Kalia I had met Maya on a few occasions. She was a pretty brunette, petite and fine boned, delicate and small, none of the height Jake had inherited passed down to her. She looked young, and in some ways seemed younger.It was obvious that Jake doted on her, and that, despite that, Maya made an effort to be independent, which I completely respected.I also understood the kind of dilemma she found herself in. It was hard for a woman to be taken seriously in business. It was hard to find the right balance. Dress up too much, men make assumptions about what you are there for … not enough and you would get torn apart by the other women.“We can create our own distraction." I narrowed my eyes. “No. I don’t know what you are thinking, I just know it’s probably going to create a big cleanup for me.”He shook his head. “It won’t. But it will take the focus off of Maya. If we can bury this story with one of our own, it will at least soften the blow.”“You have a valid point, but I seriously do
Kalia.“Good. Take care of it. The ring will be in your office in less than an hour then you can make the announcement.”She could tell by the way he was sitting, looking at her, that she was dismissed. “As proposals go,” she said, unable to resist, “that one ranks right up there with a ring in the food.”“I thought women liked that,” he said, his slightly amused.“No. It gets the ring messy and if you don’t find it you might break a tooth.”“I’ll keep that in mind should I ever stage a real proposal.”“Do you actually plan on doing that?” she asked, not able to picture it.“I don’t plan to, no.”“I didn’t think so.”“What about you? You’re impervious to wedding bells, so you say, but do you have a boyfriend you’re going to have to explain this to?”“No. And even if I did, I told you when you hired me, work comes first. I was serious.”“You would ditch your boyfriend to further your career?”“Yes,” she said, without hesitation. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same to any of your pas
Kalia. And the worst thing was that, even knowing that, even having a complete and total man embargo, it affected her. Her heart was thundering, her stomach tight, her breasts heavy.And when his eyes dropped and his focus moved to her lips, she was silently hoping he would lean in and close the distance between them.She shook her head sharply and tried to force the image out of her mind.She didn’t want to kiss him. He was charming her. Like he’d done to thousands of other women multiple thousands of times. But she wasn’t like those other women. She had standards. She knew what happened when you let a man in like that, when you gave someone else so much power in your life. She would never make that mistake. Her life was just as she liked it.Well-ordered and entirely in her control.The rest of the questions went by in a blur and she stood there, smiling, her face placid, her manner serene. She was a professional at projecting calm when her thoughts were churning beneath the surface
Kalia.Fine for some women to have flings and keep themselves emotionally separate, but she was afraid she wasn’t one of those women. Her mother certainly wasn’t. Every man she ever slept with consumed everything she had. All her emotion, all her time, her self-respect. It had made growing up a living hell for Kalia . There had been nothing she could do at the time, but now, it was up to her how she ran her life, and she chose to maintain total control.End of story. So her hormones could just deal with it.“I don’t suppose you can,” she said, teeth clenched.“Check your alerts,” he said, back to his high-handed self.She took her phone out of her pocket and pulled up her email. She’d received a few email alerts, letting her know Jake ’s name had popped up in search engines. She opened the first one. “It looks like our engagement is big news. Huge news, in fact.”“How about Maddy?”“The story’s still there, and I wouldn’t call it buried,” she said, looking through the pages of search r
Kalia. It was late when Jake ’s private plane landed on the island of Koh Samui. A car was waiting for us when we got off of the plane. I expected nothing less. Jake was always efficient. Or at least, the people he hired were always completely efficient. Which, I imagined, brought it back around to Jake being efficient. He lived a luxurious life and he appreciated the fiber things in life. I took a deep breath of the humid, salty air before getting into the limo.Jake settled in beside me. His top button was undone, his tie long discarded, his sleeves pushed up over his elbows, revealing tanned, muscular forearms that demanded an in depth study from female admirers.He still smelled good, too, even after long hours of travel.“Don’t you find the limo a bit cliché?” I asked, running my hands unconsciously over the cool leather.“I find it practical. I have a driver, I have privacy. I have enough room to work” he looked at me, his blue eyes hot “or play.”I held up a hand and tried to
Kalia.He offered me a partial smile. “Yet, I still want more. It’s never quite enough, that’s the thing about ambition. But that’s what keeps me going, and in business, you have to keep going. Money doesn’t wait for you. If I wasn’t building this resort, someone else would be, and it would be my missed opportunity. As it is, it’s my payday and someone else’s regret.”“You don't regret, do you?” I asked.“I make sure I never need to.”We pulled onto a road that was newer than the main highway, the pavement dark and smooth as the road curved around the base of sheer rock face covered with vines and moss. The road led up the mountain and the foliage grew thicker and greener and palm trees and other topical plants grew thick along the roadside.It certainly hadn’t been overtaken by Forrestation Inc., as some of the environmental groups had feared. With the exception of the road, I could barely make out any signs of civilization.The partially built resort was at the top of the mountain, w
Jake. I fully understood the need for privacy. Having a child, my sister live with him for eight years had severely limited my privacy, dictating who he could have over and when. What sort of activities i could indulge in.Of course, now that Maya was on her own, i could have women over if i chose to, but i had gotten so used to going to hotels when I wanted sex that I had never really adapted back.And now that I had the privacy I wanted, the house felt empty sometimes. I still didn’t want to share it with any of my mistresses. I didn't need women leaving toothbrushes on my sink. It was a level of commitment I had no desire to pursue.I had nothing to offer a woman beyond a little mutual fun in the bedroom, and I didn’t see the point in making her believe otherwise. That was why neutral locations reigned supreme in my book.Although, having Kalia stay here with me didn’t bother me at all. But then, Kalia wasn’t my mistress, and she also didn’t seem like she knew how toto cling or sim
Jake. When Kalia emerged an hour later she was back in her business attire, hair pinned back, makeup expertly applied. Her lipstick was a paler rose than her typical color, coordinating with her new manicure and her sky high stilettos.Her endless supply of colorful high heeled shoes never failed to fascinate me. Her work wardrobe was neutral, black and gray, with the occasional brown. But she wore a rainbow on her feet. I had dated women that wore shoes like that, but mixed with garish jewelry and flashy dresses. Their entire look was so obvious that nothing stood out. Kalia knew how to dress for impact. And with a figure like hers, everything short of a burlap sack had pretty major impact. Although, i imagined a burlap sack might even pack a punch with Kalia ’s curves to complement it.“I’m ready to eat,” she said.“Dinner will be up shortly.”She narrowed her brown eyes. “I thought we were meeting with the board.”“Tomorrow. They have only just flown in and will be eating in their
Kalia.I had been working for him for a couple of months now as his pr, and still I was not used to it. The fact that the very first thing I felt when Jake’s deep, masculine voice pulled me out of the deep sleep I had been in was a shiver of excitement, and not a pang of annoyance, was disturbing on a lot of levels, all of which I was too tired to analyze in that particular moment.“It’s one in the morning, Jake .” I said, as I blinked against the blinding light radiating from the screen of my smartphone. After four months in working for him, I should know better than to be surprised by a midnight phone call, but somehow every time it happened it caught me unprepared. “It’s nine a.m. in England.” He said, “And we have a crisis on our hands?” I immediately rolled over and brushed myhair out of my face, the cool sheets from the side of the bed that had been unoccupied chilling me slightly.“The sky isn’t falling, if that’s what you mean, but we have protesters lining the streets at
Kalia.And I had vowed i wouldn’t become like that. I wasn’t letting anyone have control over my life again.Although, obviously Jake had some modicum of control over my life since he was my boss and my child's father, but that was different. “If you expect me to buy new clothes you have to give me time to shop.” I said facing him with a straight face, after all this was his event he was inviting me to, it only made sense. “You can have the afternoon off.” I shook my head, my tight bun staying firmly in place. “Morning and afternoon. I need some sleep too.”“Morning to lunch hour,” he countered.“Deal.”“No black. No beige.” He added“It’s an art gala, most of the women will be in black.” I said defensively “I know, and that’s exactly why I want you to wear something else.”I frowned. “I’m not in the habit of allowing men to dictate what I wear. I can choose for myself.”He stood from his desk, and I was distracted, as I always was when he surprised me like that, by the superb sha
Jake was from a fairly affluent family, that was general knowledge. It surprised me that he’d had to take out loans to start up his company.When we were married he never talked to me about this type of stuff, or anything business related at all. Which is why I loved our new arrangement, I felt needed and smart. I was not just a pretty girl. “But now you have to play the diplomacy game,” I said.“I would anyway. I develop resort and hotel properties, the public has to have a favorable view of me.”“That’s true.”For the most part, the public did have a favorable view of him. He was charismatic and charming and dated the most eligible women in Hollywood, which put him on the front cover of a lot of magazines andmade him very high profile for a businessman. He was also a slave driving taskmaster, but only his employees knew that. And in fairness, he never expected anything from her that he didn’t expect from himself. In fact, he seemed to expect more from himself.Which was why, even
Kalia. In theory, I liked sexy men, at least from a distance. When said sexy man was both my baby daddy and boss, it made life a bit more complicated. It didn’t really matter, though. Business was business and I had no intention of crossing any lines with him. I wasn’t his type anyway. He liked party girls. The shallower, and the shorter the skirt, the better. Of course, I wasn’t entirely certain what my type was as far as practical application went. Judging by my recent string of failed dates I didn’t really have a type.“How many shots?” he asked, lowering the cup.“four,” I answered, trying to bring my mind back into the present and away, far, far away, from his lips.“Good. It’s going to be a long day.” i sat down in the chair by his desk, pulled my notebook out of my briefcase and sat poised with a pen in my hand.“Why do you do that?” he asked.“Do what?”“Take physical notes on paper. You have a million little gadgets for that kind of thing. I know because most of them were pu
Kalia. In theory, I liked sexy men, at least from a distance. When said sexy man was both my baby daddy and boss, it made life a bit more complicated. It didn’t really matter, though. Business was business and I had no intention of crossing any lines with him. I wasn’t his type anyway. He liked party girls. The shallower, and the shorter the skirt, the better. Of course, I wasn’t entirely certain what my type was as far as practical application went. Judging by my recent string of failed dates I didn’t really have a type.“How many shots?” he asked, lowering the cup.“four,” I answered, trying to bring my mind back into the present and away, far, far away, from his lips.“Good. It’s going to be a long day.” i sat down in the chair by his desk, pulled my notebook out of my briefcase and sat poised with a pen in my hand.“Why do you do that?” he asked.“Do what?”“Take physical notes on paper. You have a million little gadgets for that kind of thing. I know because most of them were pu
Jake was from a fairly affluent family, that was general knowledge. It surprised me that he’d had to take out loans to start up his company.When we were married he never talked to me about this type of stuff, or anything business related at all. Which is why I loved our new arrangement, I felt needed and smart. I was not just a pretty girl. “But now you have to play the diplomacy game,” I said.“I would anyway. I develop resort and hotel properties, the public has to have a favorable view of me.”“That’s true.”For the most part, the public did have a favorable view of him. He was charismatic and charming and dated the most eligible women in Hollywood, which put him on the front cover of a lot of magazines andmade him very high profile for a businessman. He was also a slave driving taskmaster, but only his employees knew that. And in fairness, he never expected anything from her that he didn’t expect from himself. In fact, he seemed to expect more from himself.Which was why, even
Jake.I had never seen Kalia look less than perfect. She always looked beautiful, even when she rushed into the office at two in the morning to handle some sort of media crisis. But in a dark navy blue gown with ruffled sleeves, a demure neckline and a back that dipped so low it ought to be illegal, she was stunning.Her hair was pinned to the side so that her curls cascaded over one shoulder, and didn’t cover any of the skin that was on display in the back of the gown. Her makeup was more dramatic than she usually wore to the office and her legs were bare, and on glorious show, the dress barely skimming her knees. And they were amazing legs.My libido kicked into gear, a reminder that I hadn’t had sex in a very long time. But business had been intense and when I hadn’t been focused on my various building projects I had been handling Maya’s big move into her new, off campus apartment. An apartment she hadn’t wanted, because she couldn’t afford it herself. But there was no way I was let
JakeI put my hand on the small of her back, on her bare skin, and I felt a small shiver go through her whole body. She was feeling every bit of the attraction I was. Strange, because I had only ever seen her in herbuttoned up professional mode for a while now, now suddenly she was unbuttoned and very, very hot. Although, she had always been hot. I had thought more thanonce about uncoiling her tightly wound hair and watching the dark curls tumble down.She shifted against me, her hip brushing my body intimately. My muscles tensed and desire roared through me, my body hardening at the accidental contact.I drew her closer, letting her feel. Letting her know exactly what she was doing to me. I didn’t hit on employees as a rule, ever. But she tempted me. And that was a new experience. Women appealed to me, and I desired them. But I had never considered them a serious temptation. If itwasn’t the right time, it was easy for me to leave my date standing on the doorstep and go home withou
KaliaI bit my lip. This side of Jake always confused me . In some ways he seemed more uncomfortable having people know anything good about him.He didn’t seem to mind the negative press that came when he dated one supermodel, then switched to an actress the next night. But he didn’t seem to want to let anyone know about his good behavior. And there was something about that that made me almost like him sometimes, and that made all the other physical things he made me feel intensify.“It’s … okay, events like this are definitely a little bit fake. It’s see and be seen. Most people are flashing their bids all over the place.” I jerked my head toward the glittering celebrities and debutantes gathered around different pieces of art, waving their bids around while they talked.“I don’t play the game,” he said. “It doesn’t appeal to me.”“You have to play the game a little bit, Jake It’s good for business.”“What’s it like for you, doing a job that’s so at odds with who you are?”The questi