Californian Kings. Maureen Child

to defeat your opponent, you have to know her first.”

      “Opponent?” Dave echoed, sounding a little uneasy. “She’s not an opponent.”

      Jesse sighed, then grinned. “How long have you and Connie been married, Dave?”

      “Thirteen years, why?”

      “You’ve been out of the dating game so long, you’ve forgotten what it’s really like.” Jesse sat forward to lay his forearms on the desktop and continued, “Women and men are always opposing forces. That’s the fun, after all. If we understood women, where would the challenge be?”

      “Why does it have to be a challenge?”

      Jesse chuckled. “Doesn’t have to be,” he said. “It just is. The trick is, knowing the woman you’re interested in, figuring out how her mind works, if you can. Once you do that, everything comes more easily.”

      “If you say so,” Dave said, but he didn’t sound as if he believed him.

      “Trust me on this. If I want to win Bella over, keep her from signing with Pipeline, then I’ve got to know her, don’t I?”

      “I guess you do,” Dave said, then smiled. “I think Bella’s stuff is going to be great for King Beach.”

      Jesse nodded. “It will. I’ll see to it. But until I convince Bella of that, our plans are top secret. Nobody knows. Not even Connie.”

      Dave winced, then shrugged. “You got it, boss.”

      “Good.” Jesse listened as Dave started talking, giving him all the information he had on Bella.

      And while Dave talked, Jesse began to plan the way he would prove to Bella just how much she needed him.

Chapter Four

      For the next couple of days, Jesse watched a steady stream of customers go in and out of Bella’s shop. From the vantage point of his office window or from a seat in the sidewalk café on the beach, he had a perfect view of Bella’s Beachwear and its all-too-intriguing owner. What had astounded Jesse was the amount of business she did. Bella had told him that her business was slowing down because the season was over. Well, if this was slow, he was impressed.

      He still didn’t like the idea of expanding. But he couldn’t get the facts out of his head, either. Dave’s research proved just how successful Bella had become in her niche market, and damn if he’d let Nick Acona grab up her business right from under his nose.

      She was the perfect advertisement for her wares. A normal-size woman walked into her store frustrated by the offerings at chain stores, and left with a smile on her face. He’d been watching it for days.

      “And there go two more,” he said to no one as he set his hands on either side of his office’s wide window and stared down at Main Street. A couple of women were just leaving Bella’s, carrying huge, purple-and-whitestriped shopping bags that looked stuffed to bursting. She had a good business, he admitted silently, but he could make it great.

      If he bought her out, or better yet, simply absorbed her company into his, keeping her on as head designer, they could both make millions. Even though she’d probably fight him every inch of the way. He smiled to himself at the thought. Damn if he didn’t like that about her. The way her brown eyes snapped with fury or irritation. The way she lifted her chin and gave him a glare that she fully expected would turn him to stone.

      Most women he knew were so busy flirting with him, they’d never consider arguing with him. Bella was different. And now that he knew she was his mystery girl, she was even more appealing.

      He wanted her. Badly. The woman he’d been thinking about for three years was here. Right in front of him. Ready to be taken again. He was more than ready to do the taking.

      But taking wasn’t right, either. He wanted to explore that fabulous body, feel the buzz of her skin beneath his and build new memories. Jesse smiled to himself. He wanted more than just one more night with her. He wasn’t thinking about how much more, but that wasn’t the point.

      She was.

      Hell, Jesse actually liked her. And dammit, he understood her. Watching Bella with her customers, he knew that her business was more than just work to her. He’d felt the same way back when he started. When he bought his first company, he’d actually gone in and learned how to shape and make the surfboards himself. He’d enjoyed being in on the ground floor, feeling a connection to the business that he never would have had simply as a suit. It had made it more than a company to him. It had made it a part of him.

      And there was no doubt in his mind that was how Bella felt about her shop. He admired that about her, even as he knew that would be the sticking point to winning her over. She wouldn’t want to let go of the reins of her shop.

      She was going to be a hard sell. The difference was, he knew her secret. He knew that she was a woman of passion. A woman who’d rocked his world three years ago.

      So what he had to do here was seduce her. Charm her. Flatter her. Get her into his bed and once he had her there, he’d be in a position to smooth her into his company.

      When it was all over, she’d be rich and thanking him.

      If there was one thing Jesse King knew, it was women.

      “Jesse King’s been with so many women, he can’t tell us apart anymore. The entire female gender is like nothing more than a well-stocked candy store. He likes candy, so he just grazes his way through the aisles.” Bella scowled and tapped her fingernails against one of the glass jewelry cases in Kevin’s shop.

      It had been three days since she’d seen Jesse. Three days and he hadn’t made an effort to talk to her. Not a phone call. Not one of his annoying drop-ins at her store. Not even a brief sighting on the street. Not that she had been hoping for any of that, but she couldn’t help feeling frustrated.

      He’d seemed…excited to find out that she was the woman he’d been with three years ago on the beach. So much so that he’d been avoiding her ever since. Bella groaned internally. For heaven’s sake, she was angry when he was around and even angrier when he wasn’t. “Clearly, he’s making me insane.”

      “Nothing wrong with a little insanity,” Kevin told her.

      “Easy enough to say when you’re not the babbling idiot,” Bella muttered and leaned over a glass display case to examine a new pair of earrings Kevin had stocked. “Is this turquoise?”

      “God, you’re plebian,” he said with a laugh. “No, my little peasant, that’s lapis lazuli. Antique. That stone—well, not that one in particular—was really popular back in the day with emperors and pharaohs.”

      “You know,” Bella told him, tipping her head to one side and smiling up at him, “if I hadn’t met your girlfriend, I’d swear you were gay.”

      “Straight men know good jewelry, too. Your surfer guy bought that great emerald piece from me, remember?”

      Bella felt a twinge. Who had he bought it for? One of his celebrity dates? She had to be important to him. You didn’t just buy emeralds for a casual fling. Of course, maybe Jesse did.

      “Ah, yes, Mr. Thoughtful. Wonder which one of the slavering crowd gets the emeralds,” Bella mused, stopping in front of a display case of sterling silver.

      “Honey, you sound like a jealous wife.”

      Her head snapped up and she pinned him with a hard look. “I do not.”

      Kevin shrugged. “Yeah, you do.”

      Oh God, did she really? That was lowering. She wasn’t jealous of Jesse’s women. She was…heck, she didn’t even know what she was anymore. Still…“I’m not jealous. I’m irritated.”