Seducing His Opposition (12 page)

“It always makes me proud, too,” Nate said, glancing at his watch. “I’ve got to get inside. I’m hosting that group from the marketplace for drinks after the last show and I don’t want to be late to meet with Jen.”

“Don’t let me keep you. I’m heading to my office.”

Justin hugged his brother and then got back in his car and drove away. He needed to pay attention to the
deal with the Luna Azul Mercado and get that finalized. Then he’d figure out what to do with Selena.

He wasn’t going to allow her to continue to control him the way she had tonight. The only thing that made her power over him acceptable was the fact that she seemed unaware of it.

He pulled into the parking lot of their office building and didn’t want to get out. For the first time in his adult life he wasn’t interested in working. In fact, only one thing was on his mind and it was Selena.

He’d been an idiot to leave when he had. What had he proved?

He realized he’d proved to himself that he could be the one to leave.

And that was important. His father had never been able to leave their mother and that had been his greatest flaw. It had made the old man weak and Justin had decided at a very young age that he wasn’t going to be like his old man. At least not when it came to love.

He wasn’t going to fall for the wrong kind of woman. To be honest he’d vowed to never let any woman mean more to him than business.

He forced himself to get out of the car and go up to his office. He spent two hours going over numbers and sending detailed notes to his assistant for the meetings they’d be having over the next few days. By the time he’d left the office, he knew he was a much stronger man than his father had ever been and that Selena Gonzalez wasn’t going to find the same flaw in him that his mother had found in his father.

S
elena changed her outfit about six times but finally went down to the lobby bar a little after eleven. If Justin weren’t there, she’d know he was a bit of a con man just like Raul had been. But instead of going after her grandparents’ money, Justin was going after—what?

That was the question she didn’t know how to answer. She was pretty sure he wasn’t after her heart, which she’d like to know more about. She knew most men were commitment-phobes but he took it to extremes, from what she’d observed.

Why then was she standing at the entrance to the mood-lit bar so tentatively? Hoping for…

Justin.

He’d come. To be honest, until she saw him she’d been afraid to hope that he would be here. She just had figured he wouldn’t show up.

He waved her over to the intimate banquette where
he was sitting. She sat down and slid around the bench until she was next to him.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. He’d had time to go and change and he’d put on aftershave but he hadn’t shaved because a five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw.

She didn’t to talk about the way he’d left. She’d spent most of the night reliving those moments and trying to ascertain if it had been something she’d done.

“Business emergency handled?”

He flushed and nodded. “It wasn’t a big deal—just some paperwork that needed signing.”

That didn’t sound like a reason for him to rush out of her house but she wasn’t going to call him on it. She’d see how the rest of the evening went and then make up her mind if he was playing her for a fool or just in over his head like she was.

But Justin didn’t seem like the type of man to be overwhelmed by anything.

“What do you want to drink? They make a nice Irish coffee here, but I’ve always been partial to cognac.”

“Me, too,” she said. “My
abuelito
used to pour me a small snifter after I turned sixteen to share with him on Sundays when we’d go over to his house for dinner. I always felt very grown-up drinking it.”

“My dad always had cigars with cognac, but I don’t think we can smoke in here.”

“Not at all. Do you smoke?” she asked, realizing that she really didn’t know him all too well.

“No. I mean, the occasional cigar. When we first opened Luna Azul it was right at the height of the cigar club phase and we toyed with making it one, but in the end we wanted something that would stay in fashion.”

“Good call.”

“It was Nate who pointed out it was a fad. That guy has his finger on the pulse of what’s hot and what’s not.”

“I would imagine so—I see him on the society page of the newspaper almost every day.”

Justin signaled the waiter and ordered their drinks. “Nate does a lot of that socializing for the club. We get a lot of tourists and locals in the club because they want to catch a glimpse of Nate and his A-list friends.”

“I noticed that you and your brothers are close, what about your parents?” she asked. She wanted to know everything about him, the personal stuff that she hadn’t thought was important before. She knew from Cam that his parents were gone but she wanted to know more about the brothers’ relationship with them.

“My parents are both dead.”

“I know—Cam told me. I’m sorry. I know how it is to lose your parents.”

“It wasn’t that bad. I had a little bit of high school left and Cam stepped in to fill the void.”

“I guess you weren’t that close to them, then,” she said.

“No, I wasn’t. Well, my dad. He always took my brothers and I out all the time.”

“Where did he take you? Were you rough-and-tumble boys?” she asked.

“He mainly took us to the golf course or out on his boat. Just out of the house. My mother was often socializing and didn’t want noisy boys in the way.”

It didn’t really sound bitter when he said it but she was surprised and a little hurt for him. “My mother loved having us in the house and under her feet. My brother is ten years younger than I was so to keep me from being lonely my mom would always have my cousins over for
me to play with,” Selena said, remembering the crazy games she used to play with her cousins and how much fun it had been.

“My brothers and I are all two years apart, I guess it was too much for my mother. My dad enjoyed having us with him. I think we learned about living from him.”

Their drinks arrived.

“Salud!”
she said raising her glass toward him.

“Cheers,” he replied.

They both took a sip of their drinks. She set her glass on the table in front of her.

“What did you think of your dad being a pro golfer?”

“Why are you asking me so many questions?”

She didn’t know how to answer that. The truth was it had hurt when he left and she wanted to figure out what made him tick so he’d never hurt her again. Frankly, there was no way she was going to tell him that. “You know my family but I really don’t know much about yours.”

“Fair enough.”

“What was your dad’s name?”

“Kurt Stern.”

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“Most people who aren’t very familiar with golf haven’t. But he made a very good living playing for all of his life. He and my mother were killed when their private plane crashed on the way to a golf tournament.”

Suddenly she did know who his father was. She remembered reading the story about the tragedy. “Of course. I remember seeing that in the news.”

“I should have led with that part. He was more famous in death than he was in life.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize who he was.”

He took her hand in his. “It’s okay. Most people don’t.”

Justin felt like today had gone on too long. He was ready for it to end but not ready to leave Selena. Yet he knew he’d have to. Spending the night with her when they were on his yacht was one thing, spending the night with her here at the hotel something else. He just wasn’t ready for it tonight. He didn’t trust himself.

“Thanks for meeting for this drink,” he said.

“I guess you are done talking about your family?”

“Way done. I don’t like to talk about the past. I prefer to look to the future, which we are doing with our partnership.”

“Which one?”

That was the question. “The Mercado is what brought us together.”

“That is so true. If my
abuelito
hadn’t thought you were a silver-tongued devil our paths never would have crossed.”

He frowned as he realized how right she was. It had been chance that had put their paths on a collision course. “I guess it was fate.”

She smirked. “Only if you count me falling for Raul as part of fate’s ultimate plan. And I’m not sure that our destinies are that spelled out.”

He wasn’t either. “I’ve made everything in my life happen by hard work and determination, so I’d have to agree with you.”

“Still…for me it would be reassuring if I thought all the heartache and trouble with Raul was so that my grandparents could have an even better place now. I mean that would be worth it.”

He wondered if she thought he’d be worth it. What was the man of her dreams? Or had those died when she’d been twenty and betrayed by love? Tonight wasn’t the night for asking that type of question.

“It would be worth it. I hope you know it was never my intent to swindle anyone out of anything.”

“I think I do know that now. At first I wasn’t too sure what to think of you.”

“Why?”

She took a deep breath and then leaned forward, crossing her arms on the table. Her arms framed her breasts—he tried to keep his gaze on her face but he was distracted. He liked this woman. He loved her body and he wanted nothing more than to spend every night wrapped in her arms.

“I guess it was the way you came on to me. I thought ‘this guy has got to be after something.’”

“Selena,” he said, taking her hands in his and looking into those deep chocolate-colored eyes of hers. “I was after you. I didn’t know who you were when we were sitting next to each other. I only knew that I wanted you.”

“Lust,” she said. “The mighty Justin Stern was floored by lust.”

He squeezed her hand and lifted it to his lips to kiss the back of it. “I wasn’t floored.”

“Oh, what were you then?”

“Enamored. I had never seen a woman as beautiful as you,” he said, meaning those words more than any he’d ever spoken before. There was something about Selena that struck him deep in his soul. He wasn’t the kind of man who made soul connections or thought he’d find his other half but a part of him—the part that had run away from her house earlier—knew that he had. That
there was something between the two of them that just couldn’t be stopped.

“It was a force of nature,” he said.

“You do have a silver tongue.”

He didn’t like that she thought so. “I don’t. I’m known for being blunt and to the point. There is something about you that has captivated me.”

“I wish I could believe you,” she said, her eyes big and almost sad.

“Why can’t you?”

“Men—”

He knew she was going to make a blanket statement that wouldn’t be flattering. He knew he should let it go, it was late, they both had a full day of meetings tomorrow and to be fair she’d let him escape her house earlier without asking too many questions. But he wanted to know what she thought of men. Wanted to know the exact company he was keeping. “Men what?”

“Some men lie. And they do it so well that a person never knows that they aren’t telling the truth,” she said. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Justin. I wish I was a different woman who didn’t have baggage.”

“I don’t,” he said. He knew she’d been badly used and that the effect was one she still hadn’t shaken. Raul’s betrayal wasn’t just of Selena and her heart but also of her family and he suspected that hurt her even more.

“Why not?”

“You wouldn’t be the woman you are today without the past.”

She leaned over and hugged him. “Thanks for saying just the right thing.”

“Ha, I knew if I blundered around long enough I’d come off as suave.”

“I didn’t say you were suave.”

“You implied it,” he said. “I think we should call it a night before you change your mind.”

She nibbled on her lower lip and he wondered if she was hesitating over tonight the way he was. When she didn’t offer for him to come up to her room, he realized she was just as shy about where this was heading.

“I’ve got an early meeting so maybe we could have lunch?”

She shook her head. “I can’t. I’m due to be grilled by my grandparents for lunch.”

“Grilled about what?”

“You. Everyone on the committee guessed I had a date since I didn’t come with them to the club and now I’m being called back home to answer for myself.”

“Are you going to tell them your date was with me?” he asked.

“Definitely, I’m not lying to them.”

“Would you like me to come with you?” he asked.

“That’s sweet but I think I better handle this one alone.”

“Very well, but let’s meet for breakfast.”

She nodded and they went their separate ways at the elevator. He down to his suite and she down to hers. He felt like he’d created a barrier between them tonight by running away. And as he fell asleep he realized that he wanted her in his arms. He needed her in his arms and he was going to make sure she was back there as soon as possible.

Selena woke up with the sun streaming through the windows and her thoughts on Justin. He knocked on her door at seven-thirty and she was surprised to see he wore his robe and was pushing a room service cart.

“This is as close as I could get to breakfast in bed, considering that you didn’t invite me to spend the night,” he said.

“You didn’t seem like you were interested,” she said.

“My mistake,” he said, pulling her into his arms. He walked her back toward the bed.

He didn’t say anything but pulled her under him. His robe fell open and he shrugged it off his shoulders revealing his nakedness. He pushed her nightgown up to her waist and slid into her body. He rocked them slowly together.

The sensation of having him inside of her again was exquisite.

She’d grown accustomed to his touch and it felt right to have him here between her legs. In her again. She no longer felt like she was alone.

She knew she was drawn to the feel of him. His body under her fingers, his chest rubbing against her breasts and the feel of his mouth on her neck with that early morning stubble abrading her. She shivered as he whispered darkly sexual words against her skin and rocked his hips leisurely against hers.

The first time they’d made love had been intense and explosive, the second time sweet and sensual, but this morning it felt like coming home. She was awash in feelings of Justin as they slowly moved together.

She scraped her nails down his back until she could cup his butt and pull him closer to her. He paused buried hilt-deep inside of her.

He lifted his head and looked down at her. “Good morning.”

“Yes, it is,” she said, feeling more relaxed than she
had in a long time. There was something nice about making love first thing in the morning.

“I like the feel of your hands on me.”

“Me, too,” she admitted. “From the moment I saw you in the lobby of the zoning office I wanted to touch your butt.”

He gave her a wicked smile. “I wanted to touch your breasts.”

He lowered his head and took the tip of one of her nipples between his lips, suckling her softly in the early morning light.

His hands moved over the sides of her torso and he cupped her other breast in his hand then rotated his palm over it. Stimulating it until the nipple hardened.

She shifted her shoulders as he started to suckle more strongly. She put her heels on the bed trying to get him to move in her but he wouldn’t be budged. This morning he was determined to take his time and drive her slowly out of her mind.

“Please…”

“Please what? Doesn’t this feel good?”

“Yes, it feels too good,” she said.

“How can something feel too good?” he asked, tracing the edge of her areola with his tongue.

She couldn’t think. The humid warmth of his tongue contrasted with the slight abrasion of his stubble and it was driving her mad.