Justin pounded out Shana’s number. She picked up on the third ring. He felt his heart pounding in his chest and wondered fleetingly if it was possible to die of anticipation. “I want to talk to you, Shana. I want to see you. I want to explain…”
“Justin. It’s not going to happen. You might as well pack yourself up and leave.”
“No way.”
Shana flung the draperies back so that she could get a full view of Justin. He’d turned around so that he could look at her while he talked to her on the cell phone. Shana jabbed her finger at the window pane when she spoke. “Listen, you…you…liar…”
“I admit to that, Shana. I lied to you. I deceived you and it was all for my own selfish purposes. You have every right to be mad at me. I just hope you don’t hate me.”
“Hate you?”
Justin’s face was filled with sincerity as he faced Shana. “Thanks for opening the drapes. I feel better when I can see you. I always feel better when I’m with you. That’s one of the things I discovered since you left. It’s not enough to just have you around, Shana. I want to be with you. I want to work with you that goes without saying. You are a marvel at what you do, but the thing is, you make work seem like…well, you enjoy it so much. You make it an adventure. You do that with everything you do. Our home. You should see the nursery, Shana. It’s nearly done. The furniture came today.”
Shana felt her heart melting but the one thing she knew was that anytime she was even in the same building with Justin she would melt. Hearing the sound of his voice and his words that appeared to be sincere were breaking down the walls around her resolve that she had quite painfully erected.
Courage, Shana. Don’t give in. He’ll only trick you again.
“The painters finished. The color is happy and bright, just like you wanted. The baby’s clothes came. Gosh. They’re so tiny. I didn’t realize… how….precious….Shana, there’s so much I didn’t realize. Mostly, I didn’t realize how much I need to be with you. Not just working, but all the time. Please let me come up. I want to hold you and I can’t say the rest of what I need to say if you don’t let me come up.”
Shana leaned her face against the glass for support since her knees had gone all rubbery just like they usually did when she was too close to Justin. They were two stories apart and he was affecting her like this. What was it going to be like in the future? She had to learn to stand up to him. From the day they’d met he’d been manipulating her and he still was.
“No.”
“Shana, please,” he pleaded.
“Just go away, Justin. I don’t want to see you or talk to you again. Believe me, I’ve heard it all.”
“You haven’t heard me at all!” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared up at her.
He was amazed at how beautiful she was even when she was angry with him. He would give anything the world to erase the pain he saw in her face.
It was amazing. He could fly her to Europe for lunch or take her on a cruise on a Chinese junk if her whim demanded it, but right now, he couldn’t get her to punch a button that would buzz him up so that he could take her in his arms and ease the pain in his heart.
Shana turned away from the window when tears flooded her eyes. Tossing the handset down on the sofa she went to the bathroom and blew her nose.
“You can just rot out there, Justin Yates!” she shouted shaking her fist impotently in the air.
***
Justin greeted the passers-by on the street as they walked past Shana’s building. He called a favorite deli and ordered sandwiches, a green salad, a bottle of wine, pastries and hot coffee to be delivered to him on the front steps. The delivery boy arrived and though he thought it strange that Justin merely continued to sit on the steps rather than go inside, he made no comment and gladly accepted the twenty-dollar tip.
Justin called Shana’s apartment number again. This time the phone rang five times before she picked up.
“I’ve ordered dinner,” he chuckled. “You want some? It’s from Angelo’s.”
“Stop it, Justin,” she said.
“You have to eat, Shana.”
“You forget. I’m a good cook. I made angel hair pasta and French bread. Spinach salad with fresh mushrooms.”
Justin looked at his cold sandwich. “Yours sounds better.”
“It is. So, take the hint and scram,” she barked.
”I’m having Bloomingdale’s deliver bedding at eight. I got a great deal on bedding in a sack. Down pillows, too,” he joked.
“You wouldn’t!”
“Did. I told you, I’m not budging till you see me.”
“Justin, this is embarrassing and ridiculous. Cate called and said she’s seen two movies trying to stay away.”
“So, why don’t you end all this and just see me. Then I’ll be on my way.”
Shana paused thoughtfully. “If I let you up, you’ll leave then?”
“After I’ve said what I came to say. Promise,” he said.
Shana carefully weighed her options. She was strong. She could do this. “Okay. I’ll buzz you up.”
Justin didn’t hesitate. He leaped up from the step and left his deli dinner on the stoop as the front door buzzed and he unlatched the door.
He rapped on her door once and Shana opened it.
Seeing Justin at her door impacted Shana like colliding comets. If she hadn’t been holding onto the door, she would have teetered in her running shoes. “Come in,” she said.
Justin’s presence seemed to fill the entire room, Shana thought. After being away from him for nearly three days, she’d forgotten the nearly tangible force of his power. She’d forgotten how handsome he was and how laser sharp his eyes could be when he focused them on her. She wondered if he could see the quiver in her thighs as she stood only a few feet away from him.
He took a step closer to her and reached out his hand to touch her cheek. “My God, you are so beautiful.”
Shana inhaled deeply steeling herself for his touch. It didn’t help. She felt her eyes close halfway as she felt the pleasure of his warm fingers on her skin.
Snap out of it, Shana, she told herself. “What is it that you couldn’t say from down in the street?”
“I love you, Shana.” He took another small step toward her.
Shana’s eyes flew open. “Excuse me?”
“I think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you.”
“When I was naked.”
“When you covered yourself so quickly. I knew I was lying to you, but I couldn’t help it. I was afraid that if you knew who I was you might not think I was worth the effort to get to know. I was afraid you’d be like all the others who only saw my name or my bank account. I was afraid it would all turn out badly. I was afraid, Shana, because I knew it would be so easy to love you.”
“You? Afraid?”
Lowering his eyes, he nodded. “So very afraid then. But terrified now. I know what it’s like to be with you and make love with you and play with you and talk with you and most of all laugh with you. I want to be with you, Shana.”
“And…it’s not because of the baby?” she ventured.
“No. Yes. No. It’s you. Only you. The baby is like…well, the best Christmas bonus in the world. Please don’t divorce me, Shana. I couldn’t bear it. When you left and I walked around our home, I took stock of my life. I can buy anything I want in this world. I can go wherever I like, whenever I like, but since I’ve met you I don’t want to do anything without you. I love you, Shana. It’s not about the hotels. In fact, if you told me you wanted me to sell the hotels to prove my love for you, I’d do it. Please, Shana, you must believe me.”
Stunned, Shana only stared into Justin’s eyes. “You’ve wanted those hotels all your life. They were your dream.”
“You are my dream. I just was too arrogant and blind not to see it.”
He took another step closer, gingerly placing his hands on her shoulders, aching to pull her close to him. “I’ll do anyth
ing for you, Shana. Please forgive me.”
Shana didn’t know if she kissed him or if he kissed her. His lips were filled with remorse and tenderness as they brushed her mouth seeking solace from her. Slanting his mouth over hers his pain turned to joy and then to passion that bordered on the sacred. Justin told her with his lips, tongue and embrace that he cherished her. His kiss was sincere and filled with an emotion Shana had never felt from him. He told her that he loved her.
It was true what the old song said; his love was in his kiss.
“I love you back,” Shana whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck and slid her hand to his nape. Shana’s heart burst open with a flood of desire. The heat that erupted from her enveloped them both as she crushed herself to Justin’s strong chest. They were at a place neither of them had ever ventured. They were soul to soul and stood on hallowed ground. Shana knew this was paradise. She knew that of all the worlds she’d created inside hotel walls where she’d promised guests they could find ecstasy, this was her finest creation. She had created a place of heart where only love could dwell. It was hers and it was Justin’s. This was enchantment. This was the power of love.
****
EPILOGUE
Justin thought the world opened up and swallowed him as terror shot through his solar plexus. “What in the name of all that is holy are you doing, Shana?”
Shana stood barefooted on a six foot ladder, one hand braced against the ceiling, a tool belt around her ever-growing “bump” and was drilling a hold in the crown molding with an electric power drill. “Putting up the baby’s curtain rod, silly. Don’t look so scared.”
“Scared? I’m petrified. Come and get down from there,” he said holding out his hands to help Shana down from the ladder. “Don’t you have people to do this kind of thing?”
“Not on a Saturday. Besides, I feel like I have energy enough to re-roof the entire hotel single handedly. I think I’m liking this second trimester.”
“Great. But could you do it on solid ground? I think I just aged ten years,” he groaned.
Shana placed her hand on his cheek. “Poor sweetie. If you can’t take this how are you going to survive childbirth?”
“I was told they give painkillers.”
“For me, silly.”
“Oh,” he smiled with his joke and pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
“I thought you were going to be gone all afternoon,” she said helping him take his jacket off.
“Lunch with Leon went better than expected,” he said taking her hand and leading her back to the bedroom where they sat on the bed.
“Oh, no you don’t. You touch me with those lethally sexy hands of yours and it’ll be hours before I get the truth from you. What happened?”
“All I can say is that between Leon and the private detective, Felicity’s blackmailing days are over.”
“As Cate would say, spill.”
“It turns out that Felicity knew about my father’s Will and the proviso before I did. During her affair with my father, he told her numerous times that he wanted me to get married and…”
“…stop fooling around,” Shana interjected with an impish smile.
“Precisely.” He kissed her on the nose. “Boy, he was right, too. Anyway, Felicity had quite a few accomplices here in the hotel to keep tabs on me after she and I broke up.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Do we know who?”
“Helen for one.”
“What?” Shana clamped her hands to the side of her cheeks in astonishment. “But she was so loyal.”
“To Felicity apparently,” Justin continued. “It was Felicity who leaked the story to the newspapers that we read.”
Feeling a searing jab of loss as she remembered that fateful day, she clutched her abdomen.
Justin saw it and instantly gathered her into his arms. “Don’t. It hurts me to know I hurt you. Please put it out of your memory. Nothing like that will ever happen again. I promise.”
Feeling his arms around her, Shana let the pain recede and then vanish. She would will the memory away and never let it return. “Go on.”
“Remember that log book you asked me about?”
“Log? The one that Felicity said she kept on you and your…amours?”
“Correct. Turns out the log was some bizarre calculations of Felicity’s romps with Antonio, our bar tender. Felicity is carrying Antonio’s child.”
“Not your father’s?”
“No. In addition, Dad was on several heart medications which made sex nearly impossible; a fact that Felicity complained to several staff members about.”
“How on earth did you find all this out?”
“I told you. The private detective. He was billed as the best in the city and he was.”
Shana shook her head. “I hope we never have to use him again.”
“Me, too. Anyway, Leon also told me that even if we hadn’t gotten the real goods on Felicity it wouldn’t have mattered. Leon said that the Will was ironclad and absolutely unbreakable. Even if Dad had fathered Felicity’s child, that child would never have inherited anything more than some cash. The hotels were solidly mine.”
Justin placed his hand lovingly over Shana’s abdomen. He took a deep breath and in low, reverent tones he said, “Mine and our children. They will inherit all that we have.”
“Children?”
Justin looked at Shana with wide surprise. “We are going to have more than one aren’t we?”
“Are we?”
“Well, well. I was, er, that is. I’ve been thinking. I don’t want any child of mine to grow up as I did being alone all the time. I know you came from a big family and maybe you’re tired of all that, but if it’s possible, I mean you liking being pregnant so much, I was thinking…”
“Justin, I’ve never seen you so flustered.”
“I seem to do that a lot since I met you,” he said taking her hand and kissing each one of her fingers. “How about six.”
“Kids?”
“Yeah. That worked out well in your family.”
“I can’t believe it. I thought you didn’t like them.”
“I loved them! I know it didn’t appear that way when they were here, but I love your family. I saw how they all got along and helped each other out. I want it to be like that for us and our children.”
Joy filled Shana’s face as she kissed Justin. “Oh, Justin. You’ve made me so very happy!” She hesitated. “But what about my job?”
“Keep it. Don’t keep it. Do whatever you want. I would love for you and I to continue to work together transforming every hotel. You’re so good at it.”
“I would like that, too,” she replied kissing his cheek.
“I intend to make certain you have enough hotels to oversee for the rest of your life. I also think that in every one of our hotels we will do just what you’ve done here with our home.”
“What’s that?”
“I want a nursery in every penthouse. No matter where we go there will be plenty of room for our babies.” He paused for a long moment and with sincerity gleaming in his eyes he said, “You are an amazing woman, Shana. I am truly the luckiest man on earth to be with you.”
Gazing deeply into his eyes, she said, “We’re both lucky, Justin. To love and be loved. It’s what life is all about.” Then she kissed him and knew in her heart she was more than lucky. She was blessed.
THE END
Billionaire's Love Suite Page 16