The Tycoon (11 page)
Authors: Anna Jeffrey
Yikes!
As commanding as his personality was,
s
he should have known he would be a fast mover. She swallowed a catch in her breath.
Oh, my God, Shannon
.
You are definitely not in Kansas anymore.
She swallowed a gulp.
She hung onto the seat as he turned sharply and expertly wheeled the sports car into an underground parking garage. They came to a stop inside a cage of steel bars. “Is this it?”
He smiled. “It is. Home sweet home.”
She turned to the left, seeking the latch on her seat belt.
“Sharon,” he said softly. She looked up. He leaned toward her and his lips brushed hers with the gentlest of kisses. “I wanted to do that back in the hotel.”
Before she could muster even a reaction, much less a reply, he unfolded out of the car with the agility of an athlete. He came around to her door, opened it and offered his hand. As she placed her hand in his, she looked into his face again. She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know what the look in his eyes said. She felt her whole body flush with…what? embarrassment? Or was it something more like anticipation?
An elevator whisked them up. They exited into a gleaming lobby. A uniformed man met them. Shannon couldn’t tell if he was a security guard or a doorman, but he and Drake exchanged greetings and she noticed a deference in the man’s demeanor. He called Drake “Sir” and “Mr. Lockhart.”
Oh, God, this is fairyland.
And I’m with the prince
.
She glanced in every direction, trying to take in her surroundings, wanting to absorb as much as possible.
Above them, a mezzanine of retail stores surrounded the lobby, the display windows showing wares and radiating low light. Dramatic indirect lighting softly glowed against lustrous deep brown marble walls and spotlighted a glass-beaded waterfall that covered the back wall. Shiny polished brass accented everything. Off to both her left and her right, behind steel accordion security doors, wide empty walkways, dimly lit by nightlights, led away to what appeared to be stores in a shopping mall.
Shannon didn’t even try to hide her awe. “This is incredible.”
He took her elbow and they crossed an expanse of polished white marble floor. “We’re very proud of our retailers. You’ve been here before, haven’t you? Shopped in the stores?”
She had heard about and seen ads and pictures of the exclusive shops in Lockhart Tower. Hating revealing that she couldn’t afford such expensive shopping, she said, “I don’t live in Fort Worth.”
They passed through glass doors into a second lobby, smaller and more private. More marble walls, tan rather than brown. A tall white Christmas tree with branches laden with gold ornaments and ribbons, stood in one corner. Its tiny white lights reflected like stars in the walls.
His firm hand at the small of her back guided her to the elevator. Once inside, they lifted off on a
hum
and a
whoosh
. Still enveloped by his overcoat, she hung onto the lapels as she leaned against the cubicle’s smoky gold-veined mirrors. He pressed the lighted button that showed “28.”
I thought this building had thirty floors
, she almost said, but caught herself just in time. “Is twenty-eight the top floor?” she asked instead.
“The building has thirty floors. The top units are two-story, so they take up the twenty-ninth and thirtieth floors. They’re the premium units.”
“You don’t live in one of them?”
He shook his head. “They’re five thousand square feet each. I live alone. I don’t need that much space.”
He turned and leaned a shoulder against the wall, his face only inches away. The front of his shirt skimmed her shoulder, “You had my attention all evening,” he said softly. “I left the party, but I went back to find you.”
The very idea, spoken in his soft baritone voice, sent a thrill through her. As her heartbeat ticked up again, she clutched his coat lapels tighter and stared straight ahead. “That must have made your fiancé unhappy.”
Inwardly, she winced and wished she could take back that quip. It made her sound petty and snarky and unsophisticated. It had just popped out of her mouth and surprised even her.
“If you’re speaking of the woman who was with me earlier—”
“I was told she’s your fiancé. And you’re soon to become her fourth husband.”
“If you believe that, and if it makes a difference, why did you come home with me?”
Why, indeed
? The answer to that question would require far more time than this elevator ride afforded. The car stopped, she arched her brow and shrugged.
As the doors glided open, he moved into the opening, stopping the door with his body. He gestured her out “She’s not my fiancé. “Nor is she my girlfriend. And I’m not slated to become anybody’s husband.”
Shannon might be persuaded that he had no immediate plans to get married, but after what Jordan had said, she didn’t believe Donna Schoonover wasn’t his fiancé or his girlfriend. Or at the very least, his sex partner. She couldn’t quell her curiosity about where the two of them had gone after they disappeared from the party.
She had no right to question him or be jealous. She wasn’t even a jealous-hearted person. But as if a green imp were sitting on her shoulder, she couldn’t seem to prevent the emotion.
“Really? From the way it looked to me, she doesn’t know that.”
Inside, she winced again.
Petty and unsophisticated.
“She knows it now,” he said.
Shannon jerked her head toward him and gave him a look. She dared not let herself think what she was thinking.
They were now inside yet another lobby of sorts—a cubicle of spotless thick glass walls and thick carpet. Two sets of glass doors opened in two directions, each outfitted with a security keypad. Obviously only the chosen ever traveled beyond this point.
He pressed numbers into the keypad. “Let’s stop playing this game. “I took her home. And that’s all that happened.”
“I didn’t ask. I know it’s none—”
“You’re right. It’s none of your business. But you’d like to know.” The heavy glass door quietly slid open “You’re wondering if we had sex.”
“But you can believe what I say.”
And given his defensive reaction, perhaps she did. After all, two women in one night? How much of a stud could he be? “Okay. No big deal. I believe you.”
“I’m a lot of things, Sharon. A few people think I’m the devil himself. But I’m not a liar.”
Sharon! Damn!
She was the one who was the liar. She passed through the doorway in front of him. “I said I believe you.”
“My place is around the corner at the end of this hall.”
As they walked forward, the glass door glided shut behind them, closing her into his sanctum.
Passing from one secure area to another, one elevator to another, she felt less safe than she ever had. Her heart kept up a tattoo as they traversed the thickly carpeted hallway. “So much security.” Her voice came out with an unexpected quiver.
“It’s one of the perks to living here,” he said “I’ve found that the owners appreciate it. So, you don’t live in Fort Worth? Where
do
you live?”
“South,” she answered. “Houston,” she added. Now she had turned a fib into an outright lie and she didn’t know why. It had just fallen out of her mouth. The alcohol must be keeping her from thinking clearly.
Or maybe it wasn’t that at all. Her former reckless persona seemed to have risen up and taken over her mind and body. Maybe tonight it had no desire to be hard-working Shannon Piper. Maybe tonight it wanted to be Sharon Phillips, caught up in a fantasy, free of the demands of a struggling small business, free of the tension that kept her tied in knots, free of the worry of keeping the bills paid and taking care of an adult who was much like a child. She could return to all of that tomorrow. Tonight, couldn’t she just have a good time?
“Ah. A big city girl,” he said.
“Houston
is
a big city. It makes Fort Worth look like a small town.”
“True. And what brings you to Cowtown? Other than the party?...And Jordan Palmer?”
Why was he so preoccupied with Jordan?
Did they have history?
Trying not to think of the hole she continued to dig, she focused on a massive abstract mural on the hallway wall. “Does it matter?”
“No, ma’am. Not a bit.”
He pushed the door open and stood back for her to pass through. He smiled, too. “And here we are.”
She stepped into a small entry with high ceilings and the scent of lemon oil. A few more steps away was a living and dining room and beyond that, a wide wall of glass. The windows looked black tonight, but she had seen pictures of the view in magazines.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked, lifting his overcoat from her shoulders. He turned away and hung it in a nearby closet.
“No, thanks. I still have to drive home.”
She laid her clutch on a massive entry table. Carved horses galloped around the tabletop’s thick edge. She unbuttoned her jacket. As he helped her out of it, a shiver passed over her shoulders.
“If you’re still cold, I can find something warm for you to wear,” he said.
“Really, I’m fine, now. Thanks for the use of your coat.”
“What kind of a jerk would I be if I let a lady stand out in the cold and shiver?”
She watched as he hung her jacket in the coat closet next to his overcoat. He removed his own jacket and hung it in the closet, allowing her to admire the ripple of his muscled shoulders beneath a shirt of soft-looking fabric.
“How about some hot coffee?” His hand grazed her shoulder as he walked behind her. She almost jumped. Somehow, being twenty-eight floors off the ground, secured inside walls and doors accessible only by multiple key pads with codes, his touch seemed even more personal than his hand on the inside of her thigh in the car.
Dummy,
her cranky alter ego said inside her head.
In the car, at least you could open the door and jump out,
It was determined to try to make her walk the straight and narrow.
“Coffee sounds good,” she told him.
“Coming up.” He tilted his head toward a dark hallway and switched on a light. “The guest facility is up the hall.”
“Thanks.”
She picked up her clutch from the entry table and found the cleanest bathroom she had ever seen and the cleanest scent she had ever smelled. She closed the door and leaned back against it for a few seconds, trying to calm her nerves.