Californian Kings

“Sure he did.” Kevin gave a long-suffering sigh. “Women make this so much harder than it has to be. The guy remembered the sex because of you. So therefore he remembered you.”

“Is it a genetic imperative that guys have to stick together?”

“Against women, hell, yes,” Kevin admitted. “I love women, don’t get me wrong, but you guys are enough to make a man old before his time.”

“I don’t know why,” Bella said with a sniff. “We make perfect sense to each other.”

“Exactly.”

“Kevin, could you just be my best friend for a minute and not Jesse’s brother-in-arms? Don’t you get it? I could have been anyone as far as he knew,” Bella argued.

“I am your best friend, and that’s why I’m telling you the truth even though you don’t want to hear it. You weren’t just anyone to him. You’re you. And he remembered. So cut him some slack.”

“I can’t believe you’re still on his side,” Bella said, eyes wide.

“The question is, why are you so against him?” Kevin leaned on the display case and grinned at her. “Seems to me you’re awfully obsessed with Jesse.”

“I’m not obsessed, I’m…focused,” she finished lamely.

“Uh-huh.”

Bella scowled at him. “We used to be together on this. Aren’t you the one who helped me organize the protest march against corporate takeovers in Morgan Beach?”

He grinned. “You’re the only one who’s got a problem with him anymore.”

“Fine. Lone wolf,” she muttered. “That’s me.”

The bell over the door jangled and he gave her a quick grin. “Be back in a sec, Ms. Wolf, I’ve got a customer. Take a look at the new sterling earrings. Mrs. Latimer,” he called out, hustling over to the tall, richly dressed woman entering the shop. “I’ve got some new jade you’re going to love.”

“Things are pretty darn sad when even your best friend isn’t on your side,” Bella muttered, strolling down the length of the counter again. Her gaze flicked past the gemstones, the twisted gold and the heavier sterling silver.

Kevin’s shop sold jewelry made by local artisans. Here you could find everything from exquisite, highpriced jewels to skull rings and pentagrams. Eclectic, she thought. Like the town used to be. She ran her finger over the cool glass. “Jade. Emeralds. Diamonds.”

“Which do you prefer?”

Bella felt her jaw drop. “What are you doing here?”

Jesse grinned at her, and carefully closed her mouth with the tip of one finger under her chin. “Came back to see if Kevin got in the matching earrings to a necklace I picked up here a couple of weeks ago.”

“Ah, yes, the emeralds.” Did she sound wistful? She didn’t want to sound wistful.

“You have something against them?”

“Not a thing,” Bella said, forcing a smile. “I just hope the woman you’re buying them for appreciates the gesture. Hmm,” she added, tipping her head to one side as she looked up at him, “I wonder. Do you remember her name?”

His eyes flashed and a muscle in his jaw ticked, but that was the only sign her barb had hit home.

“I do,” he said. “But now I’m wondering why you care. Jealous?”

“Please.” She glanced across the room at Kevin, who wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to them, focused as he was on his customer. Great. No reprieves headed her way.

She wasn’t jealous. She was pissy. Bella stared up into Jesse’s beautiful eyes and told herself to remember that she was nothing to him. A blurry memory of one night that he hadn’t even been able to recall the morning after.

Okay, that thought helped her weakened knees to strengthen a bit. He was charm personified. He knew just how to break down a woman’s defenses. And Bella, despite knowing all that, was just as susceptible as the next woman. Dammit. But how was she supposed to react when she slept with him and was forgotten and some other nameless woman did the same thing and received emeralds?

“Who you buy jewelry for is none of my business,” she said. “I just hope the poor woman knows what she’s letting herself in for.”

“Oh, I think she knows,” he said, smiling now.

“Amazing to me how many women are sucked into your orbit,” she said.

“As I recall, you liked my orbit just fine.”

She scowled at him. “I thought you said you didn’t recall much at all.”

“Oh, the memories are hazy, but they’re there.” He leaned in toward her and lowered his voice even further until it was no more than a sexy rumble that rolled along her spine. “Lightly tanned skin in the moonlight. The buzz of something electrical when we touched. The sigh of your breath.”

He paused and Bella shivered.

“Care to refresh my memory further?”

Indignation rose up hot and hideous inside her. He was the most appalling male on the face of the planet. Yes, sexy. Yes, gorgeous. But absolutely zero moral center.

“Oh, yeah,” she hissed at him with a fierce shake of her head, “that’s gonna happen. You’re actually standing here, buying emeralds for one conquest, while trying to line up another. I feel so sorry for whoever this woman is, if I knew her name, I’d find her and warn her about you.”

He leaned back against the glass case, looking completely at ease while Bella’s insides were twisting themselves into hard, tight knots.

“Trust me when I say she doesn’t need warning,” Jesse told her.

“Why, I’ll bet she’s sitting at home thinking you’re something special and has zero idea that you’re trying to snuggle up to me and—”

“Snuggle?” he interrupted with a wink. “Nothing wrong with a good snuggle.”

She stopped and gaped at him. “God, you really are a pig, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think pigs snuggle. Of course, to a pig, it might seem like snuggling…”

“You’re making a joke out of this.” Bella cut him off. “And it isn’t funny.”

He sighed. “Come on, Bella. It was a little funny. Now, why don’t you and I go have lunch so we can talk about this?”

“Not a chance,” Bella said, taking a step back just for good measure. Despite the fact that she knew Jesse King was bad news, her body continued to respond to him. And what did that say about her, she wondered. He was the only man who had affected her like this.

“There is absolutely nothing that would convince me to repeat a mistake I’ve spent three years trying to block out of my memory.” All right, a little lie. But she couldn’t very well admit to him what that night had meant to her. Besides, now that she was getting to know him a little better, she was beginning to rethink those blurry memories of pleasure.

His smile slipped a little and a quick flash of irritation sparked in his eyes. “If you’d really been trying to block that night out of your mind, you wouldn’t be so mad right now about me buying jewelry for another woman.”

She hissed in a breath and when she spoke again, her voice was low and sizzled with fury. “Are you serious? Is your ego really that big?”

“Bella, if you’d just shut up for a second…”

“Shut up?” Her eyes went wide and her head jerked back as if he’d slapped her. She shot another quick look at Kevin and his customer as if to reassure herself that they were absorbed in their own discussion. “Shut up? I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

“Bella, if you’ll let me talk,” he said, irritation beginning to color his voice.

“Oh, you’ve said plenty,” she told him, riding the wave of anger that was cresting inside, threatening to choke her. “You’re standing here trying to charm me, all the while you’re buying expensive jewelry for some poor, misguided woman who probably thinks you love her.”

“I do.”

She actually gasped. Stung. Hurt. Furious. Amazing that all those emotions could crowd inside her at once, each clamoring for recognition. Pain jangled through her with sharp, jagged edges and she wondered why. Bella hadn’t thought she’d really cared one way or another about Jesse King, but hearing him admit to her that he loved another woman was just…awful.

She shouldn’t care. It shouldn’t matter. Bella hadn’t seen him in three years. She didn’t want him in her life. But oh God, knowing that it would never happen hit her on a level she hadn’t really expected. And that made her even more furious with him.

“You bastard.”

“Hey,” he said, smiling now, “of course I love her. She’s a great woman. Funny, smart…”

“Mazel tov,” she snapped and tried to walk past him. “Don’t bother sending me an invitation to the wedding.”

“Wedding’s over.”

“What?” That stopped her dead in her tracks. Had she really been fantasizing about a married man all this time? “You’re married?”

Jesse laughed and finally Kevin and his customer turned to look at them curiously. After a moment or two, they went back to business, though Kevin still managed to keep one eye on them while he worked and Bella tried to get herself under control.

This was even worse than she’d thought.

“You’re married?” she repeated it, because she just couldn’t believe this.

“No, I’m not. She is.”

Better? She wondered, or worse? She voted worse. “Well, that makes you a real hero, doesn’t it? Buying jewelry for a married woman.”

“Her husband will understand.”

“Oh, sure he will.”

“You don’t believe me,” he said, smiling, “but my cousin Travis knows that I’m nuts about his wife, Julie.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet he does—” Bella broke off when his words finally registered. All her air left her in a rush as she noticed his wide smile and the pure enjoyment shining in his eyes. Still a little stunned, she whispered, “What?”

He reached out, took her hand in his and moved his thumb over her skin in a caress meant to be soothing, but was instead firing up her nerve endings. Why did it have to be Jesse King who could electrify her entire body with a single touch?

As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, his blue eyes danced with amusement and something more…intimate. “The necklace and earrings are for my cousin Travis’s wife, Julie.”

Bella blinked, shook her head as if she hadn’t heard him correctly and repeated, just for clarification, “Your cousin’s wife?”

“Yep,” Jesse said, one corner of his mouth lifting into a half grin and Bella knew he was enjoying himself. “She just had a baby. Their second. A boy this time. Their little girl, Katie, is almost two and Colin was born a month ago.”

“So you bought her emeralds,” Bella said, feeling the last of her anger fade away to be replaced by a swell of something that felt a lot like tenderness. Which was a far more dangerous emotion to be entertaining about Jesse King.

“I did,” he said. “She has green eyes, and Travis is always buying her emeralds, so when I saw that necklace here, I couldn’t resist.”

He bought an expensive necklace for his cousin’s wife. Why did knowing that make Bella’s heart soften toward him? Because he was close to his family. Clearly appreciated them. And she’d lived most of her life alone, so family was something of an elusive dream for her.

A small curl of envy wound through her for Julie King. Not only did she have a husband who loved her and two children, but she had cousins who cared enough to buy her something special to celebrate the birth of her child.

“So,” he asked quietly, “am I still a pig?”

“Probably,” Bella said on a sigh, “but not about this, obviously.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“No,” Bella admitted, meeting his gaze squarely, “just confused.”

“Well, now,” Jesse said, still giving her that amazing smile of his, “I’ve gotta say, I consider that a step in the right direction.”

“How’s that?”

“Confusion means you’re no longer so sure that I’m the devil incarnate and that means just maybe you’re willing to take a chance.”

Her heartbeat quickened and her stomach did a slow roll and spin. Darn it, her body was working against her. Bella knew, logically, that she should stay very far away from Jesse King. She’d already been burned once, so wouldn’t it be the height of stupidity to stand in line to be burned again?

Yet…he was buying his cousin’s wife emeralds. He was close enough to his family that he not only wanted to do something special for the new mom, but it felt right to him to do it. That said something about him, too, didn’t it?

Life had been a lot easier when she had just hated him.

“What kind of chance?” she finally asked.

That smile of his brightened even further. “How about you give me the opportunity to take you around my offices. Show you I’m not the CEO of the evil empire that you think I am.”

“Why do you care what I think?” she asked, instead of answering his question.

He studied her for a long minute before admitting, “I’m not sure, but I do.”

“That’s honest anyway.”

“I’m just that kind of guy.”

“Hmm. That’s yet to be seen,” Bella said softly, “but I’ll take the tour of King Beach.”

“That’s good enough for now,” he said. “How about in an hour?”

“Fine,” she said, the fight gone out of her as her mind and heart and body all struggled to make sense of this latest insight into Jesse King.

“Okay. See you then.” He walked out of Kevin’s shop without a backward glance, leaving Bella feeling more confused than ever.

Chapter Five

Jesse waited for Bella on the sidewalk outside King Beach. For some weird reason, he felt almost like a teenager on a first date. Which was beyond stupid. Since not only wasn’t this a date, but he’d already slept with Bella. So it wasn’t as if this was the first time he would ever be alone with her.

Late-afternoon sunlight poured down on him from a brilliant blue sky. Traffic down Main Street was light, but the sidewalks were filled with people strolling in and out of the shops in the newly rehabbed business district. Everyone in Morgan Beach was happy with what he’d done there. Everyone but the one woman he was interested in.

Were the fates finally getting back at him? His entire life, women had come easily to him. Now, there was Bella. A woman whose memory had haunted him for three years and now that he’d found her again she wanted nothing to do with him. Even worse, she had something going on with that Kevin guy. But what? he wondered. Was she in love with the other man?

Scowling at the thought, Jesse told himself it didn’t matter. Whatever she felt for someone else could be dealt with. He wanted Bella and Jesse King didn’t lose. Ever.

“Well, you look fierce.”

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked down into chocolate-brown eyes. She’d slipped up on him unnoticed and he couldn’t figure out how. Her scent alone should have alerted him. It was a blend of flowers and spice that somehow reminded him of summer nights. Well, one summer night in particular.

“Sorry,” he said, smiling at her. “Just thinking.”

“Couldn’t have been happy thoughts.”

“You might be surprised,” he said and took her arm, turning her toward the front door of King Beach headquarters. When he took a step forward though, she didn’t move. Turning to look down at her again, he asked, “What’s the problem?”

She frowned, chewed at her bottom lip and finally admitted, “I feel as if I’m walking into enemy territory.”

“Expecting an ambush?”

She whipped her long, thick, brown hair out of her way and stared up at him. “Honestly, I don’t know what to expect.”

“Well, then,” Jesse said, enjoying her nervousness a bit, “let’s get started and satisfy your curiosity.”

He led her through the door and paused just inside the threshold. A receptionist’s desk sat just opposite the door and the woman seated there was busily answering a phone that rang incessantly. Smiling at the woman, Jesse walked past her to the elevator bank, pushed the button and waited, still holding on to Bella as if he were worried that she’d bolt.

But she didn’t. She stood there with an expression that made him think of martyrs about to be burned at the stake. He wished she would smile. Amazing how this one badly dressed woman could get to him so easily.

Over the last few days though, his mind had been filling in some blanks. Now that he knew who his mystery woman was, his memory of that night three years ago was becoming clearer. He could see her face now, as she’d looked in the moonlight. He could hear her voice, sighing. And he damn well remembered that she hadn’t dressed like a Hungarian peasant back in the day. So he couldn’t help wondering why she was dressing that way now.

Only one way to find out. “So, want to tell me why you wear those shapeless clothes?”

“Excuse me?” She turned her face up to his.

He waved one hand to encompass her loose, pale green shirt and flowing, floor-length yellow skirt. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything. After all, he was trying to charm and seduce her, not piss her off further. But dammit, he’d seen the body she had hidden underneath all that fabric and he couldn’t understand why she was so determined to disguise it. Especially, he thought, since she hadn’t before. He distinctly remembered her wearing faded jeans and a low-necked, body-hugging T-shirt.

She flushed and Jesse was charmed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a woman blush. But her one moment of embarrassment was gone an instant later. Her dark eyes flashed as she said, “Not that it’s any of your business, but I like wearing natural fabrics.”

He should have backed off, but couldn’t help himself. “Natural, sure. But why…” He shook his head, clearly baffled.

The elevator chimed, the doors hissed open and Bella stepped inside. Turning around sharply, she lifted her chin, glared at him and said, “I stopped wearing formfitting clothes three years ago when I discovered it attracted men who were interested in only one thing.”

In the harsh, overhead glare of the fluorescent lights, she looked ferocious and proud. Like a female Viking. And Jesse felt a shot of admiration rip through him, along with a quick flash of shame. Because of him, she was dressing like a refugee from a rag factory? She was hiding that glorious body because he’d slept with her and disappeared from her life?

Vaguely disgusted with himself, he walked into the elevator beside her and punched the second-floor button. Strange, but until this moment, he’d never before considered what a woman thought of him after their time together was over. He’d always enjoyed himself, made sure his lady of the moment had a good time and then he’d moved on.

Uneasiness settled over him as he wondered how many other women he might have left wounded in his wake. He’d never thought of himself as a hurting women kind of guy. Hell, he liked women. But now…he had to wonder.

Still, he felt compelled to say something, so he said, “I don’t think your strategy’s working.”

“Really?” she asked, her voice just carrying over the distantly annoying Muzak playing over the speakers. “I haven’t been bothered by unwanted men in three years.”

He found that hard to believe. “Then the men in this town are blind or extremely shortsighted and probably stupid to boot, so you’re better off without them.”

“Is that right?” She glanced up at him from beneath long, dark lashes.

“Damn straight,” he told her, meeting her gaze squarely. Fine. He’d messed up. But that was in the past. And she might as well know that whatever she was wearing, she got to him on levels no one else ever had.

“The clothes are ugly, I grant you. But they don’t disguise your eyes. Or your mouth.” He lifted one hand and smoothed the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. She pulled her head back quickly, and he smiled, shaking his head. “And even if you’d been dressed like this three years ago…I still would have noticed you.”

She blinked at him, obviously surprised, and Jesse felt like a jerk. For the first time in his life, he was faced with a woman he’d used and walked away from. And for the first time in his life, he regretted what he’d done. A new experience for him. And not an entirely comfortable one.

The elevator opened, sparing them both from having to continue the conversation. A buzz of activity and conversation rolled toward them in a thick wave and Jesse smiled. He may not have started out as a businessman, but he certainly enjoyed the sights and sounds of his success. He knew all too well that it was because of him that this company was growing beyond all imaginings. And he had a real sense of pride in what he’d accomplished in a few short years.

“Come on, Bella,” he said, holding out one hand toward her and smiling. “Let me show you around the enemy camp.”

She glanced from him to the room and back again before reluctantly slipping her hand into his and following him out into the middle of organized chaos. Phones were ringing, printers were hissing as they shot sheet after sheet of paper onto trays and the low rumble of dozens of conversations almost sounded like the roar of the ocean.

He walked her through King Beach like a king overseeing his estate. He made sure she saw all the latest technology and the swarms of people he had handling sales, marketing and publicity. Really getting into his spiel, Jesse pointed out the wall maps with the locations of the hundreds of King Beach stores and turned to bask in her admiration.

But Bella wasn’t watching him or his presentation. Instead, she was marching up and down the aisles, peeking into cubicles and rummaging in trash cans.

“What are you doing?” he asked, coming up behind her.

She straightened, spun around and faced him, holding an empty soda can aloft as if it were a gold nugget she’d scraped out of the earth. “Look at this! You don’t even recycle!”

A muffled snort of laughter came from the guy whose cubicle had been invaded, but one steely look from Jesse ended his amusement fast. Everything he’d shown her. Everything he’d done to try to impress her hadn’t meant a thing. No, she focused on empty soda cans. He admired her passion. She practically vibrated with it, and he wanted nothing more than to see it up close and personal again. Hell, there she stood, telling him off and his body was more than ready for her. Was it any wonder she fascinated him?

“Sure we recycle, Bella,” he said, his voice patient. He shook his head and looked into her eyes, fired now with righteous indignation. “It’s just not done up here. The janitorial staff handles it every night.”

“Of course they do,” she mumbled, dropping the can back into the trash, then glaring at him. “You hire someone to do the right thing for you rather than making the effort to do it yourself.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” she said, her voice low, but vehement. “You don’t care what your company does as long as there’s a healthy bottom line. You don’t even ask your employees to recycle. How hard would it be to put two trash cans into every cubicle? Is it really so difficult to take personal responsibility for what your company produces?”

The resident of the cubicle hunched his shoulders, lowered his head and started typing, actively trying to ignore both of them. Jesse shook his head again, took Bella’s arm and drew her out of the cubicle. He was not going to defend himself to her in front of his employees.

When they were far enough away from curious ears, he said, “In case you hadn’t noticed, those cubicles are too small to cram much more into them.”

“Easy excuse.”

“What does it matter how the recycling gets done as long as it is done?”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” she muttered, folding her arms beneath her breasts and unintentionally, he was sure, outlining them nicely.

“The principle. So it’s not recycling. It’s having me recycle.”

She frowned.

“I hire people to do that job.”

“Hmph.”

“Okay,” Jesse said, leaning in closer to her, bending low so that he could look directly into her eyes. “Would it make you feel better if I fired the entire janitorial staff and did it all myself? Would that make the world a better place for you, Bella? Putting twenty people out of work? Does that help the environment?”