Shana Mine

by Marilyn Lee

  Those tentative plans vanished when Taylor Raymond rose from one of the lobby chairs as I entered the hotel.

  He wore a dark suit with a white shirt and a silk tie. His long, dark hair rested over his broad shoulders. He looked sexy and determined. As our gazes locked, a slow, warm smile spread across his handsome face.

  I came to an abrupt halt. My heart pounded. My thong flooded. And I was so lost in him.

  He kept walking. When he reached me, he engulfed my hand in his. Then he bent to brush his lips against my cheek. “Shana.”

  I couldn’t remember any potential lover whispering my name with such need and warmth.

  He lifted his head. “I came prepared to convince you to have dinner with me,” he said.

  I disengaged my hand from his and stepped away from him. “Thanks but I already have plans for tonight.”

  “So do I and they all revolve around you.” He reclaimed my hand and brushed his lips against it.

  “You slept with my best friend.”

  “I’ve slept with a lot of women,” he said bluntly.

  Annoyed, I jerked my hand away. “That remark doesn’t help your case.”

  “It’s not reasonable to hold things that happened before we met against me, Shana.”

  How could I argue with that logic? “Who you’ve slept with is no concern of mine.” I continued towards the elevator.

  He followed me. “I’ll wait down here while you do whatever you need to.”

  I shook my head.

  “Please don’t give me a complex by dumping me.”

  I pushed the call button before looking up at him. “In order for me to dump you, there’d have to be something between us and there’s not.”

  “Don’t bust my ass,” he said. “And let’s not play games.”

  “Who’s playing games?”

  “You are. We both knew there was something between us the moment we met.”

  True dat.

  “So why waste time denying the obvious?”

  He certainly didn’t lack confidence. The elevator doors opened. I stepped in without responding.

  He reached out a hand to keep the doors from closing. “I’ll be waiting, Shana. Don’t stand me up.”

  “If I do?”

  “It won’t do you any good. I always get what I want. And I want you.”

  I stared at him. “You do?”

  “Hell to the yes.” He smiled and stepped back, allowing the doors to slide close.

  In my hotel suite, I sank down onto the loveseat. Closing my eyes, I took several slow deep breaths. You cannot go out with him. You can’t.

  The phone rang.

  Startled, I sat up and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

  “Why aren’t you in the shower instead of answering the phone?”

  Persistent and attractive. And so sexy I just had to have him.

  “Shana?”

  My decision made, I rose slowly. “Give me an hour.”

  “Make it forty minutes and we have a deal.”

  “Forty minutes,” I promised. Smiling, I put the phone down and rushed to the bathroom to take a quick shower.

  Fifty minutes later, he met me in the lobby with a beautiful bouquet and a warm smile that made me imagine all manner of things—none of them utterable in polite company. “You look exquisite,” he said.

  “So do you.” Good enough to spend all night fucking.

  He gave me the flowers and offered me his arm.

  I hesitated. Once I left with him, there would be no going back.

  “It was over between Jasmin and me months ago. That’s why she wouldn’t take my calls and why I didn’t pursue her or do anything to try to change her mind. It’s just starting between you and me.” He offered me his arm again.

  Mentally clinging to Jasmin’s promise that our friendship could withstand my sleeping with him, I slipped my arm through his.

  Smiling, he gently squeezed it against his body.

  I looked up into his dark eyes and felt like a teenage girl crushing the entire night. Every time I met his gaze, I struggled not to lose myself in sexy fantasies. We had dinner on the patio of a historic restaurant overlooking the river. I was only conscious of him seated across from me alternatively staring and smiling with an intimacy that kept me aroused and eager for the night to end—with us in bed.

  After the meal, we danced slow and close together. But he surprised me by making no attempt to grind against me or fondle me. He kept his hands above my waist and his lips to himself—which annoyed the hell out of me. Who wanted a big, handsome hunk to behave like a gentleman while dancing under the stars?

  “I’m in the mood for a drive. Are you interested?” he asked as he led me back to our table after our last dance.

  I was a little old to park and cuddle, but what the hell. I had no doubt it would be thrilling with him. “Yes,” I said.

  After a drive, he parked in a secluded spot in a large park and then the damned man wanted to talk. Not undress or fondle me and fuck me senseless but talk!

  “Tell me about yourself,” he said, staring ahead into the darkness surrounding us.

  I took a slow, calming breath, and told him about myself—including the fact that I had two twenty-year old kids.

  “I understand they’re both destined for great things,” he said, turning his head to smile at me.

  “I’m sure they are, but how do you know that?”

  He shrugged. “Jasmin told me.”

  “She did?”

  He nodded. “She thinks you and your kids are the best thing since sliced bread. That’s how I recognized you yesterday morning.”

  “She described me?”

  “She did better than that. She showed me your picture—which totally enchanted me.”

  I blinked at him. “My picture enchanted you after you’d met and slept with her?”

  “You ask that as if you expect to be less attractive to men than she is.”

  “Hello. She’s a model. I’m not.”

  “She’s a beautiful woman,” he admitted. “But she’s…she’s…”

  “She’s my best friend,” I reminded him. He needed to know that I had no interest in hearing anything bad about her.

  “She’s not as…natural as you are,” he finished. “A woman doesn’t need to wear false eyelashes, excessive make-up, or overly suggestive clothes to catch and hold my attention. Hell, she doesn’t even have to be pretty.” He paused and gave me a long look. “The fact that you’re so attractive is a bonus but your beauty isn’t the sole attraction for me.”

  Damn but he had a way with words. “Then what is?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just know I’m smitten.”

  Smitten? I liked the sound of that. I smiled, pleased. “That must have been some picture she showed you.”

  “You were smiling into the camera wearing a dark reddish or plum colored dress that ended just below your knees in the picture she showed me. It was sleeveless and kind of highlighted your breasts and the fact that you were a woman of…substance.”

  “A woman of substance?”

  “You weren’t skinny. I’m 6’ 3”and 210 lbs. The days when I found skinny women desirable are long past. These days I have no use for a skinny woman I’d be afraid of hurting when things got interesting. You looked exquisite and I was smitten.”

  “Smitten? You were smitten?”

  “Smitten.” He looked at my lips for several moments before turning in his seat to stare at the windshield again. “Completely.”

  “What if Jasmin had showed up instead of me?”

  “I would have told her what I told her when she finally took my call today—I have zero interest in continuing any type of relationship with her. I have a feeling she would have known why—because I planned to pursue you.”

  I considered his words in silence for a moment. I didn’t know if I believed him because it was true or because I wanted to believe him. Either way, we were ending up in bed. But I probab
ly should show some interest in something other than his sex. “Have you ever been married?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  He sighed. “Like my parents, I only planned to do it once so I didn’t see any need to rush into it.”

  “Is there anyone special you’re considering?”

  He seemed to take long time to answer. “I’m not dating anyone at the moment.”

  “But you’re sexually active?”

  He turned to look at me. “I love sex but I haven’t had it in several months.”

  Lord he must be ripe for a night of raunchy fucking. “Why not?”

  “I’m trying to set a good example for my sons so I no longer whore around like I used to do when they were younger.”

  I blinked. “Jasmin never mentioned your sons.”

  “She doesn’t know about them.”

  “You dated for nearly a year.”

  “Actually, we saw each other a few times over seven or eight months. She beat me to the punch and dumped me before I could dump her.”

  “And you never mentioned them to her in all that time? Not even when you gave her the bracelet?”

  “Neither of us were feeling any pains when I bought it and she accepted it. I think the purchase of the bracelet is what made us wake up and realize it was time to put the brakes on our relationship. I don’t want to sound as if I’m trying to diss her in any way, but we didn’t spend much time getting to know each other. We had a strictly physical relationship.”

  Recalling how much time Jasmin had spent singing the praises of his cock, I had little reason to doubt his word.

  He glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late. I’ll take you back to your hotel.”

  We made the drive back in silence. I don’t know what he was thinking, but my thoughts were on wicked hot sex. My first inclination that I’d be sleeping alone came when he refused valet parking and stopped the car in one of the few pick-up spots in front of the hotel.

  He walked me into the lobby and pushed the call button.

  When the elevator arrived, he rode up to my suite with me. “I’ll see you tomorrow for brunch—at what time?” he asked, standing just outside the door.

  “You’re assuming a lot,” I said, annoyed that he had no intentions of spending the night with me.

  “What time?” he asked again, smiling.

  Damn him and that smile of his that made doing anything but what he wanted difficult. “Eleven o’clock.”

  He took my hand in his and kissed my palm. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning at eleven.”

  I bit back the urge to ask him to spend the night with me. The last thing I wanted was to have him view me as a desperate, man-hungry cougar—even though that’s what I felt like. “Good night.”

  “Sweet dreams, Shana.” He bent his head to brush his warm lips against mine in a brief caress.

  I leaned close and rubbed my cheek against his before turning my head to engage him in a warm, insistent lip lock.

  He inhaled quickly and stepped back, shaking his head. “Don’t start anything I don’t have time to finish.”

  “Then finish it.”

  “I can’t.”

  I frowned. There was no doubting the regret in his voice. So why was he leaving when he had to know I wanted him to stay. “You sound like you have another date,” I teased.

  “I do.”

  I blinked. “Excuse me?”

  He stroked a finger down my cheek and neck to rest between my cleavage. “I have another date and if I don’t leave now, I’ll be late.”

  “So cancel it.”

  He shook his head. “That’s out of the question.” He bent and pressed a quick, warm kiss against the side of my neck. “Until tomorrow,” he said.

  I knew I was in more a long night.

  He smiled and walked away.

  I closed and locked the door. He had another date? Damn! What did a woman have to do to get him into bed? Entirely too wound up to sleep and worried that some lucky woman would be rocking his world that night, I undressed and had a soak until the water cooled. Then, with a hotel robe over my damp body, I poured myself a drink and went to bed.

  The phone rang as I dozed off. After a moment of hesitation, I rolled over and picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Hi.”

  At the sound of Taylor’s voice, I sat up. Please Lord, let him be calling to tell me he’s cancelled his date and he’s downstairs in the lobby, eager to jump my bones. “Hi,” I smiled and then frowned as I heard a series of screams. “Are you holding your date hostage?”

  “That’s a teen fright flick you hear. Let me go into the hall.”

  “A teen fright flick? Just how young are you and your date?”

  He laughed. “I’m thirty but I’m with my sons and we’re watching a movie.”

  “So your date was with your sons?”

  “Nothing short of a date with them would have induced me to leave you.”

  I smiled. “A fright flick? Aren’t you worried they’ll have nightmares?”

  “They’re fourteen and fifteen and don’t really do nightmares anymore.”

  “Fourteen and fifteen? You have sons that old?”

  “I started young,” he said.

  “No shit, Sherlock.” Not that I had much room to talk. I’d been eighteen when I got pregnant.

  He laughed again. “That means I’ve had more time to develop my technique than other men my age.”

  I licked my lips. “Oh, that sounds like a promise.”

  “It is.”

  “Dad, you’re missing the good parts!”

  “Coming, sport.” He sighed. “I have to go. My guys are calling. I’ll see you tomorrow, Shana.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” I said. “Enjoy your night with your sons.”

  “Thanks. I always do.”

  Relieved that I didn’t have to share him with another woman, I lay back in bed. I fell asleep quickly and slept all night.

  Chapter Three

  In the morning, I took a long, relaxing soak and spent an hour preparing for our date. Since I didn’t know our destination, I decided to wear a pretty, dark blue cotton-silk blend pantsuit with a pair of comfortable but dressy slip-ons.

  I took extra time with my make-up and used my favorite perfume sparingly. Then satisfied I looked my best, I left my suite and went down to the lobby to wait for him. I could have waited in my suite until he arrived but I wanted to watch him walk in and be able to study him without his knowing I was.

  But the moment he walked into the lobby, he immediately turned his head and looked directly at me.

  Feeling like a silly, lovesick teenager, I rose and hurried across the lobby to him.

  He smiled and engulfed me in a quick, warm embrace.

  Strangely, I felt no awkwardness with him. Rushing into his arms seemed natural—almost as if we had a long-standing relationship that made such behavior the norm. “Shana.” He kissed my ear and neck before he released me. “You look wonderful.”

  “So do you.”

  “Are you ready? Do you need to go back upstairs?”

  I shook my head. “I’m all yours,” I said.

  “I’m going to hold you to that promise,” he said, slipped an arm around my shoulders and walked me towards the door.

  I enjoyed the weight of his arm around my shoulders. “Where are we going?” I asked once we were seated in his car.

  “To my house for lunch. We can decide where we’ll have dinner later.”

  “You’re assuming again,” I said.

  “And you’re assuming I’m prepared to allow anyone else to monopolize your time while you’re here.” He turned to look at me. “For how long?”

  “I’m leaving on Friday.”

  “So soon?”

  I nodded.

  “Damn. That’s not much time.”

  It was seeming shorter with every second I spent with him.

  He started the car and drove away.

  He had a b
ig two-story house forty minutes from the city. During the tour, it was clear how important his sons were to him. There was a basketball court at either end of the long driveway. The family room held a large pool table and what looked like two expensive, gaming computers as well as a large flat screen. The living room mantel held several trophies. Pictures of males on the basketball court and baseball diamonds covered the walls.

  The picture hanging above the mantel featured two smiling teenage boys posing in front of a large swimming pool. They were tall with dark blond hair spilling over their shoulders. They had dark green eyes and Caucasian features but skin tones that hinted at a mixed heritage.

  I turned to find Taylor standing behind me. “Your guys?”

  He nodded, smiling. He pointed to the one on the right. “That’s Taylor Raymond Donovan. The other is Raymond Taylor Donovan.”

  I arched a brow. “Unique way of naming your sons.”

  He shrugged. “That’s as close to taking my name as their maternal grandparents would allow their mother to come. As you can imagine I was far from their favorite person after she got pregnant a second time.”

  “As a parent who fears the same thing, I can understand that.”

  “So can I,” he said. “Especially now that my oldest son is the same age I was when he was conceived.”

  I smiled. “Your guys are stunning. You’re going to have girl problems with them.”

  “Already started. That’s why I’m trying to set a good example so neither of them becomes a father too early and finds their opportunities severely limited as I did.”

  “You have regrets?”

  He sighed but shook his head. “I wouldn’t wish either one of them unborn for a million bucks—even though I ended up in trade school instead of with the four-year degree I’d always expected to have.” He bent his head and kissed my neck. “Although I’m always willing and happy to discuss my guys, right now talking isn’t high on the list of things I’d love to do with you.”

  Smiling, I turned to face him. “That must mean food is.”

  He leaned close and inhaled slowly. “Damn you smell good enough to eat.”

  “So do you, but since I haven’t had breakfast I expect some food—first.”

  “Food first, then I’m going to eat you,” he threatened.