Californian Kings

She was scowling now and her mouth was working as if there were words locked behind her grimly closed lips fighting to get out. But after a few long seconds, her shoulders slumped, her mouth relaxed and she huffed out a breath. “All right, I suppose I can see your point.”

Jesse grinned. She might be a hard case, but she could admit when she was wrong, which was more than he could say for a lot of people. She didn’t look at all happy about seeing his point, but that didn’t matter. She had seen it.

“I think I’m having a moment, here. I’ve just scored a point off Bella Cruz.”

She snorted.

He held up a hand, grinned even more broadly and said, “Wait. Not finished relishing. I want to enjoy the glory of this small victory.” Seconds ticked past, then with a deep breath said, “Okay, I’m done.”

“Is everything a joke to you?” she asked, staring up at him.

“Who said I was joking?” Jesse teased. “Getting you to admit that I have a point about anything is well worth celebrating.”

She rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched and Jesse felt as if he’d scored another victory.

“Now,” he said, taking her hand in his, “how about finishing the tour?”

Her hand lay limply in his for a brief moment, then her fingers curled around his and this time, he kept his smile to himself. She walked beside him, spoke to a few of the people answering phones and Jesse watched as she charmed everyone. Apparently, his mystery woman had plenty of personality—she just wasn’t using it on him.

Clearly, she didn’t trust herself to relax around him. But that was fine with him. He didn’t want her relaxed—he wanted her hot and bothered and poised on the edge of sexual heat. Then he wanted to take her over that edge.

Oh, yeah, he thought. He was going to have Bella again. He was going to wine her, dine her and seduce her until she begged him to take over her business and make her a millionaire. And once the business end of things was taken care of, he told himself, they’d go from there. Once she was a part of King Beach, it would be better for her. Better for him. Better for everyone.

He stood to one side as Bella chatted with a couple of the secretaries. They were both talking about her swimwear and how they wished they could find good suits like that everywhere. Say, for example, at King Beach. Jesse frowned a little to hear even his own employees saying that his company wasn’t meeting the demands of all the consumers. But that only helped to convince him that the decision to absorb Bella’s company into his own was the right one.

As if he’d heard Jesse’s thoughts, Dave Michaels walked up, a stack of folders caught under one arm and an eager expression of welcome on his face. “Bella,” he said, giving Jesse a nod of greeting, “we’re delighted to have you here. Jesse told me he was going to give you a tour. Hope you don’t mind if I call you Bella.”

“Not at all,” she said, stepping away from the two women she’d been talking to as they went back to work. “This is all very…impressive.”

She said impressive, but Jesse told himself she didn’t sound impressed. She sounded just a little bit disgusted.

“Well, we’re big and we’re growing,” Dave said, glee lacing his voice. “Which is just one of the reasons I’m glad you’re here. As you know, King Beach doesn’t really cater to women—”

Jesse’s ears perked up and he shook his head wildly from behind Bella, hoping to head the man off. It wasn’t time yet to hit her with the information that they were interested in buying out Bella’s Beachwear. And when it was the right moment, Jesse intended to be the one to do the telling. Bella was a special case. She wasn’t some ordinary CEO of a big company who would welcome a takeover if the money were right. He had to approach her cautiously or the whole thing would blow up in his face.

Dave caught the frantic motion and stopped himself midsentence. “But I have to tell you,” he said, changing the subject smoothly, “my wife bought a bathing suit from you that she can’t stop raving about.”

“Isn’t that nice?” Bella beamed at him as if the man had just presented her with a bouquet of roses. “I hope she comes back.”

“Oh, she will. She’s bringing her sisters to your shop next week,” Dave assured her. “Connie’s been bragging about your store so much, all three of them have insisted on visiting Bella’s.”

“Thank you, I’m always glad to hear about a satisfied customer.”

“Yes, aren’t we all,” Jesse muttered, and jerked his head, silently telling Dave to take a hike.

Dave got the message. “Right. Well, I’ve got a few calls to make, so I’d better let you get on with your tour. Nice to see you here, Bella. Hope we see you again soon.”

Bella watched him go, then turned to look at Jesse. “I like your friend.”

“But not me,” he added for her.

“Does it matter?” she asked and her voice was almost lost in the bustle of the office.

Yeah, it mattered. He wasn’t sure why and he didn’t like acknowledging the fact, even to himself. So he for damn sure wasn’t going to let her know how he felt. That woman had enough power over him already.

“Let me show you my office,” he said instead.

“Oh, Mr. King,” a woman called out as she hurried up to meet them. “We’ve just heard back on the surfing exhibition plans. The city’s approved everything and your guests have all agreed to take part.”

“Good news, Sue,” Jesse said, catching the gleam of curiosity in Bella’s eyes. “Put a call in to Wiki, will you? Tell him I’ll be getting in touch with him by tomorrow.”

“Will do.” The woman hurried off, the tap of her heels swallowed by the bustling noise of the busy office.

“Wiki?” Bella asked as Jesse took her arm and steered her toward his office at the back of the long, wide room.

“Danny Wikiloa,” he said, opening the door for her. Once inside, he closed the door before adding, “He’s a professional surfer. We competed against each other for years. He’s coming into town in two weeks for the exhibition. Doing it as a favor to me, actually, since he’s retired, too.”

“The exhibition,” she murmured. “Everyone in town has been talking about it for days.”

He stuffed both hands into his jeans pockets as he watched her wander the perimeter of his office. She noticed everything, pausing to look at the framed photos of different beaches. She hardly glanced at his surfing trophies, which stung a bit, but she seemed fascinated by the one wall where photos of his family were hanging.

“It’s going to be fun,” he said, walking over to join her. “Ten of the world’s best surfers giving a one-day exhibition.”

“You miss it, don’t you? The competition, I mean.”

He hadn’t really admitted it to anyone else, but, “Yeah, I do. I like winning.”

She nodded. “Not surprising. The whole King family is like that, aren’t they?”

“Pretty much,” he said and turned his back on the family photos so he could look instead at Bella. “We enjoy competing and we don’t lose gracefully.”

She tipped her head to one side, looked at him and said, “You can’t always win.”

“Don’t see why not.”

“You really don’t, do you?”

“Nope,” he told her and took the single step separating them. Standing alongside her, he looked up at the family photos and waved one hand at them. “Not a single one of those people is the type to settle for second place.”

“Sometimes you don’t have a choice,” Bella said softly.

“There’s always a choice, Bella.” Jesse glanced at one familiar face and then another as he said, “The King family decided a long time ago that the only people who lose are the ones who expect to. We expect to win, so we do.”

“Easy as that?”

He looked down at her and found her staring up at him. Those chocolate-brown eyes of hers looked deep and dark and filled with secrets. Secrets he wanted to know. To share. Lifting one hand, he cupped her cheek and said, “I never said it was easy. But winning shouldn’t be. Takes all the fun out of it if everyone could do it.”

“And fun’s important to you, too,” she said, stepping back, away from his touch, away from him.

“Should be important to everyone,” he said, his palm still tingling from the touch of her skin against his. “What’s life if you don’t enjoy it? Hell, why do anything if you don’t enjoy it?”

“And you enjoy what you do now?”

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t think I would, you know. Never planned to be the suit-wearing guy, Mr. Businessman. But I’m good at it.”

She looked toward the closed office door and the busy office beyond. “Yes, I guess you are.”

“See, I’m enjoying this. We’re agreeing on things.”

“Don’t get used to it,” she told him wryly.

“Why not? We could make a great team, Bella.”

She laughed a little. “We’re so not a team, Jesse.”

This was it, he thought. The moment. Time to slide an offer in here while she was still impressed by her tour. While she still liked him a little. It struck him then that he’d never had to work so hard to get a woman to like him. “We could be. Think about it. King Beach. Bella’s Beachwear. A match made in heaven.”

She stilled, slid an uneasy look at him and asked, “What kind of match?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to bring this up so soon, but I don’t like waiting, either. So I’ll get right to it.” He walked to his desk and leaned back against it. Through the wide window behind him, the sun splashed down on the view of Morgan Beach and the ocean stretching out to the horizon. “I want to buy Bella’s Beachwear.”

Chapter Six

“No.” Bella blurted the word out instinctively.

“Jeez.” He came up off the desk and took a step toward her. “At least let me finish my sentence.”

“No need to, I’m not for sale.” She should have known. Should have guessed that he was softening her up for something. She’d allowed herself to relax around him. All right, she’d actually been enjoying herself. The touch of his hand, that wicked smile of his, the way he seemed to focus so intently on her. All that had combined to weaken her defenses and now she was going to pay.

“I’m not trying to buy you, Bella. Just your business.”

“That’s what you don’t get, Jesse. I am my business.” Irritated, hurt and just a little angry at herself for walking into this mess, she continued, “You want to buy my swimwear, but to you it’s just that. Bathing suits. Stick them on a rack, sell them to the masses.”

Both his eyebrows rose. “There’s something wrong with selling your product to people who want it?”

“No, but I’m not interested in the quick, easy sale.” She took a deep breath, fisted her hands at her sides and tried once again to get through his hard head. “I’m interested in the whole woman. Helping ordinary women build their self-esteem. You’re interested in making the young and skinny feel pretty. Well, guess what, they already do.”

“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 furious 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?”