Californian Kings. Maureen Child

Patti Canterbury Hambleton.

      For years of friendship and laughter.

      For shared memories and too many adventures to count.

      For always being a touchstone in my life.

      I love you.

Chapter One

      Jesse King loved women.

      And they loved him right back.

      Well, all except one.

      Jesse walked into Bella’s Beachwear and stopped just inside the store. His gaze wandered the well-kept if decrepit building and he shook his head at the stubbornness of women.

      Hard to believe that Bella Cruz preferred this ramshackle building to what he was offering. He’d arrived in Morgan Beach, a tiny coastal town in southern California, nine months ago. He’d bought up several of the run-down, eclectic shops on Main Street, rehabbed some, razed others, then built the kind of stores and offices that would actually attract shoppers to the downtown district.

      Everyone had been happy to sign on the dotted line. They’d accepted his buyout offers with barely disguised glee and most of them were now renting retail space from him. But not Bella Cruz. Oh, no. This woman had been working against him for months.

      She’d spearheaded a sit-in campaign, getting a few of her friends to plant themselves in front of his bulldozers for an afternoon. She’d held a protest march down Main Street that consisted of Bella herself, four women, two kids and a three-legged dog. And finally, she’d resorted to trying to pull off a candlelight vigil in memory of the “historic” buildings of Morgan Beach.

      There had been five people standing outside his office holding candles the night the first big summer storm had blown in. Within minutes, they were all drenched, the candle flames drowned out. Bella was the only one left standing in the dark, glaring up at him as he looked at her through his office window.

      “Why is she taking this all so personally?” he wondered. It wasn’t as if he’d come to town to deliberately ruin her life.

      He’d come here for the waves.

      When professional surfers stopped riding competitively, they settled in a place where they could always find a good ride year-round. Most ended up in Hawaii, but, as a native Californian, Jesse had decided on Morgan Beach. His whole family still lived in the state and Morgan was close enough that he could keep in touch and far enough away from his three brothers that he wouldn’t trip on them with every step. He liked his family. A lot. That didn’t mean he wanted to live right on top of them.

      So he was building himself a little kingdom here in this small town and the only thing keeping it from being absolutely perfect was Bella Cruz.

      “The evil landlord stops by to gloat,” a low, female voice said from somewhere nearby.

      He turned around and spotted his nemesis, crouched behind the counter, rearranging a display of sunglasses, flip-flops and tote bags. Her dark brown eyes were fixed on him with the steely look of a woman about to spray a roach with Raid.

      “You’re not armed, are you?” he asked, walking toward her slowly. “Because you look as if you’d like to put me out of my misery.”

      “Out of my misery is more like it,” she answered wryly. Then she stood up and Jesse took in her latest outfit.

      Bella stood about five foot eight, which was good, because he liked his women tall enough that he didn’t get a crick in his neck when he kissed them. Not that he was thinking about kissing Bella. It was just an observation.

      She had wavy black hair that fell to the middle of her back, huge chocolate eyes and a lusciously full mouth he had yet to see curved into a smile. Pretty, he thought. Except for the clothes.

      Every time he saw her she looked as if she were about to pose for the cover of Amish Monthly: loosefitting cotton tops and full, floor-length skirts. Probably just as well, he told himself. He liked his women curvy and by the look of her, she had all the curves of a box. Seemed strange to him, though, that a woman who made her living designing and selling women’s swimwear looked as if she’d never worn one of her own garments.

      “What do you want, Mr. King?”

      He grinned deliberately. He knew the power of that smile. Enough women over the years had told him just what his dimples did to their knees. Bella’s knees appeared to be rock solid. Oh, well. He wasn’t interested in seducing her anyway. Or so he kept reminding himself.

      “I wanted to tell you that we’re going to start rehabbing this building next month.”

      “Rehabbing,” she repeated and screwed up her face as if even the word itself were distasteful. “You mean knocking down the walls? Tearing up the hardwood floor? Getting rid of the leaded windows? That kind of rehabbing?”

      He shook his head. “What is it exactly, that you have against well-insulated buildings and sound roofs?”

      She crossed her arms under her breasts and Jesse was distracted for a moment. Apparently, she did have at least one good set of curves.

      “My roof doesn’t leak,” she told him. “Robert Towner was an excellent landlord.”

      “Yes, so I’ve heard,” he said with a sigh. “Repeatedly.”

      “You could take lessons from him.”

      “He didn’t even bother to repaint the outside of your shop,” Jesse pointed out.

      “Why would he do that?” she demanded. “I painted it myself three years ago.”

      His mind boggled. “You actually chose to paint your business purple? On purpose?”

      “It’s lavender.”

      “Purple.”

      She inhaled sharply and gave him another glare that should have set his hair on fire. But Jesse was made of sterner stuff. He was a King. And Kings didn’t cave for anybody.

      “You won’t be happy until every building on Main Street is beige with rust-colored trim, will you?” Shaking her head, she gave him a pitying look now, but it was wasted on Jesse. Kings didn’t need anyone’s pity. “We’re all going to be Stepfords. Will we all march in lockstep, do you think? Dress alike?”

      “Please God, no,” he said, with a glance at her ensemble.

      She colored briefly. “My point is, there’s no individuality here anymore. Morgan Beach used to have personality.”

      “And wood rot.”

      “It was eclectic.”

      “Shabby.”

      “You’re nothing but a corporate robot,” she accused.

      Jesse was stunned that anyone would describe him that way. He’d never set out to be a corporate anything. Hell, he’d gone out of his way to avoid the trap that all Kings eventually landed in. The business world. In fact, the King name had been a pain in his ass for most of his life.

      His father, brothers, cousins—all Kings everywhere—seemed to be locked into offices. Didn’t matter to Jesse if those offices were luxurious penthouse suites. He’d never wanted anything to do with that world.

      He’d watched his three older brothers slide into the family business concerns as if they’d been molded for the task. Even Justice, on his ranch, was a businessman first and foremost. But Jesse had broken away. Become a professional surfer and damn if he hadn’t loved the life. While his brothers and cousins were wearing suits and running meetings, he was traveling the world, looking for the perfect ride. He did things his way. Lived his life the way he wanted to. He didn’t answer to anyone.

      Until