The Billionaire Playboy (20 page)

“You could say
I've never been the dutiful son. They've always had this master plan for me and
I’ve never followed it. Instead I've always gone out of my way to do my own
thing. The one time they got their way is when they stopped me from joining the
Navy, and I've regretted it ever since,” Jake said.

Charlie kept
silent as he began to explain. Somehow she knew he didn't share information
this personal with everyone.

“They'd deny it
but I think they wanted to turn me into a clone of Dylan. When I went to
college I did everything possible to separate myself from him. Got into the
club scene. Showed up with a different actress or model all the time. Hit the
casinos in Vegas and Monaco. The media picked up on it and my reputation as a
playboy was born.”

She didn't want
to believe him. It didn't fit with the man she knew.

Perhaps seeing
the uneasiness on her face, he reached for her and pulled her close again. “I
didn't sleep with all of the women I took to the clubs. I just created the
image to show my parents I was my own man. But the media didn't know that. And
my parents saw the pictures and made their own assumptions.”

She could
understand how everyone would come to that conclusion. Even she had believed
that Jake was the playboy Prince Charming the media portrayed. His parents knew
the real man, though, didn't they? She didn't think they would just blindly
accept what the media printed about him. However, convincing Jake didn't seem
likely. So instead of trying, she switched the topic back to his immediate
concern.

“It still
doesn't bother me. Trust me I can handle whatever she writes.” Charlie leaned
in and brushed her lips against his. A delightful shiver of desire ran through
her at the brief contact and every inch of her body called out for his touch. Forcing
herself to go slow she ran her hands up his forearms and over his well-defined
biceps before making a path down his chest. As she moved her hands over his
flat stomach she felt his muscles tighten. When she reached the hem of his polo
shirt, she slipped her hands under and reversed her previous path. Under her
fingers she felt his muscles bunch and tense. At the same time she heard the slight
change in his breathing.

With her heart
hammering in her ears she pushed Jake gently to the floor of the gazebo, their
earlier conversation forgotten. As they kissed she felt his hand slip under her
shirt and up her spine. His hands were callused from working outside but the
roughness only seemed to intensify the experience of having his hands on her
body again; an experience she didn't think she would ever tire of.

Through the
thick haze of desire, she heard gravel crunching under tires. As if just awakening
from a dream, Charlie remembered they were in the gazebo behind her mom's bed
and breakfast. Not the best place for getting up, close and personal.

“Now might be a
good time to go upstairs,” Jake whispered near her ear.

She could feel
his uneven breathing on her cheek and she couldn't contain a smile. She liked
knowing she could affect him just as much as he did her.

“Sounds like a
plan to me.”

Charlie tossed
the remains of their snack into a basket. Later she would wrap the leftover
blueberry turnovers. Right now her body urged her to work fast and get to a
place where they could continue what they'd already started.

With everything
cleaned up, Jake helped her to her feet and they sprinted toward the back door.
She assumed whoever had arrived would go through the front entrance. Only
family used the door that led into the kitchen. She guessed wrong though and
almost collided with Sean.

Sean remained
silent as he glanced from Charlie to Jake then to the basket. “Need seconds
that badly?” he asked finally.

“Something like
that,” Charlie answered. She sensed her brother knew exactly where they'd been
heading.

“Don't let me
stop you.” Without another word he walked back toward his loaded pickup truck
in the driveway.

From here she
couldn't tell what all the boxes in the truck contained, but she guessed it
would take Sean awhile to carry them all inside by himself.

Next to her Jake
let go of her hand. “Need help?” he called out as if reading her mind.

Turning around
to face them again, Sean eyed Jake for a moment before answering. “If you're
offering, I'm not saying no.”

Her brain knew
it was the right thing to do, and if Jake hadn't offered, Sean never would've
asked. Still, disappointment washed over her. Removing boxes from her brother's
truck was not what her body wanted to be doing right now. It wanted to be
upstairs removing Jake's clothes instead.

“The bed isn't
going anywhere,” he whispered in her ear, his warm breath caressing her cheek.
  
“Your brother and I can take care of this if
you want to go in,” he added before kissing her.

“Are you sure? I
don't mind.” The more people working the sooner she and Jake could continue
what they started.

“Jake's right. We’ve
got this. Go on in.”

“Don't say I
didn't offer.” Charlie didn't have a good reason to argue with her brother so
she carried the remains of their snack and went inside.

Jake watched her
walk into the house then joined Sean at the back of his truck.

“Gonna be around
long?” Sean asked.

“Till Monday.”
Jake pulled a large box out of the truck bed.

Sean reached for
another as well but didn't pick it up. “Does Charlie know about your pregnant
ex? If not I suggest you tell her.”

Jake didn't miss
the threatening tone of the statement. He wanted to hate the guy for it, but if
the tables were reversed he could see himself doing the same thing. How many
times had he done similar things on Sara's behalf? More times than he cared to
count.

“I don't want
her hurt. Understand? And your arm wouldn't be the first I've broken on my
sister's behalf without her knowledge.”

He didn't doubt
Sean could do it without breaking a sweat either. Charlie's brother reminded
him of a brick wall. “She knows everything O'Brien. Just for the record it's
not mine.”

“Glad to hear
it,” Sean said, his voice losing its menacing tone.

If whatever
existed between him and Charlie was going to continue he didn't want any bad
blood between him and her family. “Are we good then? Or is this going to be a
problem?”

“We're good.” Sean
slapped him on the back before lifting his box and starting toward the house. “A
reporter stopped at Quinn's Hardware asking questions about you,” Sean said
before disappearing down the stairs around the side of the house that led into
the basement.

And today just keeps getting better
. “Just me?”
Jake wondered if Marcy Blake made that stop before or after her stop at the
Victorian Rose.

Sean dropped the
case he carried and motioned for Jake to do the same. “At least while I was
there she only asked about you, but I left before she did. Why?”

Jake heard a
trace of the threatening tone from before return to the other man's voice, and
he wondered if Charlie realized just how protective her brother could be. He
doubted it.

“She stopped
here this morning,” Jake said as he headed back outside.

“And Ma was a
wealth of information,” Sean said before Jake could comment any further.

“You could say
that.” Once again he felt guilty for dragging Charlie and her family into this
new scandal.

“Leave it to her.
She just doesn't know when to stop.”

The need to
defend Maureen O'Brien's behavior fueled Jake's next comment. “It's not her
fault. Marcy Blake could get a corpse to talk. That's why she's so good at her
job.”

Sean stopped
near his truck and leaned against the side. “Ma means well, but she likes to
talk, always has. I hope she didn't say too much.”

“Nothing that
Marcy couldn't find out from some other source.” Jake reached for another box.
“But you should be prepared for other reporters if and when Marcy writes about
Charlie coming to Newport with me.”

Sean groaned and
pushed away from the truck. “Great. Just what we need. More chaos around here.”
He pulled the next case off the tuck bed. “On second thought it might be good
for business,” he said after a minute. “After people read the President's son
stayed here they might figure it's good enough for them too.”

Sean walked
toward the house. “Hey, maybe I should put a plaque outside the room you used. Billionaire
playboy Jake Sherbrooke slept here. What do you think? Maybe I could charge a
premium for that room.”

Jake heard Sean
laugh as he disappeared down the basement stairs. Guy's got a strange sense of
humor, Jake thought following him down. “Always glad to be of service. Do you
want me to sign it for you?”

“I like the way
you think, Sherbrooke.”

It took a few
more trips to empty the truck but eventually all the boxes were stacked in the
basement.

“You want a
beer?” Sean asked closing the door to the storage room in the basement behind
him.

He wanted to
find Charlie and pick up where they'd left off in the gazebo, but sharing that
information with her brother was out of the question. “Sounds good.” Jake
followed Sean to the opposite side of the basement.

“Do you play?”
Sean asked as he opened the door to the refrigerator.

Since the pool
table stood between them, Jake assumed Sean was referring to pool. “A little
but not since college.” He accepted the ice cold bottle Sean handed him.

“I don't play
much anymore either. But before we started the bed and breakfast I used to play
in a league. Now I get together with a couple of guys maybe once a month to
play.” Sean took a long swallow from his beer. “You up for a game?”

He doubted it
would be much of a game. He'd never mastered pool, but in this instance that
would be a plus since it meant the game would be over all that much sooner. Grabbing
a pool stick off the wall, he approached the table. “Rack them up.”

***

Much later that
evening Jake laid in bed staring at the canopy above his head. He could feel
Charlie's slow even breathing next to him as she slept, and he couldn't help
but marvel at how right it felt to have her by his side. A part of him wanted
to press a pause button and keep them just like this forever. He'd learned a
long time ago how rapidly situations could deteriorate and loathed to see that
happen between Charlie and him. He didn't know how far their relationship would
go, but he wasn't in any rush to see it end. Something he knew could happen if
the media threw their relationship into the spotlight. While Charlie insisted
she could take anything the media tossed at her, he knew from experience that
it could be far worse than she imagined it.

Although if
anyone could handle it, he suspected it'd be Charlie. She wasn't one to take BS
from anyone, and she didn't hold anything back. If Charlie felt a certain way
she let you know it.

Even though he
knew she could take care of herself, that didn't stop him from considering the
different ways he might be able to protect her from unwanted media attention. He
figured in the worst case scenario he could hire a private body guard to keep
an eye on her. His family had done it in the past before his father took office
and the Secret Service became a regular part of his family's life. They'd most
recently done it when Callie's identity came out. If he did hire protection,
Jake knew Charlie would hate it. Not that he would blame her. There was nothing
fun about having someone follow you twenty-four seven. He shuddered at the
memory of what it'd been like with the Secret Service following his every move.
Thankfully the only time he interacted with them now was when he saw his
father.

Jake rolled onto
his side so he could look at Charlie and once again he marveled at the beauty
sleeping next to him. Sure he'd been with beautiful women before, but Charlie's
beauty was natural. It didn't need enhancing from makeup or fancy hairstyles. With
his hand he brushed a few pieces of hair off her check and tucked them behind
her ear. As if dead to the world she didn't stir as he let his fingers linger
on her cheek. Part of him wanted to wake her, but he held back. Instead he
climbed out of bed and tossed on a pair of shorts. He knew it'd be awhile
before sleep returned so he pulled out his laptop and tackled his latest
emails.

Chapter
11

“I've got good
news and bad news,” Jake told her over the phone one week later.

Charlie didn’t
like the sound of that. In her book nothing good ever resulted when someone
began a conversation that way. “Give me the good news first.” She cradled the
phone against her ear as she continued to fold laundry.

“My lawyer got
the ultrasound results from Blair's lawyer yesterday. Blair is 14 weeks
pregnant. Her estimated conception date is in March. I was in England that
entire month.”