Billionaire's Love Suite (3 page)

Despite all his work on Wall Street and the name he’d made for himself,
all Justin had ever wanted was to run the hotels.

The problem was that though Justin was the best there was when it
came to balance sheets and investments, he had not spent the last ten years
learning the hotel business. His secret dream was the ambition of a lonely
child. He didn’t know how to market, advertise or expand the hotel business.
He didn’t know if he should or should not shut down food and beverage.
He didn’t know how to manage the staff and he didn’t know what
other people looked for in a luxury hotel. He only knew what he liked and
that didn’t count for much when millions of dollars were at stake.

In the past three weeks since his father’s death, Justin had been going
through a crash course in hotel management, and he was being taught by his
new Director of Operations, Shana Jackson.

Justin didn’t understand that hotel staff personnel were a nation unto
their own, though he’d read this in one of Shana Jackson’s first emails. She
had told him that each and every person on staff was essentially a caregiver.
It was critical that the staff understood that the patrons walking in
the hotel front doors were often sleep-deprived, hungry and irritable from
jet-lag or traffic. Good staff understood that they needed to act as quickly
as emergency room attendants to their guests. Saving sanity was part of the
“mission” of a great hotel.

Justin hadn’t known any of this. He hadn’t met Shana Jackson yet, but
she was already becoming indispensable in many ways. Unfortunately, she
had submitted initial renovation budgets that called for tens of millions
of dollars to be spent to completely overhaul every property in the chain
starting with the New York City hotel first. Justin had known updating was
necessary, but he was shocked at the kind of expansive changes Shana adamantly
believed were necessary to not only compete but to thrive in the
future.

When Justin had gone to the credit markets in the United States for a
loan, they had turned him down flat. They thought several of the hotels
should be demolished and the land sold. The idea that his family’s legacy
could wind up as a parking lot not only saddened Justin, but it angered him
to no end.

He looked at Trent. “I never thought I would be caught between the
proverbial rock and a hard place.”

“You could have put up your own cash for the renovations. Lord knows
you’re set for a couple lifetimes,” Trent offered looking down at his shoes.
He knew Justin’s response before he closed his mouth.

“With these last figures from Shana, the budget totals well over my portfolio’s
worth,” Justin explained.

Trent took a deep breath. “So, buddy. You’ve got this first round of
financing secured here in Beijing.”

Justin nodded solemnly and then rubbed his weary blue eyes. “I did.
However, I don’t like shelling out a half a point higher interest than anyone
else is paying. Still, it was that or walk away empty handed. They should be
real damn happy.”

“Hey, half the businessmen I know would love to trade shoes with you,
pal. It’s not so bad.”

“Yeah.”

“So, you said Shana’s been giving you solid pointers about the business.
And even though you don’t like it, you didn’t turn down her ideas about the
renovations. You must believe that her ideas are sound and that they will
work.”

Justin sucked in a huge breath. “I do. Frankly, I’ve believed the same
thing for a long time. Anyone who looks at the hotels can see how dated
they are. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

“So, why are you so angry with her?”

“I’m not…exactly.”

Trent eyed him sharply surveying his friend’s face. “I get it. She’s
smarter than you, huh? That’s what’s got your goat.”

Justin smiled impishly and nodded. “Ah, but I was smart enough to
hire her. It’s just that she’s knowledgeable about something I should have
forced myself to take the time to learn years ago. It’s my own fault and I know better. I should have seen this day coming and prepared for it. I was
too angry at my father. I had to prove to myself that I could make it without
him.”

“Yeah, that pride thing. Bitter pill. Took many of them myself.”

Trent wasn’t saying anything Justin hadn’t already told himself over the
past weeks. Despite all his success, he’d allowed anger and pride to steer
his course, when he should have looked further into the future. After all, his
father was bound to die sometime. The thing was, Justin, in his youth and
inexperience, had imagined that as contentious and bull-headed as Peter
was, it would have been just like him to live forever.

Justin swiped his hand over his face, felt his beard stubble and rubbed it
thoughtfully. “Have you met her?”

“Who? Shana? Yeah.”

“What’s she like?”

“Pretty, I guess. Very buttoned up. Too much glasses and uptight clipped
up hair for me, but she’s razor sharp, man. Brilliant.”

“That’s been my impression. No nonsense. Exact. Her recommendations
have been dead-on.”

Trent lifted his head back, opened his mouth and his eyes opened as the
dawn came. “I get it. She actually
is
smarter than you.”

Justin scowled. “Possibly.”

“So, use her. Suck her brains dry, get all her input to make yourself look
good.

Justin smiled wanly and nodded. “That thought had crossed my mind.”

Trent rocked back on his heels satisfied. “So, that handled, what are you
going to do about the other part of your father’s Will?”

Justin stared at his best friend. “I’ve been trying to ignore that.”

“I get that.” Trent smiled. “Getting married in a year can’t be all that
hard. Want me to help?” Trent laughed raucously and then seeing the stern,
withering look in Justin’s icy blue eyes, he instantly stopped and planted a
serious look on his face.

Justin glared at Trent. “I told you that in confidence.”

Trent looked around at the terminal filled with native Chinese. “I think
your secret’s safe. They don’t parlez Anglaise.”

Justin’s eyes tracked from Trent’s face to the people around him. “I
can’t marry just anybody. She has to be intelligent, mannered, caring, sweet,
thoughtful, beautiful, sexy would be good.”

“Yeah, that’s my favorite.”

Justin’s gaze wandered past the glass window to where the airliner sat
outside and up to the blazingly crystal blue sky and the puffy white clouds
they would soon fly above. “The thing is, with all the women I’ve known
and dated, I’ve never met the girl of my dreams.”

“That’s because she doesn’t exist.” Trent cleared his throat as he stepped
out on that personal limb he seldom ventured onto when it came to Justin.
“Look, Justin. You never really got hooked into a woman because you’ve
got this ideal person up on a pedestal and none of us find That Girl. We all
settle for someone we can have. That’s how it works.”

“Not for me,” Justin ground out his conviction through clenched teeth.

“So then tell me, why work so blasted hard to save this chain when you
aren’t going to fulfill the second proviso of the Will anyway?”

“I’ll find a way around it,” Justin replied looking Trent squarely in the
eye. “I have lawyers working on it as we speak. They’ll find a loophole.
There’s always a loophole.”

“Yeah? Funny. I thought your father hired Bernstein and Goldman
because they drew up iron-clad contracts.”

Justin bit the inside of his cheek to keep his frustration in check. “I
found a guy who is better. Leon Turnbull.”

Trent saw the fire in Justin’s usually cool eyes. He took a half step back
and shrugged his shoulders. “Wow. He’s the best. Glad to hear it. So, that’s
not a problem.”

“No.”

Just then they heard the announcement that their section was boarding.
Justin rose and gathered his briefcase and carry on.

Trent walked alongside Justin as they handed their boarding passes and
passports to the gate attendant. They thanked the man and entered the jet
way.

“Justin, I was thinking that if this Shana is giving you all these great
pointers about the hotel business, if I were you, I would do everything in my power to make that woman happy so that she never goes to the competition
again.”

“Anything?”

“Hell, I’d even marry her,” Trent said taking his seat near the window.

“You’re nuts. I’ve only emailed her and left instructions through my
staff for her. I haven’t even talked to her on the phone.”

Justin sat down in the aisle seat, which he preferred because his legs
were so long and he could stretch out a bit more.

Trent took out his eye mask and stuck a pillow behind his head. “You’re
right. It was a dumb idea. Well, buddy, see you in the US.” Trent pulled the
eye mask over his eyes shutting out the world.

Justin stared at Trent wishing he could simply put on a mask and close
out the world like that. Instead, he knew that sleep for him would not come
for a long time. Not until he figured out a way to a break his father’s Will,
secure his hotels, and make his childhood dreams come true.

****

“Y
ou’re naked!” Shana shrieked at the thoroughly ripped, dark haired
Adonis, as she stepped through the cloud of steam toward the tiled
seat area in the women’s steam room. She was so startled that she didn’t
realize she’d inadvertently dropped the luxurious Turkish cotton towel
she’d loosely wrapped around her.

The man stared at Shana, drinking in every inch of her luscious curves.
She was tall with perfectly formed long legs, a very small waist and quite
ample breasts. Her skin was creamy and unmarked by any blemishes except
for a sprinkle of freckles across the tops of her softly curving shoulders. Her
honey blonde hair was fastened at her nape with a clip but several tendrils
had escaped and formed a glistening golden halo around her heart shaped
face. Electric green eyes stared back at him in horror.

A bemused but slightly wicked smile parted his full lips. “So are you,”
he said in a deep, velvety voice that oozed sexuality.

Even through the clouds of steam, Shana could see his crystal blue eyes
searing into her. His surprise was quickly supplanted by appreciation and
then she most definitely saw interest.

So stunned by his presence, her mind didn’t register what he was saying
to her. She couldn’t take her eyes off the man. In all her life, she’d never
seen anyone as gorgeous as the hunk of masculinity sitting only a few feet
away from her. He had very broad shoulders, six-pack abs, powerful thighs
and calves and biceps so well defined she discerned that he must be an
athlete of some type. He reminded her of the Olympians who spent their
lifetimes in training. That, or he was a model, she thought. With a strong
square jaw line, deep set blue eyes and thick, nearly black hair that fell in a
clump over his forehead, he was just too beautiful to be real.

He’s gotta be gay
, she thought.
There’s no way a woman could be so
lucky as to stumble onto a prince like this.

Watching her with pure delight, he unbent from the crouched position
he was in with his elbows on his knees and straightened. He leaned his back
against the white tiled wall and continued to stare at her.

Shana’s mind was filled with the glorious sight of his well-defined body
and with dreamy visions of what it would be like to be held naked against
that powerful chest.

“I said, you’re naked,” he chuckled and let his eyes skim down from her
breasts, across her flat belly to the triangle between her legs.

Feeling his gaze like a hot laser, Shana finally realized she had dropped
her towel. “Oh, my God!” Frantically, she bent and retrieved her towel and
held it in front of her. Fidgeting, she tried to wrap it around her, but her fingers
had somehow gone numb, pretty much like her mind. She dropped the
edge of the towel twice more before finally affixing it so that her torso was
once again hidden from his view.

“What a pity,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“That you’re covered,” he said pointing to the towel and allowing a
trifle-too-mischievous chuckle escape his lips. “You’re one of those people
who should belong to a nudist colony,” he said. “Perfection.”

“Thank you.” Shana squirmed, but only slightly, feeling his sensual
tones tumble into her ears and somehow, incredulously, ignite something
in the pit of her stomach that made her want to cross her legs, or scratch an
itch. Shana didn’t know exactly what she was experiencing because she’d
always been a mind-over-matter person. Always totally and exceedingly in
control of every aspect of her life, Shana prided herself on being on-point
in every situation. Mr. Gorgeous had flipped on a switch she didn’t allow to
be turned on unless she’d consciously and judiciously made the decision to
do so. Shana had always told herself and everyone in her life that she didn’t
like surprises. Especially bad ones.