Seducing His Opposition (6 page)

While Justin was glad his younger brother had kept in contact with the glitter set, the last thing he wanted was to have to socialize with them.

For the most part he had nothing in common with people who traded on their looks or talent to get by in the world. He’d always used hard work and determination.

“Fine. We can have drinks tomorrow night when I’m down there.”

“Why do we have to?” Justin asked just to needle his brother.

“Because you are making me drive down there. And you’re buying!” Nate said as his cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen and then excused himself.

Warm breezes blew across the rooftop patio. “I like this place,” Justin said.

Cam arched one eyebrow at him. “I’m glad to hear it, considering you helped me build it.”

Justin nodded. “I know. I wonder how different it could have been if we had real community support?”

Cam took a sip of his whiskey and then rubbed the back of his neck. “In the early days it would have made a big difference. I hate to think of what it was like before Nate got injured and came home…do you remember that first summer when he just sat in the back of the club and his baseball playing friends visited?”

“Yes. You wanted to turn the club that we’d invested every last penny in, into a sports bar.”

“Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time,” Cam said.

“It was a good idea, I’m just glad we didn’t have to do
it. By the way, Selena suggested calling the marketplace the Mercado. I like it.”

“Yes, I like it, too. Who is Selena?”

Justin took a deep breath. It didn’t matter that he and Cam held equal positions of authority in the company; Cam was always going to be Justin’s big brother. “She’s the lawyer the Gonzalezes hired. She’s also their granddaughter.”

“Pretty?”

“Breathtakingly beautiful,” Justin admitted.

“Can you still be objective? If not, we can use one of your junior managers to take the lead on this.”

“No,” Justin said. “I’ve got this under control.”

“Is she staying at the Ritz?”

Justin just nodded.

“I’m not sure how under control you have this,” Cam said.

“I’m not going to let you down or do anything to hurt the Luna Azul.”

“I know that,” Cam said. “What about yourself? Are you going to do anything to harm
you?
”

Justin finished his drink with a long, hard swallow and then got to his feet. “I’m the Tin Man, Cam. No heart. So nothing to be hurt by Selena.”

Justin walked away from his brother and wished that it wasn’t true. But he had learned a long time ago that women and love never really touched him on a deep level. True, this attraction to Selena was intense but it would burn out like all things did.

J
ustin walked through his house, pausing beneath the portrait of his family that had been done when Cam graduated high school. They looked like the perfect family. Picture-perfect, he thought. On the outside they’d always made sure to present a front that others would envy.

And what a front it was. His father, the pro golfer, who traveled to tournaments in his private jet, and their socialite mother, who moved in all the right circles and made sure that her sons were successful and dated the right kind of girls.

He glanced up at his mother, really staring at the blonde woman with her perfectly coiffed hair, and wondered why she’d never been happy with their family. No matter how well he did in school or how well Nate had played baseball, she’d never been pleased with them.
She’d never smiled or shown them any real signs of love or affection.

He’d often thought that all women were that way but he’d seen his brother fall in love with Jen and therefore got to see a different side to women. Jen had cracked through Nate’s doubts. Justin was still a bit cynical but seeing how Jen and Nate had worked together to make their relationship successful…well, it made him wonder why his mom hadn’t tried just a little bit harder to make it work with his dad.

“Mr. Stern?”

He glanced over his shoulder and saw his butler standing there. “Yes, Frank?”

“I have your bags ready. Do you want me to drive you to the Ritz?”

“No. I’m going to take the Porsche.”

“I will park it in the circle drive. Do you need anything from me?”

“No. You can take the next two weeks off.”

“Thank you, sir, but I don’t have anywhere to go,” Frank said.

Justin knew that Frank was always at work and he appreciated it. “Don’t you have any family?”

“Not really. I left them behind a long time ago. I could go to Vegas but I really don’t like to go more than once a year.”

Justin smiled at his butler. Frank was a very carefully measured man. He didn’t want to give in to his enjoyment of gambling and let it become an addiction. Frank would only go to Vegas and only once a year.

“I get that.”

“Can I ask you a question, sir?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why are you going to the Ritz? You have a better place here.”

Frank was making perfect sense, logically speaking. “I am…let’s just say there is a woman at the Ritz.”

“And you want to be closer to her? I think you should invite her here,” Frank said.

“That would make things a lot more complicated.”

“I guess it would,” Frank said.

It probably still didn’t make sense, but Frank was his employee and was never going to tell him he was barking mad, even if that was what he thought. Frank was good at holding his tongue. “Frank, sometimes I think I don’t pay you enough!”

“I agree, sir,” Frank said. “I’ll bring the car and get your bags in it.”

“Thank you, Frank.”

“Just doing my job, sir.”

“I appreciate it,” Justin said. Frank left and Justin moved away from the portrait.

Was he making the right decision or was he just going to come off as a stalker? If he and Selena were going to have a vacation fling it would make sense for them to both be at the hotel. That’s how vacation flings happened.

He knew from experience. He liked the anonymity that being at the hotel would afford them. If he brought her to his home, she’d see his family and his neighbors and it would make their fling seem more real.

And when she left to go back to New York he’d have memories of her in his space. He didn’t want that. He wanted their relationship to be uncomplicated. To be a true fling. One where neither of them got hurt.

He wasn’t going to pretend that she didn’t have the potential to hurt him. He had no idea what the outcome
would be of an affair with her but he couldn’t resist the thought of having her in his arms.

He wanted her.

That was the bottom line and he was going to do whatever he had to in order to get her. He didn’t care if he had to pay the cost later.

All around him were the trappings of success and that made him even more determined to ensure that this thing with Selena worked out. He wasn’t used to failing and he wouldn’t this time. Selena was the first thing he wanted just for himself.

Selena was buzzed and hot and had forgotten the last time she’d had this much fun. Clubbing wasn’t her thing. To be honest it never had been. She’d always been a very studious girl and when she’d met Raul he’d kept her isolated from others. Part of the reason his con had worked so well.

But tonight she didn’t want to think about any of that. Jorge came out of the club and sat down next to her on the bench. “Are you hiding out?”

“No. Cooling down. I haven’t danced that much in years,” she admitted.

“What do you do for fun in New York?” he asked.

“Nothing. I don’t have fun. I just work and go home.”

“All work and no play makes for one big boring life,
tata
.”

“It didn’t seem so bad until tonight,” she admitted. “It’s a quiet life but also an uncomplicated one.”

Jorge put his arm along the back of the bench and hugged her to his side. “You need to relax.”

“I think you are right. Tonight was a lot of fun. I
never guessed that just dancing would be so liberating. I forgot about everything when I was out there.”

Jorge smiled at her. His grin reminded her of her father’s and she felt a pang in her heart. She missed her parents so much.

“That’s the point of clubbing. I think we will have to take you out again.”

“I might let you,” she said. “But I’m worn out now. I am going to call a cab to take me back to my hotel.”

“Hotel? Why aren’t you staying at your old house?” Jorge asked.

“Too many memories,” she said.

He nodded. “Why haven’t you sold that place?”

She shrugged. “I sometimes get income from renting it and I give that money to
abuelito
. It’s the least I can do.”

“
Tata,
you have to let go of the past or you are always going to be stuck in it,” Jorge said.

“I did let go, remember? I live in New York,” she said.

“That wasn’t letting go, that was running away,” Jorge said. “You are punishing yourself by staying away. No one in the family blames you for what happened. You need to forgive yourself.”

“That is easier said than done,” she said.

“Don’t I know it,” he said.

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“I had an affair last year. Carina took me back and she says she’s forgiven me, but I don’t think I will ever feel worthy of her again.”

“Carina is a nicer person than I am,” Selena said. “I would never…”

“I thought so, too. But what I have with her is worth
fighting for. I had no idea how much I loved that woman until I thought I’d lost her forever.”

“Love is so complicated,” Selena said. Raul had been able to manipulate her because she’d been totally in love with him. Other people had told her he wasn’t the perfect angel she’d believed him to be but that hadn’t mattered. In her mind and in her heart she’d made excuses for him. She didn’t want to do the same with Justin.

“Yes it is,” Jorge said. “But there is nothing else like it on earth. I wouldn’t trade my feelings for Carina for anything.”

“Did I hear my name?” Carina asked, coming out to join them. “I wondered where you got to.”

“Just visiting with Selena. I don’t think she knows how much we all miss her.”

“We do all miss you,” Carina said. She looked over at Jorge, and Selena had the impression that Carina still wasn’t sure of her man. She might have forgiven her husband, but it was clear that she hadn’t relearned how to trust him.

“I’m calling a cab,” Selena said.

“No, don’t,” Jorge said. “We will take you home. I’m ready to be alone with my woman.”

Carina closed her eyes as Jorge hugged her close and it was almost painful to watch them together now that Selena knew their secret. She wondered if all couples had a secret. Something that bound them together and made them stronger. And she did believe her cousin and his wife would be stronger once Carina knew that Jorge was sincere. But that would take some time.

Jorge went in to tell the rest of her cousins that they were leaving.

“Tonight was fun,” Selena said.

“Yes, it was. It’s not really my scene—I like to stay
at home, but Jorge likes to hit the clubs and we have worked out a compromise where we will do it once a month,” Carina said.

“Does that work?” Selena asked.

“It does. I actually like going out with him. It’s not the way I thought it would be. And Jorge has agreed to take ballroom dancing classes with me.”

Selena couldn’t see her cousin doing ballroom dancing, but if it made Carina happy, she guessed that he would do it. “Where do you take lessons?”

“At Luna Azul. Jen Miller, who teaches their Latin dance classes, also knows ballroom and she is showing us a few moves.”

“Do you think Luna Azul has been good for the neighborhood?” Selena asked her, her head clearing from the mojitos she’d been drinking all night.

“I do. They have captured the feel of old Havana in the club. My papa won’t admit it to his friends but he likes going there because it reminds him of the stories his
abuelito
used to tell of pre-Castro Havana.”

“I need to check it out and learn a bit about the enemy.”

“I think you will be surprised by how much it fits given that they are outsiders.”

Jorge came out of the club and they left. During the ride, Selena sat quietly in the backseat of the Dodge Charger. She thought about Justin Stern and dancing with him. She had a feeling that he’d claim to be an awkward dancer, but prove to be very efficient at it.

She closed her eyes and thought about the night and what she’d learned. She’d almost made a costly emotional mistake when she’d asked Justin up to her room. But living at the hotel was giving her the distance she needed
from her family and tomorrow she’d figure out how to start a fling with Justin. Flirting with him earlier and dancing tonight had stirred her blood. She wanted Justin Stern and she wasn’t going to deny herself.

Justin checked in and got settled in his hotel room. He’d left a voice mail for Selena. He was surprised she was out so late. It was almost midnight. Where was she?

He didn’t like the tight feeling in his chest or the anger he felt at not knowing where she was. They were nothing but business rivals to each other. Nothing more than that. He’d have to remember that fact.

He paced around his room like a caged tiger. She was probably with another man. Why shouldn’t she be? There wasn’t another man in this city who was bringing as many complications to the table as he was. Not one. And he knew it.

She was the last woman he should be this obsessed with but the truth was he did want her. And he should never have let her go when he’d had her in his arms earlier.

The only time they were going to be this unaware of the complications of hooking up was right now. Before they got to know each other better. That was how things like this worked.

He didn’t think about it anymore but just walked out of his room. He needed a walk to clear his head.

The elevator opened as he was standing there and Selena got off the car.

“What are you doing here?” they said at the same time.

“I’m staying here,” she said.

“So am I.”

“Why?” she asked. “And how did you get on my floor. That is almost stalkerish.”

“I’m not stalking you. I had no idea this was the floor you were on. I asked for a suite.”

“Okay, fine. But why are you here?”

“If we are going to have a vacation affair, we both should be on vacation.”

She tipped her head to the side. “I guess that makes a little sense. But…I liked staying here where no one knew me.”

“We just met,” he pointed out.

“That’s true but you are already trying to worm your way under my defenses.”

“Worm? That isn’t exactly flattering.”

She smiled. “Good, it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Where have you been tonight?” he asked.

“Clubbing with my cousins. I’ve never been clubbing before,” she said. “Have you ever gone?”

“Yes. I’m co-owner of a nightclub, remember?”

“That’s right. You probably write it off on your taxes as research.”

He did, but he didn’t say so. “Did you dance with a lot of men?”

“Jealous?”

“Incredibly,” he said, moving closer to her. She was leaning against the wall next to the elevator and he put his hands on either side of her head.

He leaned in closer until his lips brushed against hers. “Who did you dance with?”

“My cousins, my brother, but I dreamed it was you,” she said with her eyes half-closed. “I don’t think I should have told you that.”

He felt that tight ball in his stomach relax. “You definitely should have told me.”

He kissed her softly on the lips and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Are you a good dancer?” she asked as he broke the kiss.

“I don’t know. No one has ever complained,” he said.

“I knew you’d say something like that. Do you like holding me?” she asked.

He realized she was a little tipsy and saying things that she probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

“I do. Do you like being in my arms?”

“Definitely. But you are just my vacation stud, remember that,” she said to him.

“I won’t forget it. Which room is yours?”

“Number 3106,” she said. “Why?”

“I think we should get you to your room and out of the hallway.”

“Good idea. I’m tired, Justin.”

“I know, sweetie.”

“Sweetie? Did you call me sweetie?”

“I did. Any objections?”

“No. I think I like it, but we’re really not close enough for you to call me that.”

“I wish we were,” he said.

“Do you?”

“I wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true.”

“Are you a straight talker?” she asked.

“Sometimes. With you I am more than I want to be. You seem to bring out the awkward truth in me.”

She giggled, and the sound enchanted him. She was such a sweet girl when her defenses were down. He
helped her open her door and saw that her suite was laid out the reverse of his.