The Carrero Solution (Carrero Book 3)

“God, I missed you.” Jake leans in and kisses me passionately, our mouths connecting sensually. He makes sure I know exactly how much he’s missed me in one breathless embrace, lingering momentarily, and runs a hand across my face before loosening his tie and pulling it off. I can’t help but giggle and sag into that strong embrace weakly. He’s literally just arrived home and straight to our bedroom skipping up here like a child to see me.

Finally putting me down, he slides his jacket off and throws it on the end of the bed. I’m lounging, watching him in adoration, magazines strewn, and TV on low in the late evening, just so glad to have him with me again.

He’s been gone three whole days; work was demanding today, and his texts informed me there’d been three back-to-back meetings he needed to get out of the way before coming home. He has so much going on, and a little part of me feels guilty that I’m not helping anymore, in fact, I have no clue about any of the ventures he is overseeing nowadays.

It feels like we haven’t seen each other in weeks, and devouring that face and body with my eyes makes my heart swell to enormous proportions.

God, I love him so much.

He strips off, hauling on a T-shirt and sweats quickly as I watch in complete admiration. His tantalizing body still being held aloft from me. I need to put my seduction plan into high gear soon, but I have other plans right now. As much as I ache for him, I must follow through on what I decided, and he looks tired enough to be less of a stubborn boy tonight. He seems exhausted for once and ripe for a little Emma cajoling.

I slide off the bed in my sexy nightdress, padding over to the side unit and picking up the cream envelope, turning to him and holding it out delicately with a soft smile.

“Here.” I try for a gentle tone, watching him closely for signs of how this may go. Jake can be unpredictable at the best of times, and when it’s something like this, he can be very prickly.

“What’s this?” He takes it warily, a small frown crossing that gorgeous face as he comes close, and leans in, kissing my temple, a hand running down my throat tenderly. I wait until he returns to the envelope in his hand, watching him turn it over to open, my stomach tightens with nerves, but I stand my ground and clench my hands to give myself courage. I need to do this if I want to carry out my plans.

“My resignation from the Carrero Corporation,” I state calmly and slowly. Jake’s eyes shoot up to mine with a little look of hurt that instantly pains me, but I remain impassive. He opens his mouth with a severely intimidating glare, and I hold up my hands quickly, my nerves most definitely skyrocketing at his obvious instant reaction.

“Listen, before exploding … Let me talk,” I blurt rapidly, hoping to God he’s missed me enough to have more than a little patience over this. He closes his mouth and crosses his muscular arms over his chest in an almost menacing way, a very unamused expression on that face that goads me to carry on.

The unopened letter is still in his fingers in one hand. He isn’t going to open it until he hears me out. I know him. He thinks he will just rip it up if he doesn’t like my explanation and that I can forget all about it. I grit my teeth to find my inner steel. Jake doesn’t scare me in the slightest anymore, these bad moods of his are mostly just noise and temper, and if I’m going to be married to him for a lifetime, then I’m going to have to learn to hold my own when Mr. Dominant. comes into play.

Undeterred, I lean up on tiptoes, kissing him softly and tenderly on the mouth to show him that I am not doing this out of malice. He stays stock still. His eyes burning into me with no hint of amusement at all. He’s probably over-analyzing every reason for me doing this and getting it all wrong. I walk to the bed and sit down, deliberately making a show of being calm, in control, and hopefully a little bit sexy. I’m not against showing a lot of leg and cleavage to get my grumpy bear distracted.

Use your female prowess to tame that man, Emma.

“I don’t want to go back. That part of me is done, Jake. The girl I was, her focus on that job … It’s all in the past. The person I was, she used her job to avoid any real emotion, any real life, to avoid relationships with people. There’s nothing for me there anymore except you, and I have you here.” I blink up at him innocently, my voice full of conviction.

He’s watching me, a million emotions crossing his face, but he’s waiting for me to finish now that I’m on a roll. He’s holding his temper and desire to demand for once in his life, and I have to say I am a little impressed with his newfound willpower.

“I want to do something that means something to me. Something more fulfilling, where I can make a physical difference. Something that lets me be this version of who I am and gives me the flexibility to be a mother and a wife. This version of me that you keep encouraging to come out, this version you love.” I look up at him pointedly and adoringly, a small hint of a smile his way.

Yup, hit him emotionally, wear him down.

Jake sighs, his look of aggression dissipating fast, and walks toward me. His hand trails my hair, and he scoops down to kiss me solidly, a passionate kiss that knocks the breath out of me with much more steam than his first. When he leans back up, he appraises me closely. His whole demeanor softens as he thinks through what I’ve said.

“There’s too many smarts in this beautiful little head to ever be fulfilled as just a wife and mother, Emma. You’re a tough cookie. Whatever you want to pursue, you have my back up every step of the way. I just want you to be happy. I’ll move mountains to help you achieve it.” He sits beside me on the bed, his arm coming around my shoulders, pulling me close to him, and smiling at me in a completely infatuated way.

I’m shocked at how easy this was. He didn’t even try to argue a point against it.

Who are you, and where is Jake Carrero?

Maybe Jake’s come to the realization too, that going back to how it was just isn’t going to be an option for me, for us. Jake is happier not bringing work between us, knowing the stress and arguments it could cause again. His taking over work and leaving me alone is almost a sign that, deep down, he doesn’t want me to go back down that path either.

He’s taken a back seat compared to how he used to work, allowing Margo and her team to do our jobs. I know she now has six people under her control, all taking various positions and responsibilities, allowing Jake to be able to wander in and out freely and deal with only the most important things. Jake’s head is no longer embroiled in the Carrero Corporation. It’s here with me, most of the time, and our future family. He engineered his work routine to dissipate as it gets closer to the baby coming, and I know he fully intends to stay put and go nowhere in the last month of my pregnancy or the first six months of our baby’s life. That’s why he spends so much time sorting and organizing things in Manhattan. There would be no real place for me in that role, even if he wanted there to be.

“I want to do this on my own, Jake, whatever it is. I don’t want you throwing money at me in a bid to make it happen for me. I don’t need your money.” I gaze up at that expressive face and sense the protest coming by the slight tension in his jawline. He shifts around to face me, bringing a knee between us on the bed, letting me go so he can sit full-on and lock eyes. Mr. Let’s talk business. Mode.

“Emma, you need to do something for me if I’m to accept this.” He holds up the letter and throws it onto the bed carelessly. He doesn’t even look as he does it, just eyes on me.

“What?” I’m waiting for the negotiator and manipulator to move in, but he sighs instead. He has a look on his face that shows no fight at all, just my beautiful man and so much love shining back at me.

“Accept that the money is a part of who I am. It’s what I’ve always known, how I was raised. It influenced my lifestyle, character, and abilities and seeped into every part of the person you love. I never knew any different, and probably never will, so when you constantly push it away, you’re pushing away a part of me. I’ve always known that money was never something you pursued, but you need to accept that it will always be a part of our lives and our kids” lives too. I can accept every part of you, Emma, scars and all, so you need to accept this part of me and maybe even enjoy it a little. I worked hard to make my own money away from my father. Not a penny I have has come from him since I was twenty-one years old. I wanted it that way, and now I want you to revel in it a little too.” He looks at me so seriously that I find myself shifting closer to him, so I can feel our bodies touching for comfort. I slide my hand into his on his lap, entangling our fingers.

I regard him thoughtfully, absorbing everything he’s saying, and I myself sag a little with the realization that he’s right. I fell in love with that high-profile, rich CEO, his expensive clothes, suave cocky attitude, and overbearing demeanor. Truth be told, a part of me always liked his lifestyle because it did make him so much more powerful and sexy and had women swooning at his feet. I’ve had some seriously combusting panties for his car anyway, and it all somehow collided together to make the man sitting in front of me. As much as I always knew I would have him without it all, I can’t deny he probably wouldn’t be the same person if he’d had a different path in life.

Jake’s confidence and authority come from this lifestyle. His public persona is molded from a life in the limelight. His attention to his body and attire has become second nature, looking hot all the time to meet the demands of the media.

His heart and soul didn’t stem from wealth, but everything else around his personality has been molded by it, even his spoiled child attitude and inability to back down. He grew up never wanting anything and never having to wait or earn what he wanted in his younger life. He has a spoiled little boy spark inside of him because of all that, which created his impulsive nature.

I must accept that turning down his money because of some stupid moral pride is ridiculous. I sigh, knowing that if he were just a man with a normal bank balance, I would accept his financial support, so this is no different.

I need to get off my moral high ground and accept that I want to marry a billionaire with a default setting of generosity. I need to get used to it or leave him. If credit cards, overindulgent gifts, and trips are part of what Jake is offering me, then I’d better suck it up and stop being so goddamn stupid.

“I’ll try.” I smile, knowing I’ve already backed down, but he doesn’t need to know that. Some fun is always to be had, turning Jake down occasionally. I can’t let him get away with thinking $10,000 dresses thrown my way should ever be normal. I tingle as his hands slide up my arms to rest on my shoulders.

“Good. Because I brought you home a beautiful and slightly expensive dress to take you out to dinner tomorrow night, I would be really gutted if I had to take it back.”

Really? A dress! After what I was just thinking? He never changes …

“If you’re using the word expensive, then I don’t even want to know how much it cost, Jake.” I sigh with complete deflation. Jake is someone who considers a couple of thousand dollars as pocket change. Expensive to him makes my head ache.

This will be much harder to get used to than I thought. For a start, I already own way too many of Jake’s expensive dresses. I swear he has some sort of compulsion in buying me one almost weekly.