Billionaire's Love Suite (6 page)

Shana winced as the entire scene came back to her. “Okay. So, I have to
admit to myself that when I’m around Justin, I go brain dead. The only way
for me to put a stop to my apparent need to risk everything I’ve spent my
entire life working to attain is to never be around him again.”

Cate dropped her jaw. “Huh?”

Shrugging her shoulders and holding up her palms to ward off any further
discussion from Cate, she said, ”I see no way out of it. I have to follow
through with my resignation.”

Cate shook her head vehemently and put her hands on her hips. “I go on
record as saying that this is a bad idea. Shana, no guy in this world is that
magnetic. It just ain’t possible.”

“Oh,” Shana lifted her head up and down, “it’s more than possible. This
guy…for me anyway, is…bewitching. I can’t think when I’m around him. I
have to quit. The way I see it, I would rather take this hit against my career
now than face the further humiliation I would cause myself by being around
Justin. If it’s bad now, it will only get worse. He’s a playboy, Cate. I’m
nothing to him.”

Cate exhaled, resolved to the situation. “I understand.”

Shana looked her best friend straight in the eye and said, “I wish I
did.”

****

The minute Shana entered the Lux Hotel lobby, she felt the change. It
was more than the stunning floral arrangement she’d just ordered from a
florist that charged her less than half of the previous florist. It was more than
the fact that the extra cleaning staff she’d hired kept the crystal chandeliers
sparkling like diamonds and the marble floors glistening. It was the quick bow and broad genuine smile from the valet, to the doorman to the front
desk clerk that were different. The very air clicked with electricity. Only
once before had Shana seen this kind of altered state of change in a staff. It
was a reveal of the staff’s attitude when they knew the captain was at the
helm. “Justin is here,” she whispered to herself.

Clearly the staff was proud to work for Justin. Shana couldn’t help
being impressed that Justin’s charisma had already settled into the bones of
everyone at the hotel.

Oddly, Shana was struck with a warming sense of pride for all that she
had accomplished at the hotel in such a short time. She remembered her first
day when she’d taken over from Felicity Cummings. As Felicity had shown
her around, Shana had fallen in love with the old hotel. Behind the tacky
smoked mirror tiles and beneath the gaudy carpets, she’d felt the bones and
soul of the old hotel crying out to her to work her magic. It was as if in some
mystical way, she’d been called home. The soaring Edwardian era painted
ceilings and Art Nouveau wrought iron banisters recalled a more romantic
age that Shana adored.

In a very short time, the Lux Hotel had come to mean more to her than
just another project or stepping stone in her career. She could list all the
logical reasons why she should rethink her resignation, but the truth was
that the hotel owned her heart.

Shana felt inexorably sad as she walked toward the reservation desk.

“Hello, Miss Jackson,” the pert young woman behind the desk with the
wire rimmed glasses and bobbed dark hair said brightly.

“Good morning, Susan. Everything going well?”

“Absolutely,” the young woman replied and then attended to the well-dressed
elderly couple that walked up to the desk.

Shana greeted every person of the lobby staff by first name. Shana prided
herself on name and face association. She never forgot a face or the name
that went with it. It was a skill her father had taught her and in the hotel
business it was indispensable. Her ability to remember hotel guests brought
those paying customers back to the hotel again and again. It was another
reason Justin was going to be very sorry to lose her. She could have made
his coffers quite full, indeed.

“Too bad he’s such a liar,” she said as she walked up the wide, marble
staircase to the mezzanine floor that housed all the corporate offices.

Justin’s assistant, forty-five year old Charlotte Thomas, smiled at Shana
when she walked in. Charlotte was a classic blonde beauty whom Shana
thought would have had modeling or acting in her background. Charlotte
had been married for over twenty years to an advertising executive and they
lived in Greenwich. Charlotte had been Peter Yates’ loyal assistant for over
fifteen years. Shana couldn’t help but wonder how she was taking Peter’s
death and what she really thought about the changes that the Lux hotel was
undergoing. Now that she was leaving, Shana had the fleeting notion that
Charlotte might be a good replacement for her.

“Good morning, Shana,” Charlotte said. “You’re right on time. He’s
waiting for you.”

“Thanks,” Shana replied with a tenuous smile. Suddenly, she felt like she
was facing a firing squad. The flutters in her belly had turned to tight knots
and her lips quivered with tension. She sucked in a deep breath, forced her
fears into the deepest corners of her mind and she tapped on Justin’s door.

“Come,” she heard him say.

Shana squared her shoulders and pushed the door open.

Peter Yates’ office was imperiously large and was purposefully meant
to swallow up the human beings who dared to venture in. Shana knew this
because she’d seen the 1980 renovation blueprints when Peter had inherited
the chain from his father. Peter had converted three separate offices into this
one gigantic space meant to resemble those 1940’s Hollywood sound stage
looking rooms that were always out-of-scale with real life. The furniture
was Art Deco to the max including quilted leather walls, mahogany shelves
and black leather club chairs. Shana actually loved the period, but knowing
the intent of Peter’s egotistical mind, the room always creeped her out.

“You’re prompt,” Justin said rising from behind a black lacquered desk
that was devoid of paperwork but supported not one, but three computer
screens.

This was the first time Shana had ever seen Justin in this office and she
was surprised when she realized it suited him. He was dressed in an expensive
Armani dark blue double buttoned suit, white shirt and a blue and white pin dot tie. She didn’t know how it was possible, but Justin looked even
better in clothes than he did naked.

The vision of Justin in the steam room flashed in Shana’s mind like a
maddening strobe light. In a millisecond her mouth went dry and she could
barely answer him.

“I make it a practice to be on time,” she said tersely fighting the temptation
to chide him about his email remarks to her. Instead, she reached in her
briefcase and pulled out her resignation letter.

She walked up to his desk and handed him the letter.

Justin held the letter, but didn’t look at it. His eyes were on Shana.

She glanced up at him and for a split second while gazing into his blue
eyes, she almost regretted her decision. Almost.

“Please, have a seat, Miss Jackson,” he said gesturing toward one of
the club chairs. Justin waited for Shana to seat herself before taking a seat
himself.

It was an infinitesimal mannerly gesture, but Shana noticed it. Such
things spoke volumes to her. It was the kind of thing she tried to teach to
all her hotel staffs, but it was difficult. Manners and kindness were bred
throughout childhood. It was Shana’s guess that Justin didn’t learn these
bits of politeness from Peter Yates.

Justin looked over the letter, gave Shana a brief smile and then tore
up the letter into half a dozen pieces and threw them in the waste basket.
“That’s out of the way,” he said flatly.

Shana’s eyes flew wide open. “I’ll only write another one.”

Holding his palms upward in the air, Justin said, “Shana. Let’s put the
past behind us. Pretend that last night didn’t happen.”

Shana winced. How could she do that? She hadn’t been able to think of
anything but Justin and his riveting kiss ever since. Deep down, she knew
that the real reason she must leave her job is because he’d bewitched her.
He’d put her under some kind of spell and she needed to break free. “You
lied to me. You pretended to be someone you were not. I can’t work for
someone so untrustworthy,” she said clasping her hands tightly in her lap
and keeping her eyes focused on his.

He cocked his head to the left and returned her firm gaze. “I am not
untrustworthy in any aspect of my business or personal life. It was a joke,
Shana. Let’s let bygones be bygones.”

“Oh, now I was a joke?”

“Not you. It. It was a joke,” he chuckled.

Justin watched as her ire shot across her eyes. Uh oh. He realized he’d
botched the conversation already. He needed to think fast. “Look, Shana, I
didn’t intend to kiss you. That was wrong of me. I apologize.”

“Then why did you?” Shana asked too quickly. The minute the words
had raced out of her mouth, she bit her tongue.
Oh God. Now I’ve done it.
He knows that it meant something to me
.

Twice Justin opened his mouth to reply, but instead all he could do was
stare at her luscious mouth. “Because you were irresistible,” he replied in
that same velvety tone she remembered from the steam room.

Shana knew he was thinking about their kiss just as she was and the very
idea gave her confidence. Perhaps she would win this battle after all.

Justin’s eyes moved up from her lips to her eyes. “Again. I was wrong.
It won’t happen again. I swear. We have a business relationship and that’s
all.”

Can I do that?
Shana thought.
Even here and now, all I want to do is kiss
him again. Just to make sure that he felt like what I remember. I need to be
sure that it’s not all my imagination. Since I’m leaving anyway, I could just
walk over to him, grab his face and kiss him again. Then when it’s flat and
emotionless and turns out to be just like any other kiss I’ve ever received,
I’ll just walk away. Case closed. Finito
.

“I’ve given the matter my complete attention, Shana. It’s imperative
that right now as we are undergoing so many transitions in our administrative
procedures and the physical and design changes to the hotel, that we
maintain calm and trust among the staff first and our shareholders. If you
were to leave now that your designs and your proven programs are in place,
it would create consternation for our investors.”

“I think you would get along without me.”

“Not as well as we would if you stay. Shana,” Justin said with the
slightest tinge of pleading in his voice, “think of your sense of commitment.”
Justin reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a manila file with Shana’s name on it. He held it up as he spoke. “Your contract with us states
that you will remain with us for a minimum of six months. If both parties
are satisfied with the relationship, then you committed here on paper that
you would remain until the job is done. That means not just this flagship
hotel, but the others as well.”

Shana had remembered the contract, but she believed that if worst came
to worst she could have an attorney break the contract. It would cost her
financially, but it could be done. She was surprised he’d brought up the
contract clause. He must have considered her employment a great deal more
than she’d assumed. Shana knew she was good at her job, but Justin was curiously
more adamant about keeping her on than she’d realized. Something
didn’t figure rightly in her head about all this. Why wouldn’t Justin just hire
someone else? Did he have an ulterior motive? Or by any remote chance,
did he think about their kiss more than he pretended?

He was good at deception. He’d already proven that. If that was true,
she had an edge over him she hadn’t considered in her strategy.

She leaned back in her chair and for the first time since entering his
office, she relaxed. She crossed her long shapely legs and tugged ever so
gently on the black wool straight skirt she wore.

Justin’s eyes flew to her legs remembering the full frontal she’d brazenly
shown him when she walked out of the steam room. He felt a sprinkle
of perspiration erupt at his temples. He hoped to God she didn’t see him
sweat! She was making him crazy sitting there in her high collared white
shirt with the black silk bow tie and tightly buttoned jacket. Her hair was
clipped up at the back of her head with only tiny blonde tendrils curled at
the side of her face. But Justin knew the real truth of her. He’d purposefully
memorized every voluptuous inch of Shana Jackson. Of course he’d
gone over her contract letter by letter, clause by clause all night long. After
their kiss in the steam room, he doubted he’d be able to sleep for the next
decade. Only in the far misty recesses of his mind, would Justin admit to
himself that Shana had burned an image of herself never to be eradicated.
In one fleeting moment this woman had gotten under his skin so much so
that he would endure her anger and derision as long as he could keep her
in his employ. He had total confidence in the fact that he would get her into
his bed and soon. Only then would he be able to get her out of his mind and move on. It was the same philosophy about women and sex Justin had lived
by all his life. And it worked well for him.

Shana Jackson’s talent was exactly what the hotel needed. Shana Jackson
in his bed for a weekend fling was exactly what
he
needed. Justin would get
both because he believed in goal setting and achieving one’s goals.

Shana stared at the contract. Then she looked at Justin. The thought
struck her that she was at a defining moment in her life. From this moment,
all the rest of her life would emanate. Through Justin and the Lux Hotels
she could realize her career dreams. It was her decision to do as Justin suggested
and put the past behind them.

Looking at Justin her mind flashed with the same tender feeling she’d
had about the hotel as she’d walked in today. There was something mystical
about this hotel that called to her like a siren. She wanted this job. She
wanted to be here. She wanted to see her visions for the hotel born into
reality. Whether it was pride or sense of purpose or both, she didn’t know.
But Justin was right. She was a committed type of person.