Passion Overseas: A Billionaire BWWM Holiday Romance (4 page)

“
So,
you choose whichever place you want us to go next,” she said.

Daniel looked at her
and shook his head. “I am literally looking at the world.”

She smiled and looked
at him. “Just close your eyes and point.”

“
Come
on, this is a map. Not a piñata.”

“
What
do we have to lose?” she asked as she looked at him.

Daniel shrugged and
closed his eyes before he lowered his index finger to the map. “Did
I touch anything?”

She shook her head.

“
I
think that is in the States,” she said looking at the map. “We
are not going to the States for holiday,” she said as Daniel
opened his eyes.

“
This
is stupid,” he said.

“
Come
on, babe. Indulge me.”

“
No
I mean, in this day and age, there are virtual maps,” he said.
She smiled and grabbed her iPad from the night stand. She pulled up a
map and Daniel shook his head.

“
So,
are we looking at the Americas or something different?” she
asked.

“
Let’s
be adventurous,” he said as he took a long deep breath and
closed his eyes again before he lowered his finger to the tablet.

“
Okay,
let’s see what this is,” she said as she double tapped on
the screen. “Great Blue Hole? What the hell is that?” she
asked. Daniel opened his eyes and looked at the screen.

“
I’ve
heard of that place. It’s in Belize or something,” he
said. Erica’s eyes grew wide in excitement.

“
Belize,”
she said with a faraway look in her eyes. She looked at him and
shrugged.

“
I
think Belize sounds great but I still think we can squeeze a few more
days out of Athens,” she said.

“
I
love how undecided you can get sometimes,” he laughed.

“
That’s
a good thing, right? I mean, I’m at a point in my life where
making decisions is not exactly a priority,” she shrugged.
Daniel frowned. “What?” she asked.

“
If
making decisions are not a priority then where do I stand?” he
asked, a few strands of hair falling out of place, shielding his
eyes. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. She moved back just
enough for him to feel her breath on his cheek.

“
You
are the best decision I ever made,” she said in a whisper. He
held the back of her head and pulled her to his lips again to kiss
her. She slipped a hand behind his neck and closed her eyes, feeling
her tongue against his. She was blushing when he finally pulled away.
She looked into his eyes and smiled.

“
I
think you are my best decision too,” he said softly.

“
You
think?” she asked with a smile. He caressed her cheek with his
finger and smiled.

“
I
know,” he said with a smile. They were still looking at each
other when his phone rang. He looked at her and frowned. “I’m
sorry baby,” he said as he pulled away.

“
It’s
okay,” she said with a smile. He looked at her and quickly
kissed her forehead before he turned to grab his phone from the night
stand.

“
Damn
it, it’s the office. I really have to take it,” he said.

“
I
told you, it’s okay,” she said with a smile. Daniel
climbed off the bed and walked out of the bedroom.

“
Reese,”
he said when he picked up.

“
Mr.
Reese, hi. It’s Proctor. We have a major problem.”

Daniel shook his
head. “You people realize what being on vacation means, right?”

“
Yes
but there seems to be a problem with the new coffee maker model. The
one endorsed by La Nacion de café,” Proctor said.

“
What
do you mean? La Nacion de café is our biggest project right
now. You had better not screw it up,” Daniel said.

“
Well,
the model is a bit more complicated than I thought. We are going to
need a bigger funding if we are going to make it work,” Proctor
said.

“
What
do you mean?” Daniel asked and he heard Proctor sigh.

“
Well,
there was an unexpected…um…sir, is there a way we could
video conference?” Proctor asked. Daniel sighed and reached for
his own iPad and switched it on. He logged onto Skype and hung up.

“
Okay,
I can see you. What is going on?” he asked. Proctor had three
coffee maker models on his desk.

“
So
the project aims at introducing two models. One is this, the regular
coffee maker most people have at home and the other one, the fancy
one which makes all the coffee beverages you can think of. Latte,
macchiato, mocha, cappuccino…”

Daniel ran his
fingers through his hair and sighed. “Proctor, let’s get
this moving. Shall we?”

“
This
is the biggest commercial seller in the fancy machine category,”
Proctor said pointing to the third coffee maker on his desk. “Now
it has a number of tweaks we noticed that we will have to incorporate
in our own model,” he explained.

“
So
what’s the big problem? Isn’t this a conversation you
should be having with accounts and R&D?” Daniel asked.

“
Well,
I did talk to R&D and they are the ones who pointed this out. But
I have to get accounts to approve it,” Proctor said.

“
Then
get accounts to approve it,” Daniel said matter of factly. He
was fighting against his will to snap at him.

“
Well,
that’s the problem. After the whole thing with your uncle, you
are the only one who can approve it,” he said.

“
Simple.
Draft the letter, scan it and send it to me and then I will sign it,
scan it and send it back to you,” Daniel said. “Was that
so hard to think of?”

“
Well,
there is the other little factor of you meeting with the designers
for the new platinum model,” Proctor said as he typed
something. “I just sent you a link to the number one platinum
coffee maker. Check it out,” Proctor said. Daniel clicked on
the link and looked at the screen. He had to admit, the coffee maker
he was looking at was perfect. “That’s the van der
Western Speedster. Twenty grand is the retail price,” Proctor
said.

“
Twenty
thousand dollars?” Daniel asked. “Twenty freaking
thousand dollars, really?” he asked in disbelief. “I can
get a model S Tesla or a used Ferrari with that,” he said.

“
I
know. The Speedster’s that good,” Proctor said. “And
there are only four hundred machines manufactured every year. I think
the rarity of the product also has a lot to do with how high the
price is.”

“
Well,
that still doesn’t explain why the hell it is that expensive. I
mean does it come with a mommy coffee machine and make little coffee
makers?” Daniel asked as he scrolled down the page looking at
the pictures of the machine. He closed the page and shook his head.
“How much is the platinum model supposed to go for anyway?”
he asked.

“
Seventeen
grand. And for that price we are bound to make great sales especially
since we will be making double what the Speedster guys do,”
Proctor said.

“
So
eight hundred a year, right?” Daniel asked.

“
Sure.
But we have a little problem. The design we had is already in use so
we have to repackage the whole thing,” Proctor said.

“
Repackage?
We have to launch in three months. R&D is going to spend about
that long in a new design,” he shook his head.

“
Well,
if you could come over and do some damage control we can maybe work
something out with La Nacion de café. Maybe add a product to
the line and see just how we are going to swing this,” Proctor
said.

“
What?
We are going to spend more money that we don’t have,”
Daniel said.

“
Yes
but it’s going to be for a good cause,” Proctor said.

Daniel shook his head
again and leaned back.

“
I
have to go Proctor,” he said.

“
But
we are not…” Proctor started before Daniel shook his
head again.

“
I
can’t do this right now. Get Lena to call me back when you guys
figure this out,” he said. He was just about to hang up when
Proctor yelled.

“
Wait,
sir. Please,” he said.

“
What,
Proctor,” Daniel asked.

“
You
really do need to come down to St. Louis. That’s the only way I
am sure we are going to manage this,” Proctor said.

“
You
have got to be kidding me, right?” Daniel asked.

“
Unfortunately
not, sir,” Proctor said. This was too much for Daniel. He hung
up and threw his head back on the couch wondering how his vacation
turned work trip turned vacation again had suddenly turned into
another work trip. He was still relaxing when he heard his Skype
call. He sighed when he saw that it was Proctor calling back.

“
Proctor,
I can’t do this right now,” he said when he picked up.

“
Yes,
but sir, I need to know what to tell to tell Lena,” Proctor
said.

“
Tell
her she needs to take care of everything La Nacion de café,”
Daniel said. “And by the way the home model. What was wrong
with that?” he asked.

“
It
kind of looks like the Homemart version,” Proctor said.

“
So
we plagiarized a design and slapped our brand on it?” he asked.

“
Sir,
plagiarism only applies to written…” Proctor started but
then shut up when he noticed the look Daniel was giving him. “We
need to make it pop if we are going to make any money off it,”
he concluded.

“
Well,
I am way over here and R&D is not my specialty,” he said.

“
Yes
sir but you still have to come over and take…” Proctor
started before Daniel cut him off.

“
Seriously
Proctor. I hate to be a mean boss but if you keep talking your job
will be on the line.”

“
Okay.
Talk to Lena. Got it. Bye Mr. Reese,” Proctor said before he
hung up. Daniel took a long deep breath and ran his hand through his
hair. He was just confused about everything. How was he supposed to
tell Erica about this? They had just been talking about taking off to
Belize a little earlier…around twenty minutes ago, actually.
He sighed and closed his eyes in defeat. This was definitely not
good.

He had his eyes
closed when Erica walked into the room. She leaned against the door
frame looking at him for a long minute before she finally walked over
to where he was. She planted a small kiss on his forehead making him
open his eyes. He looked at her and smiled.

“
Hey
there, beautiful,” he said as she walked round the couch to
where he was.

“
Hey.
Are you okay?”

“
Well,
to be honest, I’ve been better,” he said in a low voice.
She sat on the edge of the couch and looked at him.

“
Come
here,” she said softly. He looked at her while resting his head
on her lap and she slowly began to stroke his hair. “Do you
want to talk about it?” she asked.

“
Not
really,” he said as he slipped an arm around her hips. She
smiled and began to slowly massage his head. “Oh wow,
that’s…that feels so good,” he said in a low
voice.

“
You
still don’t want to talk about it?” she asked in a soft
voice.

“
Baby,
talking about it is only going to upset you,” he said as he
looked up at her. She ran her fingers through his hair, applying a
little pressure making him moan in pleasure. “This is a bribe,
isn’t it?” he asked in a soft voice.

“
Well,
it depends,” she said as she went on running her fingers
through his thick mane. She ran her fingers down to the base of his
neck and he groaned pleasurably.

“
Stop
it. You are going to drive me crazy,” he said in a whisper.

“
I
heard you talking to the guy at work. I know you have to go back
home,” she said.

He turned his head to
the side and looked up at her.

“
I’m
sorry,” he whispered.

“
It’s
okay,” she smiled as she went on running her fingers through
his hair.

“
I
really don’t want to disappoint you or anything,” he
said. She ran her index finger from his forehead to his lips.

“
There
is nothing that you could do that would ever disappoint me and that’s
a promise,” she said in a low voice. She was trying to put on a
brave face. She looked at him and forced out a smile. “You are
a perfect man in every way.”

He reached up and
touched her face softly. “No one has ever said that to me.”

“
Really?
I find that hard to believe,” she said in a soft voice. He
brought his hand up and slipped a hand behind her neck and pulled her
down. He raised his head and brushed her lips softly. The kiss slowly
graduated from soft and sweet to long and hard making her moan into
his mouth.

“
Shouldn’t
you be getting packed?” she asked softly when he pulled away.
He got up from the couch and looked at her before he stretched his
handout to her. She put her hand in his and he pulled her up.

“
Shhh…I
don’t want to talk about that right now,” he said.