The Miami Millionaire (17 page)

“Then I apologise if I made a mistake.”  She swallowed almost painfully as she realised her lips and throat were dry, so she licked her lips to moisten them as she took a step back feeling a moment of reprieve from the intensity of the chemistry pulsating between them.

Jake’s eyes flickered to her tongue as it moved across her lips leaving a moisty shimmer behind.  His insides growled at him to taste her shimmery lips.  He tried to ignore himself but instead he took a step towards Victoria closing the gap between them once again.

“No apology required I can assure you.”  The corners of his lips turned up slightly, “Besides if I was flirting with you I would not be breaking my company’s policy.  You don’t work for me!  You are not my employee.”

“A mere technicality.  You are still the boss and I am working on projects in your company at the moment.  So I am sort-of working for you.”

“Ah but I don’t pay your salary.”

“No, you’re the client, my client, and until you sign on that dotted line for us to have your account in the UK, and I am here in your offices in Miami, then you are my sort-of boss.”  Victoria took another step backwards and watched as Jake took one more purposeful step forward.

“Sort-of boss.  Interesting terminology.  So that means you have to sort-of do what I say?  Does that mean anything I say?”  He playfully asked as his deep voice teased her senses.

Victoria stepped back again and found herself up against the cool floor-to-ceiling windowed wall of Jake’s living room. “Jake stop it, you’re being naughty!”  she laughed putting up a hand to stop him as he stepped forward once again and found her hand resting up against Jake’s firm chest.

“Mmm naughty?  Again interesting.  I don’t think I have been called that for a very long time.”

“I find that very hard to believe.”  She said thinking that if he played with his women like this, like a predator playing with its prey before it ate it, then yes he was very naughty indeed.  A naughty, seriously gorgeous, sexy man.

For a moment Victoria’s mouth fell open with surprise as she felt the warmth of Jake’s hands when they touched the bare skin of her waist just below the hem of her top, and smoothed their way around to her back.  She quickly closed her mouth and looked down not believing her own body, then back to look at Jake’s face so close to hers as she realised that yes she was backed up against Jake’s living room wall with him not a foot away from her.  His large warm hands were on her skin making it burn with desire for him, and his eyes looked like he was about to devour her. 

“Okay you are definitely flirting with me now.  If you wanted to prove a point then you have, and now would be a good time to stop.”  She said breathlessly, but she secretly hoped he wouldn’t stop - the look in his eyes was intoxicating and his full lips so close to hers were pure temptation.

Jake leaned forwards and whispered into her ear, “But what if I don’t want to stop Vicky?  What if I want this to be only the beginning?  What then?”

Without thinking Victoria rubbed her smooth cheek against Jake’s and felt the beginning of his stubble.  ‘
What then?’
she had no idea!  In fact she had no idea about anything except the sensual smell of Jake - not just the smell of his seductive aftershave but the smell of Jake the man, and his lips just inches from hers.  She moved her head a few inches to meet his lips and instantly she lost herself in the deliciousness as their lips touched for the first time and the warmth of his mouth as he opened up to her.

The moment their lips touched Jake lost himself.  His body was torn between the torturously tempting feeling of Victoria’s skin beneath his fingertips and the fiery sweetness of her lips on his.  He kissed her deeply, exploring the contours of her lips and the depth of her mouth as his hands explored her waist and pulled her tightly in against him.  He felt Victoria’s hands travel up his chest and circle his neck.  Vaguely he was aware of her fingers as they touched his hair at the nape of his neck and he slowly pulled back not wanting to break the moment but needing to see the beautiful woman in his arms.

Victoria looked at Jake as he raised his head slightly, not enough to break their spell but just enough so she could see his blue eyes a shade darker than she had ever seen them before and the shimmer of their moistness on his lips.  She wasn’t sure what was happening but that kiss was like no other kiss, it took her breath away and left her craving for more, her whole body wanted more!  As she pressed up against Jake’s body with his hardness pressed firmly up against her stomach she had no doubt he was feeling the same.  Victoria closed her eyes tilting her head upwards ready for Jake’s descending lips.  Everything in her body was ready and waiting for the next onslaught, but just as his lips touched hers and her body responded, a loud pounding noise broke their lips apart.

Jake and Victoria stood in each other’s arms looking at one another, both not sure what was happening when the loud knock came again.  Jake realised it was the sound of his front door just as it swung open and Andrea walked in. 

Andrea stopped in her tracks clearly shocked.   She stood looking at Jake and Victoria across the expanse of his living room, in an obviously passionate embrace up against his glass wall.

“Not now!”  He called out not turning around or letting his eyes leave Victoria’s for a second - he didn’t want this moment broken.

“Oh sorry Jake.  The door was unlocked, I didn’t realise you were busy.  I brought your keys back, and Victoria I have your bag from the office.”  Andrea said as she started to walk backwards out the apartment.  This was a first!  Jake very rarely surprised her - considering how long she had worked for him she had pretty much seen and heard everything from him and about him, but Andrea was totally thrown by the scene in front of her now.  Never had he dated someone from the office and as far as she remembered he didn’t usually have women in his apartment either, preferring to go over to their homes or take them away to luxurious hotels for the weekend, that way he didn’t have to wait for his latest interest to leave, he could just walk out of the door and the date was over.

Victoria gasped feeling like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her as she realised they were no longer alone, and not only that, what she had been doing!  What she and Jake had been doing!  Slowly she let her arms slip from around Jake’s neck, down the front of his chest, and gave him a gentle push to put some distance between them.  She ignored his hands still resting on her waist and stepped out from in between the glass wall and Jake’s warm body. Warm, oh it was seriously hot!

“No Andrea, that’s okay.  I’m just leaving.”  she said hastily.

“No, Victoria, don’t go.”  Jake said as he felt Victoria leave him in more ways than one.

“No Jake, I think now would be a good time for me to leave.”  She took a deep breath and straightened the bottom of her shirt looking back at Jake quickly.  “Yes definitely, I think it’s time I left.”  Victoria walked across the room and took her handbag from Andrea’s outstretched hand, picked up her shoes and walked out of Jake’s front door, leaving it open behind her as Jake watched her go, and Andrea let out a little laugh.

Victoria picked up her pace as she walked towards the lift and pushed the button.  She willed it to hurry up as she kept pushing the button whilst putting on her strappy heeled shoes as fast as she could, she wanted to be inside the lift right now going down and as far away from here as possible.  Her mind was running on overdrive - oh shit, she’d just kissed the boss, no, the client.  Oh crap, she didn’t care what she called him, she had just kissed Jake and what a kiss it had been!

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jake woke up and swore that Victoria was going to be the death of him!  If she wore one more skimpy little outfit or ran her fingers through her dark red hair whilst looking at him with those dark brown eyes one more time then he was going to forget any promise he had made to himself, or sense of professionalism around her.  He had lost it for a moment yesterday, but it had been far too tempting having her standing there in his home - they had eaten lunch and laughed on his sofa, and all sense of Victoria being anything other than a beautiful woman he could really be himself around and fancied the hell out of had vanished.  He would be in heaven if he could have that every day, and just for a moment that was more important to him than any dammed principle he imposed upon himself.

Jake always prided himself that he never got involved with someone who worked for him, but  Victoria was pushing his principles to the very limit now.  There was only so much a man could take and he had already gone way past that point.  For crying out loud he had been tethering on that point from the moment Victoria had walked into his office that morning in London with such a look of determination in her eyes.  And he was supposed to watch her walking around in her skimpy little tops and sexy short skirts or tight trousers that left absolutely nothing to his imagination and not want to take her in his arms and kiss her to within an inch of his life?  And now it was only worse!  Now he knew exactly what her beautiful lips felt like, tasted like, and it left him wanting so much more.  If he kissed her again and did nothing else he surely would die!  And if he didn’t kiss her again?  Well he didn’t want to think about that because he had to.

It was a busy day, but even if it hadn’t been Victoria had every intention of keeping out of Jake’s way just like she had managed to yesterday.  She wasn’t embarrassed to see him, she had put that feeling to bed when she lay alone for the past two nights in her bed and remembered the look of disappointment on Jake’s face as she practically ran out of his apartment after their incredible kiss.  But she had no intention of putting herself in that position again - where she went weak at Jake’s touch like so many other women had.  She wasn’t going to be just another woman in a long list of women for any man, not even the wonderfully gorgeous Jake Cumberland. 

Victoria’s phone rang on her desk and she answered it as she scanned through the latest news from the UK on her laptop in front of her.  “Victoria speaking.”

“You’re a difficult woman to get hold of Vicky, I’ve been trying all morning.  And all day yesterday for that matter.”

Victoria stopped what she was doing as she heard Jake’s smooth voice through the telephone.  “I’ve been busy.  I’m sorry, you should have asked Andrea to find me, I would have come to your office.”  She knew she had several missed calls from Jake yesterday, but she also knew that if he really needed her for business then he would have had Andrea find her or send her a message.  So Victoria decided to avoid Jake’s calls until she heard from Andrea, and since no such message had come she thought she had succeeded.

“I didn’t want to, it’s not about business.”

“Oh.”

“What are you doing after work, are you free?”

“Jake I don’t think that is a good idea.”  She started but Jake cut her off.

“Wait, I don’t want to talk about this on the phone.  Meet me in the coffee shop next door in five minutes.”  When he didn’t hear an answer he continued, “Please?”

Victoria knew she should just say “no” but she found herself agreeing.  The coffee shop next door to their office building it was then!  She had five minutes to stop by the ladies’ toilets to brush her hair and apply a thin coat of lip gloss.

Jake was already waiting at the coffee shop door with a large clear plastic cup of Frappuccino in each hand as she walked the short distance from the building’s exit escalator.  He took a sip of his cup and looked cool in his white rolled up shirt sleeves and faded green jeans.

“I got you a Frappuccino, I hope that’s okay.  It’s hot today and I thought you might want something cold.”  He didn’t mention to her that he had asked Andrea to find out what drink Victoria usually bought from the coffee shop when she popped there each morning just so he would have her favourite drink ready and waiting for her. 

“That’s perfect, thanks.”  She took her drink and followed Jake to a table shaded by a large umbrella.  Victoria sat down and Jake pulled the seat from across the table around next to hers, so he was sitting just a couple of feet away from her without the table being in-between.

“What did you want to talk about?  Is everything alright?”  She asked suspecting this little out of office meeting was going to be about their kiss, but she had hoped it wouldn’t make it awkward between them now.

“I think you know Victoria and I also think you were avoiding me yesterday.”

“I was not.”  She lied, “I was just busy.”

“Liar.”  He teased good-naturedly as she sucked her iced coffee through the long black straw.

‘Oh those lips’ Jake wanted to groan.

“Look Jake I don’t want things to be awkward between us.  It was just a kiss and we’re both adults.  You were just messing around and it got a bit out of hand.  Okay?”

“If that’s what you want then okay, but that’s not what I want.  Whatever you decide I promise you it won’t be awkward in the office, but it was more than just a kiss for me and I wasn’t messing around.”

“Oh.”  This, Victoria hadn’t expected, and she put her plastic cup down on the table.

“You know I liked you from the minute I met you, I made no secret of that, but you asked me not to pursue you so I didn’t.  But now I want to, I want to ask you out on a date and I really hope you will say yes.”

Slowly Victoria shook her head.  “I’m sorry Jake, but I can’t go on a date with you.  Not you or anyone else, I’ve only just split up with my fiancé and this isn’t good timing.”

“Forget timing and forget about Mark, you will get over him one day, but for now I am just asking you to be open minded about us and come on a date with me.  It doesn’t even have to be a big date thing if you don’t want it.  But I know by the way you kissed me the other day that there is something between us and I can’t ignore that.  Can you?”

No she couldn’t ignore it, it had consumed her every thought since it happened, but Victoria wasn’t sure that meant she had to act on it either.

“Come on, don’t make me take you to the beach again just to persuade you.  I seem to remember you agreed to come back to my apartment when I asked you on the beach.”  Jake teased.

“Now there’s an offer no girl could refuse!”  She laughed, “But that was different.  You weren’t asking me on a date then.”

“Well we can do that at the weekend then, I’ll take you to the beach and if you want we can take a boat out, just off the coast of Miami for a bit.”

“I’m really flattered by everything you are saying, and I am sure you must have guessed by now that I find you attractive too, and I think you are a really nice guy,”

“Not to mention a multi-millionaire.”  He interrupted.

“That too, but I’m not going to be just another woman in your little black book Jake.  I’m not going to be another woman on your very long list, I’m sorry.”

Jake looked at Victoria and let out a sigh.  “Is that what you think I mean?”

She shrugged.  What else did he mean - he had asked her to go on a date with him so what else was there?

“I don’t want you to be just another woman in another bed Vicky.  I think more of you than that.  I really like you and I want to see where, whatever this thing is between us, can go.  I can’t explain why but you are already more to me than any of these other women were.  I think you could be my Miss Right and if you give me the chance I can show you that I am not the man I have allowed the press to paint me as.  But I think you know that already don’t you?  I just want to spend some time with you.”

Victoria sat back in her chair and looked at Jake, he looked serious and his eyes shone with sincerity.

“Wow Jake that is quite some speech.  Just make sure you know what you are saying before you say it - I am not someone to be played with and I don’t deserve that.”

“I know exactly what I am saying Victoria and I am not playing with you.  I can be myself with you, and you don’t care about my money or what I have got.”  He reached across and let his fingers play with the ends of her dark red hair loving the feeling of it against his skin, “I think you’re beautiful.”

Victoria almost laughed.  With all the incredibly beautiful women in Miami who surrounded him on a daily basis and he thought she was beautiful?  She wanted to believe that but she found it hard to.  If someone like Mark, who even though was very good looking but wasn’t a patch on Jake thought she wasn’t enough for him then what hope did she have with someone as incredibly gorgeous and rich as Jake?

“Please, let’s talk about it tonight.  Come to my apartment straight after work, I’m going there soon to sort some things out for my house and we can have a quiet dinner there and talk, then if you want we can go out for a drink, go to the cinema, whatever you want.  Just a normal date for the two of us.  What do you think?”  Jake hoped she would say yes, he had laid his soul out to Victoria and told her exactly how he felt.  He had been completely honest with her and he had never felt so vulnerable in his entire life.

Victoria nodded her head and smiled.  She wasn’t sure what could come of a real date with Jake Cumberland but she didn’t want to turn it down either, she knew him well enough by now to know he wouldn’t look her in the face and lie to her.  So far Jake had been true to his word on everything and she had no reason to doubt him now.  She found it hard to believe he felt the way he said he did, but there was a part of her deep down inside that wanted to find out if he really did.

“Great.”  He said smiling taking a sip of his drink.

“Let me get changed first, then I’ll be there at six thirty, is that okay?”  Victoria smiled.

“Perfect.”

Victoria picked up what was left of her iced coffee and took it back into the office with her.  She had butterflies flurrying around in her stomach at the mere thought of tonight.  Part of her wondered what on earth she was doing agreeing to see Jake later, and another part of her was excited.  Mostly she was excited!

Jake opened his apartment front door and gave a long slow whistle as he looked Victoria up and down.  The concierge had phoned up a couple of minutes earlier to let him know she was on her way up so he had been expecting her, but seeing her standing in his doorway looking like a beautiful angel in a simple white top and a red multi-coloured frilly knee-length skirt had still taken his breath away.  He bent and kissed her gently on both cheeks and stepped aside inviting her in.  Tonight was going to be so very different, he was just a man and she was a woman.  No business and no engagement.

Victoria walked into Jake’s living room and put her little red bag on the side of the sofa.  It was the same room she had been in the other day but tonight it felt different, or was it just that she felt different, walking in knowing she was there on a very much more personal level with Jake this time.

Jake closed the door behind her and walked across the room taking the remote control and turning the television over from the evening news to a music channel.  The sounds of Marc Anthony and Pitbull dueting surrounded them and he turned the volume down to a more comfortable level.

“Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”  She wanted to leave work a little earlier than normal so she worked through her lunchtime and had only had time for a cereal bar and yoghurt before she took a shower and dressed for tonight.

“Great.  What type of food do you want?”

“What’s on offer?” 

“Just about anything.  You can choose from a Chinese or pizza to having a meal from one of the restaurants downstairs or across town, they all deliver here.  All I need to do is phone our order down to the concierge and they will sort it out for me.”

“Very nice.”

“It is, that’s partly why I like this place.”

“And for the views of course.”  Victoria said as she looked out of the window seeing the sun start to fade.

“So what is it to be?  Jake walked over to the house phone.

Victoria thought for a moment and then smiled wickedly.  “Friday night, a huge sofa and good company, that’s got to be a pizza night.”

Jake laughed, a girl after his own heart.  “Good choice.  What do you want on it?”

“Anything except anchovies and olives.”

He picked up the phone and the concierge answered immediately.

“Hi George, can you have some dinner delivered for me please.  We would like an extra large pizza, stonebaked from Giovanni’s with pepperoni, barbeque chicken, and ham, with a rocket and parmesan salad on the side.  And can you have the Cheesecake Factory send across my favourite lemon cheesecake for desert.  Thanks.” 

Victoria went to sit on the sofa as she listened to Jake speaking to the concierge with their dinner order and her mouth began to water at the thought of their delicious dinner.   She loved a good tasty pizza and the Americans took their pizzas to the next level!