CATHERINE LANIGAN
The Bestselling Author of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile
Previously Published Non-Fiction Titles
Angel Watch
Writing the Great American Romance Novel
Divine Nudges
Evolving Woman
NotMYkid
Previously Published Fiction Titles
Bound By Love Elusive Love
Admit Desire Tender Malice
Sins of Omission In Love’s Shadow
Web of Deceit California Moon
Romancing the Stone Becoming
Jewel of the Nile Seduced
All or Nothing Legend Makers
A Promise Made The Texan
Way of the Wicked Montana Bride
At Long Last Love Wings of Destiny
Dangerous Love The Christmas Star
And numerous Anthologies
© Copyright 2010, Catherine Lanigan
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without written permission
from the author.
ISBN: 978-0-9827474-0-7
He owned a chain of the most luxurious hotels in the world. For Justin Yates, women were a weekend affair until he met gorgeous Shana Jackson, his fiery Operations Director. Billionaire’s Love Suite is a sexy story about the search for true love.
“Lanigan knows her genre well.” --Publisher’s Weekly
Catherine Lanigan is the bestselling author of over thirty published novels, non-fiction books, anthologies and the novelizations of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile. Lanigan is published in over a dozen languages. She conducts writing and publishing seminars and is often a guest speaker at writer’s conferences as well as television and radio appearances.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest gratitude to my literary agent and never-fail supporter, Lissy Peace, of Lissy Peace and Associates. I pray every day that your unswerving faith in my talent and passion for writing will continue to reward you long beyond my life on earth.
For Linda Kay of Books Alive, you have become the greatest of all gifts to me, a dear friend. Thank you for all your organization, advertising and promotion of our very successful writing seminars over the past year. I look forward with joy and anticipation to years of book signings, writing and publishing seminars and planning author/agent conferences.
For Janet McCoy of Reader’s World, my long-time friend and bookseller guru. How wise and wonderful God is that He moved me back to Indiana and plunked me down only doors away from you. Keep watching that back window for the candles that I light for you and your family.
For all my special friends, Dr. David Porter, Cheryl, Debbie, Mary Beth, Gail, Vicki, Stacy, Laura, Suzanne, Shelley and Kristin for making me laugh through my tears and sorrow. Thanks for the hugs and the encouragement. You have all taught me that no one, not even me, is too old to learn an entirely new world, which has been fascinating and fun to explore.
And for Jed Nolan, my loving husband who has shown me that courage and unshakeable faith in the talent and gifts that God has deigned to grant us, is the only choice for those who live in the arts. It is a difficult and treacherous journey, but it is the ONLY journey and the ONLY life worth living for us.
DEDICATION
This love story is dedicated to my sweet, caring and supportive sister, Nancy Lanigan Porter, who passed away on May 7, 2009. You were the light in my lantern and the wind beneath the wings I used to fly to worlds I didn’t know existed. I have never witnessed in real life or in fiction, the enormous courage that you displayed during your war with cancer. I will always feel privileged to have known you.
Nan, you were always there for me, unconditionally, totally. You are more than missed. You were and are still needed in my life. I love you more than all the words in the world.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Epilogue
CHAPTER ONE
“Infuriating man!” Shana groaned as three more urgent emails appeared on her computer screen. All were from her new employer, Justin Yates.
She banged three quick replies. “I answered all these questions yesterday. Gees. Can’t this guy read?”
Shana had not yet met Justin in the four weeks she’d been working for him, but she knew about his billionaire status and the fact that he’d recently inherited the Lux Hotel Chain upon the death of his father, Peter Yates, who was rumored to be a tyrant and bully to everyone he met. Shana was beginning to fear that Justin might have inherited some of his father’s spurious traits along with the hotels.
She no more than thought the worst of her boss, when another email shot across her screen. She dropped her face into her hands and splayed her fingers across her temple in an attempt to hold her temper at bay. “Now he wants to cut the staff again? I’ve already trimmed the deadwood. Our problem is that we need competent staff!”
She banged out her reply on the keyboard. “Two days ago I emailed you precisely the reasons for hiring three managers and those respective resumes. Did you receive that recommendation?”
She punched the “send” button and within seconds came his reply, “Did not.”
Shana rolled her eyes and shook a fist at the screen. “You are such a pain, Justin Yates.” She scrolled through her documents to find the file she needed to re-attach to her email back to Justin.
“I should have asked for more money.”
She had barely slept more than four hours a night since coming to work at the New York City Lux hotel.
She’d only had her resume out for one week after finishing her job at the Plaza Cote d’Azur when she’d gotten a response from Justin Yates via email. They had emailed each other back and forth negotiating her salary and benefits until Shana had gotten everything she’d wanted. Shana knew that revitalizing the Lux Hotels would be the biggest coup of her career. Despite the fact that Justin’s father, Peter Yates’ had possessed a horrific reputation as a heartless bastard, what the Lux Hotels did have in spades was incredible locations. In every city they stood, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver and Toronto, the Lux hotels had been built over a hundred years ago when those cities were bustling but land was still attainable. Today, their prime locations were worth tens of billions of dollars.
Shana clearly understood what she wanted to believe was Justin Yates’ passion to cling to the hotels. Being born to parents who ran a rustic inn in Sedona, Arizona just north of Oak Creek Canyon, she’d lived and breathed the hotel, inn-keeping mind-set all her life. Her mother and her father, until his death, had taught her that caring for other people during the difficult times of travel and even to give a bit of respite in troubled lives, was a noble mission. She had always felt privileged to work in the hotel industry. Shana knew that if she’d been born a Yates, she would have moved heaven and earth to retain the historic buildings for future generations.
However, eradicating the disparaging, caustic reputation of Peter Yates’ from the minds of the media and most Americans who’d read stories about Peter in Vanity Fair magazine and every newspaper including USA Today, would take a miracle. Even though it was through emails, Shana had convinced the new heir to the Lux chain, Justin, that she was indeed, a miracle worker.
She was jus
t about to turn off her computer, when she received an alert that she had another new email. She punched up her mailbox and cringed. “Justin. Again. Doesn’t he ever sleep either?”
She read the email requesting a meeting with her the following morning nine o’clock sharp. “Sharp. As in, on-the-dot? As in, assuming I don’t know what it means to be on time?”
Shana frowned. Then scowled. Since coming to the Lux Hotel, she’d heard a great deal about her new boss as well as his autocratic and obdurate father. Justin was apparently a true man-about-town who had enough money to indulge all his whims. This was evidenced by the Lamborghini he kept in the hotel garage, the luxuriously appointed penthouse suite he occupied when he was in New York and the many luxury vacation trips abroad he billed back to the company.
Shana knew that he was a self-made man because she’d investigated him at the same time she was certain he was checking out her references. She’d read a great deal about him, though she still hadn’t seen a photograph of him. There were portraits of Peter Yates in the hotel offices, but because Justin had only recently become the new corporate head, no portraits or photographs of him existed on the grounds.
Shana figured he had to be somewhat attractive because his reputation as a playboy was often the subject of the staff gossip. Shana had personally seen the stack of phone messages from various women he dated each time she placed a report on his desk in his absence. Just today she’d actually met one of his paramours as she’d walked out of Justin’s office. The buxom auburn-haired young woman, who teetered on six-inch high heels and wore a painted-on purple silk dress, couldn’t possibly have had anything more substantial than air encased within the confines of her skull.
“Is Jus in there?” She’d asked with a breathy voice that would have given Marilyn Monroe pause.
“No, he’s away.”
“Oh,” she giggled. “I knew that.”
Shana’s eyebrow clicked up a notch. “Really? Then why are you here?”
“I went to his old office off of Wall Street and they told me he was here now. I was jes hopin’…er…to leave him a note. Or somepin’.”
“I see,” Shana said choking back a chuckle. She didn’t know a thing about her new boss, but he had to have half a dozen screws loose to even spend five minutes with this woman. “Maybe you should just give him a call on his cell.”
“Oh, he doesn’t like that. Emails either. I tried. He was fierce mad.”
“I’ll bet,” Shana grumbled under her breath. “Well, good luck.”
The woman smiled back her displaying the most perfect teeth she’d ever seen, but there was no mistaking the forlorn look in her eyes. The young woman was truly disappointed.
Maybe she has some attributes, Shana thought kindly as the young woman looked down at the floor then to the door as if not knowing where to go. Suddenly, Shana felt sorry for her. “Would you like me to give him a message for you?” Shana offered.
The red head flashed her a friendly, grateful smile. At that moment, Shana saw what Justin must have seen in her. She was sweet. And Shana liked her.
“Oh, thank you s’much! Could you just tell him that Kimmie was here. And tell him I said ‘thanks’.”
“Sure.” Shana was dying to know what she was thankful about, but she didn’t dare get that personal. Plus, she didn’t really want to know all that much about her new boss, either. In New York, he was considered a player. He used women like tissues and tossed them away just as easily. His lack of commitment to a woman was often likened to his lightening fast ability to buy and sell stocks within a few minutes time. Justin didn’t stick with anything for long. He traded off his women like he traded his stock.
Justin Yates was precisely the kind of man Shana wanted as little to do with as possible. That was why, thus far, her job as his employee suited her just fine. They had only an email relationship. Justin was doing his thing and she was free to get down to business and take care of building her career’s sterling reputation.
Shana believed that the feather in her cap of turning the Lux Hotels into strong profit making centers would make her a star in the industry.
She heard the “click” on the computer that alerted her to another incoming email.
“Justin,” she groaned to herself. She read the email.
“Send a confirmation about the meeting tomorrow. J.” it read.
“Testy. Testy.” It had only been sixty seconds since he’d sent the last email. Her anger spiked. If this was any indication of what she was going to be facing now that she was about to meet Justin, perhaps she’d jumped too soon into this job. She took a deep breath and calmed herself.
Shana hit the Reply button on her computer to send a confirmation to Justin.
The second she hit the Send button, the networking window popped up on her screen. “Glad you are on-line,” Justin had replied. “Do you have newest bids from Allied Construction?”
“I do.” Shana typed. “I thought we were going with Silver City Construction for the New York property.”
“I have not confirmed that. Tell me you have not sent out contracts.”
Shana’s jaw dropped. “He thinks I’m an utter idiot!”
Her fingers flew across the board in stern, purposeful strikes. “I have never taken it upon myself to make such decisions without the owner’s and the board’s approval. Ever. I would not start now. I will have all necessary paperwork ready for your perusal at the meeting tomorrow.”
“Nine o’clock sharp.” Justin replied and signed off.
“Sharp.” Shana stuck out her tongue at the screen.
*****
“I’ve haven’t even met my new Director and she’s making me absolutely crazy,” Justin Yates growled as he banged his fingers against his Blackberry keys.
Trent Wellington shot Justin an exasperated look. He grabbed the Blackberry out of Justin’s hands.
“Hiring Shana Jackson is the best decision you’ve ever made, Justin,” Trent said carefully handing the Blackberry back to his billionaire friend and client. Confidently, he slid a thick manila file folder into his briefcase.
“She’s costing me a fortune,” Justin Yates grumbled as he surveyed the stack of construction bids on his New York City flagship hotel and then handed them to Trent for his perusal. Justin looked down at the latest cryptic text message from Shana stating that she had readjusted the figures on the on the new heating and cooling system. “Look at this. Another million dollars because she didn’t do her job right the first time.”
“Would you calm down? She told us the figures were not exact. It happens.”
Justin pursed his lips tightly and then exhaled strongly through his nostrils. He kept silent in order to check his anger while he listened to his friend and good counsel.
“Just remember that Shana Jackson single-handedly put the Shellingham Geneva Hotel back on the map, not to mention being responsible for the turnaround in the Plaza Cote d’Azur. She’s a genius when it comes to turning non-performing properties into gold mines. She’s the best of the best.”
“She’s also the reason I’ve been half-way around the world trying to find the capital to fund her refurbishing and marketing costs.” Justin rubbed his weary eyes and stretched his aching neck. He looked up at the airline departure board to check on their flight status from Beijing back to the United States.
Trent stood up and planted his feet shoulder width apart and stared down at his intractable boss. “Let me remind you, they are your refurbishing costs.” Then he took a deep breath. “Maybe this isn’t for me to say, but we’ve been together for over a decade, so I think that gives me some leeway here.”
“Here it comes again, the ‘Justin you’ve got straw for brains’ speech.”
“Hey, when we were at Harvard and rooming together, you listened to me all the time.”
“That’s because you could get girls faster than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“That’s right. I helped you out then and I’m helping you this
time,” Trent said with firm conviction.
“I didn’t need all that much help, as I remember,” Justin replied sarcastically. “Once I got my feet wet, I swam pretty darn well and hard,” he said remembering the steady stream of co-eds that he dated briefly and then moved on quickly after becoming bored and impatient with their overly possessive attitudes. Justin knew that most of the girls he was attracted to saw his famous family name and instantly started doodling their name in front of his before the first date was over. Justin had great plans for his life and none of those plans including being a “catch” for a social climber.
“Need I remind you that you are under the gun here, buddy? Your father’s Will specifically stated that you have to increase the chain’s profits by a minimum of fifteen percent in one year or the entire kit and caboodle goes on the auction block and the money goes to charity? And why would he do that?”
“Plain and simple. He wants me to prove that I’m worthy to take on the chain.”
“You’ve proven to half the world that you’re successful.”
“Ah!” Justin held up his index finger. “But not in hotels. It’s a different animal,” he said looking down at another text from Shana Jackson.
“I’ve heard horror stories about your father for years, including the ones you told me in college. I guess I just didn’t want to believe a parent could be that belligerent and demanding.”
“Yeah,” Justin sighed morosely. Raking, his hand through his hair, it felt like his nerves were on fire all the way from his scalp to the end of his hair. His father’s Will had come as a shock to him. A big shock.
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