The Miami Millionaire (31 page)

Victoria had to smile at the thought - Alice was a wonderful sweet friend but she was sure she had a few choice words to say to Jake and hadn’t held back.

“Come on just give me a few minutes, surely a transatlantic flight and nearly seven hours in a car gives me enough points for that!”  Jake half joked, he hadn’t come all this way to have Victoria walk away from him now without even listening to him.

Victoria sat down on her chair and nodded, “Jake, what do you want?” she sighed not sure what good could come of listening to whatever he had to say, but she was tempted to know why he had flown all the way from Miami, and then driven so far just to see her.

“I want you Victoria.”  Cutting straight to the point Jake sat down on the chair next to hers and turning it so he was facing her.  He reached across the small gap between them to take her hand but she pulled it back.

“No, I have been there and done that and I’m not doing that again.  I had one cheating fiancé and I won’t be going down that road again.”  She started to stand up but Jake put his hand on hers and the look in his eyes stopped her.

“Wait Victoria!  Just listen to me, hear me out and then you will understand that I didn’t cheat on you, and I promise you I never will.”

Victoria sat back down.

“I need to know something first.” 

Victoria nodded, she had nothing to lose and at the very least she would have closure on everything.

“The day you left Miami, the morning you waited for me outside my office, you saw some photographs of me with another woman.”  Jake paused as Victoria turned her head away and he could see the sparkles of tears in her eyes even though her face remained emotionless.  He gently moved her chin back so she was looking at him.  “Did you tell me we were finished because of what you saw in the photographs, or was it because you wanted us to be finished?”

“What difference does it make?”

“No difference to the truth of what really happened, or what has happened since.  But it matters to me, I want to know.”

Victoria cleared her throat, “I told you before when I first came to Miami that I would not be another one of your long line of women, and I meant it Jake.”

“I know that, and you have never been like that to me, I promise.”  He saw a tiny trickle of a tear appear at the edge of Victoria’s eye and she quickly wiped it away, so quickly he would have missed it if he blinked, but he didn’t and he felt like a knife had sliced at a piece of his heart.  “Is that why you finished us and left Miami, because of the photographs?”  He said gently.

Victoria nodded.

“Oh Vicky I am so sorry but it is not true, I didn’t sleep with Natasha and the photographs made it look like something it was not.”

Victoria laughed coldly, that sounded vaguely familiar even if the scenario was slightly different.

“No hang on there.”  Jake sat back in his chair.  He might have been a fool to run to a bar and hang out with a load of friends and drink with a bunch of pretty women when he thought he had been wronged by Victoria, the woman he genuinely loved, but that was all it was and he wasn’t about to be called something he was not, a liar.  “You needed me to listen to you and trust you when things looked bad, and okay I might not have wanted to do that straight away but I did listen to you with an open mind, and I saw the truth.  Now I need you to listen to me and think about it because I have never lied to you, and I never will.”

Victoria looked at Jake, he looked deadly serious and something deep inside her told her to stay and listen to what he had to say.  She nodded her head.

Jake stood up from his chair and walked to the selection of drinks on the side, he looked at his watch and it was certainly a decent enough time to pour himself a strong Bacardi and coke.  He poured two and dropped a large cube of ice in each one and returned to his seat putting the drinks onto the desk next to him.  Victoria took one of the drinks and took a big sip, she really needed this - seeing Jake had taken her by surprise, the last thing she thought she would be doing today was sitting in a room with him.

“I didn’t know what to believe that night when I was in the hallway of the Four Seasons Hotel.  I am going to be honest with you Vicky, I didn’t.  You know how I have trust issues, with very good reason, and it all looked so bad.  But I did listen to you and I just needed a bit of time to think.  Stupidly I did go out for a drink with some friends and yes there were pretty women around, women I know who I am just friends with, but you know what the media are like with me and they obviously played it up.  I did leave the club with Natasha but that was because we had both been drinking and she had too much to drink, so I was making sure she got safely home.  I took her back home in my taxi first, but that was all.  I promise you on everything I have that I did not do anything with Natasha and I did not go inside her home.

Victoria took in what Jake was saying and realised he was telling the truth – she could see it in his eyes.

“Okay Jake.”

“Vicky I didn’t even know about the photos until Andrea came to London, I thought you told me it was over because you didn’t love me the way I love you.

Victoria looked at Jake - was he crazy?   She had fallen in love with him so hard it hurt.

“I wasn’t sure if you were using your time in Miami, with me, to get over Mark and everything he did to you.”

“A rebound guy?  You thought I used you as a rebound guy?”

Jake nodded.

“No Jake!”  She wasn’t sure if she really should be telling him how she felt, but then again if she didn’t tell him now then she may never get the chance again.

“Vicky I love you and I don’t want to be your rebound guy.  Maybe if it was someone else I wouldn’t care.  But not with you.  I want it to be so much more than that with you.”  Jake took a deep breath, he had come here to get Victoria back, but only if she loved him too and he had to know that.  “Do you still love him?  Do you still love Mark?”

Victoria took another sip of her strong drink and welcomed the relaxing feeling it brought as it slid down her throat and into her stomach.   “No I don’t love Mark anymore, and to be honest I don’t think I have loved him the way I thought I did for a very long time.  Of course there was a part of me that loved the person I fell in love with, but I realise that person doesn’t exist anymore.  And it is not just about who Mark is now, I have changed.  It’s about me too.  I am not the same girl who fell in love with Mark, and I think we both just got swept along with the momentum of the idea of getting married and didn’t really look at our relationship, or each other close enough to notice we had both changed.  I don’t love Mark anymore and I don’t think I have loved him the way a girlfriend, fiancé or wife should, for a very long time.”

Jake smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, thank goodness she felt that way, now he just had the matter of if she loved him to deal with now!

“I guess that was why Mark behaved the way he did with his infidelity and the other women.  He obviously didn’t love me the way he thought he did either.”

“Well there is that or he could still just be a lying cheating scumbag!”  Jake added thinking Victoria was giving Mark far too much credit, and he was always going to be a piece of scum in his opinion.

Victoria laughed and smiled, “I think you are right there Jake, no argument from me.”

“It’s good to see you smile, I have missed that so much.”

“It didn’t look like it.”  Victoria said referring to the pictures of him partying with all the different women over the last week.

“Yeah well I was trying to forget about you.  I went out and had a few drinks and had dinner with a few friends, but it was nothing more than that I swear to you.  If you want you can have every woman’s phone number to call them and check, I don’t care.”

Victoria shook her head, she didn’t need to check, she could see Jake was telling her the truth.

Jake knew there was something else he had to discuss with Victoria before they went any further.  “Alice told me what you did.  She told me how you gave everything up to pay off Mark so he would sign the confidentiality agreement, and in effect save me millions of dollars.”

“She shouldn’t have done that.”  Victoria said serious again.

“Yes she should.  Actually no, you should have told me.”

“Why?  All that matters is that nothing was leaked and everything went on as planned.”

“Not at such a big price to you.  You gave up everything.”

“I deserved it.”

“No Vicky you didn’t.  Creative Technology Holdings in my company and Mark isn’t the first person to try and extort money out of us, and sadly he won’t be the last.  I don’t want any argument on it, it is not up for discussion.  Regardless of what you say next, I will repay every penny to you and you will cash my cheque.”

“Say next?”

“Yes.”  Jake took hold of Victoria’s hand and stroked her soft skin with his thumb.  “Victoria I love you and I want you to come back to Miami with me.  I don’t want to be without you.  You are everything to me.”

Victoria squeezed Jake’s hand, her heart screamed out inside her but she shook her head.  “No Jake I am sorry but I can’t.”

“Why not?”  He asked.  He really thought she loved him, and if she did then why couldn’t she come back with him, to him.  Why wouldn’t she?

“You think you love me but I don’t think you do, not really.”

“That’s crazy, I am completely head over heels in love with you.  Why would you say that?”

“Because you have never really been turned down or told by a woman that she doesn’t want you when you want her.”  She couldn’t imagine any woman not wanting Jake, he was an amazing catch and he had beautiful women throwing themselves at him left right and centre.

Jake laughed his deep throaty laugh. “What would make you say that?  I never said that.”

She shrugged.

“It may surprise you but I have been turned down plenty of times, not every woman drops at my feet.”  He smiled as Victoria raised an eyebrow at him, he liked the idea she thought he was irresistible! “Okay so it hasn’t happened that often, but it has happened.  That’s life.”

“You only want me because you can’t have me Jake.  After a while you will get bored with me, then what will happen?”

Jake stood up and pulled Victoria into his arms.  “Don’t ever think that Victoria because it is never going to happen.  I knew the minute I met you at that little fete there was something special about you, and you have consumed my thoughts and feelings ever since.”

Victoria didn’t want to move, she felt happy and warm in Jake’s arms - they were comforting and reassuring, and his familiar delicious smell woke up the thousand sleeping butterflies in her stomach and they flew around frantically. She wished she could stay in Jake’s arms but she stepped back putting a little distance between them.  Jake kept his hands around her waist, he wasn’t letting her go again so easily, not now he had her so close.

“What’s the matter Vicky?”

“I’m afraid.”  She whispered trying to avoid his eyes but he wouldn’t let her.

“You, afraid?  I don’t believe that for one minute, you are fearless.  What can you possibly be afraid of?”

“I’m afraid of getting hurt.”

Jake frowned, she really wasn’t getting it was she?

“I’m afraid of getting my heart trampled on again and I can’t go through that.  Not again.”  Victoria meant every word of it – she couldn’t deal with falling in love with Jake all over again because that was what was happening.  Just being near him was bringing back all those feelings, making her want to touch him and be touched by him, and making her want to sit in his apartment watching movies and eating pizza whilst drinking beer with him.  She tried to tell herself she was not in love with Jake, that Miami was just a way to get over Mark and it had been fun and nothing more than that.  But she knew it wasn’t true.  She loved Jake more than she had ever loved Mark or anyone else.  She loved the way they talked, she loved his mind, she loved his body and the way he made her feel when he touched her.  She loved everything about Jake Cumberland.  But what happened if Jake cheated on her the way Mark did?  She had been so hurt by Mark that she didn’t think she could handle it if Jake did that to her!  She wouldn’t be able to deal with that.  It would break her heart forever.  Just the mere thought of Jake being with other women over the last few weeks had hurt her so much, and they had only been together for a short period of time.  What would it be like if Jake cheated on her further down the line?  She didn’t think she could take that, and she didn’t know if she could take the risk.

“So you do love me?”  Jake said pulling Victoria back in close, savouring the feeling of her in his arms again.  He rested his head against her hair and breathed in her beautiful scent feeling like he had come home.

Victoria nodded against his chest, “Of course I love you Jake.  I love you so much I gave everything up for you.  And you know what?  None of that mattered.”

“And I appreciate it so much Victoria, but I didn’t know that when I flew here to get you.  I knew none of that until Alice told me today.  Surely this must show you how much I love you.  Not because of what you did for me - but because I truly love you with all my heart and I don’t want to be without you.”