Free The Billionaire Playboy by Christina Tetreault Page B

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