest job she had ever had to do. Watching him swim every morning, seeing the defined muscles on his body, his ice blue eyes watching her left her exhausted every night. She never knew fighting attraction could be harder work than physical labor. She had avoided him all week and yet in the quiet hours just before sunrise she awoke and couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened. Most mornings she woke before dawn because her dreams were haunted with a tall man with ice blue eyes. Although she had one dream that had left her in a cold sweat with need thrumming between her legs, the other nights her dreams were more realistic. Eating dinner with Jason, going to a movie with him, hiking through the forest and similar outings on which they would have fun and tease each other while flirting. The last dream she had she dreamt about being Mrs. Pike and their beautiful little baby. Needless to say she hasn’t been to the main house yet. She thought a long walk on the beach would clear her mind of the ridiculous dream, but all the walk on the beach had done was wishing Jason was with her. She had spent the past week feeling like a scale balancing emotions heavy on both sides. One the one side there was desire, lust, friendship and attraction and on the other side shame, guilt and remorse. The scale see-sawed in a different direction about twenty times a day. She had spoken to Alana again who told her to throw guilt out the window as she wasn’t engaged to anyone, and yet Mia struggled with the thought. At the end of the day she had made out with a man about to marry another woman. From the short time she knew Jason she could tell he wasn’t the cheating type that used every opportunity that came his way. In other words the attraction must be special for him as well? Why else would he put his engagement on the line? She slowly crossed onto the grass toward the cottage hoping she wouldn’t bump into Jason. As she opened the door of her cottage she sensed him, she turned towards the small sofa in the corner and found his ice blue eyes watching her. For a moment she didn’t move, she allowed herself to absorb the citrus aftershave that was flooding her senses, knowing she had missed it all week.

  “I thought it was time we had a chat.” Jason said as he sat up, placing his elbows on his knees.

  Mia didn’t move. She stayed exactly where she was, fearing the worst, “What about Mr. Pike?”

  She had a feeling he was going to fire her for his own sanity, maybe hers as well.

  “Mia, I had my tongue down your throat. Please, call me Jason, if only to make this less awkward than it already is.” He cocked his brows waiting for an answer.

  “Fine, Jason. What do we need to talk about? Because I’m not talking about that night.”

  “Great, then we can put it behind us and pretend it never happened.” Jason sounded frivolous. His ice blue eyes searched hers for an emotion or a reaction, anything to tell him it had meant something to her. She watched him cautiously, afraid to give anything away. She’d heard the term ‘poker face’ a few times in her life, and hoped she was pulling it off. After a while, she nodded, hoping he would get the message and break the silence which was slowly building with something close in relation to desperation.

  “Your ideas for the house were great, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the work crew is now working towards your ideas, not mine?”

  Mia felt her heart skip a beat, he actually changed his renovation plans, “That’s good. For the house I mean.”

  “Yes it is. However, I have small problem.”

  “Which is?”

  “You see, I had this excellent designer pitch all these ideas to me, but I haven’t had any further help. So at the risk of screwing the whole thing up by choosing the wrong tiling, or the wrong counters for the kitchen, I need to find out if she’d be willing to accompany me and pick them out for me?”

  Mia narrowed her eyes, not knowing if this was an elaborate hoax or a desperate attempt to maintain the peace, “You want me to choose the tiling and counters fo
r your house?”

  “Amongst other things.”

  “What other things?”

  “A few faucets, that antique mirror you mentioned….” Jason’s voice trailed off. It didn’t look like his plan was working. He thought if he could get Mia to go house shopping with him, it would be the safest way for them to spend time together to diffuse the situation, and seeing as they would be public the whole time, nothing could happen.

  “I’ll be ready in ten minutes.” Mia said, walking towards the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

  Jason was still wondering which day would suit him best, when he realized she had just agreed to go with him, now.

  “I don’t know Mia, they all look like shower heads to me, you pick one.” Jason said, defeated. They had made great progress. Mia knew exactly what she wanted for his house. The tiling and counters were picked out within twenty minutes of arriving at the home depot store. They had already bought the antique mirror and medicine cabinet at a second shop on their way to town and now it was down to faucets and appliances which had kept them at it for most of the afternoon.

  “Jason, you’re going to live there. You need to decide which shower head suits you best.”

  “They all spout water? Correct?” He cocked a brow her.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then they all work for me.”

  Mia laughed, she had never gone shopping for tiles, cabinets or counters before, but it was actually quite fun. Seeing all the different options and what would work best with house. It had turned out to be a great adventure for her. She tended to look at the more affordable options and every time Jason had told her, money is not a problem to choose what works best. Luckily she had managed to get the counter tops at a special rate. The faucets on the other hand were turning out to be a nightmare. Jason was indecisive and started to sound like a two year old that needed his nap. “You’re tired?”

  “No I’m not tired?”