The Miami Millionaire (24 page)

Victoria looked at Jake as he stood looking at her, she could tell his mind was whirring over and his eyes showed his mixture of emotions.

“Please.”  She said almost a whisper as she stepped closer to him and put her hand on his chest feeling it move up and down deeply with each breath.

“If you are lying to me Victoria…”

“I promise you, I am not.”  She pleaded.

“Okay but not here.  I will pick you up from your hotel just before eight o’clock tonight and we can talk over dinner.  Okay?”

She nodded and leaned up to give Jake a kiss on his lips.  He kissed her back briefly.  Victoria turned away to the lift, now she had to deal with Mark.

Jake watched as Victoria stepped into the lift.  As soon as the doors closed behind her he turned to Andrea, “You went out with Victoria last week, what do you know about this fiancé or ex-fiancé of hers?”

“Not too much.  She told us he had been cheating on her and she called the wedding off.  Do you want me to see what he said to Jackie whilst he waited in reception?”

Jake nodded. “Get me security on the phone will you, and let me know when that man leaves.”

Andrea nodded and watched Jake walk back into his office.

Victoria walked back into her office and saw Mark sitting in the same chair as before with a face like thunder.  She sighed, what was wrong with him now?  “I thought you might have left.”

“Not yet.  I think you have some explaining to do first.”

Victoria looked at him puzzled, she had no idea what he meant.

“So that was Jake Cumberland.”

“Yes that’s right.”

“Your new client.”  He said matter of factly.

She nodded, not sure what he was getting at.

“And that is all?”

“Sorry what is that supposed to mean?”  She asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

“What was all that about?  Is there something going on between you and Jake Cumberland?”

“Oh for pity’s sake!” Victoria sighed, “Listen Mark, if there is or isn’t something going on between me and anyone else then it is none of your business.  I know you said you wanted us to get back together but that is not going to happen.  You hurt me so badly by what you did that there is no going back from that.  You hurt me and humiliated me.  But strangely enough I now know that we were never meant to get married.  We fell in love a long time ago when we were young and were both very different people.  If you really loved me you would never have wanted to be with other women, and I think I just didn’t question if I was really in love with you or not any more.  I think we both just fell into the habit of being with each other, but I don’t think we were really in love anymore.”

“But I know now that I do love you Victoria.”

Victoria shook her head, she didn’t want to do this.

“I know you say you have changed, and after what has happened I can understand that.  But let’s put it all behind us and start again.  I have a great new business idea and if you want to leave London we can.  We can live anywhere you like, somewhere hot like here, or if you don’t want to leave London we can certainly buy a decent sized house here and use it as a holiday home - we can come here whenever you want.”

“Mark stop.  I don’t love you like that anymore and I don’t believe you love me either.  You just don’t want to lose me.  I’m nothing more than your comforter Mark, I’m not the love of your life.”

“Dinner, just come to dinner with me and you will remember what was so good between us.”

“No Mark.”  When was he going to get the message?  She couldn’t believe he was making this so difficult, and after everything he had done!

Mark stood up and walked towards her office door, he was actually smiling.  “I guarantee you will be dining with me tonight at my hotel, so let’s say eight o’clock.”

“I guarantee you that I will not!”  She said as she put her hand on the edge of her door to indicate he needed to walk through it and out of her office.

Mark walked out with the smile still on his face and let Victoria escort him downstairs and out into the reception area.

“See you later.”  Mark said bending to give Victoria a quick kiss on the cheek and then he turned and walked off.

“Not bloody likely.”  Victoria said to herself as she turned and walked back to the lift.

Victoria sat down at her desk and leaned back exhaling.  Wow she felt drained and it wasn’t even lunchtime.  The glint of something caught her eye and she realised her keys were still hanging out of her top drawer.  Dam, she had forgotten to lock the drawer when she rushed out of the office to ask Jake to have the confidentiality agreement drawn up.  She turned the key locking the drawer and then turned her attention to the paperwork on her desk, the papers from Mark, and picked up the phone to call her solicitor.

Jake sat in his office trying to concentrate on the meeting he had with his development team but his mind kept wondering away from the subject at hand.  He wondered what had made Mark travel all the way from London to come here and see Victoria.  He thought Mark certainly looked like a man in love when he opened the door and walked in to see him touching Victoria’s hair.  But Jake reminded himself that just because Mark was still in love with Victoria that didn’t mean she was in love with him.  With great difficulty Jake pulled his mind back to the meeting reassuring himself he could ask Victoria any questions he wanted to tonight.

Victoria bought a large iced diet coke and sat on a chair under the shade outside the coffee shop next door to Creative Technology Holdings offices.  She sat watching the people walking past and realised she did like it here in Miami.  It wasn’t just the friendly people, great food and music.  Or even the wonderful weather.  She liked being here with Jake, and until earlier this morning she didn’t have any reason to question just how much she liked being with him.  And now she knew - she liked it a lot.  She loved it!  She took another sip of her ice cold drink and looked at her mobile phone as it beeped a message for her.  She pressed the button and saw a message from Mark:

Dinner tonight at 8pm.  My hotel.  Don’t be late and don’t worry about changing – you look hot!

Victoria looked at the message puzzled.  “Come on Mark, seriously!” she muttered to herself as she ignored the message. 

A few minutes later her mobile phone buzzed again.  Another message from Mark.  Victoria pressed the button and his message appeared on the screen:

I don’t want to play games Victoria but I will if you make me.  I want to see you tonight.  It is the best for both of us.  8pm my hotel.

This time Victoria typed one simple word ‘no’ then pressed the send button.  It was no more than a minute before another text message appeared on her screen and she looked at it puzzled.  At first Victoria wondered what the picture was, she didn’t understand why a picture of a few lines of text were of any interest to her, she had his agreement to sign for the house sitting upstairs in her office.  But then Victoria looked closely at the picture and froze, dropping her drink on the floor.  Without stopping for a second she grabbed her bag from the seat next to her and ran the few short feet between the coffee shop and CT Holdings’ offices.  Victoria didn’t stop there, she didn’t wait for the escalator to slowly ascend but ran up the huge metal moving steps leading up into the reception and straight on through.  She pushed the lift button muttering expletives to herself as she willed it to hurry up.  Finally the lift arrived, and she pushed past people as they exited the lift and then pressed her floor button willing this to not be happening.

Victoria ran along the corridor to her office and slammed the door closed behind her as she crossed the room to her desk.  She fumbled in her bag for her keys and took them out finding the one for her desk drawer.  Whispering silent prayers she turned the key in the lock and opened the drawer.  She let out a small cry as she stood looking into the empty drawer.  The confidential file of CT Holdings’ new products soon to be launched in the USA and the UK was gone!

“Mark you bastard!”  She cried as she sat down hard in her chair.

A knock came at Victoria’s office door and she lifted her head from her hands.  It had only been a few minutes but it felt like hours since she had found her confidential file missing.  She had been phoning Mark’s mobile phone continuously during that time, only now he wasn’t answering.  Victoria had given up phoning him and sent him a message instead asking him what he wanted.  But still she hadn’t heard anything back from Mark.

Her office door opened and Jake walked in. 

“Vicky, are you alright?”  Jake said seeing Victoria quickly move to sit upright in her chair.

“Yes fine.  Everything is fine.”  She said trying to look like nothing had happened.

“Are you sure?” He knew she wasn’t telling the truth – her face was flushed and she jumped when he walked into the room, besides he knew her well enough by now.

“Yes I’m fine really.”  She said trying to sound more convincing.

“Look I’m sorry I gave you a hard time this morning.  I should have trusted you but …”

“It’s okay Jake, really.  I know it looked bad and I am sure that I would have felt the same way if the shoe was on the other foot.  It’s fine.”

Jake smiled, he loved her strange little English sayings which she seemed to come out with at just the right time.

“Victoria, there’s something I want to ask you, I was going to wait until tonight but I can’t.”  Jake closed the door behind him and walked across the office, but before he got more than a few steps in Victoria stood up and walked around her desk to meet him half way.

Jake took a deep breath and looked at Victoria seriously, “Are you still in love with Mark?”

“No!  Not at all.”  She shook her head  No, Mark wasn’t the man she was in love with.

Feeling relieved Jake reached across and drew Victoria into his arms and held her tight, “That’s good because there is something I need to tell you Vicky.  I am in love with you.”  He said as he breathed in the fresh fruity smell of her hair and kissed it. 

Victoria pulled back to look at Jake.  She was speechless, she hadn’t expected Jake to tell her he loved her.  Well not now, not today.

“It’s okay, I know you are going through a lot and you may not feel the same way, but I just wanted you to know that I do love you and I am serious about us.  I can wait for you for as long as you want me to, that is if you want me to.”

Victoria laughed with happiness as she ran a hand across Jake’s cheek.  “I don’t need you to wait because I am already there.  I love you too Jake.”

“You do?” He asked not quite believing Victoria felt the same way about him as he did her.

“Yes I do.”  She laughed and flung her arms around Jake’s neck and kissed him hard on his lips.

Victoria’s mobile phone buzzed signalling a new message and she stepped back from Jake, out of his arms. 

“I’m sorry but I need to see who that is.”  She quickly walked back to her desk and picked up the phone.

“Something important?”

“Yes and no.  Nothing for you to worry about.”  Victoria cringed inside as she read Mark’s message and tried not to let her face give her away.  She didn’t like lying to Jake but she had to speak to Mark and get the confidential folder back before anyone else saw what was inside it, and then she was sure everything would be alright.  In the meantime there was no need to tell Jake and make him worry.  Besides she was sure Jake was going to be furious if he found out Mark had stolen his folder because she had left Mark alone in her office and his company secrets hadn’t been locked away!  No, Jake didn’t need to know and Victoria was going to sort Mark out herself, after all he was simply trying to get her attention and he was definitely succeeding there!  “Jake something has come up and I need to deal with it.”

“What’s going on.”

“Oh nothing for you to concern yourself with, it’s just a message from my London office.”

“But it’s late there.”

“Yes I know.  I just need to do something, but I will see you later for dinner.  Okay?”

Jake nodded, he had a busy afternoon with an office full of people probably waiting for him already, so he walked out Victoria’s office leaving her to make her phone call.

Victoria wanted to shout as loud as she could down the telephone but she kept it to a hissed whisper so no one could hear.  Even with her door shut she was still worried about someone hearing her conversation.

“Mark you bastard, what are you playing at?  This isn’t some sort of game.  If Jake finds out what you have done you will be arrested and I will lose my job.”

“Well hello to you too Victoria.  Now surely you should be more worried about Jake’s big product launch being ruined by someone else beating him to it.”

“As far as I am aware no one else has the foresight or ability to put these products onto the market.”

“Maybe not right now, but after they see everything in this folder they will.  If some of the other market leaders know that Jake Cumberland was ready to gamble on these new products selling on the open-market then they will take that gamble too.  Within forty-eight hours there will be a similar, if not identical product launched, and CT Holdings won’t be so innovative anymore.  They will look like second best.”