Do Marry Your Billionaire Boss (Jewel Family Romance Book 1) Read online

  Do Marry Your Billionaire Boss

  Jewel Family Romances

  Cami Checketts

  Copyright

  Do Marry Your Billionaire Boss: Jewel Family Romance

  Copyright © 2020 by Cami Checketts

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Editing by Daniel Coleman and Jenna Roundy

  Cover art by Novak Illustrations

  Contents

  Free Book

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Do Trust Your Special Ops Bodyguard

  About the Author

  Also by Cami Checketts

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  Chapter One

  Jade Jardine stood her ground as her boss, Creepy Curtis, gave her a challenging look. “We know about the embezzling, Jade,” he said.

  “Excuse me?” Icy pinpricks danced along her spine. Embezzling?

  “You’ve been a great employee,” he continued. “If you’ll help me recover the money, and go away quietly, I think I can convince Joshua Jewel to not press charges.”

  Jade leaned against the leather couch of the luxury suite that overlooked Condado Beach, Puerto Rico. As a bonus for work, she’d been brought on a trip to the Jewels’ all-inclusive resort, which would be followed by a weeklong cruise of the Caribbean. She’d thought it would be a dream trip. Now she prayed she was living in some alternate reality. “You’d better back down,” she commanded, instantly on the defensive. Who would accuse her of something like this? Why? “I have never embezzled, and I never would. How dare you try to blame me?”

  Curtis’s dark eyes studied her like the cat who’d captured a particularly nasty rat. She despised rats and didn’t have any plans to be one. “It’s going to go much easier on you if you just admit the truth.”

  “The truth? You wouldn’t know truth if it bit you in the butt.” She pointed a finger at him. “You’re always giving me these creepy looks. I bet you’re the one who’s embezzling.”

  He shook his dark gray hair as if she were a simpleton. “I’ve been watching you and everybody who might have access to do something like this. I trusted you, Jade.”

  He trusted her. Yeah, right. “How did I supposedly embezzle?”

  “I think I’ve given you enough information. Why don’t you tell me how you accomplished it?”

  Jade arched an eyebrow, indignant fury racing through her. She should be more scared than angry, but that wasn’t really her nature. Her mother had always loathed her “impetuous personality.” “You have to have some kind of proof before you can accuse me of something like this.”

  Curtis nodded, his dark eyes serious. “Do you support a charity called Health for All?”

  He was referring to her favorite charity, which had been founded by Avalyn Shaman Hawk, one of Jade’s heroes in life. Jade donated most of the proceeds from her Cream the Celebrity blog to Health for All; she also had a page of her site dedicated to the charity and urging others to help children throughout the world with clean water, immunizations, healthy food, and more.

  “You know I do,” she said. She’d suggested in several meetings that they donate the proceeds of a recent charity auction hosted by Jewel Enterprises to Health for All. “What does that matter?”

  Curtis swallowed and met her gaze steadily. “Our accounting department has only recently discovered that a significant amount of money has been embezzled over the past year. The investigators haven’t been able to track the money to a person yet, as most of it has gone to untraceable offshore accounts, but a good chunk was donated to Health for All.”

  Jade felt the fear she’d been successful in suppressing thus far rise up to choke her. Someone was setting her up. “You have to see that someone is framing me,” she protested.

  Curtis spread his hands. “I came to you because I hoped you’d admit the truth and work with us to recover the money. If you don’t, you will be prosecuted, Jade, and there’s nothing I can do to help you.”

  “I don’t want your help. As far as I know, you could be the one embezzling.”

  He rolled his eyes.

  Fire rose in Jade. “I have worked my butt off the past three years for you, you claimed I had a shot at CEO when you retired next year, and now you dare accuse me of something like this?” She paused, but he didn’t say anything. “You don’t have to fire me, because I quit. And I’ll tell you exactly what’s going to happen now. I’ll hire my own lawyer and go on the offensive.”

  “It will go much better for you if you help us recover the money and show some humility.”

  “Humility? I have done nothing wrong, and I’m going to act exactly like an innocent, wrongly accused person would act. I’m going to enjoy my time at the Jewels’ resort and go on that cruise and not even worry about your lies.” That was a bluff. She was horrified by the accusations. “When your investigators find out the truth, don’t worry about apologizing to me, because I never want to see you again.”

  “If you would be reasonable, we could avoid you serving jail time.”

  “Get out!”

  He pushed out a heavy, disgusted breath and walked out, the door falling closed behind him.

  Jade deadbolted the door and then paced the luxurious suite overlooking the beach and the ocean beyond. Even as big as this suite was, there wasn’t enough room to get rid of her frustrations, and she hated the dirty feeling Curtis had left in the room. He’d claimed that he was coming over to discuss the agenda for the next ten days: three here at the Jewels’ resort, and then a week on the cruise, where Joshua Jewel was supposed to join them. Instead, Curtis tried to claim she was embezzling? She chewed at a fingernail. Was its Curtis who was really embezzling, or one of the other members of their team? Peter, Trevor, and Gabe were just as close to Curtis and the top as she was. Any one of them could easily have stolen funds and hidden it well. They were all brilliant and hard-working.

  Pausing in her pacing, she called a lawyer friend and laid out the whole story. He advised her to be calm and let him start investigating and allow the investigators from Jewel Enterprises to keep working. No one could prosecute her simply because the embezzler donated money to her favorite charity. He kept reassuring her that all would be well, and he suggested that she do exactly like she’d said: go on the trip, show how innocent she was, and call human resources immediately.

  She did just that and told the human resources director exactly what Curtis had accused her of. She demanded that they look into it and let her talk to Joshua Jewel, the reclusive billionaire owner of Jewel Enterprises, who Jade had been happily anticipating meeting on this trip. The director was very professional and assured her they’d get to the bottom of the problem, but she absolutely could not give out Joshua Jewel’s number.
Jade doubted she even had it.

  Jade hung up, not feeling very reassured. She slipped into flip-flops and grabbed her room key. She didn’t even want her cell phone. Her sister, Teal, was the only one she’d want to talk to right now, and she was busy with her new man, Stetson Strong. Jade walked down the hallway and to the closest elevator. She loved alliteration and thought Stetson’s name was perfect. She wondered if that was why she had been so obsessed with meeting Joshua Jewel. She hadn’t even admitted it to Teal, but there was something ultra-appealing about a mysterious billionaire who shared the letter J with her.

  Growling in frustration, she wished she knew which room Creepy Curtis was in so she could kick his door, at the very least. Now she really needed to talk to Joshua Jewel, and not to interview him for her blog or see if he was as amazing as she’d hoped he’d be. She needed to plead her case. Her breath shortened, and she felt cold sweats break out as the implications of what was happening washed over her. She’d not only quit her job, but if they could somehow frame her for embezzling, she might go to jail. Her lawyer had been very encouraging, but this was a nightmare, and she’d done nothing wrong.

  The elevator whisked her down twelve floors and out into the grand lobby, which was adorned with marble floors. Its glass walls showcased the lush outdoor gardens at the front of the property and the beach and ocean at the rear. The lobby also had numerous water features that were both soothing and appealing to the eye.

  Jade headed out the rear sliding doors of the property, passing the numerous swimming pools, hot tubs, cabanas, chairs, and hammocks on her way to the beach. Slipping out of her sandals, she picked them up and plunged into the soft sand. She found her surroundings soothing: the waves crashing, the bright sun, and the lack of people as she left the resort behind.

  She was definitely upset about the accusations and quitting her job, but she was equally upset that she no longer had a chance of getting an interview with Joshua Jewel. Her site got plenty of traffic and she made great money on the advertising, but an icon like Joshua Jewel would be a slam dunk for her, a huge story for her site. He was the acting head of Jewel Enterprises, the oldest of seven, and somehow he had avoided media capturing a good angle of his face for over ten years. The rest of his siblings weren’t so averse to media, and they were all beautiful people with different physical characteristics, but every one of them had the same bright blue eye color. Jade assumed that if she ever met Joshua in person, she’d be able to recognize him because of his family and some old photos a college girlfriend had posted online. There’d have to be a resemblance, right? Not that it mattered to her now. Now she needed to find Joshua Jewel so she could clear her name. If he would even believe her over his CEO, Curtis Slade.

  Jade made it to the north end of this stretch of beach. She slowed down when she noticed a weird statue monument ahead of her, blocking her view of the bridge beyond. The concierge had recommended that when she did her morning runs, she should stay on the beach for safety reasons. She turned around and stormed the other direction. It was half a mile each way. She hit the rocky outcropping on the south end and turned around again. Back and forth, back and forth she walked, paying no attention to the people lounging in beach chairs close to the main part of the resort. She was too preoccupied with shedding the anger at Curtis and these crazy accusations.

  “You okay?” a deep male voice asked from her right.

  Jade jumped and spun to face him. “Holy heck! Can’t you tell I’m in deep meditation?”

  The man grinned, and she found herself distracted by his wide grin, his white teeth, and the dimple that appeared in his cheek, visible even through his short, dark beard. She wished she could see past his sunglasses and the hat pulled down low to shade his face. “Sorry for interrupting,” he said. “You’ve stomped along the beach in the hot sun so many times these past couple of hours, I worried you might be in severe dehydration and need me to buy you a drink.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “Is that a pickup line?”

  “Do you want it to be?”

  She realized that she did. His jawline was strong, his lips beautiful, and his body well built. She was definitely attracted to him, but of course it couldn’t be that easy with her. She had never been the trusting type, and she had a lot on her mind right now. She shook her head and gave him a challenging smirk. “I don’t share drinks unless I can see a man’s eyes.”

  He smiled. “Well, that’s a disappointment.” Turning away, he glanced over his shoulder at her. “If you change your mind, I’ll be right there,” he said, pointing to a cabana with a couple of beach chairs and a small table with a laptop sitting on it. He walked away without another word.

  Jade gaped after him. From what she could tell, he was handsome, fit, and probably successful if he could afford to stay at this place and work on his laptop on the beach, but men didn’t just walk away from her. Men were drawn to her long, dark hair, her green eyes, her smooth skin, her fit body, and—most importantly—her smile and sassy attitude. She was smart, funny, and beautiful, and men instinctively knew that. They didn’t just … walk away from her.

  “Excuse me?” she called after him, sinking in the soft sand as she pushed through to his little private cabana.

  He turned around and faced her, a smile playing at his lips. “Excuse you?”

  Her fight with Curtis earlier had put her on edge. Actually, “on edge” might not be strong enough: she was worried about being framed and ticked that she’d quit her job, and all of it combined to a royal pain in her keister. She was grumpy, and this guy didn’t even have the gumption to fight for a chance to buy her a drink. “Who do you think you are?” she demanded, really wanting to know. There was an off-chance that he wasn’t showing his face because he was a celebrity. She’d heard that this resort was ripe with celebrities; the Jewel family all stayed here regularly. This could be a score for her blog, but she didn’t really care too much about that at the moment.

  He put a hand to his chest, and his lips tightened. “Jesse. And you?”

  “Jade,” she said shortly. “But that’s not what I meant. You think you’re so high and mighty you can’t even take off your sunglasses or hat?”

  He smiled insincerely. “Maybe it’s just really bright out here and I have sensitive eyes.”

  She snorted, grabbed his hand, and tugged him over to the shade of the cabana. When they were out of the sun, she didn’t let go of his hand. He was staring at her as if she were psychotic. She felt a little bit off—maybe from the heat, maybe from the turbulent day she’d had, maybe from all the pacing on the beach without any water, or maybe from the way his hand felt clasped against hers. His hand was the perfect size to make her feel delicate and protected. Even though she was already warm, his touch flooded her with glowing warmth that felt like a Christmastime she’d never known in a home without parental love. His hand against hers projected allusions of safety and finding the spot she’d never known she wanted to find.

  No. She was probably just searching for safety, as she was in such a mess at the moment.

  Releasing his hand, she sank into the most comfortable beach chair she’d ever sat in and murmured, “On second thought, I might need that drink. Water with a lemon, please.”

  He stared down at her. Well, she still couldn’t see his eyes, but his head was tilted down toward her as if he were watching her. “Of course.” He lifted a hand, and a second later, a waiter was there.

  “Yes, what can I get you Mr. J—”

  He cut the man off. “A water with lemon for the lady, and a water bottle and virgin pina colada for me.” He tilted his head toward Jade. “Would you like a daquiri or something as well?”

  He didn’t drink alcohol. She liked that, a lot. “A virgin Miami Vice, please,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Jesse said to the waiter.

  Jesse. Why didn’t the name fit him?

  He sank down on the chair next to hers, his head inclined toward her. Jade sat up quickly and fli
pped her legs around, brushing her knee against his. She startled and pulled back slightly. It felt heavenly just to touch him.

  “Jesse?” she asked.

  “That’s me.”

  “No. It doesn’t fit you. Is it an alias? A middle name?” She pursed her lips and tapped her finger against them. “Nope I just don’t see you as a Jesse.”

  His lips curled in an irresistible smirk, but he gave her nothing. “I thought after walking in the hot sun for a couple of hours you’d be low on energy, but I guess I was wrong.”

  Jade waved a hand at that. “I’m naturally energetic. You’ve been watching me this entire time?” She was pleased, and a little embarrassed. “Did I look … upset?” It wouldn’t surprise her if she had. She was a complete mess.

  He smiled. “At first. Then you seemed to calm down and work out whatever was bugging you. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Not unless you have a personal line to one of the Jewel family.”

  His eyebrows rose above his glasses and barely below his low-slung hat. “The Jewels? As in the people who own this resort?”

  “Yep. I need to get one of their employees fired.”

  Jesse drew back, and his entire body stiffened. Apparently, he liked to stick up for employees. “Did some unfortunate bartender mix your daquiri wrong?” There was a definite bite to his voice.

  “No.” Her eyes narrowed, and she considered stomping away, but she spoke through clenched teeth. “My boss, who reports only to Joshua Jewel, claims I’m embezzling money from Jewel Enterprises. It’s a lie. I’m being set up. I want whoever is embezzling the money to be found and fired.”