The Billionaire Playboy (9 page)

Compassion and
understanding spread across her face. Even though she hadn't said it, he knew
that she understood why he'd made the decisions he had. Most people assumed he'd
been rebelling against his parents, and to some extent he had. Yet there had
been much more to his decisions than that. He'd been trying to prove to himself
that he had some control over his future. That just because his last name was
Sherbrooke he didn't have to follow the path so many in his family had.

“I left the
engineering firm a few years ago to start the foundation.” It was one of the
only decisions he'd made as an adult that he was proud of.

“Do you ever
regret not becoming a SEAL?” Sometime during his explanation she came to stand
next to him and now she placed a reassuring hand on his face.

Jake averted his
gaze and focused instead on the city skyline, “Every damn day.”

Leaning closer
she spoke in a tone filled with respect. “If you had, who knows what all those
people your foundation helped would've done.” Her voice dropped to almost a
whisper. “And we might not have met.”

Jake was floored
by the feelings her words and gentle touch evoked in him. They were so
unfamiliar. Sure he'd desired plenty of women and enjoyed their company but
he'd never felt such an emotional connection to one before. Of all the women he
dated never had he confessed this regret. None of them had ever shown any
interest. Most were more interested in what he could give them or what being
seen with him meant. It didn't appear as if Charlie cared about either.

Pushing back his
chair Jake pulled Charlie onto his lap. “I'm glad we did,” he said before
lightly kissing her. Like it had earlier, desire hot and heavy swept through his
body the second his lips touched hers. When she wrapped her arms around his
neck and wiggled her sexy bottom in order to get closer, he instantly became
hard. Thoughts of tossing her over his shoulder and finding the closest bed ran
through is mind. How would she react if he did?

Raising his
mouth from hers, he kissed a path down her neck. “Do you want to see the rest
of the yacht now? We didn't check out the bedrooms, or would you rather have
dessert?” he asked his voice low and purposefully seductive.

“Depends, what
is the chef planning?” Charlie asked with a trace of laughter in her voice. She
didn't wait for an answer. Instead she slid off his lap giving Jake the only
answer he needed.

Anticipation
surged through him as Jake led her to the largest of the bedrooms below. Just
as he expected, the room was prepared for them. The lights were dimmed and the
sheets on the bed were neatly turned down.

“Where were we?”
Charlie moved close to him and began to caress the back of his neck.

Rather than give
her a verbal answer, he walked her backward and then eased her down onto the
queen-sized bed. “Does right about here seem right?” He brushed his lips
against hers as he spoke.

A soft moan
escaped Charlie and she slipped a hand under his shirt searing a path up his
back to his shoulders. Not needing any further encouragement, Jake stood and
pulled his shirt up over his head. Then he reached for Charlie’s, intent on
doing the same thing to hers. The sound of the beeping intercom on the wall
halted his progress.

For half a
heartbeat he stared at the offending box on the wall. “What the hell?” Slowly
his brain registered what the sound was and stood.

This better be an emergency.
With more force
than necessary, Jake jabbed the talk button with his index finger. “Something
wrong Captain?”

“I'm sorry to
disturb you Mr. Sherbrooke. There is a disabled yacht just off our port. It's
taking on water.”

Frustrated Jake
raked his fingers through his hair. “Get them on board and make sure you alert
authorities. I'll be right up to greet them.” Grabbing his shirt off the floor,
he turned to Charlie who now sat upright on the bed. “We'll have to continue
this another night,” he said brushing his lips against hers one last time.

A devilish smile
formed on her face. “I'm going to hold you to that.”

***

By the middle of
the following week more than half the town had power back and things were
inching their way back to normal. Fewer and fewer people needed help every day,
so Wednesday Charlie found herself helping her mom around the bed and breakfast.
Two of the families who had been staying at the Victorian Rose left that
morning and their rooms needed cleaning. Charlie doubted there would be paying
guests anytime soon but the rooms still need to be prepared.

Working on
autopilot she stripped the queen-sized bed in the Revere Room. Would she be
getting Jake's room ready for a new guest soon too? With conditions in town
improving she figured he wouldn't be sticking around much longer. He'd already
been here a week and a half. How much longer would he feel the need to stay?
Not once during their conversations did he mention how long he typically stayed
in the field or when he planned on returning to Virginia. And they'd had plenty
of talks since their dinner together the previous weekend. In fact he seemed to
go out of his way to get time alone with her.

Charlie pulled
the fitted sheet across the mattress and thought back over their talks. They
seemed to discuss everything from books and music to sports and politics. They
didn't always agree, but she found that she enjoyed their conversations and
heated disagreements.

Their
conversations weren't the only things she liked either. Charlie figured she
could be kissed by Jake for the next hundred years and not tire of it. The man
could kiss. She'd never considered herself a romantic, yet when his lips came
in contact with hers it was like something out of a movie. Everything around
her faded away. Warmth and tenderness swept through her body as a deep longing
settled in her soul.

Charlie unconsciously
sighed as she thought about the kiss they'd shared the night before. For the
second straight night they'd both come down for a late night snack and ended up
having homemade oatmeal cookies with a side make out session.

If your friends saw you now O'Brien, they'd think
you'd been abducted by aliens
. She didn't sigh and daydream about men.
It simply wasn't her. Yet she was doing just that.

With more force
than necessary she stuffed a pillow into a clean cotton pillow case. She prided
herself on her ability to remain emotionally detached from the men she spent
time with. No matter who she dated or became intimate with she always held back
a part of herself. She never let her heart become invested in a relationship. It
was the only sure way to avoid a broken heart.

This time things
were different. Every day she found it a little more difficult to keep her
emotions under lock and key. She kept trying to figure out why? Maybe if she
knew why she could get a handle on it. Part of her wished she still thought of
him as the spoiled playboy the media referred to as Prince Charming. Then she
wouldn't have a problem keeping her heart safe. Though she still didn't know
how much of his playboy status was fabricated by the media, he'd more than
proven that he was more than just a spoiled rich guy. He cared about the
welfare of others, no one could deny that.

Charlie tossed
the pillow back onto the bed and reached for another. “I've got to get myself
back in control.” She stuffed the other pillow into its case.

Through the open
bedroom window she heard a car pull into the gravel driveway. After a few
minutes she heard the front door downstairs close. Despite her previous words
to herself about getting back into control, hope and anticipation blossomed in
her chest. Had Jake returned? He'd left right after breakfast. Lunch time had
come and gone and he hadn't returned.

Determined not
to look out the open window to see if his truck was back, Charlie spread the
sage green comforter over the bed. “I've got issues,” she said, her voice laced
with annoyance and disgust. Turning from the bed she retrieved the bottle of
Murphy's Oil Soap and the rag she'd brought up with her.

“You're not
alone. We all have issues but talking to yourself can be a serious problem. You
might want to see a professional,” Jake said from the open doorway, the
amusement in his voice apparent.

For a moment
Charlie wanted to do something she'd never in her life done before; drop
everything and run to the man leaning against the door frame and throw her arms
around him. Instead she looked at him forcing her feet to stay rooted in place.
“Can you suggest someone?”

“I've got a
great shrink on speed dial. I'll give you the number.”

He walked
further into the room and Charlie swore the temperature jumped twenty degrees.
Doesn't he ever look unsightly like the rest
of us mere mortals?
It just wasn't fair. No matter the time of day or what
he'd been doing, Jake always looked incredibly sexy. Today was no exception. Wearing
a pair of khaki Dockers and a light blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up
he could've been a model in an ad for a weekend executive collection.

“Your mom said
you were helping out. Almost done?” He wrapped his arms around her waist and
pulled her close as he spoke. “Thought we'd head over to see Mr. Quinn.”

All the nerves
in Charlie's body quivered at the physical contact. It seemed no matter how
many times he pulled her close like this it happened. Her entire body went on
high alert with excitement and yearning.

Control
. Somehow she needed to get a handle on
these emotions. Otherwise she ran the risk of having her heart crushed. The
last person who had done it was her father and she'd vowed it'd never happen
again.

With that single
word repeating in her head, she broke free then took a few steps away from him.
“Give me another ten minutes and I'll be done. Dusting is all I have left. I'll
meet you downstairs.” She needed him to leave before she said the hell with
dusting and threw her arms around him for one of his fabulous kisses.

Jake opened his
mouth as if to say something but then closed it again. Stuffing his hands in
his pockets he nodded. “I'll be in the kitchen getting a sandwich. I missed
lunch.”

Without another
word he turned and headed back downstairs. He figured waiting in the kitchen
was best. Being that close to her
and
a bed was dangerous. The minute he'd seen her in the bedroom he envisioned
himself locking them in, peeling her clothes off and spending the rest of the
day in bed getting to know every inch of her body, something he'd come close to
doing on the yacht before their unexpected visitors arrived. In the middle of
the day with her family around struck him as a bad time to give into his
desires. He'd have to wait till they had more privacy, assuming her response on
the boat hadn't been an isolated occurrence. He hoped it hadn't been.

Although the
last thing he'd come here for was a relationship, Jake hoped she gave them a
chance. Everything about her was so different from the women he normally dated,
yet being with her felt right. Though they'd only known each other a short
time, he felt like she understood him. She looked past his name and saw the
man. True, at first she'd only seen what the media told everyone, but her
opinion had changed. He could tell by the way she responded to his kisses and
the way she spoke to him. When they first met she'd been indifferent and aloof.
That wasn't the case anymore.

Thoughts about
the first time they met were still running through his mind, when his cell
phone rang. He knew from the ringtone it was his executive assistant, Cindy.

“Hi Cindy.” Jake
pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and made himself comfortable.

“How are things
up there, Jake?”

Most executives
would take exception to their employees calling them by their first name. In
fact his father almost had a heart attack the first time he'd heard Cindy call
him Jake. When he'd hired the fifty-something assistant he insisted that she
call him Jake and not Mr. Sherbrooke. At first she balked at the idea, but
after a while she complied. Now it sounded strange to hear her refer to him as
anything other than Jake.

“Everything is
coming along. A good portion of town has power back and our engineers have
started plans for replacing the dam. I should be returning home soon.”

“That's a relief.
The place is falling apart without you.”

Jake couldn't
help but chuckle. Cindy ran a tight ship especially when he wasn't around so he
knew there was no possibility of things falling apart without him. “I doubt
that.”

“You're right,
no problems here. I called because I wanted to give you a heads up. Marcy Blake
from Today magazine called looking for you this morning.”

Every cell in
Jake's body tensed up at the reporter’s name. Whenever she called looking for a
statement, it wasn't a good sign. The last time had been when news of Callie
and Dylan's involvement had been made public.

“What did she
want?” Jake leaned his forearms on the table prepared for bad news.