Around the World in 80 Men Series: Boxed Set 21-30 (4 page)

“Damn, you look good! How have you been? And.. I won't ask
why you're here, I assume I already know.” He blurted all of
the questions, and statement out so quickly that Morgan took a few
extra seconds to make sense of everything. When she had it all
together, the blonde girl just laughed and stepped back.

“I
see you haven't changed.” The man was about to speak again,
but decided to take a breath and let her answer the first string of
questions. He'd been working on slowing down, and she was the last
person that he would ever want to have a slip-up with. “I'm
great, thank you.. and yes, I'm here with a client. How are you?
What brings you to Puerto Rico?” Morgan removed her glasses
and held them in front of her waist as she looked the man over.

He
took a deep breath and slowed himself before speaking again.
“Actually, I'm here because of you.” The man could feel
his heart pounding through his chest as he watched her reaction.
Morgan gave him more than just a simple
reaction.
Her loud
intake of air, mixed with a wide eyed and shocked look, was what she
had offered.

She had solved the mystery of the ring, and he wasn't even on the
list of suspects. Morgan tried to remain calm as her mind searched
for the right words to let him down easy, but his voice ended the
mental search for her. “I mean.. you were the one that made
sense, the one that taught me to slow down and enjoy life. So...,”
he looked down and put his hands in his front pockets, “I owe
my new and improved life... to you.” Jake lifted his head
enough to look her in the eyes, and smiled shyly before he continued.

Morgan
was confused, she had no idea what slowing down had to do with
engagement rings, but she tried to keep her head as she sorted it
all. “I... did what?” It was all she could ask, and it
avoided the proposal for the time being. Jake laughed quietly and
shook his head.

“Morgan,
meeting you changed my life. I've slowed down, I mean, for me, and I
even..”

“Jake,
I appreciate that, I really do... but I can't accept..”
Morgan's words were interrupted from a sweet voice approaching from
their side.

“Jake,
there you are!” A beautiful young brunette joined them and
slipped her tanned arm around Jake's waist. “Hi, I'm Julie.”
The girl put her free hand out for Morgan, and the confused girl
took it for a friendly quick shake. Jake introduced the women to one
another, and even announced again that Morgan was the one to thank
for everything.

The
next fifteen minutes consisted of Morgan listening, Jake speaking,
and more answers being revealed. It turned out that Jake had taken
Morgan's suggestions to heart, to slow down and enjoy the life that
he worked so hard to fill, but didn't appreciate. In the process, he
had also allowed himself to get close to a woman, Julie, and had
fallen in love for the first time in many years. Morgan, of course,
was thrilled to hear the news, and shocked that the man brought Julie
to Puerto Rico for a week long vacation, but then she was left with
trying to keep her emotions in check while maintaining a friendly
conversation with the happy couple.

Jake
offered to buy the women lunch, but Morgan declined so that the new
couple could enjoy their time alone. “It was nice seeing you,
Jake.” She hugged the man goodbye, then turned to Julie. “And
it was very nice to meet you, Julie.” The brunette wrapped her
arms around Morgan's neck, and put her face next to her ear.

“Thank
you, for everything you did.” Her voice was so low that Morgan
almost asked Julie to repeat her words, but it sunk in within
seconds. She nodded quickly, and smiled as Julie let go of her.
Morgan watched them walk away, hand in hand, and smiled at the love
that she could clearly see between them.

It
wasn't Jake.
She actually had to laugh at herself for jumping to
conclusions, but it was just too ironic to run into him and not think
it was the high strung man that had sent the ring. Morgan turned and
approached the jewelry table, and began running her fingers absently
over a few long necklaces when his other words finally hit home.
I
changed his life.
Her fingers stopped when she rolled the words
through her mind again, and also realized that she had also changed
Julie's life as well. She put her hand slowly to her forehead and
smiled again.
Maybe I was meant to help people.
She nodded
slightly at her own thoughts, and felt a pang of guilt for thinking
earlier that she should curb her desire to help others.
I don't
think I could stop anyway, it's who I am.

The
surprise of running into Jake actually made her day better than it
had been already. Her newly accomplished independence was still
lingering in her mind, but with her new knowledge... changing two
people's lives... it was more than enough to keep her grounded to
reality. Helping people was what she did. She was good at it, and
even if she didn't know it, she'd made a difference in more people's
lives than just Jake's. She knew what she had to do, and that
included finding an even balance between giving herself to everyone
around her and taking everything for herself. Of course, being
selfish and getting her own way with everything had never been an
option to begin with, but doing something
because she wanted to
once in a while was mandatory. If she didn't put her foot down every
so often, she knew the alternative. Things like surprise proposals
would take over her whole being.

“Not
that proposals happen every day,” she reminded herself and
plucked one of the long light purple beaded necklaces from a hook.
Morgan felt proud as she looked back at some of the things she had
done for herself. When Finlay had been upset that she'd called Angel,
she hadn't backed down, when Kole got mad and stormed out of her
party, she hadn't run after him, when Angela had said that she should
apologize, she didn't. “And I'm not going to worry about this
either,” she said, eying her finger again. Of course the whole
proposal deal kept coming to the forefront of her mind, it was a
pretty big deal, but she just kept pushing is back under the surface.
Instead, she thought of Jake and how happy he'd been. It brought a
smile to her own face as she pulled two more necklaces from their
displays and set them on the counter.

Morgan
paid for the three new additions to her jewelry collection, then slid
one over her neck as she made her way to a nearby table. There was
one more thing she wanted to do before Ian returned, and that was
sharing the good news with her best friend.

Chapter
Four

“
He
said he was here because of me and, oh man, Angel, you have no idea
how fast my heart was beating!”

“You
thought that crazy muthafucka was your fiance?” Angel blurted
out quickly.

“I
don't have a fiance.” The word felt sour in her mouth. “And
he's not crazy, just...hyper,” she defended the Floridian.

“Well,
what would you have told him?”

“I...I
don't know. When I thought he was the one who'd sent the ring, all I
could think about was how to tell him no. I'm glad he has Julie
though, she really seems to make him happy.” Morgan wanted to
change the topic already. She'd explained the part about how Jake had
said Morgan had changed his life, and although Angel was happy for
the fact, Morgan knew exactly where the conversation was going.

“You
would have told him no because he's Jake or...?”

“Angel,
we're not talking about this. I just wanted to tell you how happy I
was for him,” she sighed and took a sip of her bottled water.

“Boo,
that's wonderfuckinful, but would you have told Fin-lay-me-down no?”
He was past filtering his questions.

“Angel,
don't.”

“What
about the Tan Man?”

“Oh,
look, I have another call coming through! Angel, I'll call you later,
okay?” Ian really was calling her and she couldn't have been
more grateful for the distraction.

“Stick,
don't you dare hang up on my ass!”

“Sorry,
love you, bye bye now...” Morgan pressed then end call button,
then answered Ian. It was a short conversation, one that told her
client where she was and him saying he was on his way. The ten
minutes she waited for him to get there gave her the time she needed
to clear her mind of all the
what if's
Angel had thrown at
her. If it had been Finlay or Tanner, she had no idea how she would
have dealt with it.

“Yes
I do... I would have said no... it just would have sucked more.”
Morgan watched her fingers as they spun a small purple bead around
the thin strand of the necklace, and worked once again to push it all
from her mind. It was easily done when she heard her name being
called behind her.

“Sorry
if I'm late, I got here as soon as I could.” Morgan smiled as
she knew the man had actually arrived a little earlier than he
predicted, and her eyes went to his wrist where a watch should have
been. She liked that they were alike in that regard, refusing to be
prisoners of time, even though she loved her new watch from Tanner
and Angel.

“That's
alright. I'm enjoying my day of shopping immensely!” He
reached across the small outdoor table and took Morgan's hand. The
gesture was sweet, yet always felt a bit foreign when a new client
would touch her in a familiar way. She didn't find it unpleasant,
and the feel of his warm hand broke the ice even more between them.

“I'm
glad. Now... dinner or more shopping?” He didn't let go of
her fingers when his question ended, and she found that she liked
that as well.

Morgan
looked around, as if the answer had been floating in the air above
them, then looked directly at his handsome face again. “My two
great loves.. how could I choose just one?” They laughed, even
as Ian stood and pulled her to her feet. He finally let go of her
hand, then slid his arm slowly around her waist and brought her
closer.

“I'll
not ask the lady to choose.” He leaned down and softly pressed
his lips to hers, and Morgan leaned closer until their bodies touched
in all ways possible in public. His lips were so soft, and moved in
a way that let Morgan know what her the rest of her day would be
spent doing, at least, after they ate.

The kiss was broken when Ian felt as if one more moment with the
beautiful girl would end in an embarrassing situation that he'd have
to walk off in front of dozens of people. “We'll get something
close by, and you can shop all you want.” He kissed her one
last time, and Morgan held on to his waist as he tried to pull away.

“Just
one more thing,” she stood on her toes and whispered into his
neck, “if you intend to give me what I want, then I'll expect a
lot more of that when we get back to the room.” Morgan meant
it... because she wanted to. He cleared his throat and was more than
just tempted to take her back to the hotel right then, but the
gentleman in him got the situation under control.

“Food,
shopping, then......” he raised one brow at Morgan, and she
nodded as a smile took over her pretty face. He knew just the place
to take her, and Morgan knew when they walked into the restaurant
that he hadn't chosen the place simply for the fact it had good,
authentic local cuisine. She knew his reasoning of the dark ambiance
when his hand slid to her thigh underneath the table after they were
seated. She was thankful for the dim lighting because nobody would be
able to see the instant flush to her cheeks either. It was quite dark
inside, but still filled with a wonderful display of colors. Red and
yellow tiles lined the edge of the bar and each table, as well as the
dimly lit lamps hanging above them.

“You
think you're sneaky?” She raised an eyebrow at him, then placed
her hand over his. She still wasn't quite used to a man touching her
so soon, but she didn't mind at all. In fact, she liked the way his
hand warmed her leg through her jeans...as well as warming other
areas of her body at the same time. Morgan knew that Julianne's other
girls could probably jump right into their client's bed, and not
think twice about it. Perhaps someday she could be that
professional
, but for right then, she rather enjoyed the
butterflies that Ian caused to stir within her.

“I
can
not
do this if you'd like,” he spoke quietly, then
dared to lift his hand, and Morgan quickly placed it back on her
thigh. He smiled at her silent answer, then gave her leg a soft
squeeze before bringing his attention to the server. She let him
order for her, hoping she could trust his decision. Morgan almost
giggled when she recalled the tiny penises Fane had ordered for her
and hoped Ian's choice was better.