Chain of Title (18 page)

He spoke as if he had heard
nothing she said.  “I want everything, Shay,” he rumbled, while staring out at
the inky sky.  “Everything you gave him and more—and I’m not waiting.  I’ve
waited long enough,” he whispered hoarsely, turning and gripping her upper arms,
pulling her closer.  Shayna winced from the pinch of his tight grip.  “I’ll
make sure you get him out of your system, and he
stays
where he belongs—in
the
fucking
past.”

Before she could speak, his
mouth clamped down on hers in a punishing kiss, his tongue pushing past her
lips and invading her mouth, drinking her, taking the air from her lungs.  She
heard her zipper tear open and her flimsy dress suddenly hitched above her hips
as he lifted her and then slammed them against a nearby wall, shielding her
from the impact with his arms, and rocking his hard heat between her legs.  One
hand held her head firmly in place as he blazed a fiery trail of kisses and
bites along her neck and shoulder.  His other hand yanked the top of her dress
down, squeezed, and tormented her heavy breast, twisting her sensitive nipple.

Shayna let out a needy moan
as her body swelled and throbbed with fierce desire.  Sean’s animal had broken
free and he was six-feet three inches of ferocious, unadulterated lust and testosterone. 
No man had ever turned her on quite the way he did.  He knew exactly how to
handle her body, had from the beginning.  He drew her nipple in between his
greedy lips, sucking and pulling hard, while his fingers circled and stroked
masterfully inside her slick center, his thumb rubbing and flicking her clit.

Everything seemed to be
spinning faster, out of control, and then Shayna’s back arched as every
sensation converged and swarmed in a heavy mass to that one spot, rocketing
away, leaving her gasping for air.  Sean tore the thin panties from her body
and then she heard his pants drop to the floor.  His back was steamy and damp
underneath his shirt, and she could feel the tension in his taut muscles as they
strained to keep her pinned.  Her hands strayed down to his tightly clenched
ass and she squeezed, as he readied to plunge into her.

He teased her with just an
inch or two before pulling back out and repeating the taunt, watching her with
a stormy, determined expression.  She knew what he was doing, what he was
proving—that
he
was in control.  Her mouth went dry at just how much she
liked the thought of that, while other parts became even wetter and swelled
further.

Sean’s jealous streak was
deeper than she had realized, and now she understood it was about so much more
than just Frank himself.  It was about time lost.  Time spent with another man
creating the rich history, the bond, borne of a lasting relationship.  All of
the things she and Sean had yet to experience but someday would—she hoped.

She loved him.  Sometimes
desperately so.

She outlined his square jaw
as he continued his slow, shallow strokes, her fire growing hotter, climbing
higher.

“Say it,” he growled.  Her
expression pinched in question.  He took a couple of breaths.  “Whatever it is
you’re thinking
right now
, just say it,” he demanded gruffly.

Shayna swallowed, lazily
licked her lips and slowly dropped her lids, opening them to his hard, emotion-fraught
eyes.  She breathed in and out a couple of times and strung together words the
best she could in her foggy state of drunken desire.  “I’ve never,” she inhaled
sharply at his deeper thrust, “wanted another man as much as I want you,” she
whispered breathily, in a trailing moan.  She could’ve sworn at that moment he
swelled larger inside her.

His strong hand gripped the
nape of her neck possessively, and he pressed his forehead to hers.  “And you
never will,” he vowed huskily, claiming her mouth as he drove into the deepest
part of her—where pleasure and pain merge into something deliciously sweet and
sublime.  She whimpered and groaned as he began pistoning into her like a
madman, her nails clawing down his back and digging into his ass, urging him deeper
still, and he delivered.

Sean Parker always did.

She
was going to kill him.  Absolutely.  Kill.  Him.

Shayna angrily punched in the
code at the gate.  What do you know?  It hadn’t changed in three years. 
Apparently, a lot hadn’t changed.  The massive iron bars ground open, widening
a path at a snail’s pace that Shayna furiously sped through the moment her Jag
could squeeze through.  She raced straight for the executive estate at the end
of the cul-de-sac on Copper Hill Court, in the private estate community of
Larkspur.  The dense, tree-lined streets with the hidden mansions beyond were a
blur.

Swerving recklessly, tires
squealing, Shayna whipped onto the paved driveway of her former home, bringing
her car to a screeching halt under the porte-cochère.  Reaching over to the passenger
seat, she grabbed her purse and a folder.  Making a quick exit from her car,
she saw James, the butler, already standing at attention on the porch ready to
greet her.  She stomped up the steps toward him.

“Good afternoon, Mrs.
Chastain,” he remarked in the pretentious tone that Frank had always been so
fond of.

“
Montgomery
,” she spat
out, as she pushed past him into the over-sized mudroom, leaving him blustering
before he quickly chased behind her.  “I was told he’s working from home
today.  Is he in his office, James?” she asked coolly, as she stormed through the
expansive kitchen that would make any chef drool with envy.  The kitchen staff
watched nonplussed as James pursued Shayna out of their domain.

“Mr. Chastain did not advise
me that he was expecting any visitors today.”

“I’ve become a big fan of the
element of surprise, James.” she remarked bitterly.

Then she stopped so abruptly
that James almost couldn’t prevent himself from colliding against her back. 
She turned deliberately with a smirk marring her creamy complexion.  Her steely
gray eyes stared into his black ones.

“Tell me, James.  Did
Mr.
Chastain
advise you in advance when his
whores
were stopping by?” 
He winced and then hardened like stone.  “Or did the two of you have some
special
man code for that?” she hissed.  Shayna had never liked James Clarke. 
During her marriage, she had always felt an undercurrent that told her that
James’ loyalty was to Frank—and Frank alone.  The day she had walked in on
Frank and Brittany, James had been out of town for a funeral.  The man rarely
took time off, and she was convinced that he had been running interference for
Frank and his infidelities prior to that infamous day.  Turning on her heel,
she headed for Frank’s office.

“You can’t go in there, Ms.
Montgomery.  I need to check and make sure that he can see you now.”  His cool
demeanor was cracking, his voice rising at his loss of control over the
situation.

“Oh, he can see me now,
James.  But feel free to run ahead of me like the groveling little sycophant
you are and warn him that his pissed off ex-wife is here to kick his—”

Just then, Frank stepped into
the corridor.  “What the hell’s going on out here—”  He stopped suddenly and
his head snapped back in shock when he saw Shayna standing there, her chest
heaving in anger, her face flushed with it.

“I am
very
sorry, Mr.
Chastain.  She just barged in here, not giving me the chance to see—”

Shayna’s head whipped around
to face James.  “A big strong man like you couldn’t stop little old me?”  She
snorted mockingly, and then glanced back to Frank.  “It may be time for you to
get a new guard dog, Frank.  This one’s clearly past his prime.”

James stifled an indignant
grunt.

Frank threw his hands up
resignedly and motioned to the butler.  “It’s all right, James.  Just leave
us.”

Shayna cocked a brow and
glanced sideways at the frustrated man next to her.  “Told you so...
Jimmy,”
she teased with a sneer.  Indignation rolled in palpable waves off James.  With
some reluctance, he pivoted crisply and made his way back down the wide, art-laden
hallway.

For a few moments, Frank and
Shayna stood in place, sizing one another up.  She could see in his face and
body language that he was adjusting to her presence in his house again.  It
certainly felt to her like she had traveled back in time.  Probably it did to
him, too.

Breathing out calmly, she
said, “I certainly hope I’m not interrupting anything, Frank, but if I am,” she
shrugged, “oh, well—I don’t give a damn.”  She thrust her chin up at him and
defiantly crossed her arms underneath her chest with a huff.

He swallowed slowly as his
eyes admiringly raked up and down her length.  Then his melancholy eyes finally
came to rest on hers.  “What are you doing here, Shay?” he asked with a wobble
in his voice, not the usual steady command she had become accustomed to over
the years.

“It seems that you’ve been a
bad boy, Frank.  Unless the top notch law firm you hired handed over our
divorce file to a summer intern,” she hissed.

“What are you talking about?”
he asked in a hushed tone.

Shayna moved closer and
stabbed his chest with the file.  “Take a look, Frank, and do your best to look
surprised.”

He glanced down at the file
and then back to Shayna, taking the manila folder in his hand as she released
it.  He perched his reading glasses on his nose and began skimming the first
page, then flipped through the others before turning, without looking up, and
walked back into his office.  He waited just inside the door for Shayna to join
him before closing and discretely locking it behind him.

As he sat behind his desk,
perusing the paperwork in more detail, he sighed, rubbed at his eyes and pulled
off his glasses, dropping them onto the open file and scattered documents.  Propping
his elbows on the heavy mahogany desk, he tented his hands and stared
reflectively up at the hostile woman standing before him.

“A park.  I had no idea,” he
said quietly.

“There won’t be any park
until the chain of title is cleared.”  She stared down hard into his eyes. 
“Why wasn’t a mortgage release filed on my acreage, Frank?  I saw the surveyors
do the staked survey myself.  I know that legal description is accurate, but
there’s still a lien on it.  Why?”  He sat silently.  “I find it difficult to
believe your high-priced legal team overlooked this
major
detail. 
Either you take care of this now, or there
will
be a lawsuit,” she
warned, punching her finger on his desk.  She huffed at his lack of words and
blank expression.  “Do you really want to pay more legal fees, Frank?”

He looked up at her wistfully,
as if only a shell of a man was left of the one she’d once been married to.  “I
didn’t want to pay them in the first place,” he said, in a low monotone voice.

Shayna dropped into the
leather seat nearest to her and stared disbelievingly across the massive desk
at her ex-husband.  Something seemed different about him.  The energy, vitality,
and command that had always made him seem bigger than life was missing, drained
away, leaving him looking smaller, vulnerable.

Like a dog scenting the air, Shayna’s
wheels started spinning and the puzzle pieces began to fall into place.  “What’s
going on, Frank?  Is it the business?”  She caught  the faintest hint of a
flinch that someone who hadn’t lived with him and loved him for over two
decades would surely have missed.

She collapsed back against
the chair.  “Oh, my God, you purposely didn’t notify the bank.  It would’ve
required a review of the entire loan, refinancing, and all that messy paperwork
that might raise red flags about...what?  Your solvency?”

She could tell from his stiff
body language that she was on the right track.  The words Sean spoke weeks
earlier at the barbecue came back to her in stereo.

“You didn’t think I’d do
anything with that land.  At least not, right away.  You thought you’d have
time later to fix this without me ever finding out.  Of course, at some point I
would’ve noticed that I wasn’t getting the tax bills for that property.”  Shayna
released a long, labored breath.  “And now all I have is a worthless quitclaim
deed—and potential liability.”  Shayna closed her eyes and dropped her head,
exhaling in frustration.

“I can’t believe you’re
really here,” he whispered roughly.

Shayna slowly lifted and
leveled her eyes with Frank’s.  A shiver darted up her back.  His hard focus
unnerved and unsettled her.

“Things must be bad for you
to pull a stunt like this, Frank.  What’s going on?”

He sighed loudly and reclined
in his executive chair, assessing Shayna guardedly.  “Some of it’s bad
investments.  There’s also a lot of unoccupied office space, although that dive
seems to be correcting itself.”  He chuckled mockingly.  “Because we’re leasing
it below the profit margin,” he said harshly.  “Then there are the contractors
and their subs not finishing work on time for all kinds of
inexplicable
reasons,” he looked pointedly at Shayna, “and then the loans being called on
those same properties.”  He paused and wet his lips.  “Someone—or some group—keeps
coming in and pulling those same properties out from under me.”  He gauged
Shayna cautiously.  “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” he
asked, cocking his head and narrowing his intense blue eyes.

Shayna felt the hair rise on
her skin.  “You can’t really be serious.  You think
I’m
involved?  Why
would I do that?”  Shayna shook her head incredulously.

“Maybe you’re not involved,
not directly...just cozy with the person who is.  Providing information
unwittingly...or not,” Frank accused icily.

Shayna’s chest tightened at
the allegation.  “I would never do that, Frank.  I have no interest in seeing
you fail, nor have I ever wished that you would.  I can’t believe you’re
implying that Sean has anything to do with this, either.  He wouldn’t have the
time or resources to do what you’re insinuating.”

Frank smirked, fingers
steepled and pressed against his lips, as he assessed his former wife.  “Oh,
lover boy’s involved.  I just haven’t connected all of the dots yet—but I will. 
You can count on it,” he said, with steely determination.

Shayna swallowed as a chill swept
over her body.  How could Sean possibly pull off what Frank was suggesting? 
After Sean’s comments at Jack’s, not to mention his warnings to her about
things getting rocky, she had worried what it all meant, but she never
suspected anything of this magnitude.  He wouldn’t have the time or the money. 
Frank and Sean simply played in different arenas at vastly different levels.  Not
to mention, when he wasn’t at Gaetano’s he was with her, determined to fill all
of her free time.  He had even been delegating an increasing amount of
responsibility to Johan, spending less and less time at the restaurant and much
more with her.  He had become a man possessed, obsessed with making up for lost
time.

Then Frank’s anguished voice
interrupted her introspection.  “You were the love of my life, Shay.”  Their
eyes locked on to one another, and Shayna’s breath hitched at the raw emotion exuding
from him.  “It never mattered to me that I wasn’t yours.  I always knew I got
you by default,” he whispered solemnly.

Then his hand swept in a
grand gesture across the files and papers strewn across his desktop.  “None of
this means anything.  I could lose it all,” he inhaled deeply and then released
a stuttered exhalation, shaking his head as visions from the past seemed to
play out in front of him, “and it would never compare to losing you.”

He pushed up from his seat, appearing
no longer able to look at her, and turned to the picturesque view of the
private golf course in the distance, hands sliding into his pockets.  The room
was silent for a few moments.

“Do you love him, Shay?” he
asked in a pained tone.  “More than you loved me?”

Shayna swallowed with difficulty,
her mouth like cotton, heart tattooing her chest.  She didn’t want to have this
conversation—couldn’t have it.  She fell involuntarily mute, feeling as if she
was in a dream.  The kind where you want,
need
, to scream and can’t. 
She shook her head, clearing away the heavy emotion threatening to smother her.

“How do you plan to resolve
the issue with my land, Frank?” she said, speaking quickly in a wavering voice,
hoping she sounded steadier than she felt.  That’s when she noticed it.

Her picture positioned prominently
on his desk.

Her brow furrowed.  Why would
he still have that out?  She began glancing around the room and her heart
dropped to her stomach.  He still had all of their pictures hanging on the wall—a
lifetime of smiles, laughs, embraces and travels—a happy couple in a happier
time.  It looked like a shrine.  The sudden impact jolted her.  He really
hadn’t expected her to go through with the divorce.  He had really believed
they would work it out.  That she would be back.

That she would forgive him.

He remained quiet, eyes fixed
in the distance.  “Answer me, Shay.  Do.  You.  Love.  Him,” he demanded through
clenched teeth.  His tone was hard and uncompromising.

That was it.  The spell
broken, Shayna stood to leave.  This had been a mistake—a huge one.  In her
fury, after finding out about the legal issues with her parcel, she had failed
to think this part through.  She should’ve called him to discuss it or asked to
meet in public.