Billionaire's Love Suite (11 page)

She tossed the pillow away and sucked in her breath, filling her lungs
with blissful air. She believed his attack was over. She was wrong.

Gingerly, Justin slid his finger inside her while still exerting pressure
on her bud with his tongue. Shana felt her entire body turn to hot liquid.
Somehow her bones and muscles had melted into the flow of searing lava
she had morphed into. Justin had done this. And he was still doing it.

Then she felt two fingers probing her. Then three. He filled her and
stroked her with incredible, wondrous precision that caused the volcano
inside her to explode.

The scream of pleasure that escaped her mouth had barely crossed her
lips when Justin moved over her and clamped his mouth over hers taking
her ecstasy inside him, drinking it, hoarding it selfishly.

Feeling her moist entrance with his tip, he teased her and then sank into
her with his entire length. With agonizing slowness, he withdrew his length
and then plunged into her over and over. Shana’s heart banged inside her chest like a prisoner in a cage demanding freedom and knowing the pursuit
was in vain. With his thumb he continued to ply her center, stroking a heat
that felt as if it would incinerate them both. Sliding deeper and faster, Justin
placed his mouth against Shana’s ear and nibbled her lobe.

He matched her racing breath one on one as they built this symphony to
a crescendo.

She arched her back and tilted her hips for him to gain even deeper
access. Shana thought she could never have enough of him. No matter how
much he gave her, she was insatiable. She wanted more.

She clasped his buttocks with her hands and pressed and pushed,
demanding more. Justin responded.

Driving deeper, he thought he had touched her very core. Every cell in
his body was aflame. Every muscle was wound to its max.

Shana cried out in a reverberating orgasm that shattered within her like
comets colliding. At that moment she was only light and energy. She felt as
if she had ceased to exist.

Justin exploded into Shana with an astounding force. He felt as if he
were ascending and falling at the same time. When he finally came to rest he
was encircled in Shana’s arms. Rather than roll to his side as was his practice,
he remained pillowed by her womanly softness. He kissed the shell of
her ear. “I’ve never met anyone as insatiable as you,” he whispered into her
ear.

Their bodies were drenched in slick sweat as they held each other carefully,
the way acquaintances do, Shana thought.

Reality hit Shana like a rock slide. What had she done? She barely knew
Justin Yates at all. He was her boss for one thing. Or was until an hour ago.
She had impulsively, recklessly indulged herself in a fantasy that should
have remained deep in the darkest recesses of her imagination. Temporary
insanity. That was it. No. She’d been drunk. She’d blame it on the cognac.
She would tell him she didn’t remember a thing.

Slamming her eyes shut, she pretended to sleep as he rolled to her side
and instantly began lightly snoring.

How could he sleep at a time like this?

Shana was shocked and embarrassed about her behavior. She’d never
slept with a stranger in her life. One night stands were something she read about in her novels or saw in the movies. They didn’t happen in real life.
Well, they didn’t happen to her.

She had to figure a way out of this. Morning would come and she had to
get on with her career. She had to get back to being Shana Jackson, Director
of Operations.

She would lie about the whole thing. She would tell herself any lie she
could conjure and in time, actual denial would set in and her conscious
would believe what she told it to believe. She’d read in a self-help book
once that the brain could be tricked by these methods.

Shana’s anxiety slowly faded. Tomorrow her world would be normal
again.

Justin’s hand crept across her belly and down to the triangle between her
legs. Slowly, he moved his fingers to her heat.

“You didn’t think I was finished, did you?” he asked in that raspy, velvet
voice she knew now she would never forget.

He moved over her once again and kissed her passionately. With his lips
pressing against her mouth and entering her wetness again, Shana knew she
had been wrong. She would never forget a single milli-second of being with
Justin and her life would never be normal again.

S
hana sat with Cate at the juice bar at the New York City Health Club
where they had just finished a wicked game of racquetball.

“Okay, so you blistered me,” Cate said. “That’s never happened
before.”

Shana drained her carrot juice. “It’s part of the new me, I guess.”

Cate eyed her best friend suspiciously. “So, what could change in a few
days?”

Shana expelled a huge breath hoping to find courage to say aloud what
she’d been feeling since she returned from Toronto. “I think I’m in love
with Justin.”

Cate spurted papaya juice out through her nostrils. She grabbed a napkin
and slammed it against her nose and mouth as she choked. “You? Justin
Yates?”

“Yeah.”

“This is a death wish thing. Like smoking cigarettes. Both will kill you.
I know this.”

“I think I’ve really got it bad. I can’t go two minutes without thinking
about him.”

Cate frowned and then folded her arms over her chest as she always
did when she felt she was dispensing good advice like an oracle. “Here’s
what you do. Guys like Justin,” she paused, “actually, billionaires are hard
to come by. Especially young ones. So, we’ll just make some assumptions
here.”

Shana sighed and twirled her palm in the air like a spinning wheel. “Get
on with it.”

“Ever since you saw this guy in the shower you’ve been hooked. So,
like any addiction, you have to go cold turkey. In order to do that you need
to binge. Then quit. So, my advice is, sleep with the guy and then wash your hands of him. Once you know what it’s like, it will be a disappointment and
you’ll be cured.”

Shana’s eyes fell to the floor and her shoulders slumped. She looked
back at Cate sheepishly. “I already did that.”

Cate’s eyes flew open and she choked on her intake of breath. “And we
did this when?”

“In Toronto.”

“Two days ago? You slept with him while you were working? You could
lose your job over something like that.”

“He fired me. Just for the night,” Shana nodded. “Then he re-hired me
on the flight home.”

“Swell,” Cate assessed.

“At first I thought it was the cognac. But it’s more than that. And it’s not
that I can’t stop thinking about him. It’s that I’m concerned about him and
everything he’s trying to do to make the hotels right. His goals have become
my goals. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want him to be happy.”

Cate leaned forward and peered at Shana. “This isn’t like how it was
with Karl? It could be infatuation, you know.”

“It’s different. I’ve never felt like this before. And the thing is, this is
Justin Yates I’m talking about. He can have any woman he wants. Why
would he want me?”

Cate threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “Only because you’re
the best damn thing that ever happened in his sorry life is all.”

A tenuous smile settled on Shana’s lips. “Oh, yeah. That.”

****

Shana climbed the monstrously large staircase to the mezzanine floor
knowing full well she hadn’t told Cate about her real misgivings about
Justin. She hadn’t told Cate that on the flight back to New York, Justin had
barely said a word. He’d pretended to work, but Shana had noticed that he
never turned a page of the report he was reading. She’d asked him about her
recommendations for renovating the Toronto Hotel’s guest rooms and the
fabrics for the lobby furniture, but his reply was that he would take them
under consideration. He stared out the window for long periods of time in deep thought whereas on the trip to Toronto, he’d acted as if the windows
didn’t exist.

Something was not right and it was her guess that he thought their night
of unending sex was a mistake. There was even the chance that he might
fear she would sue him for harassment.

“And
that
is the last thing from my mind,” she said to herself as she
entered Justin’s office.

Oddly, Justin’s assistant, Helen Mavery, was not at her desk. Shana realized
the door to Justin’s office was ajar. Thinking that Helen and Justin were
most likely inside, she went to the door to knock and let her presence be
known.

She heard two men’s voices. One was Justin and the other she didn’t
recognize. Never one to eavesdrop, Shana started to turn away when she
heard her name.

“Shana needs these reports, Trent,” Justin said. “Thanks for staying on
top of our Chinese investors for me. I’ve had my hands full both here and
now Toronto.”

“No problem, Jus,” Trent said. “It looks to me like you’re handling
everything quite well. My kudos.”

“I wish I could take credit. If it weren’t for Shana, we wouldn’t be anywhere
near this far along and frankly, some of my ideas were half-baked.
This idea of hers for the speakeasy is genius,” Justin said with pride ringing
through his voice. “Fate smiled on us the day I hired her.”

“Sure did. Well, buddy. I gotta run,” Trent said and made a move toward
the door.

Shana rushed across the reception area and pretended to be just walking
in.

Justin opened his office door and saw her instantly. “Shana! We were
just talking about you. Have you met Trent Wellington?”

Shana shook Trent’s hand. “I haven’t had the pleasure,” she said smiling
at the handsome man in his early thirties.

“I’ve heard a great deal about you Miss Jackson. You’ve certainly made
the investors happy,” he said.

Justin rocked back on his heels and beamed at them both. “Made me
happy, too,” he said searing her with a carnal look.

Shana felt the blush from the tips of her toes upward to regions she had
thought were sexually spent. Guess not.

“Thanks,” she said feeling her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth. She
glanced away from Justin’s continued provocative gaze to Trent’s pleased
smile.

Trent looked at Justin whose eyes were still locked on Shana. “I gotta be
downtown for a meeting at one. See you kids later,” he said and left.

Justin walked over to Shana and put his hand on her shoulder. “How are
you?” he asked with sincere concern.

“Fine. Why?”

Shrugging his shoulders he said, “Because I think you look like you
need a ride.”

“A ride?”

“Yeah. Take a break. Get-out-of-the-office-for-a-few- minutes kind of
ride.”

“But I have the report on the Toronto property ready for you. We should
go over this first.”

Justin’s face was stern and his voice even more obdurate. She knew this
mood of his. He wanted things his way and that’s all there was to it. “Bring
it,” he said and put his hand on the small of her back, leading her toward
the door.

****

The ride was in a horse drawn carriage that took them around Central
Park as if they were tourists. Summer was coming in fast leaving spring
blossoms behind and promising an explosion of cooling tree canopies. This
was Shana’s favorite time of year when the world was green and full of life.
To her, the world was suddenly filled with hope.

Justin was clearly at ease as he leaned back and stretched his arm out
along the back of the carriage, though he was careful not to touch her shoulders.
“Just look at that sky, would you. Crystal blue. Not a cloud in sight.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said gazing heavenward.

“This is the way to do business. Outside in the sunshine,” he said with
a broad smile and pleasure cracking around his eyes. “If I had my way, I’d
have my office on the roof top terrace.”

Shana’s spine straightened as she jerked away from the back of the seat. “What a great idea.”

“What?” his eyes scanned hers.

“We could do that. We could expand your penthouse apartment to the terrace
and put in a glass and screened-in area that would serve as your office.
There’s a utility entrance on the side of the apartment that leads directly to
the terrace so that all your visitors and business associates wouldn’t have to
come through the main entrance at all.”

Justin was astonished. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Take a simple thought and transform it into a major project.”

She put her hands on her hips as she defended herself. “That’s not what
I’m doing. I like to think I turn dreams into reality. You clearly like the outdoors.
I saw that stack of sailing yacht magazines you’ve got stowed under
your desk where you think no one sees them. And yet, you don’t sail. All
you do is work. If you’re going to be a workaholic, at least do it in an environment
that is in tune with your nature. You’ll live longer, believe me.”

He stared at her and then closed his gaping mouth. “You think I’m a
workaholic?”