“I didn’t know it was him. I went to the steam room after work because I was so uptight dealing with all his emails and demands. Honestly, he…”
“Get to the naked part,” Cate urged excitedly.
Shana went on to tell Cate everything that happened during her close encounter of the first kind with Justin.
When she had finished, Cate leaned back and observed Shana with a look of pure envy. “Why doesn’t this kind of thing ever happen to me?” Cate whined.
“Excuse me? This is precisely the kind of thing that does happen to you. It just never happens to me!”
“Right. I meant that…well, it hasn’t happened to me lately.”
“Lately? What about that guy, Ricardo you met only ten days ago. You two were going at it downstairs on the front steps when I came home from work.”
Cate threw up her hands. “See? It was ten days ago. What happened to the time intervening here? I mean, I’m losing time here. Ten days! I’ll be ancient before you know it and what will I have to show for my life? Ten days here of wandering in the desert and ten days there. It all adds up, you know.”
“You’re incorrigible,” Shana groaned.
“I know. But enough about me. You can’t sleep which means you are still mulling over your loss of temper.”
“I made a decision to quit,” Shana reminded her. “I have always thought through things and I’ve always come up with the best decision for me.”
“Right, until now,” Cate said. “There’s no question that you’re a genius at your job. No one in the world can accomplish as much as you do in a single day. Personally, I believe and have believed for some time now, at least since we were in college together, that you are an alien. It makes me crazy to see you work so long and so hard. I’ve searched for some Kryptonite to slow you down…you know, to make you more human, but I’ve come up empty.”
Shana’s eyes rolled back in her head. “Be serious.”
“I am,” Cate said and dug out a huge spoonful of ice cream and smiled broadly as she savored it.
“The thing that bothers me most is that I fell victim to my own sexual urges. I let my body control my brain! It’s just unheard of!”
“For you maybe,” Cate said under her breath, but Shana didn’t hear her.
“I have compromised myself personally with Justin and because of that, I have to quit my job.”
“Uh, huh.” Cate put the ice cream away and dropped her smile. “Shana. Do you remember after you landed the job with Lux that you went on the internet and posted your new position out there for the world to see? For Karl to see?”
Shana crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “I was getting my revenge. He used me. He hurt me.”
“He wounded your pride. You were never really in love with him. You told me so yourself. Though, I could understand that completely, he was just too much romantic lines and goofy, gooey love notes and way too many floral bouquets. I suspected something very smarmy about that guy.”
“You only met him for one weekend when you came to Geneva last spring.”
“It was a four day weekend, which was seventy-two hours too long to be around him for me. I told you that.”
“And you were right,” Shana nodded as she sat in the Bentwood kitchen chair. “Breaking up with Karl taught me never to let my emotions, my urges rule my better judgment. So what does that say about me that I’ve let it happen again?”
“That you’re human?” Cate offered.
“It means I have a screw loose!”
“That’s very possible. It could also mean that this Justin guy is one heck of a great kisser.”
Shana dropped her face into her hands. “He is! He’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I don’t know what I was thinking. But the worse thing is that I can’t get him or that kiss out of my mind. I can’t sleep and boy, do I ever need sleep. I’m having a hard time concentrating on work. All I think about is him.” Shana turned to face Cate with near horror in her eyes. “Cate. I was dreaming about him! I’ve never done that.”
“Really? I do it all the time,” Cate bantered good-naturedly.
Shana was on the verge of tears. “Would you please be just a tiny bit sympathetic here? I’m dying.”
Cate hopped off the counter and put her hands on Shana’s shoulders. “You aren’t dying. But you are making the wrong decision by quitting. You can’t quit. News of you leaving Lux Hotels before the job is done will be all over the internet in minutes. Karl will see to it that everyone in Europe knows about it. Look, Justin is already a billionaire. He doesn’t need your genius to shore up his bank account like Karl did. He could care less. Plus the guy can hire anything he needs both for his hotel and his personal life. You need this job, Shana. If you make the Lux Hotels a success, the victory will be yours. Isn’t that why you took the job in the first place? To win?”
“I did,” Shana answered reflecting on the sound points Cate was making. Thoughtful for a long moment, Shana asked, “But what happened to me? Why this guy? And why at this moment would I make such a fool of myself?”
“Random chaos. It’s a law of the universe,” Cate said with profound assurance. “Happens all the time. Things are going along pretty fine, just the way you like it and boom! The fates blast you with some kind of karmic boomerang. Car accident. Loss of a job. Illness. Or in your case, Mr. Gorgeous turns out to be your boss whom you have just brazenly seduced.”
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 Ed
wardian 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 flagshi
p 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.
Billionaire's Love Suite Page 4