Body Heat

by Mia Ford

  “I don’t ever want to see him again,” she said, in a whimpering whisper.

  “You don’t have to,” he replied and gently stroked her forehead, pushing her curls away from her face.

  “I’m just glad you decided to stay,” he added and she couldn’t help but smile.

  “I wouldn’t leave for anything. This is where I want to be,” Veronica admitted and Frank leaned in to kiss her. The kiss was soft and gentle, while they continued to sway in each other’s arms. Veronica felt like she could have stayed there forever, just rocking in his arms like that.

  “And he took your ring away too!” he said abruptly and she looked up at him and rolled her eyes. The last thing she cared about was Calvin’s ring.

  “But it’s a good thing that I have something to replace it with,” he said and gently pushed her away.

  Veronica’s brows crossed in confusion as she watched Frank take out a red velvet box from the pocket of his pants. Unlike Calvin, he didn’t drop to his knee but remained standing over her, looking down at her with a warm smile spreading on his face.

  Veronica felt like her breath was caught in her throat. She hadn’t expected him to propose. She hadn’t even expected him to formally commit. She was just happy knowing that she could be near him for a while.

  “I’ve been carrying this around in my pocket for a few days, before you went for your date with him. After that I just wanted to give you a chance to decide for yourself, before putting you in the spot like this,” Frank said and Veronica couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

  “That is the most romantic proposal I’ve ever heard,” she said sarcastically and Frank smiled.

  “What I really want to say is, that ever since I met you I knew that you were a woman who I respected and someone I could trust. The fact that I find you irresistible and I want to make love to you all the time, is just an additional bonus. I want my daughters to grow up around a woman like you, I can see the positive influence that you’ve had in their lives and in mine. My days are just nicer with you around. So, will you be my wife?” Frank ended this by popping open the box and presenting the ring to her. It was a pink diamond, cut out in the shape of a heart, studded with small rubies around it.

  Veronica could do all she could to keep her gasp from being too loud. She stared at the sparkling ring in front of her and then back up at Frank’s face.

  “There is nothing more that I want to do, Frank,” she said and before he had a chance to slip the ring on to her finger, Veronica had flung her arms around his neck and was kissing him.

  When they parted they were both laughing. Frank finally slipped the ring on and she held her hand out to admire it.

  “It’s gorgeous Frank. I can’t believe this. It’s all happening so fast,” she said, through her laughter. She still couldn’t stop giggling. Frank was smiling too and he reached for her hand and squeezed it.

  “I’ve always believed in love at first sight. When I know, I just know. And with you I knew from the moment you walked into my office. And kissing you, making love to you only strengthened that belief,” he said and leaned forward to knock their foreheads together.

  Veronica bit down on her lip as she looked at the man who was going to be her husband. She couldn’t help but blush, giggle and remind herself that this was all actually happening. She was going to be with Frank forever. Her deepest wishes were coming true. No matter what the world or her parents had to say about it.

  “I love you, Frank,” she said to him, for the first time aloud.

  “I love you, Veronica. I always will,” he said and pressed his hand on the back of her neck to draw her in closer.

  “Now, let’s go tell the girls!” Frank said and Veronica was laughing again. She was going to have that happy family after all.

  Short Romance Collection

  SECOND CHANCE

  Blurb

  Beverley Wade has always been a nerd. In college, she had eyes only for her books and the campus heartthrob, Grant Jennings. Grant was not only a fantasy for her but was way out of her league and also was her biggest competitor. By the time college was over, Beverley was relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with her conflicting emotions for Grant any longer.

  But when her start-up tech company in Silicon Valley faces financial disaster, the highly successful Grant Jennings swoops in to buy her off. Not only is Beverley furious that her old rival wants to buy her company, but it seems like suddenly he can’t keep his hands off her either.

  Can Beverly trust Grant? Or, will Grant’s chiseled body and dreamy eyes be too hard for Beverly to resist?

  Chapter 1

  Beverley

  I looked on either side before crossing the road, safety first! Even though my mind was whirling with thoughts and I couldn’t concentrate on a single thing, I could still walk to my office blindfolded. I knew these streets like the back of my hand. I couldn’t fathom what it would feel like, to not go to that office any more. I’d dedicated the past four years of my life to it. Building up the company from scratch, working weekends to ensure that we might be able to finally break even. I had poured my blood and sweat and soul into it, and just when I thought that I just might be able to make it…my accountant told me that the company was going under, that I wouldn’t be able to pay my employees and the only way out would be to sell the company while I still could.

  This was an absolute nightmare. I was walking to the office, but I might as well have been a ghost, because I wasn’t thinking any more. What was I supposed to do now? Get a job? I’d been self-employed since college.

  From the moment I graduated, I made plans of starting my own company. The tech industry was reaching its peaks and I had an idea for a mobile game. I moved to Silicon Valley, rented a small apartment and converted it into an office. I wrote the code for the app myself and within the first three months, it had reached a thousand downloads on various app stores. I hired employees, I set up a separate office space and we worked tirelessly to ensure its success.

  And now it wasn’t the way I expected. I would have to sell the game to a bigger corporation just to stay out of bankruptcy and be able to pay my employees. I was ashamed and angry and feeling completely lost.

  I took the stairs up to my office, and pushed open the wooden door that led me to the small reception area. My office had three rooms. A reception area for Susan, the receptionist, a room for the other two programmers and one for myself where I sat behind a desk facing three connected computer screens.

  Susan looked up at me with a nervous expression on her face when I walked in.

  “Morning, Bev,” she said and I forced a smile on my face. There was no reason for me to smile any more.

  “Morning, Susan. I’ll be in my office if there are any calls for me,” I said, still in a daze. But, Susan stood up all of a sudden and startled me.

  “Bev, there has been an offer” she said, and I looked at her still a little confused with my brows crossed.

  “An offer for what?” I asked her and Susan looked like she was struggling to get the words out.

  “For the company, you know?” she said and my heart sank. This was getting more real by the minute.

  “Someone made an offer to buy my company?” I asked her in a raised voice. Sasha, one of the programmers, stuck his head out from his room and looked at us. Susan sat back down and nodded her head, like she was ashamed of herself. They all knew exactly how badly I was taking this.

  “Who is it?” I asked Susan, who also doubled up as my assistant and secretary. She looked at her papers, and shuffled through her notes.

  “I got a call from them only half an hour ago. From the offices of Lonex Apps?” Susan said and looked up at me. Now, she was beginning to look like she was worried for me.

  “Lonex Apps?” I said, in a much shriller voice. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  “That’s what the man said on the phone,” Susan replied and I fisted the palms of my hands and tried to control my rage. />
  “You mean, Grant Jennings’ company?” I asked and Susan shrugged her shoulders.

  I was asking the wrong person, Susan wasn’t up to date with the inner workings of Silicon Valley. But, I had no one else to take my temper out on, and I had a lot of temper inside me at that moment. I couldn’t believe that Grant Jennings’ company wanted to make an offer.

  “What does this mean?” Sasha’s voice interrupted my thoughts and I whipped around to face him with narrowed eyes.

  “I don’t know what this means. I don’t even know what they want,” I growled at him.

  “Lonex is huge, they are becoming even bigger by the day. I’m sure if they want to buy us out, they’ll have a big sum to offer…don’t you think?” Sasha continued, unaware of the bubbling feelings of rage that were erupting in me.

  I tried to control them, I barely could. Sasha’s words were slowly sinking into my brain and driving me nuts. Just when I thought that my day couldn’t get any worse, it had.

  “I mean, Grant Jennings…that dude really knows what he’s doing. I bet he has big plans for the app. This could actually be great, Bev,” Sasha said and I shook my head silently. I didn’t want to hear his name, I didn’t want to think about what Grant Jennings wanted to do with my company. I wouldn’t sell to him even if I had to go bankrupt.

  “Hey, didn’t you go to college with him or something?” Sasha said and I glared at him, before turning on my heels and walking straight into my office. I banged the door shut behind me and leaned against it, just to catch my breath.

  This was the worst possible way that Grant Jennings could make a re-entrance into my life. I thought I never had to think about him again. That my feelings for him in college were over and I could finally move on with my life. But here he was again, turning my world upside down…but this time I was resolved not to let him.

  Chapter 2

  Grant

  The meeting was set up for the next afternoon. Our secretaries had spoken to each other, so I hadn’t actually heard Beverley’s voice, but I got the feeling that she wasn’t pleased. In fact, I had expected her to turn down even before meeting up with me. But, I had a look at the company’s financials, I was aware of their state of affairs. That would have made her desperate to meet with me.

  I was sitting behind my desk in my swanky new office, and a smile erupted on my face when I thought about her. Beverley Wade…my biggest competition in college. We had four classes together, and in each one of them she always made a point to try and prove herself to our teachers and to me. She had underestimated me in the beginning. I was captain of the basketball team, I dated cheerleaders…she had probably assumed that I was just a jock. That I was also an ace student and that I’d turn out to be her biggest competitor in class; was not something she anticipated.

  Beverley was something of a nerd in college, the exact opposite of me. That is what the rest of the world thought, including her. With black rimmed circular glasses, her dirty blonde hair tied in a ponytail at the back of her head; she was always in oversized t-shirts and plain shirts and ill-fitting jeans. She took pride in her scores, not in her looks. She had a fiery temper and always took the high moral road.

  Beverley sat at the front of the class and always had her hand up when questions were asked. While I sat at the back, and if I happened to give the right answers; she never failed to whip around and shoot me a look. But, surprise was always mixed with her rage. She was always shocked that I had the answers and then that shock immediately turned to anger that I had managed to trump her.

  My friends thought she was a geek. Everyone thought Beverley was a geek. A fairly attractive geek but a geek nevertheless!

  To me, Beverley was delicious. Her anger and competition with me, made me secretly smile and fantasize about taming her. What would Beverley taste of? What would it feel like to pin her down in my bed? Sometimes, when I slept with another new cheerleader, or a sorority girl…I imagined Beverley’s face and I could never control myself after that. She was like a forbidden fruit. I knew I could never have her. She detested me, but it was exciting just imagining it. Undoing that ponytail, taking off her glasses, overpowering her and making her orgasm. That would teach her.

  It wasn’t just sexual though, she challenged me. I found it refreshing to go to class and try to beat her to it, but she never seemed to be having fun. It was always a competition to her, while to me it was just a friendly game. And now we had found ourselves in this position. We had both started tech companies to build apps and games, and we had big ideas for it. We had both moved to Silicon Valley with this idea and very little money in our pockets, and she maintained her distance from me. But in the past four years that we had been here, I had not once bumped into her. It had to be a carefully constructed scenario, I could sense that she had been avoiding me like the plague. Probably because of my company’s success.

  I had the backing of wealthy investors within six months of starting Lonex, while I heard that Beverley was still trying to perfect her app. I paid attention to the business side, passing over programing reigns and responsibility to a dedicated team of experts. I focused on expanding my company, while Beverley still wrote her own code, worked with only two programmers and hadn’t found any investors yet.

  I wished I could reach out to her and give her some advice, but there was no way that she would have accepted it. In her eyes, I was still the womanizing basketball heartthrob who sweet talked his way into getting better grades. She thought I was an airhead, while she was the genius. And probably I didn’t deserve any of the success I had gathered.

  Now here we were. She was on the brink of bankruptcy and I was a billionaire. I didn’t have to talk to her to know that she was not a fan of this situation. But there was no way that I was simply going to sit back and allow Beverley’s company and hard work disintegrate into nothing. Whether we were friends or not, I still believed that she was the smartest person I’d ever met. Buying out her company was a no-brainer. Even if she didn’t look at it as a rescue, that was the only way I knew how to keep her afloat.

  It had been close to five years since I last saw her, we were both in our late twenties by now, on two different ends of the spectrum; but I hadn’t stopped thinking about her. I knew nothing about her personal life, I practically knew nothing else other than that her company was sinking; but just the prospect of seeing her again excited me.

  Our lives had changed drastically now, and she probably hated me more but I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if we could work together. If we could finally put our differences aside and work as a team. It would require a lot of effort, because Beverley was a tough cookie, but it would ultimately be beneficial to my company as well as to me.

  Now, all I had to do was make sure that our meeting the next day went according to plan.

  Chapter 3

  Beverley

  I was nervous the whole way to the Lonex office building. I’d brought Sasha with me for moral support, even though I was the sole proprietor of the company. He was more than happy to tag along; starry-eyed and fresh faced about entering the hallowed halls of the Lenox brand. I could tell that he looked up to Grant. Grant Jennings was his hero, as he was to several others in Silicon Valley. A self-made, good looking guy only in his late twenties who was the poster child of tech start-ups. Every guy wanted to be like him and every girl wanted to sleep with him. I’d read the articles, I kept track of him even though I carefully avoided him.

  We walked into the lobby of the building, which looked more like a hotel lobby than an office. People were lounging on purple couches and at the back there was a table tennis area. Beyond the glass walls at the back, I could see a swimming pool and some people eating ice cream. This was definitely a dream job for a lot of people, and I could sense that Sasha was getting excited.

  I walked towards the reception area, with Sasha trailing behind and the woman behind the desk looked up at me with a friendly smile.

  “We’re here to see M
r. Jennings,” I said abruptly, without any formal greetings.

  “Good afternoon, you must be Ms. Wade,” the woman said, the wide smile was still on her face.

  I could see everyone around here just looked exceedingly happy and carefree. When did they even work?

  “Yes, I am. Is he expecting us?” I said, and the sour look on my face didn’t seem to dissuade her.

  “He is, indeed,” she said and I caught her looking past me, her cheeks were turning to a bright red. I could sense him behind me, and then I heard his voice.

  “Beverley, how are you?” his voice was deep and it scorched my skin the moment I heard it. His voice had always thrown me off, and even after five years I didn’t seem to have recovered from that effect. I whipped around to find him standing in front of me, with his hands thrust into the pockets of his jeans.

  I had seen photographs of Grant online and in newspapers, shaking hands with business partners and investors, giving speeches and holding meetings. He was always dressed in sharp suits and yet today, he looked quite different. Very much like I remembered him from college. It was like he hadn’t aged a single day.

  The only difference was that he had grown a beard. A neat dark beard that was perfectly trimmed and shaped. His eyes were a painfully bright blue and his features were sharp and chiseled. He hadn’t lost his athletic body, and he towered over me with his wide shoulders and broad chest. Even through the gray t-shirt and jeans combo he had on, I could tell he was hiding bulging muscles and washboard abs. His hair was dark, like his beard and slightly shaggy. Not exactly the look of a ruthless billionaire.

  “Hello, Grant,” I found myself saying blankly, while he smiled at me. He had a knowing brilliance in his eyes, like he was somehow glad to see me. And why wouldn’t he be? He was about to buy my company, or at least make me an offer. It was his biggest victory against me to date. I could feel my knees buckling, and I tried to keep my back straight and my chin jut out.